Hitchcock's earliest lyrics mined a rich vein of English surrealist comic tradition and tended to depict a particular type of eccentric and sardonic English worldview. His music and performance style was originally (and remains) heavily influenced by Bob Dylan, but also by the English folk music revival of the 1960s and early 1970s, and this was soon filtered through a then-unfashionable psychedelic rock lens during the punk rock and new wave music eras of the late 1970s and early 1980s.[citation needed] This combination of musical styles won Hitchcock's band of the time, The Soft Boys, a very enthusiastic if small fanbase, but an extremely frosty critical reception from the UK music press of the era.[citation needed] However, the Soft Boys' final album together, Underwater Moonlight, posthumously earned them a glowing reputation (particularly in America) as a major influence on bands like R.E.M.
After finding a measure of success in the latter 1980s in America, Hitchcock's lyrical and musical horizons broadened further to encompass a range of approaches while still retaining a recognisably surreal, but more serious, signature style. He has recorded for two major American labels (A&M Records, then Warner Bros.) over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, and was the subject of a live performance/documentary film (Storefront Hitchcock) by major motion picture director Jonathan Demme in 1998. Since the turn of the millennium he has also finally received belated critical recognition in his home country. Despite this, mainstream success remains limited. He continues to tour and record prolifically and has earned strong critical reviews over a steady stream of album releases and live performances, and a dedicated "cult following"[2] for his unique body of work.
Hitchcock was educated at Winchester College, where he was a "groovy and alternative" friend of Julia Darling.[3] While at art school in London around 1972, Hitchcock was a member of the college band the Beetles.[4][5] In 1974, he moved to Cambridge, where he did some busking, and joined a series of local bands: B.B. Blackberry and the Swelterettes, the Worst Fears, and Maureen and the Meatpackers.[6] His next group, Dennis and the Experts, became the neo-psychedelia band The Soft Boys in 1976, recording their first EP, "Give It to the Soft Boys", at Spaceward studios, Cambridge, in 1977.[7][8] After recording A Can of Bees (1979) and Underwater Moonlight (1980), the latter of which was described in Rolling Stone as a "classic" and influential on bands such as R.E.M. and The Replacements,[1] the group broke up in 1981.[9]
In 1981, Hitchcock released his solo debut, Black Snake Diamond Röle, which included instrumental backing by several former Soft Boys.[9] He followed it in 1982 with the generally critically maligned Groovy Decay.[10] Following his solo acoustic album I Often Dream of Trains in 1984, he formed a new band, The Egyptians, comprising former members of the Soft Boys (Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor, supplemented at first by early keyboardist Roger Jackson), resulting in their 1985 debut Fegmania!, which featured typically surrealist Hitchcock songs such as "My Wife and My Dead Wife" and "The Man with the Lightbulb Head".[9] (A live album, Gotta Let This Hen Out!, was released at the end of that year.) Their popularity grew with the 1986 album Element of Light and they were subsequently signed to A&M Records in the U.S.[9] The album Globe of Frogs, released in 1988, further expanded their reach, as the single "Balloon Man" became a college radio and MTV hit,[9] followed in 1989 by "Madonna of the Wasps" from their Queen Elvis album. In 1989, they also teamed up with Peter Buck of R.E.M. and Peter Holsapple of The dB's, playing two gigs as Nigel and the Crosses, mostly covers.[11][12]
At the beginning of 1990, Hitchcock took a break from the Egyptians and A&M Records to release another solo acoustic album, Eye, then resumed with the band's Perspex Island release in 1991.[9] 1993's Respect, influenced a great deal by his father's death,[13] marked the last Egyptians release and the end of his association with A&M Records.
Early in 1994, after disbanding the Egyptians, Hitchcock embarked on a short reunion tour with the Soft Boys. His work received a slight boost in 1995 when his back catalogue (including both solo releases and Egyptians albums) were re-packaged and re-issued in the United States by the respected Rhino Records label. For the rest of the decade he continued recording and performing as a solo artist, releasing several albums on Warner Brothers Records, such as 1996's Moss Elixir (which featured the contributions of violinist Deni Bonet and guitarist Tim Keegan), and the soundtrack from the Jonathan Demme-directed concert film Storefront Hitchcock in 1998. The 1999 release Jewels for Sophia, also on Warner, featured cameos from Southern California-based musicians Jon Brion and Grant-Lee Phillips, both of whom often shared the stage with Hitchcock when he played Los Angeles nightclub Largo. An album of outtakes from the Sophia sessions called A Star for Bram, released on Hitchcock's own label, followed, and his subsequent albums appeared on a variety of independent labels.
In 2000 the Italian music writer Luca Ferrari released a long interview with Hitchcock, A Middle Class Hero (Stampa Alternativa), in the form of a 96-page booklet in English and Italian accompanying a three-song CD of unreleased tracks.
In 2001 Hitchcock reunited and toured with Kimberley Rew, bassist Matthew Seligman, and Morris Windsor for the Soft Boys' re-release of their best-known album, 1980's Underwater Moonlight. The following year they recorded and released a new album, Nextdoorland, which was accompanied by a short album of outtakes, Side Three. The reunion was short-lived.
The 2002 double album Robyn Sings comprised cover versions of Bob Dylan songs, including a live re-creation (performed in 1996) of Dylan's so-called Live at the Royal Albert Hall 1966 concert. Hitchcock celebrated his 50th birthday in 2003 with a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London at which his then-new solo acoustic album Luxor was given away as a gift to all those attending, and an original poem of his was read by actor Alan Rickman.[14] He continued collaborating with a series of different musicians, as on the album Spooked, which was recorded with country/folk duo (and longtime Hitchcock fans) Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. The Soft Boys re-formed again in 2006 to perform a live concert of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd covers in London, benefiting Médecins Sans Frontières.
In 2007, he was the subject of a documentary, Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death... and Insects, directed by John Edginton,[15] shown on the U.S. Sundance Channel and in the UK on BBC Four (and later released on DVD). "Food, sex and death are all corridors to life if you like. You need sex to get you here, you need food to keep you here and you need death to get you out and they’re the entry and exit signs."
The filmmaker eavesdrops on Hitchcock at work on his latest collection of songs with contributors including Nick Lowe, former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, Peter Buck and Gillian Welch. The film culminates with Hitchcock and the band taking the songs on the road in America. A live EP with The Venus 3, Sex, Food, Death... and Tarantulas, was released in conjunction with the documentary. The film also includes candid interviews with Hitchcock, who reveals much about the source of his work: "At heart I'm a frightened angry person. That's probably why my stuff isn't totally insubstantial. I'm constantly, deep down inside, in a kind of rage."
Late in 2007, Hitchcock's music was again re-packaged and re-released in the U.S., as Yep Roc Records began an extensive reissue campaign with three early solo releases and a double-CD compilation of rarities, which would be available separately or as part of a new boxed set release, I Wanna Go Backwards.[16]
In 2008, that boxed set was followed up with Luminous Groove, a boxed set of three early Egyptians releases and two further discs of rarities. In 2009, the electro-pop artist and remixer Pocket released an EP featuring Hitchcock called "Surround Him With Love", while Hitchcock released an entirely separate new album, Goodnight Oslo, with the Venus 3. At the end of the year, a live album called I Often Dream of Trains in New York documented the late-2008 onstage re-creation of his acclaimed 1984 acoustic album (a limited-edition deluxe version also included the materials to construct a kind of moving-image generator called a phenakistoscope).
In 2009, Hitchcock contributed to The Decemberists' concept albumThe Hazards of Love, performing the short instrumental solo "An Interlude." Also in 2009, Hitchcock provided the score for the film Women in Trouble, a feminist/exploitation "chick flick".
Concurrent with the redesign of his official website in early 2010, Hitchcock began to offer a series of "Phantom 45s" as downloads, each "45" being two newly recorded songs that would initially be offered as a free download. He also released the Propellor Time album, containing new material partially based on the "Sex, Food, Death" sessions shown in the 2007 documentary, but mainly featuring the Venus 3. In 2011, he released Tromsø, Kaptein, an album of songs written in Norway, and released physically only in that country. Hitchcock was chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform "I Often Dream of Trains" at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival, to be curated by Mangum in March 2012 in Minehead, England.[17] The album Love From London (working title: File Under Pop) was released on Yep Roc Records on 5 March 2013. The label also released his subsequent record, The Man Upstairs, on 26 August 2014.
April 2015 saw Robyn Hitchcock team up with Emma Swift to release a limited Record Store Day 7" single "Follow Your Money," backed with a stripped back cover of Neil Young's "Motion Pictures."[18] The pair subsequently toured, releasing another 7" single double A side with the songs "Love Is A Drag" and "Life Is Change," produced by Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake.[19]
In 2017, Hitchcock released his eponymous album Robyn Hitchcock.[20] Working with Brendan Benson as co-producer, the album saw a return to a full band sound after his previous release, with guest appearances from Gillian Welch and Emma Swift.
Hitchcock wrote the song "Sunday Never Comes" for the 2018 film Juliet, Naked, which was sung in the movie by Ethan Hawke's character, an aging, reclusive musician.[21] He later released a companion video of his own version of the song.[22]
Hitchcock collaborated with director Jonathan Demme in 1998 for a live concert and film Storefront Hitchcock, and later appeared in Demme's 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate, in which he played double agent Laurent Tokar. He also appeared in Demme's Rachel Getting Married in 2008, singing and playing guitar in the wedding-party band.
In September 2008 Hitchcock joined the Disko Bay Cape Farewell expedition to the West Coast of Greenland. Cape Farewell is a UK-based arts organisation that brings artists, scientists and communicators together to instigate a cultural response to climate change.[28]
Ernie: Songs of Ernest Noyes Brookings (Gadfly Records, 2001) – "Book"
Listen to What the Man Said: Popular Artists Pay Tribute to the Music of Paul McCartney (Oglio Records, 2001) – "Let Me Roll It"
Wig in a Box (Off Records, October 2003) – "City Of Women"
Terry Edwards Presents... Queer Street: No Fish Is Too Weird for Her Aquarium Vol. III (Sartorial Records, February 2004) – "Are 'Friends' Electric?"
This One's for the Fellows: A Sonic Salute to the Young Fresh Fellows (BlueDisguise Records, April 2004) – "Mamie Dunn, Employee of the Month / Good Times Rock & Roll"
An Autumn Almanac (Uncut Magazine free CD, December 2010) Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 – "Belltown Ramble"
Ramble On! (Uncut Magazine free CD, September 2014) – "Trouble in Your Blood"
Related Research Articles
The Soft Boys were an English rock band led by guitarist Robyn Hitchcock
Peter Lawrence Buck is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. He also plays the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his career with R.E.M. (1980–2011), as well as during his subsequent solo career, Buck has also been at various times an official member of numerous 'side project' groups. These groups included Arthur Buck, Hindu Love Gods, The Minus 5, Tuatara, The Baseball Project, Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3, Tired Pony, The No-Ones, and Filthy Friends, each of which have released at least one full-length studio album. Additionally, the experimental combo Slow Music have released an official live concert CD. Another side project group called Full Time Men released an EP while Buck was a member. As well, ad hoc "supergroups" Bingo Hand Job, Musical Kings and Nigel & The Crosses have each commercially released one track.
Kimberley Charles Rew is an English rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was a member of Katrina and the Waves from 1981 to 1999 and of Robyn Hitchcock's Soft Boys from 1978 to 1981. For Katrina and the Waves, he wrote "Walking on Sunshine" and "Love Shine a Light". The latter was performed as the United Kingdom's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1997, taking the country to its first victory in the contest since 1981.
Anthony "Anto" Thistlethwaite is an Irish multi-instrumentalist best known as a founding member of the folk rock group, The Waterboys and later as a long-standing member of Irish rock band The Saw Doctors.
Patrick (Pat) Sansone is a Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, musician, and music producer. He is a member of Wilco, The Autumn Defense, and Mellotron Variations and has worked with Jonathan Wilson, Andrew Bird, Jamie Lidell, and others.
Fegmania! is the fourth studio album by Robyn Hitchcock and his first with his backing band The Egyptians.
Underwater Moonlight is the second studio album by English rock band the Soft Boys, released in June 1980 by record label Armageddon.
I Often Dream of Trains is the third album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in 1984. It is Hitchcock's first acoustic-based album.
Black Snake Dîamond Röle is the debut solo album by former Soft Boys frontman Robyn Hitchcock.
Gotta Let This Hen Out! is a live recording of Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians recorded in April 1985, shortly after the group had come together for Fegmania!.
Tim Keegan is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. Vocalist and principal songwriter with Departure Lounge since 1999, Keegan has recorded and performed with various bands and as a solo artist. He has worked with a number of musicians including Robyn Hitchcock; he can be seen in Jonathan Demme's film about Hitchcock, Storefront Hitchcock – and played guitar on the Blue Aeroplanes' Rough Music album.
Anne Monica McCue is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, music-recording producer, video director, and radio host from Australia, more recently based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States.
Olé! Tarantula is the fifteenth studio album by Robyn Hitchcock, recorded with Peter Buck of R.E.M., Scott McCaughey of Young Fresh Fellows, and Bill Rieflin of Ministry. Together, they are known as Robyn Hitchcock and The Venus 3. It was recorded in Seattle, Washington, in 2006, the same year of its release.
Propellor Time is the seventeenth studio album by Robyn Hitchcock, the third and last recorded with The Venus 3. It was released in 2010 via Yep Roc.
The Man Upstairs is the twentieth studio album by Robyn Hitchcock. It was released on August 26, 2014 on the Yep Roc Records label. The album comprises ten acoustic songs, all produced by Joe Boyd, noted for his work with various folk acts in the 1970s.
"Born in Time" is a rock song written by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, who first released the track on September 10, 1990, on his twenty-seventh studio album Under the Red Sky. It is a reworking of a song originally recorded at the previous year's Oh Mercy sessions. The British recording artist Eric Clapton covered the song for his 1998 studio effort Pilgrim and released his take on the tune as a single. The song has been praised by critics for its catchy melody and romantic, dreamlike lyrics.
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.
The Man Downstairs: Demos & Rarities is an album of outtakes by alternative rock singer and guitarist Robyn Hitchcock. It was released August 7, 2020 by Tiny Ghost Records, a label run by Hitchcock and his partner Emma Swift. It consists of material largely recorded in 2013, in Cardiff, Wales, as demos for Hitchcock's 2014 album The Man Upstairs. Following what Hitchcock called the "Judy Collins 1965-era" concept for The Man Upstairs, consisting of half covers and half originals, The Man Downstairs included previously unreleased versions of Nick Drake's "River Man" and Pink Floyd's "Arnold Layne" as well as a number of Hitchcock's own songs.
Blonde on the Tracks is the debut studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Emma Swift and was released August 14, 2020 by Tiny Ghost Records. The album consists of Bob Dylan covers and was recorded between 2017 and 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee, the album was produced by Wilco's Pat Sansone and featured a number of well-known Nashville musicians as Swift's backing band, including British guitarist Robyn Hitchcock, Swift's partner.
The Bible of Bop is a mini-album and the first solo release by English guitarist and songwriter Kimberley Rew, released in 1982. It mostly consists of tracks taken from three singles Rew released through indie label Armageddon between 1980 and 1982: two under his own name, backed by members of the dB's and the Soft Boys; and one as part of the Waves. In 2010, the album was reissued on CD for the first time on the CGB label with three bonus tracks.
↑ Trager, Oliver (4 December 1997). The American Book of the Dead. Simon and Schuster. p.64. ISBN978-0-684-81402-5. Hitchcock developed a sizable cult following on the heels of the critical acclaim he received in the mid-1980s for his highly poetic, if somewhat obscure, songs.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
