Fegmaniax Digest <==----------==> (Send posts to the list to fegmaniax@nsmx.rutgers.edu) (Send adminstrative requests to majordomo@nsmx.rutgers.edu) (Send comments, etc to the listowner at owner-fegmaniax@nsmx.rutgers.edu) <==----------==> Volume 3 Number 109 Today's Topics: ------- ------ CRD: Bass CRD: Captain Dry [and a few questions] CRD:I Watch the Cars Discovering Robyn Feggs and Bacon How discovered Robyn How discovered Robyn (sorry, got longish) Wide Open Star _Cake_ interview _Cake_ interview-part 2 (conclusion) _Cake_ interview: part 1 team typing effort: Rob's HUH article...LONG video tree update [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 00:33:27 -0400 (EDT) From: Terry Marks Subject: Re: video tree update To: das freshmaker! Cc: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Reminds me....just got a copy of his Letterman appearance...includes Madonna of the Wasps..haven't seen it yet. Terry Marks a013645t@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 00:37:57 -0400 (EDT) From: Terry Marks Subject: CRD:I Watch the Cars To: Pretty Girls and Anglepoise lamps @SONG: I WATCH THE CARS Numbers in parenths are fret numbers. * E:-0-0h3-0-3-5-3---------- If you play bass, the bassline for the E chord is similar to the * on the A chord (5th fret) [I think... Bass is hard to hear] G:------2-0-----------2-2-0---- D:----------2--------------2--- A:0-3-0-------0-0h3-0---------- E * I watch the cars go back and forth I watch the cars go back and forth I watch the cars go back and forth A(5) Sometimes south and sometimes north E * I watch the cars I hear them stopping down the street I hear them stopping down the street I hear the sound of stocking feet A(5) I wonder who they're going to meet E * I'm getting drunk inside my house I see the men inside their shells I see the men inside their shells A(5) They go to prostitutes as well Who never mind the way the smell E * The prostitutes are paid for it Alright! I hear you're gonna try that too I hear you're gonna try that too I hear you're gonna try that too A(5) I wouldn't pay to go to you I'm getting drunk inside my house again I watch the cars go back and forth I watch the cars go back and forth I watch the cars go back and forth A(5) Sometimes south and sometimes north E * I watch the cars Terry "The Human Mellotron" Marks Terry Marks a013645t@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 14 Jul 95 14:09:18 WST From: baker_d@ee.uwa.edu.au (david baker) To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: How discovered Robyn G'day from Australia! One thing that I've been wondering, given the apparent worldwide lack of airplay for Robyn's music (bar SYTYIL and BM), is how everyone on this connection first got into Robyn. I heard about him through the Syd Barrett connection. I picked up Black Snake Diamond Role at a second hand store so that I could hear The Man Who Invented Himself. I wasn't overly impressed by that song but was knocked out by the rest of the record. It is still my favourite (closely followed by Un derwater Moonlight). As much as I enjoy practically everything Robyn has released, I still prefer the acidic edge Robyn had in his music during this period. For this reason, I was surprised that Airscape was voted so overwhelmingly to be Robyn's greatest tune. Whilst it is Robyn's favourite track about his favourite beach, I don't find it an especially moving song (as oppossed to 52 Stations or IODOT). Dave. [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 14 Jul 95 12:03:04 CDT From: cheri@geoserv.isgs.uiuc.edu (cheri) To: baker_d@ee.uwa.edu.au Subject: Re: How discovered Robyn (sorry, got longish) Cc: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu :G'day from Australia! 'n a warm hiya from Illinois, where a summer heat wave is occurring (sp?) : (snip) how everyone on this connection first got into Robyn.... As much :as I enjoy practically everything Robyn has released, I still prefer the :acidic edge Robyn had in his music during this period.....For this reason, :I was surprised that Airscape was voted so overwhelmingly to be Robyn's :greatest tune. (snip) ...I don't find it an especially moving song (as :oppossed to 52 Stations or IODOT). : :Dave. : Dave, If you mean "acidic edge" as in trippy kind of sound, I think Airscape has that, a nice trippy sound, trippy images (air in columns, that kind of thing). I also like the idea of wanting reality in a relationship the way he expressed it: "save your illusions for someone else save your illusions for yourself" Contrast that with the negative way of saying pretty much the same thing, like he said in Empty Girl: "You are just an empty girl Empty in your body and your mind Waiting to be filled up with somebody's life I swear it won't be mine Beautifully vacant like an ornamental dustbin with no lid" He's kinda saying the same thing, just more succinctly, more directly, less of a vicious edge to it. and I like the best of sexuality/sensuality that you get with great communication: "and in the element of laughter the quick explosion and slow release of heat" and I just really like these lines as image, trippy or not: "and the element of darkness the starlight shimmers on the spray and falls toward you" I find that a beautiful poetic way of feeling the night, and actually, pretty acidic. God, I *miss* that stuff.... ;) I think I'm not explaining this in the most articulate way, but I can see that it would be many people's favorite, since it has a lot to say on many levels of listening to the lyrics, the general sound, and letting the images of the lyrics flow thru the mind (which I think is what I consider acidy pop-rock more than than guitar-driven rock like 52 Stations). I think it just has more levels than 52 Stations, and maybe more than IODOT. It's "happier" sounding, a more contented mood, IMO, than IODOT. I think those are some of the reasons. As to where people got into RH from, from previous posts it seems a lot heard of him from friends, a word of mouth thing, friends play it, or recommend it, loan tapes. The people I personally know who introduced me to him came at him from Peter Buck saying RH was his favorite musician at one point in time, so that got some REM fans to try him...so here I am. I'm droning on into the distance....time to fade away into a vaporous heat wave ..... sorry to bore some of you; fell free to "yell" privately to me if serously disagree or if yer PMS'y :) -cheri [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 15:32:54 EDT From: mikethompson aka Oliver Muxx-Wett To: FEGMANIAX@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: _Cake_ interview Fegren, I've just come across a copy of a Minneapolis-based magazine called "Cake": "the non-music music zine". In their Summer issue there's an interview with Robyn done at the South by Southwest music confer- ence back in March. The cover blurb: "Robyn Hitchcock; Symbiont or Exotic Poison?" I'll undertake to pass this along on the installment plan, assuming it hasn't previously been widely disseminated (if it has let me know: I'm an excruciatingly slow typist). I'll excise all the self-involved chatter from the author, a Robyn fan who _gushes_ for about 40% of the two page spread, and get right to Robyn's belated appearence. Well, okay, one interesting tidbit about a musician named Larry Shaw who "...gets a ten minute 'Mentor Session' with Robyn Hitchcock (in which an established artist gives advice to an indie label artist about their careers)." Shaw (new nickname: "Lucky Bastard") relays RH's parting words, "It's a greasy business, this music business." It's an interesting enough interview, though not revelatory. I'll get what I can onto the list over the weekend. in velvet and in onions, MT/om-w [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 20:58:07 GMT From: Rob Collingwood To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: Re: video tree update In message <199507131537.KAA05219@surgery.bsd.uchicago.edu> Michale Brage writes: > Hello everyone, [snip] > > There must be other TV appearances through the years. It would be nice to > obtain some additional stuff. > > Robyn and the Egyptians were on the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test not long before it ended. They did 'The Man With The Lightbulb Head', 'Uncorrected Personality Traits' and I can't remember what else, at least one more song but my video of it is cream-crackered. (Gratuitous rhyming slang thrown in to amuse Americans). -- Rob Collingwood Warrington, Cheshire, England E-mail: rob@nimbus.demon.co.uk or: rac2@student.open.ac.uk [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 16:58:46 -0400 (EDT) From: Terry Marks Subject: Re: How discovered Robyn To: david baker Cc: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu I found out about Robyn from a Syd connection also... Bought 'Underwater Moonlight' because it had Vegetable Man on it. Turned out to be one of the best albums I'd heard, also, so I picked up eye and Perspex Island (cheap, too...got Eye for about $.99 on tape and Perspex for $7.50 used..). After that, I just got interested and started buying the rest of his stuff.. Sorry if it's not really intersting, but it's true. Terry "The Human Mellotron" Marks a013645t@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 16:15:45 -0500 (CDT) From: Leslie Richards To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: Discovering Robyn I don't rightly remember how I discovered Robyn's music. I do know that there was a time when it meant an awful lot to me (and it still means something, or I wouldn't be reading these messages every day) and that it means less than it did before I made the mistake of talking to him. I'm not one to fawn over heroes or have an unrealistic expectation of people, but did for a fateful moment believe that Mr. Hitchcock might be different. While at a very small club where he was performing, after much mental deliberation and mustering of courage, as I am quite shy, I stepped up to him and was going to ask for an autograph. Short of that, I just wanted to thank him for being there, and wish him luck. Well, my silly illusions were shattered by his nastiness. He treated me like something one might find on the bottom of his shoe. I didn't, and don't, understand. What made it worse was the young guy who came bounding out of the men's room later with an autograph in his hand that he got while standing next to Robyn at the urinals--an encounter I would consider a bit more inappropriate than mine. I find it difficult to listen to his music, even though I wish I felt like I did. "I Often Dream of Trains" was the first song I ever heard him do live (at Summerfest in Milwaukee). It was a very quiet, still night and that voice just pierced the darkness and reached that place in the bleachers where my husband and I sat alone. It was a rare sensation. I have to say one more thing--I think Mr. Hitchcock realized he had been nasty, as he told a story during the show about trying to get Paul McCartney's autograph and getting blown off by the Beatle. It did make me feel a little better, but you know us Hitchcock fans, we're not like the other kids to begin with. [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 17:41:57 -0400 (EDT) From: Terry Marks Subject: CRD: Bass To: Pretty Girls and Anglepoise lamps I don't have a studio copy of the song...just the one on the In-Store appearance.. he may have changed it. Btw..I play the mystery chord as just a D, but I think that there's a change in there. BASS D ? C We're overheating in a small town world D ? C We're overeating in a small town world G D C I hear the sound of several different crimes D ? C The distant eel and the silver chimes G D C Lieutenant Hodges often said to me D ? C I see a shoal of them far out to sea D C Bass ... A distant cormorant above the grey It wheels in dots and then it falls away A feather biro in a knotted clump Performs a vixen with a feline hump I wanna hold you in a solar globe The way your body is beneath a robe Bass ... The juicy flounder and the tender chub Will swim around you when you leave the pub Their mouths are open and they will not shut Unless you kiss them all behind the hut But don't go messing with a guy like Reg He'll leave you gurgling behind the hedge Bass ... The looming mullet and the wily bream Are at the window with a quiet scream The feisty barbel and the gruesome tench Are decomposing on a yellow bench There's something fluttering upon the sand And all I wanna do is hold your hand Bass ... So don't go cycling around the town He'll interfere with you and hang around I know it's nasty what the papers said But information happens to be read Now things go in and out of him like eels A bass responds to you the way he feels He'd never make love to a loaf of bread Unless of course he found one in his bed Now frogs are reproducing on your back And bubbles keep emerging from a crack It's not a cormorant it's not a shag It's only something in a plastic bag Terry "The Human Mellotron" Marks [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 14 Jul 95 18:34:49 CDT From: cheri@geoserv.isgs.uiuc.edu (cheri) To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: team typing effort: Rob's HUH article...LONG I'm submitting the whole, tho Rob did most the typing. that's why the return address is mine not the one who (yahoo!!) found the thing and did most the work: so here goes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hey everyone ! Here is the "HUH" story about Robyn. Not much new info. here though. from HUH issue number Eleven Typed without permission (but It was the only worthwhile thing anyway, so they owe me)! "The Mixed Up Files Of Robyn Hitchcock " by Dean Kuipers There is this man standing in front of me, twitching violently and randomly in a prim, wood-furnished, university ballroom in Texas and because of the crowd I have to look over his snap-shrugging shoulder and through his spasming hair to see ROBYN HITCHCOCK. Which is perfect. This man seems to be performing a kind of abstract interpretive dance, not to the beats or the inflections of Robyn's music -- all of his songs are so pop-perfectly constructed, so straight, so awfully pretty -- but to the ideas of the songs. And Robyn is up there standing very tall, making the stage look very empty, a sort of Neil Young presence -- if Young were to be rendered by Monty Python -- and he's saying things like, "This is a song about being menaced by solid objects and seeing your future in them," or, before the terrific song "Queen Elvis": "I think the reason people are so afraid of CD'S is that they remind us of pieces of salami, which is what we get cut up into during relationships." And I'm thinking that, if he could take a moment out from his focused, riveting performance, Robyn himself would be pleased by this spectacle -- a palsied (albeit smiling) frug inspired by the abstract boy oh-so-everyday obsessions that fill his songs. For it seems that Hitchcock is very much amused with random events as they become casual relationships-you know, how one man's uncontrollable shaking seems to embody another man's song called "I'm Only You," which, he says, "is just about cross-dressing," and how the lady disturbed by the dancer's palsy walks to the bar and picks up a Graham Parker fan (who was also on the bill that night in Texas) who actually turns out to be not only a woman underneath the leather jacket but also a psychotherapist who believes that L. Ron Hubbard is still alive, and together they run off to open a home for emotionally disturbed children just across the bridge from Juarez, Mexico. That kind of thing. He must be amused by that kind of thing, because he writes about it all the time, and seems to be laughing at it while he does. Way back when he was one of the principals in the fab late-70's longhair Brit- psychedelia-pop quartet Soft Boys, these preoccupations with how God manifests itself in appliances, or the terrible Syd-Barretesque price we pay for simply *thinking* and *eating* in an absurd universe, or the unfathomable complexity of two people organizing their lives in such a way that they might think and eat *together* -- all that found its way onto an unbeatable album called "Underwater Moonlight." Very soon after, around 1980, the Soft Boys evanesced into such bands as Katrina and the Waves (itself something of an oddment), and Robyn put out a terrific first "solo" album (with all the same people on it) called "Black Snake Diamond Role." And since then he's deposited many more albums at various labels, some of them with former Soft Boys Andy Metcalf (bass & keys) and Morris Windsor (drums and stuff) as Robyn Hitchcock and/or Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians. Now eight of these albums have been re-released on CD by Rhino records, chock full of rare tracks and hilarious/poignant demos, along with a new CD of never-before released tracks called "You & Oblivion." Hitchcock has perfected a vision only glimpsed by a handful of great artists (much less musicians): his work is as serious as death and funny as hell at the same time. His beautiful, resonant, acoustic guitar lines and perfect folk-singer/pop hybrid disarm the listener as he lays into something at once heavy and comic and discernible, with lyrics such as these to "Somewhere Apart" from_Elements of Light_. "I'm gonna burn your bongos tonight/And let Graham have a chance/'Cause no-one ever lets him dance/And all them see-through things are crawling from the sea...." What he's trying to do, it seems, is not only describe bizarre or everyday behavior, but also to explore why it happens, the psychological or religious or political roots, without getting academic, letting it still resonate in our conciousnesses as *magic*. I bring this up to Robyn one morning over breakfast in Texas, as we stare at the Colorado River. "Wow. Nobody's ever put it to me that way," he smiles. He's the kind of guy who digs a good intellectual challenge. "You are born into this world effectively like somebody getting into a taxi-you don't know quite where the taxi is going. The fare is paid for the first few miles, and then you've got to find the end out of your pocket. Whether you like it or not, you're in transit, but you don't know why. The same reason they've spent ages trying to figure out exactly how trees work. You know, I mean the tree is a mirror of itself: roots are branches underground; you could turn it upside down and after a couple of years the branches would sprout leaves. We naturally have a tendency to explore, and discover things, that's one of our gifts. We are also *magical*. I don't know quite what the word means, but we are. And so I'm not really surprised if I have those tendencies." "Maybe it's a form of prayer." Maybe it is. But to who? Where do the prayers go? "Yeah, exactly right," Robyn jumps, "are they held by gravity on the rim of space? You know, where all these space shuttles crash into the old prayers floating around like abandoned satellites?" Or is some intelligence really receiving them, processing them, and storing them away, dealing with them and sorting them out? Robyn settles back and picks at the food on his plate. He's a big guy, and loves to eat. "I don't believe in a benign intelligence. I don't think there is a father hovering over us, like a child over a model village. Or maybe there is, but it's literally a child. I don't think it's anything that's smarter and brighter than us controlling our destinies. "But I believe very strongly in life as a god. I think the Earth is a form of intelligence. I think Nature is a form of personality. We are of that, but we are adolescents; we have not quite figured out what to do yet, and we may destroy the whole family while we are growing up. When we have grown up we might accomplish something fantastic. At the moment, this whole thing is God's *nervous breakdown* or something -- something has not been resolved. Of all the creatures on the earth we've got the most potential for harm as well. And if that isn't magical I don't know what is." Part of the magic, I suppose, is that Robyn is a hopeless romantic. All of these 100+ songs are full of melancholy hope, longing for love or at least for romance, a feeling that there must be some chance of salvation. In fact, these are love songs. "A lot of them are," he nods, "more than people think. I'm associated, at least over here, with writing songs about fish and insects and solid objects -- the preoccupations of a small boy. Which is true, but I think my stuff has got more warm blooded recently." In fact, Robyn Hitchcock writes three types of songs, most which are love songs. 1. funny guitar pop-folk, thinly-veiled love songs disguised as songs about pop psychology ot consumerism, or the Queen Mother: "Sometimes I wish I was a Pretty Girl." 2. drone-dirgy tone poems based more on the sound of the guitar or his voice or the interaction of the two:"August Hair." 3. parodies; "Let's Get Really Mellow Togeher, Baby," "the Man With The Lightbulb Head." No, wait, there's more than three. 4. funny rock songs, sometimes even with electric guitar and bass, and even more rarely with some drums, but very similar in content to the songs in category #1 above: "City of Shame," "Insect Mother." 5. Somewhat-religious horror send-ups: The Bones In The Ground," "Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus" (also fits in parody category), "If I Were a Priest." 6. Ghoulish body-part and "deep" psychology scatologisms, "My Wife and My Dead Wife," "Eaten By Her Own Dinner." 7. Crop-circle and alien-abduction ballads: "Furry Green Atom Bowl." 8. History lessons: "My Favorite Buildings," "Fifty Two Stations." 9. Straight psychology textbook limericks: "Uncorrected Personality Traits." 10. Agit-pop. (Ibid.) 11. Rolling Stones-styled-songs: "Take Your Knife Out of My Back," "Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus." Etc, etc. But you get it. Why wouldn't a hopeless romantic run off at the drop of a hat and get married? Didn't he say, just the other night, that he'd never been married? "It's the death of romance really, once your (sic) completely signed, sealed and delivered," says Robyn, shaking his head. "Romance can only exist if your love is imperiled. If you pass eight years of exams and practical tests and things, you should be granted a marriage license. Same, I think, about having children. There should be something in your uterus or your urinary tract or gonads or whatever that literally cannot create fertility until you prove certain things. I think when mankind's grown its third eye and we finally turn the corner -- is that corner just going to lead out straight out from the 13th floor over the river, or are we going to grow wings and is it going to be some health club in the sky?" Ah, the final obsession. The afterlife. Death. A predominant theme amoung all the categories of songs listed above. Robyn seems to regard death from inside and out, slipping in and out of it like it's only a state or a possibility of being. Robyn chuckles, "It might be a good idea *not* to think about death -- there are probably ways of thinking that shouldn't be encouraged -- but it's where we are all going. Even the rocks one day will shatter in eternity you know. The water will boil or freeze; everything will transmute. "We spend our whole lives in this little cage of consciousness, in this bubble of consciousness, but you realize that one day this won't be there -- this whole reference point from which you've seen things thay you call ME. It's gonna go. "And your head is your oldest friend. Everything is just gonna vanish as if you'd just thrown an egg into the river or something. I mean, if *that* is not the most *outrageous* thing of all about being alive, I don't know what is. It seems like an incredible waste to spend all this time building up a person-ality and then it's thrown away, you know acquiriing all the wisdom that you can acquire, then that vanishes. And *working* at it. It's not like you just sit there and drum your fingers for 80 years." No, you spend a great deal of that time building up defenses. Acquiring tools. Machines. One of Robyn's best weapons is laughter. "Humor is a defense mechanism," he nods, asking for more food, "and that's what worries me about the Bible: there seems to be no jokes in it. Someone once said, 'Laughter is the tool of the Devil,' because laughter allows us to accept so many evils. And in the end that's what always worried me about Christianity, is that it is a way of surviving, and coming to terms with life that didn't use humor. You can have humor or you can have Jesus. And I always had a terrible fear of Christianity -- a feeling that I might one day have an aneurysm or something and *wake up as a Christian*. I'd much rather change sex any day. "Because you're also handing yourself over to Jesus, and you're saying, 'Okay, I don't want any responsibility for my life or my death. I am handing it to you, Lord, you will guide me through my life and you will lead me to a better place.' In a way it's a little bit like being bought by Warner Bros., or something. Robyn Hitchcock courtesy of Jesus Christ. I don't want to be courtesy of Him or the Devil. I just want to be courtesy of Robyn Hitchcock, and I'm sure you feel the same. -Dean Kuipers [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 19:48:59 -0700 To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu From: nms@slip.net (Nick Silva) Subject: Re: Discovering Robyn > I don't rightly remember how I discovered Robyn's music. I do know that > there was a time when it meant an awful lot to me (and it still means (edited) thing--I think Mr. Hitchcock realized he had been > nasty, as he told a story during the show about trying to get Paul > McCartney's autograph and getting blown off by the Beatle. It did make > me feel a little better, but you know us Hitchcock fans, we're not like > the other kids to begin with. Maybe he didn't like you??? Maybe he doesn't like giving autographs, much like Paul Newman refuses to do it, and the bathroom encounter was humorous to him. I've got a good autograph story, though: My friend Alex, who lived in Norway, sent me some mail. Along with his letter was this scribbling on some motel paper. I almost threw it away, but it looked like an autograph. When I read it, it said "To Nick in SF from Robyn in Oslo" I was amazed that had gotten me this transatlantic autograph: he had seen Robyn play at some little bar in Oslo. So two years later, Robyn was doing an instore here in SF, and I asked him to write an autograph that read "To Alex in Grenoble, from Robyn in SF" I explained the situation to him, and he seemed bemused. Actually, he didn't even remember having played Oslo, but that's another story. [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 23:16:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Terry Marks Subject: CRD: Captain Dry [and a few questions] To: Pretty Girls and Anglepoise lamps Here's one of the better songs from You & Oblivion (after a few months, Take Your Knife OUt of My Back, Aether, INto It, Nothing, Stranded in the Future, and Keeping still lose their originality. After a few notes, September Cones loses all interest...oh yeah...chords.) I was fooling around, trying to figure out the bass to "Old Pervert"..the intro, I mean. I stumbled upon this, and it took me a while to figure out what it was..I was a bit disappointed to find out that I didn't just come up with it myself...if I am wrong, please tell me, because I ought to write songs more than I do [It's hard listening to Robyn and writing songs, because he seems so much better than I am...there ought to be an album somewhere, not of badly written songs, but of amateurly written songs...it's a lot like picking up an acoustic guitar for the first time and expecting some classic guitar thing that's really an entire band with five years experience each, and two electric guitars, heavy distortion, and heavy effectsd and re-mixing....well, expecting something like that to just fall out of the guitar...That's what I like about Syd Barrett's "Opel"..it's good, but easy to play and straight acoustic....now I'm trying to find something like that, not for playing, but for songwriting..]...oh yeah...chords. Well, as I was saying about electrics and so, he's got one, I don't, so bits of his sounds don't reaslly work when I play it..Love Poisoning (most of Invisible HIts, acutally) worked. Tgis doesn't . What I was playing was: A:---------3-1--- E:-1-3-1-3-----3-1-3 This (or E,G,E,G,C,Bb,E,G [Bar-E]) is a portion of Captain Dry. G Wait on board for Captian Dry C His arms are full of emptiness and loss get on board with captain dry, C he may prickle but he's sure got class (not too sure about this part...it's a bit too fuzzed for me to be sure) G I got some money Bb but I lost it in the spring F G a rich man is more venemous than acid G I got some money Bb but it wasn't worth a thing F G when the summer came I thought I'd all my assets (Soory about the ramble...but if you could point me towards a good album or book for starting writing, let me know) Terry The HUman Mellotron Marks a013645t@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 09:55:33 EDT From: mikethompson aka Oliver Muxx-Wett To: FEGMANIAX@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: _Cake_ interview: part 1 ...I ask him about the single which contains three songs and has him talking at the beginning of "I Something You". "We mixed it by committee", he says enthusiastically of recording for K. "We recorded the three songs in a day. We'd do a take and then bring the tape out to the car stereo to hear it." Michele [sp?] nods, "We would be sitting in the car at 2 a.m. in the freezing cold listening to it." "We started recording upstairs", Hitchcock continues, "but then they started cooking, making soup, so we moved downstairs and it was done in a day". So what's the talking all about? "That" pronounces Hitchcock,"is me telling Michele the _official_ story of how I met Peter Buck." I mention that I think Peter Buck was very influenced by Hitch- cock's playing style. "I think our guitar styles are pretty interchangeable. When you listen to us both it's hard to tell who's playing what. I don't know if I influenced him", he says modestly, "we probably just listened to the same things." I ask him what he hopes his music does when he sends it out into the world. "Well, hopefully it will give you the feeling that there is somebody else there even though you can't answer back." [self-involved authorial chatter edited] "You know", he responds, "music used to shut me up when I was a baby. There's a symbiotic relationship to music like the little birds who eat off of the hippo. There are others who _need_ it- the exotic poison, they actually need it. My aim is to be ungeneric, not like listening to shopping mall music. I think with music you produce a filigree, an intricate spiral that leaves a trail. Maybe a glistening trail like a snail or maybe like a spider web- a beautiful structure of sounds and if you don't produce it "-he pauses and says in a civilized cool voice- "you'd probably commit some violent crime or something." "When you are a teenager that stereo is your only companion- that little noise in the corner. So even if it's an illusion, you have to give that feeling that there is somebody else there." [...] "Now that I'm getting older I want to try to be more vulnerable rather than just my own- just sort of furious personality", he reflects. "I will play with a note or try to find the right note. Forget how somebody else would sing it and try to figure how would you get some tenderness into the music rather than flattening it with a mallet like Sid Barrett or being tough like the Velvet Underground. Looking at their photos ( the Velvet Underground) they want to seem invulnerable, look tough like, 'We don't give a shit. We're cool. We've got sunglasses. We'll take drugs you've never _heard_ of and die in our own time.' I think vulnerability is much tougher, really." We talk briefly about the trend towards '70s music and both wish fervently for more '60s influences. Hitchcock is nothing if not Beatlesesque although he sort of takes up where the Beatles left off. He nods his assent at the Beatles reference and frankly admits to the influence. Hitchcock further states, "Much of the '60s songs deserve reseeding." [...] Because of he whimsical nature of his lyrics I really wanted to talk to Hitchcock about what he read as a child. Michele and I were much enamored of "Alice in Wonderland" and I expected a similar response from him. While he had read many of the old fairytales and fables like "Straw Peter" his most profound influences were deeply disturbing and passionate. "I read a book of political cartoons from a newspaper from 1932- 1945. It was called "The Years of Wrath". It was political commentary on Fascism, the Japanese invasions, Mussolini invading Ethiopia, war. It was full of pictures of Grim Reapers, skeletons, bones everywhere, Hitler talking to the Devil, Hitler gambling with the Reaper. It was incred- ibly vivid. Pictures of Hitler as a humorless, unpleasant little boy, the atomic bomb being dropped and the look on this Japanese face. War was this random horrific specter. The thought that human endeavor is futile- it was very compelling. "It developed in me a profoundly pacifistic view that, if anything else, set my life on a permanent course. "Outside of that I did read those Hieronymous Bosch books. The ones with the pictures of trumpets stuck in bottoms. Very colorful stuff with writhing humans having group sex and being eaten by fiends." Michele comments that those are the sorts of books one should read backwards because the effect is too grating if you see the funnier pictures first and then see the harsher judgmental ones last. "Absolutely", Hitchcock agrees. He breaks off briefly to point out that a neon coffee cup sign can be seen in the reflection of the window of the restaurant and it appears like the cup is floating over the street. I brought him a small nautilus shell as a gift and he keeps sticking his finger in it and I am terrified he will not be able to get it out and will have to cancel at the Cedar Cultural Centre that night. [That's the first half of an interview in _Cake_ magazine by Hap Mansfield; all rights reserved, except, umm, the ones I've already violated. I'll post the rest in the near future.] [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 10:57:41 -0500 To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu From: lesnrick@execpc.com (Rick Leslie) Subject: Re: Discovering Robyn >Maybe he didn't like you??? Maybe he doesn't like giving autographs, much >like Paul Newman refuses to do it< Rereading my post, I realize I didn't make it clear that I never actually asked for an autograph; I hadn't even said anything to him. I simply walked over to him and he sort of blew up. Maybe I reminded him of someone, or he thought I was someone else. Morrissey probably said it best: "The lesson here is that sometimes it's best to cherish your illusions about people you admire than it is to meet them." Thanks for clarifying his reaction to me, though. I had never considered the possibility that he didn't like me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!! [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 18:22:27 -0400 To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu From: jojones@mailbox.syr.edu (John B. Jones) Subject: Feggs and Bacon To all fegmaniax: My local corporate-music-chain-retail outlet has 3 import CD singles of My Wife and My Dead Wife (you know, the one with the 3 new(er) songs recorded in Olympia and released here in the USA on vinyl 7" through K records). They are $10.99. I don't know if you can find it cheaper (hell! I don't know if you can find it at all!); I haven't looked. All I'm saying is that I would be happy to pick one up for a fellow Feg--just send me an extra dollar or 2 for postage. You'll have to go sideways-- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- John B. Jones e-mail: jojones@mailbox.syr.edu "Look at the massacre on cable/ But you know it won't happen here, We're all too busy watching massacres on cable/ Oh yeah." -Robyn Hitchcock -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 22:42:56 -0400 (EDT) From: Terry Marks Subject: Wide Open Star To: Pretty Girls and Anglepoise lamps I'm two chords into this and stuck... (forget words, this is more for syllable count) G C ? When autumn comes I hope that you won't have to travel on a Wide Open Star If someone could figure out that one chord, I could work on the rest of it, but I jsut have trouble skipping chords like that. Terry "Terry Marks "Marks a013645t@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 23:20:40 -0500 (CDT) From: "Jeffrey with 2 f's Jeffrey" To: United Pigworkers Subject: Re: Discovering Robyn On Fri, 14 Jul 1995, squaring the circle and studying Zen, Nick Silva wrote: > > Maybe he didn't like you??? Maybe he doesn't like giving autographs, much > like Paul Newman refuses to do it, and the bathroom encounter was humorous I saw him play an in-store in Madison, Wisconsin, several years back ('87?), and someone came up to him after the show asking him to sign a few pieces of fresh fruit. Again, he seemed amused and complied fairly readily. Has anyone ever seen these weird gummy candies that are shaped like crabs and come wrapped in see-through plastic on a cardboard backing? Well, I saw these in a store the day of a Robyn show I was going to. I bought one, planning on giving it to Robyn--a soft, candied crab, how appropriate--but, alas, I chickened out. I think I kept the candy crab for a bit, though... --Jeff Jeffrey Norman "Can you write underwater University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on liquid paper?" Dept. of English & Comp. Lit. e-mail: jenor@csd.uwm.edu --Zippy the Pinhead [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sun, 16 Jul 1995 00:49:07 -0500 To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu From: lesnrick@execpc.com (Rick Leslie) Subject: Re: Discovering Robyn >On Fri, 14 Jul 1995, squaring the circle and studying Zen, Nick Silva wrote: > >> >> Maybe he didn't like you??? Maybe he doesn't like giving autographs, much >> like Paul Newman refuses to do it, and the bathroom encounter was humorous > >I saw him play an in-store in Madison, Wisconsin, several years back >('87?), and someone came up to him after the show asking him to sign a >few pieces of fresh fruit. Again, he seemed amused and complied fairly >readily. Must like in-stores in Madison better than he likes in crowds at Shank Hall. --Leslie [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sun, 16 Jul 1995 03:59:32 -0700 To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu From: nms@slip.net (Nick Silva) Subject: Re: Discovering Robyn > > > > Maybe he didn't like you??? Maybe he doesn't like giving autographs, much > > like Paul Newman refuses to do it, and the bathroom encounter was humorous > > I saw him play an in-store in Madison, Wisconsin, several years back > ('87?), and someone came up to him after the show asking him to sign a > few pieces of fresh fruit. Again, he seemed amused and complied fairly > readily. The fruit was an amusing touch. He probably liked it. Better than the std photo or CD or LP. Or perhaps cocktail napkin. At the last in-store here, I asked him to sign the back of the shirt I was wearing (in BIG letters!), cuz it was the only thing I had. He didn't seem amused. [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sun, 16 Jul 1995 03:59:28 -0700 To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu From: nms@slip.net (Nick Silva) Subject: Re: Discovering Robyn > >Maybe he didn't like you??? Maybe he doesn't like giving autographs, much > >like Paul Newman refuses to do it< > > Rereading my post, I realize I didn't make it clear that I never actually > asked for an autograph; I hadn't even said anything to him. I simply > walked over to him and he sort of blew up. Maybe I reminded him of > someone, or he thought I was someone else. > > Morrissey probably said it best: "The lesson here is that sometimes it's > best to cherish your illusions about people you admire than it is to meet > them." > > Thanks for clarifying his reaction to me, though. I had never considered > the possibility that he didn't like me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course, I didn't mean to suggest that you are unlikeable!, in case you took it that way, just that someone semi-famous like Robyn must get awfully tired of people constantly coming up to him; he would start to see everyone as a collective YOU, as in "What the hell do YOU want now?" I'm not famous, so I dunno. Just my 2 bits about how someone in the spotlight might perceive the rest of us. [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sun, 16 Jul 1995 09:01:05 EDT From: mikethompson aka Oliver Muxx-Wett To: FEGMANIAX@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: _Cake_ interview-part 2 (conclusion) While we are talking a man comes up to our table and asks if we are still serving lunch. We look at the man and tell him we think so. Then we all look back at each other, somewhat mystified. As I look at both Hitchcock and Michele it dawns on me why the man asked _us_. Hitchcock had his sportcoat off and was wearing a white shirt and black pants. Michele was in white shirt and black pants. I was in a black shirt with a black turtleneck. The guy thought we were the wait staff. Michele and Hitchcock are amused. "I had the most awful customer today!" Michele complained. "I served the wrong meal to someone- and they didn't even notice!" quipped Hitchcock. I am hesitant to ask him about song lyrics even though I could have filled the interview with nothing but lyric content queries. I finally decide against the questions and tell him I had been juggling it in my mind and thought perhaps he would think like T.S. Eliot that- he interrupts at this point and recites the quote, "If I had wanted you to know that, I'd have written it?" I nod. This guy is good. "Surrealism has been around since the beginning of time", Hitchcock informs the audience at the Cedar Cultural Centre. "We've just only had a name for it the last 75 years. For example, after God made the darkness and the light he made telephone booths. But he had nowhere to put them so he had to take them back. It's our job to go about the universe finding this sort of stuff out." It's a really good place to see Robyn Hitchcock. The audience was the first I have been proud to be a part of in a long time. They laughed at his witty lyrics, they appreciated his gentle spirit and they let him sing without shouting obnoxious things at him. When he would sing a tune the audience really liked , a ripple of excitement would go through the crowd like a gentle wave of warm happy electricity- a Hitchcock vibrator, if you will. He introduces his songs in an inimitable fashion. "This is a song about a woman with a cat's head. She is sitting on the tombstone of her lover. He is buried six feet underground in full cowboy regalia, the chaps, the boots and two loaded six-guns. She is sunning herself." He sang a Soft Boys tune,"Only the Stones Remain", and "Queen Elvis" and "I Often Dream of Trains". He did an acoustic set and an electric set and a nice long encore. He sang some tunes from the single. The very last lyric he sang was the sonic sealing wax for a remarkably incandescent evening- "I woke up this morning and saw the Devil in my bed/ I should have strangled him, but I'm British so I made him tea instead." One more thing: at the end of our lunch I asked him a question I reserve for those I'm pretty sure actually have an answer. He did not disappoint. I said, "What do you want to have written on your tombstone?" He brightened and nodded- yes, he had something in mind. "What do you want?" he shot back. "I think I want 'Tell me your story. I've got time'". He laughed. "Yours?" I countered. "Back in five minutes", he said. [][][][][][][][] End of this Fegmaniax Digest. Archives can be found at ftp://fegmania.wustl.edu/fegmaniax/archives/ For administrative questions, subscription requests, and all that boring crud, send mail to fegmaniax-request@nsmx.rutgers.edu. Slipping you the midnight fish...