April 1, 1995
Quirky Appeal Of Hitchcock In Full Bloom On Reissues
by Michael Miller
When you hear a Pop musician described as a "legendary cult artist", "brilliant unknown", or "critics' darling" you'll almost always encounter an esoteric, off-the-wall (not to mention beaten path) artiste of significant self-indlugence proportions.
In the case of 41-year-old British Pop rocker, poet, and storyteller Robyn Hitchcock all of the above is, well, true. But there's more.
Hitchcock doesn't simply rely on disjointed melodies, lyrical weirdness, and piscine images to make his musical points. He also dishes out healthy doses of wry homor, Bealtesque harmonies, and incredibly catchy refrains to reel the listener in.
Those who have been regular visitors to Hitchcock's cockeyed world of Pop Rock since his start with The Soft Boys (a band he formed in 1977) know all about his alluring modus operandi. Those who yearn for something deeper than Weezer (but not as pretentious as Pearl Jam) should check him out.
Now both camps have reason to rejoice. Rhino Records, champion excavators of long-forgotten master tape vaults, have reiussed nine early titles from Hitchcock's solo career.
The first batch, released a few weeks ago, include Black Snake Diamond Role (1981); Gravy Deco (The Complete Groovy Decay/Decoy Sessions)(1982); I Often Dream Of Trains (1984); Fegmania! (1985); Gotta Let This Hen Out! (1985); and Element Of Light (1986).
Reissued earlier this week were Invisible Hitchcock, odds and ends recorded between 1980 and 1986; Eye, a mostly acoustic album recorded in 1990; and You & Oblivion, an album that consists entirely of previously unreleased material.
Hitchcock sifted through the old tapes and B-sides himself to assemble the songs for You & Oblivion. All the attention the Rhino series has brought to his early music has opened his eyes to new possiblities and spurred him to take to the road for an unplugged U.S. tour. He'll be at The Peace Center in Greenville Saturday to take part in the taping of a Mountain Stage show for National Public Radio.
"I've noticed that there's an awful lot of stuff I didn't really exploit properly," Hitchcock said, referring to his early recordings. "If I'd let things be for a year and then come back to them, I'd have known how to finish them off. I would have changed a few words. I would probably have known what to do with the sound.
"I tended to record things as soon as I'd written them -- and even before I'd properly edited them. And I'm afraid there's lots of ideas that I never really made the most of. So what I'm trying to do -- at least with the outtakes album -- is actually finish the songs off. In some cases finish the lyrics, put a bass on it, whatever."
Each of the Rhino reissues include either rare songs, demo versions, or previously unreleased live tracks. Here's a brief look at three of Hitchcock's more accessible discs:
Fegmania! -- A quirky and sophisticated album that reunited Hitchcock with former Soft Boys, drummer Morris Windsor and bassist Andy Metcalfe. They called themselves The Egyptians, rehearsed for one whole day, then started recording Fegmania!. This album was my first encounter with Hitchcock, and after hearing songs like "My Wife And My Dead Wife", "The Man With The Lightbulb Head", and "Insect Mother" I immediately went in search of earlier Hitchcock recordings.
Gotta Let This Hen Out! -- This live recording from a night in 1986 at The Marquee in London finds The Egyptians hitting on all cylinders and turning Hitchcock's tunes into a full-fledged Rock-a-thon.
"The Marquee was really full," Hitchcock remembers in the liner notes (which, by the way, provide lots of fun reading). "I think we'd just been on television in Britain, and we were getting vaguely popular. We certainly sold out The Marquee -- which I suppose was about 600 people -- and they were all going wild."
Element Of Light -- Giddy from the success of The Marquee gig and ensuing shows, Hitchcock and The Egyptians went into the studio at the height of their road-sharpened powers and cut this gem. Highlights include "Ted, Woody And Junior", "The President", and "Raymond Chandler Evening".
"I was being exposed to different forces [at this time]", Hitchcock said. "And, in a way, I was probably starting to feel more like a real person -- although it's arguable whether a cult fuigure or a Rock star is anything like a real person."
Only a truly legendary cult figure would know for sure.
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