Chicago Sun-Times
May 9, 1993
Respect Comes From The Already Converted
by Jim DeRogatis
"Cult hero" is a description used in virtually every story written about Robyn Hitchcock (second only to the adjectives "wiggy" and "eccentric").
"I understand the cult tag. But it's not as if my fans are all wearing berets, or they've got gold stars on them, or they're sitting there with 'cult victim' tattooed on their foreheads," Hitchcock said in 1991.
"I've never actually sat down determining (as I've read some articles imply) that I only want to sell 73,000 records and I only want to sell them to people whose names begin with the letters 'A' to 'P'. As if I targeted a specific group of people, shining my light on a cluster of dwarves. It wasn't that way at all."
This writer's theory is that Hitchcock named his 20th album Respect because he was tired of not getting any. But the guitarist strongly objected. He claims the title is an inside joke with his girlfriend Cynthia.
"I got cross in Santa Monica because someone quoted your theory at us," he says. "I felt maybe you were giving us a stick to beat the recording industry, and we really don't need it."
Longtime fans might disagree.
Hitchcock signed to A&M Records in 1988 after a series of successful independent releases for companies such as Slash and Relativity. At the time, A&M had an impressive roster of Alternative stars, including The Feelies, Matthew Sweet, and Soul Asylum.
The label was unable to break any of these groups. The Feelies broke up in frustration, and Sweet and Soul Asylum were dropped from the label. Both went on to success with other companies.
Hitchcock's four A&M albums each contain singles as smart, spirited ,and catchy as crossover Alternative hits like "Unbelievable" or "Smells Like Teen Spirit". They have never reached an audience beyond Hitchcock's loyal cult. But if the singer holds a grudge, he hides it well.
"I feel like -- sound-wise, attitude-wise, and commercial-alternative-wise -- we've paid our dues," he says. "A&M doesn't know how to sell us -- but we never have, either. Whether they could have done anything better, I don't know.
"This whole thing is a bit of a mystery to us. Why do we do what we do? Does a turtle say, 'Why am I swimming 3,000 miles to lay my eggs?'?"
With his current plan to withdraw from touring and recording, Hitchcock seems to have abandoned the goal of Pop stardom. These days, he's content to play for the faithful.
"Bob Dylan is responsible for a whole strain of people like Neil Young, Van Morrison, Lou Reed, Richard Thompson, and Elvis Costello," he says. "They're all rather miserable, slightly idiosyncratic men who have their adoring fans -- and everybody else just can't figure out what the fuss is about.
"We, sort of, fit into that somewhere. We're all people who have long, slow careers. Some of us are just more successful than others."
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