Robyn Hitchcock/Soft Boys: Classic or Dud?

Happy 60th, Mr. Hitchcock.

He was on Weekend Edition this morning, with good excerpts from the new album; comments incl. other, all w with that wry suave Brit male thang (declares he wrote songs for ten years before they were any good)Can download it too:
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/03/173317537/robyn-hitchcock-rock-n-roll-is-an-old-mans-game-now Scroll down to the bottom of this page for another download: his and Joe Boyd's Tiny Desk Concert (23 minutes and change). Boyd reads from his UK folk-rock memoir, RH plays "songs from and inspired by the era." Or if you wanna go directly to that 'un:
http://www.npr.org/event/music/137702245/joe-boyd-and-robyn-hitchcock-tiny-desk-concert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcTlxQOYDYI

nice!

set list

"Side 1": Jenny, Paul & Stephen on all tracks unless otherwise stated:

BE STILL Jen & Lucy – vocals + a few others?
OLD MAN WEATHER Jen & Lucy - vocals
ORDINARY MILLIONAIRE as above + Terry - horn
GOODNIGHT OSLO as above + Kimberley - guitar
MUSEUM OF SEX as above + Terry - other horn
SOMETIMES A BLONDE
AMERICA Jenny, Paul, Stephen, + Terry on trumpet
NO I DON'T REMEMBER GUILDFORD Jenny, Paul, Stephen, Kim + Tim on guitar + Jen & Lucy - vocals
BEAUTIFUL QUEEN as above
WRECK OF THE ARTHUR LEE as above minus Kim & Tim
SO YOU THINK YOU'RE IN LOVE Nick Lowe – acoustic, harmonies, Morris - harmonies & percussion, RH - acoustic
CLEAN STEVE as above + Mark Ellen acoustic, harmonies (Note: Mark Ellen is mentioned in the lyrics - H.L.)

"Side 2": Kim, Morris & Paul on all tracks unless otherwise indicated:

FREEZE
UNSETTLED
AIRSCAPE
MR. KENNEDY
HEAVEN - Morris & Green harmonies, RH acoustic
FURRY GREEN ATOM BOWL - Green, Jen, Lucy, Terry, Tim, RH + Adam Buxton vocals
BRENDA'S IRON SLEDGE - Kim, Morris, Paul + Jen & Lucy
KINGDOM OF LOVE - Kim, Morris & Paul
THE PIGWORKER - as above
WHERE ARE THE PRAWNS - as above
GIVE IT TO THE SOFT BOYS - as above + Jen & Lucy vocals + Jenny, Tim, Terry
Encore:
VICTORIAN SQUID - RH solo
THE END OF TIME - Jenny, Paul, Stephen + cast

Ah, happy 60th. We're all getting older and as the man said to NPR, "when you think about how much time you've got left you just want to get on with it"!

Much better B side than A side. I'm feeling everything from 'Strawberries Dress' onward.

I just got myself a hard copy today so I'll see if that changes my initial thoughts. I agree that the record ends well.

By the way, his cover of Nick Cave's "Parasite" which is streaming at Stereogum might be the best thing he's put out in some time.

http://stereogum.com/1283782/robyn-hitchcock-parasite-nick-drake-cover/mp3s/

By the way, why the hell would Yep Roc put in a download code in the CD case for a 192kbps copy of the album? I thought it might be bonus tracks or something but no, just a copy of the album you could easily rip for yourself in higher quality. Weird.

I guess if you have MacBook Air and can't rip CDs?

Good show from a week ago for free downloading or streaming:

https://archive.org/details/robynhitchcock2013-03-09.Pike1957-16bit-flac

checkin' it out!
guess he's doing another b-day thing in LA this coming may. the dreaded amanda palmer is making an appearance! ick! otherwise, probably a good time.
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/884513_558542197512274_1058812647_o.jpg

Oh well, we had to suffer through his associations with the Presidents and the Decembrists, we'll live...

The production on the new LP is dreadful, esp. the dated sounding drum machine. Hard to believe Robyn couldn't find a proper drummer. There are some great songs on here but I fopund myself mostly distracted by how sterile it sounds.

I hear you loud and clear. I went on at length over here so I'll link instead of pasting it in:

http://lightbulbhead.tumblr.com/post/45857127871/robyn-hitchcock-love-from-london-ive-been

Really nice 35 minute SXSW solo set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2xlyniZWms

cool, thanks! yeah, haven't given the new one enough attention, but the production isn't super appealing. seems to have kind of drowned out a lot of robyn's guitar? which is one the main things, you know? have a feeling i'll probably like live versions of these songs more than the the studio versions.

"Be Still" is almost redeemed by the solo version in that set. Almost, but not quite.

Thanks for that link EZ. This is great so far. Gonna rip it to my computer later. Unless it turns up at archive.org first...

I just got the vinyl box of Luminous Groove from my local record store, which I had been openly coveting for more than a year. wow, these records are great. I had only heard Gotta Let This Hen Out and some of Fegmania, the Element Of Light stuff and the giant bunch of demos/outtakes/live extras is totally new to me. just like the first box, this demands total immersion, you can just swim around in the profusion of material for weeks.

I envy you. Helluva thing to delve into with fresh ears.

"The Crawling" is rocking my world right now!

Nice!

I just got the Record Store Day album, "There Goes The Ice", which collects his Phantom 45s plus 2 new tracks and these odds and sods are way better than "Love From London"! I hope this is made available elsewhere down the road.

"LfL" is half-good, but way down towards the bottom of his albums for me.

My local was sold out but a text to a friend in Maine got me one. Will be a long time before I can hear it because I still have no record player.

Included download codes are your friend.

sweet find

cool.

solid recent show here: http://archive.org/details/robynhitchcock2013-04-27.aud.flac.16
the love from london tracks are mostly improved upon by the venus 3.

Cool. I've been depressed about having to miss the NYC show so I was hoping archive would come through.

x-post-- Hey, I was at that Washington D.C. gig. Was worried a bit beforehand that Buck might diminish Hitchcock's set due to Buck's inebriation, but it all worked out fine -- As I noted on a Peter Buck thread -- Near the end of his (Buck's) opening set he said: "Bad news for you, I still have another song to do; good news- I'm drunk." Buck sang with an annoying affected voice on blues-rock and garage rock numbers, and joked about Fleetwood Mac twice. With Robyn Hitchcock though he was more subdued and playing the proper sideman role.

The Velvets, Beatles, & Byrds encores were great. I think some of it is on youtube.

haha, peter buck! yeah the vocal stuff i've heard from him has been pretty dullsville. hopefully he's enjoying himself.

maybe him and johnny marr can do a joint tour?

And r Lloyd

Golden voices

Wait, Richard Lloyd's vocals are pretty solid compared to Buck and Marr. My comment when listening to Buck's show was, "Sounds like he's aping Captain Beefheart fronting a blues-rock bar band. Zzzzzzz..."

haha, yeah, lloyd is arguably a "better" singer than verlaine. not that i *prefer* his vocals, mind you. i actually have managed to avoid hearing marr sing so far. should i continue to do so?

it would've been awesome if buck turned out to be some amazing singer and he had just been holding out on everyone. Peter Buck-ley.

groan...now drummer adds a roll

Someone uploaded the Gotta Let This Hen Out! video. I never upgraded my VHS so I'm enjoying watching it this morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3u8Z9dlKa4

cool, haven't seen that in ... 15 years? never released on DVD, I take it?

It came out on DVD in 2001, but I never bought it and I think it's out of print. It was just a straight transfer of the shit quality VHS so it was a low priority for me.

this usta get shown on a local NY/NJ UHF station (one song at a time) constantly in the mid '80s.

Last night I was listening to the Soft Boys "1976-81" comp and, by god, it's spectacular. The punkadelia sound, the harmonies, Robyn's twisted world view ("Sandra's Having Her Brain Out" was the first thing I ever heard from him at age 17 and it's never left my head since). I'm guessing there's lots more in the vault, not the least is the full Portland Arms gig which is wonderful. Bring it on!!

i still haven't gotten over the "have a heart betty"s on that

Best 2cd retrospective ever.

just recently heard "Salamander" for the first time, what a fantastic, sick song.

Yes! That track got orphaned in the most recent reissues from Yep Roc-- tragically, IMO.

kind of want to pretend those yep roc reissues never happened. do-over!

I was just mulling over "Two Halves For The Price Of One", an odds and ends comp at the end of the Soft Boys career. Only some of it has been released on CD:
Only The Stones Remain - Underwater Moonlight
Where Are The Prawns - Underwater Moonlight
The Bells Of Rhymney
There's Nobody Like You - Underwater Moonlight
Innocent Boy - Invisible History
Black Snake Diamond Rock (live)
Underwater Moonlight (live)
Astronomy Domine (live) - Invisible History
Outlaw Blues (live) - Invisible History
Mystery Train (live)

The version of Rhymney isn't the same one Robyn released as a b-side and Mystery Train is live vs the studio take on the 1976-81 comp. I think I've got that right...