Robyn Sings | ||||
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Live album by | ||||
Released | 2002 | |||
Recorded | Disc one - USA, 1999-2000 Disc two - London, 1996 | |||
Genre | Folk | |||
Label | Editions PAF | |||
Robyn Hitchcock chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
Robyn Sings is a double album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in 2002. The set is made up entirely of Bob Dylan covers, performed live at various dates.
The CD was the second release on Hitchcock's own Editions PAF! label.
Hitchcock is a long-time Dylan fan,[ citation needed ] and this is the first time he had released an album of covers, giving Dylan an especially privileged place in Hitchcock's oeuvre.
Rather than nominate the two discs as 'one' and 'two', they are labeled 'stripes' and 'dots' respectively, in view of the printed pattern on each.
Disc Stripes contains eight recordings including two versions of "Visions of Johanna", which Hitchcock introduces as "the reason I started writing songs". His source material here is varied, spanning several decades of Dylan output from the mid-1960s up until 1997's "Not Dark Yet". Hitchcock's renditions are sensitive and sharp, with the occasional lyric change. (During the track "4th Time Around", Hitchcock forgets his words and has to request help from the audience.)
Disc Dots is a re-creation of the second part of Bob Dylan's 'Royal Albert Hall' concert of 1966, which actually took place in Manchester, and is famous for Dylan's confrontational stance against a heckling audience who objected to his electric instrumentation. Hitchcock runs through the set track for track, culminating with "Like a Rolling Stone".
The CD insert features a shot of Hitchcock on the Isle of Wight, at a 1996 gig for which he chartered two vintage open-topped buses, transporting his audience around certain beauty spots on the island, where the entourage would pull over and listen to a few numbers before boarding again and heading off.
All tracks composed by Bob Dylan
Blonde on Blonde is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as a double album on June 20, 1966, by Columbia Records. Recording sessions began in New York in October 1965 with numerous backing musicians, including members of Dylan's live backing band, the Hawks. Though sessions continued until January 1966, they yielded only one track that made it onto the final album—"One of Us Must Know ". At producer Bob Johnston's suggestion, Dylan, keyboardist Al Kooper, and guitarist Robbie Robertson moved to the CBS studios in Nashville, Tennessee. These sessions, augmented by some of Nashville's top session musicians, were more fruitful, and in February and March all the remaining songs for the album were recorded.
Bringing It All Back Home is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released on March 22, 1965, by Columbia Records.
Robyn Rowan Hitchcock is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano, and bass guitar. After leading the Soft Boys in the late 1970s and releasing the influential Underwater Moonlight, Hitchcock launched a prolific solo career. His musical and lyrical styles have been influenced by Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Syd Barrett, Captain Beefheart, Martin Carthy, Lou Reed, Roger McGuinn and Bryan Ferry.
"4th Time Around" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, which was released as the 12th track on his seventh studio album Blonde on Blonde on June 20, 1966. The song was written by Dylan and produced by Bob Johnston. It is thought to be a parody of "Norwegian Wood ", a song written by John Lennon and recorded by the Beatles, which was released on their 1965 album Rubber Soul.
"Visions of Johanna" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan on his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde. Several critics have acclaimed "Visions of Johanna" as one of Dylan's highest achievements in writing, praising the allusiveness and subtlety of the language. Rolling Stone included "Visions of Johanna" on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 1999, Sir Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, listed it as the greatest song lyric ever written.
"Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" is a song by Bob Dylan. First released as the closing track on Dylan's 1966 album Blonde on Blonde, the song lasts 11 minutes and 22 seconds, occupying the entire side four of the double album. Dylan has revealed that the song was written about his wife, Sara Lownds.
Down in the Groove is the 25th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on May 30, 1988 by Columbia Records.
Live 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert is a two-disc live album by Bob Dylan, released in 1998. It is the second installment in the ongoing Bob Dylan Bootleg Series on Legacy Recordings, and has been certified a gold record by the RIAA. It was recorded at the Manchester Free Trade Hall during Dylan's world tour in 1966, though early bootlegs attributed the recording to the Royal Albert Hall so it became known as the Royal Albert Hall Concert. Extensively bootlegged for decades, it is an important document in the development of popular music during the 1960s.
"Shelter from the Storm" is a song by Bob Dylan, recorded on September 17, 1974, and released on his 15th studio album, Blood on the Tracks, in 1975. It was later anthologized on the compilation album The Essential Bob Dylan in 2000.
"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his Bringing It All Back Home album, released on March 22, 1965, by Columbia Records. The song was recorded on January 15, 1965, with Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica and William E. Lee's bass guitar the only instrumentation. The lyrics were heavily influenced by Symbolist poetry and bid farewell to the titular "Baby Blue". There has been much speculation about the real life identity of "Baby Blue", with possibilities including Joan Baez, David Blue, Paul Clayton, Dylan's folk music audience, and even Dylan himself.
"Not Dark Yet" is a song by Bob Dylan, recorded in January 1997 and released in September that year as the seventh track on his album Time Out of Mind. It was also released as a single on August 25, 1997 and later anthologized on the compilation albums The Essential Bob Dylan in 2000, The Best of Bob Dylan in 2005 and Dylan in 2007. The song was produced by Daniel Lanois.
Fallout from the Phil Zone is a double compilation album of live recordings by the Grateful Dead handpicked by the band's bassist Phil Lesh. It contains the first Grateful Dead CD releases of "In the Midnight Hour" and Bob Dylan's "Visions of Johanna".
Odetta Sings Dylan is an album by American folk singer Odetta, issued by RCA Victor in 1965. It consists of covers of Bob Dylan songs.
By 1965, Bob Dylan was the leading songwriter of the American folk music revival. The response to his albums The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and The Times They Are a-Changin' led the media to label him the "spokesman of a generation".
Jewels for Sophia is the twelfth studio album by Robyn Hitchcock, released on Warner Records in 1999.
"It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" is a song written by Bob Dylan, that was originally released on his album Highway 61 Revisited. It was recorded on July 29, 1965. The song was also included on an early, European Dylan compilation album entitled Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits 2.
"Gates of Eden" is a song by Bob Dylan that appears on his fifth studio album Bringing It All Back Home, released on March 22, 1965 by Columbia Records. It was also released as a single as the B-side of "Like a Rolling Stone". Dylan plays the song solo, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica. It is considered one of Dylan's most surreal songs. In a 2005 Mojo magazine poll of its writers and various well-known musicians, "Gates of Eden" was ranked 76th among Dylan's 100 greatest songs.
The Bob Dylan World Tour 1966 was a concert tour undertaken by American musician Bob Dylan, from February to May 1966. Dylan's 1966 World Tour was notable as the first tour where Dylan employed an electric band backing him, following him "going electric" at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The musicians Dylan employed as his backing band were known as The Hawks, who later became famous as The Band.
Hollies Sing Dylan is a 1969 cover album featuring songs written by Bob Dylan and performed by The Hollies. It is their eighth UK album. It was also released in the US as Words and Music by Bob Dylan with a different cover but using the same band image and track order. First released on compact disc in West Germany in the late 1980s, it was not released in that format in the rest of Europe until 1993. For this issue, two bonus tracks, the single version of "Blowin' in the Wind" and a live version of "The Times They Are a-Changin'". A later remastered issue in 1999 added a third bonus track, a live version of "Blowin' in the Wind".
Emma Swift is an Australian singer-songwriter. Before becoming a musician, she was a radio broadcaster, hosting Americana music show In the Pines on FBi Radio and Revelator on Double J at Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney, Australia.