Fegmaniax Digest <==----------==> (Send posts to the list to fegmaniax@nsmx.rutgers.edu) (Send adminstrative commands to majordomo@nsmx.rutgers.edu) (Send comments, etc to the listowner at owner-fegmaniax@nsmx.rutgers.edu) <==----------==> Volume 3 Number 155 Today's Topics: ------- ------ Lyrics corrections: Re: Kershaw Sessions Your helpful comments Re: Lyrics corrections: Re: Your helpful comments silver linings and nasty grey clouds Re: Your helpful comments Re: Lyrics corrections: Re: silver linings and nasty grey clouds chorus de Leppo Re: silver linings and nasty grey clouds Re: Lyrics corrections: Re: silver linings and nasty grey clouds RE: silver linings and nasty grey clouds Spin Sucks RE: silver linings and nasty grey clouds Re: Lyrics corrections: Gina Arnold campaign ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 23:15:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Terry Marks Subject: Lyrics corrections: To: Pretty Girls and Anglepoise lamps Please tell me if you here anything better: (iffy lyrics in {}s) The Pigworker: Well JJ Loomis had a dozen legs he'd come sliding out there when you least expect him and Crowbar Joe was a sacred pear {cause the one would hack and the other would loom} Look Into Your Mirror: (bridge) I fell for you when the night was young we danced till two, { but I drawn on your tongue} your kisses flooded me with joy and then you told me and then you told me I wish I was a boy Which of Us is Me: in the first life of the father {lock the door and walk to steven} cover up your head with lather cause you know you won't believe it {has a fair upon tomorrow} and a bone inside my pocket {The dewpoint has ????? in a swimming pool} frog upon a frog upon piece of cotton wool {I believe in nothing that precipitated off tonight} grab me in a yellow cloth and {pass the inner church peel it off a saturday and watch the ceiling} ... {?? ?? to a juicy trumpet} Psychedelic Love: everywhere you go they pelt you {with this ice} everyone I know is trying to shelter from your eyes {don't think it give you a tearful of eyes, remember} time in a slippery red bulb and it all got dismembered how it was a sin to think of anything but now I Wanna Appreciate You come here baby, let me focus home in backwards on your crocus {you got fair and ????} you bring the love, baby, I got the leashes and it's true right The Lonesome Death of Ian Penman {there was no social function or the life of light that I could lead that made him flung the town across the river to the border of the tunnel as no method in his property or lives of other liberty and destroy. obey.} Vegetation and Dimes: {This is sunny freeze ??? honey} IT's for you and me, honey I remember your face It was right next to mine Ah next to mine. Lysander: I saw you yesterday by the abandoned rail you're the kind of animal that swallows its own tail Child of the universe, your universe is getting very hot {doctor, dot you, dot you like you doctor, dot you, dot you like you} That's it Thanks! Terry "The Human Mellotron" Marks ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 23:13:03 -0500 (CDT) From: "Jeffrey with 2 f's Jeffrey" To: "Us...we wanna be some anglepoise lamps yeh!" Subject: Re: Kershaw Sessions On Tue, 10 Oct 1995, bravely resisting his nearly overwhelming urge to go out and hunt down giraffes, M R Godwin wrote: >> > PS Many thanks to Jeffrey for chronological explication; but doesn't adding > "with two ff's" to your name every time add a couple of million years to > the total? > Well, no, since the 2 f's bit is automagicated. But *reading* the 2 f's bit every time adds years to *your* stockpile of wasted time (heh, heh, heh). --Jeff Jeffrey Norman "You could have had a future University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee but you had a fit." Dept. of English & Comp. Lit. e-mail: jenor@csd.uwm.edu --St. Johnny In my CD changer: Belly _King_ Swirlies _Blonder Tongue Audio Baton_ Portishead _Dummy_ The Fall _Cerebral Caustic_ v/a _Badger-a-Go-Go_ comp. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 12:09:42 +0100 (BST) From: M R Godwin To: jimm@dbu.edu cc: The Can Opener Subject: Your helpful comments Hi Beaker! Thanks for your comments on the Kershaw Sessions. I agree that Heaven and Brenda are the identical cuts from Gotta Let This Hen Out. I will also go back and listen to some of those tracks on BSDR, EYE and GD that I haven't paid attention to for a long time and will report back on my reactions. Maybe you are right and they will turn out better than I remembered. - Mike (Color Out of Space) Godwin "The tape keeps telling me again and again that I'm the keeper of souls" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 10:40:26 -0400 (EDT) From: dwillem1@IC3.ITHACA.EDU Subject: Re: Lyrics corrections: To: Terry Marks Cc: Pretty Girls and Anglepoise lamps LEPPO & THE JOOVES Crabwise Over the end ... and extensions of the life and loves of nodding through the windows of disgust the teeth of Leppo and his managers awry No time to cry (fry) Sunrise A lamp of no position in the loss of all existance to the vultures without bibles and the creatures withouut leaves that pass it by No time to sigh All them pretty women Planted in a row You see them in the newspapers But you can't have them, no! No no no no no no no uh hah hah {It's just Lep-Lep-Leppo and the J-J-J-J-J-J-Jooves They jump on anything that M-M-M-M-M-Moves On taxes coughing it's America's piano hits and ... Leppo} Likewise A farmer and his diary might conspire to freeze a widow so I went to rob the Lizard of his skin, his coat, his money, and his earth All that he's worth Someday You'll realize that everything you do or see or think of if it interferes with nothing might as well is all and arrows all of tears Nobody hears All them famous people Wash off in the rain Leave not even a puddle, baby All they leave is your name Uh hah hah hah hah hah hah your name I got a name for you baby {refrain} Listen And you can hear the dripping of the clocks the reaping of the sun the vengeance of the hammer and the squeamish tight explosion of the lyre (liar?) Burn in the fire All them hungry people They don't look so good But I don't let it bother you I don't see why it should No no no no no no no uh hah hah {refrain}x2 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 10:42:33 -0400 (EDT) From: dwillem1@IC3.ITHACA.EDU Subject: Re: Your helpful comments To: M R Godwin Cc: jimm@dbu.edu, The Can Opener > Thanks for your comments on the Kershaw Sessions. I agree that Heaven and > Brenda are the identical cuts from Gotta Let This Hen Out. If we want to be technical, Brenda's doesn't have the monologue in Gotta Let.. Robyn does some bizzare "backwards" language ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 95 11:53:45 EST From: kenster@MIT.EDU (ostrander) To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: silver linings and nasty grey clouds here is the entry for the soft boys in the latest self-important book of reviews in the spin alternative record guide. let me just say that many of the entries are lazy and bone-headed as these types of books tend to be. still every once in a while you find a review you agree with. ratings are from 1 - 10. the commentary of robyn's later work really annoys me. ` ken soft boys: wading through a ventilator ep (1978; glass fish, 1984) 5 live at the portland arms (1978; glass fish, 1987) 7 a can of bees (1979; rykodisc, 1992) 8 two halves for the price of one (1981; glass fish, 1990) 6 underwater moonlight (1980; rykodisc, 1992) 9 only the stones remain ep (1980; rykodisc, 1992) 6 invisible hits (1983; rykodisc, 1992) 8 the soft boys 1976-1981 (rykodisc, 1993) 8 robyn hitchcock (and the egyptians): black snake diamond role (1981; rhino, 1995) 5 groovy decay (albion, 1982) 5 groovy decoy (1982; relativity, 1986) 5 gravy deco (rhino, 1995) 5 i often dream of trains (1984; rhino, 1995) 7 the bells of rhymney ep (midnight 1984) 7 fegmania (1985; rhino, 1995) 8 gotta let this hen out (1985; rhino, 1995) 7 eaten by her own dinner ep (midnight music, 1986) 5 invisible hitchcock (1986; rhino, 1995) 6 exploding in silence ep (relativity, 1986) 5 element of light (1986; rhino, 1995) 5 globe of frogs (a&m, 1988) 6 queen elvis (a&m, 1989) 4 eye (1990; rhino 1995) 5 perspex island (a&m, 1991) 5 respect (a&m, 1993) 4 you & ob/ivion (rhino, 1995) 6 the british isles are well known for fostering eccentrics, but few of the shy woodland creatures actually made their way into rock bands until the soft boys peeped out from behind the amps of a cambridge pub called the portland arms in 1977. a sort of reallife rutles, this unique and supremely underrated band's music never reached a wide audience, despite late-'70s britain's favorable climate for bizarre pop songs. the soft boys' reclusive history is as follows: with the help of fellow band member kimberly rew (later of katrina and the waves, and thus, the author of the bangles' lovely hit single "going down to liverpool" among other cheery tunes), an art-school dropout named robyn hitchcock merged a lifelong fixation with john lennon and syd barrett with numerous other sources-notably british music hall foldelrol, folk music, and the byrds. this resulted in a jubilant series of wacky pop songs, ranging from driven paranoiac rockers like "insanely jealous," "i wanna destroy you," and "brenda's iron sledge," to delighfful nonsense like "sandra's having her brain out" "leppo and the jooves," and "have a heart betty (i'm not fireproof)." "if there's two things worse than country music, one of them is punk," hitchcock remarks facetiously on the 1978 portland arms, and his whimsical, word-addled, uniquely british pub rock amounts to gilbert and sullivan meet the sex pistols. there's track after track of it, each song more peculiar-and more sing-alongable- than the last, punctuated every now and then by a ditty like "queen of eyes," which by all rights should have rung out of radios worldwide. as documented on the often a cappella lp live at the portland arms, the soft boys' impromptu reign over the pubs of cambridge was clearly an idyll now lost in the mists of antiquity. before petering out around 1983, the band released numerous extremely obscure records on ever obscurer indie labels (can of bees, for example, was released three separate times, each time in a slightly different form). the three best records-of which underwater moonlight is far and away the standout-have been reissued on rykodisc and the rest finally gathered together in eminently coherent form on a uniformly excellent box set entitled 197s1981. beats hell out of combing portobello road for scratchy bootleg vinyl. during the latter part of the soft boys' career, hitchcock began releasing solo material with black snake diamond role, an album that remains many boys fans' favorite album, probably because songs like "brenda's iron sledge" and "i watch the cars" firmly maintain the band's absurdist slant while rocking out like the harder numbers. however, hitchcock hadn't yet mastered the gentle gravity and chiming melodicism of later years. groovy decoy also released with slightly different songs as groovy decay (and then again, recently, as gravy deco) includes "the cars she used to drive" and "america," both conceivably commercial-but the multiple versions betray hitchcock's meddling with his own records, which irritated labels no end and, in hindsight, contributed to his continued obscurity. nevertheless, hitchcock had by this time achieved cult status among american underground rock aficionados: r.e.m.'s peter buck, for one, claims that soft boys records influenced him more than the byrds. solidifying his rep, on i often dream of trains a mostly unplugged hitchcock showed his affinities to ultra-british songwriters like ray davies and graham parker with "trams of old london" and an a cappella ode to freud called "uncorrected personality traits" that wouldn't have sounded out of place on benny hill. hitchcock's domestic debut, and breakthrough to the extent possible at the time, fegmania, was stuffed with colorful imagery, absurd metaphors and twisted musings on mortality, all packed into catchy little 3-minute pop tunes. it cemented his position as psychedelic guru of the amerindie underground. though irrevocably flighty ("my wife and my dead wife"), here hitchcock's songs also hooked into the human worlds of love, fear and lust. gotta let this hen outl, a live album from the same era, is equally buoyant, awash with hitchcock's exuberant charm. after this high-water mark, however, hitchcock's records turned slightly more serious. "raymond chandler evening" and "winchester" on element of light are evocative portraits of england that don't resort to the goofy wordplay and surreal imaqerv that make his early work shine, but elsewhere the effort behind his seemingly off-the-cuff blather was beginning to show. in 1988, hitchcock signed to a&m and-exhausted, perhaps, by a decade of prolific brilliance-began churning out albums that lacked some essential punchiness that permeates his earlier work. there is, however, no such thing as a worthless robyn hitchcock album: queen elvis has a memorable title character and "beatle denis" (played on by pete buck) may be his most deserving shoulda-been-a-hit since "queen of eyes"; perspex island and eye (hitchcock's first solo acoustic project since i often dream of trains) have their moments as well. it's just that these days the world has less use for debonair englishmen who write poignant songs about reptiles and hoover vacuum cleaners. for many a long year, hitchcock has gotten by on charm alone. but that may not be something to sneer at: charm is, after all, a commodity in extremely short supply, and nowhere as much as in the music business. only time will tell whether reissues of most of bonuses on rhino-bells of rhymney is reissued on i often dream, eaten by her own dinner on invisible hitchcock;you & oblivion collects still more rarities-will rekindle the flame of love that sidaydream his compelling erudition once lit in our innocent breasts. (arnold) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 16:18:09 +0100 (BST) From: M R Godwin To: dwillem1@IC3.ITHACA.EDU cc: jimm@dbu.edu, The Can Opener Subject: Re: Your helpful comments On Wed, 11 Oct 1995 dwillem1@ic3.ithaca.edu wrote: > > > > Thanks for your comments on the Kershaw Sessions. I agree that Heaven and > > Brenda are the identical cuts from Gotta Let This Hen Out. > > If we want to be technical, Brenda's doesn't have the monologue in Gotta > Let.. Robyn does some bizzare "backwards" language Good. As an old Blue Oyster Cult fan, I have often wondered whether this monologue is inspired by the fake 'Japanese' bit in 'Godzilla' (off the Spectres album). But maybe it is just gibberish for its own sake. - Mike ## Janine: "I _told_ them to put 'Spinal Tap' above 'Puppet Show' " ## ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 12:59:05 -0400 (EDT) From: dwillem1@IC3.ITHACA.EDU Subject: Re: Lyrics corrections: To: Terry Marks , Pretty Girls and Anglepoise lamps oops! 1 more verse On Wed, 11 Oct 1995 dwillem1@ic3.ithaca.edu wrote: > LEPPO & THE JOOVES > > Crabwise > Over the end ... and extensions of the life and loves > of nodding through the windows of disgust the teeth > of Leppo and his managers awry > No time to cry (fry) > Sunrise > A lamp of no position in the loss of all existance > to the vultures without bibles and the creatures > withouut leaves that pass it by > No time to sigh > All them pretty women > Planted in a row > You see them in the newspapers > But you can't have them, no! > No no no no no no no uh hah hah > {It's just Lep-Lep-Leppo and the J-J-J-J-J-J-Jooves > They jump on anything that M-M-M-M-M-Moves > On taxes coughing it's America's piano hits and ... > Leppo} > > Likewise > A farmer and his diary might conspire to freeze a > widow so I went to rob the Lizard of his skin, > his coat, his money, and his earth > All that he's worth > Someday > You'll realize that everything you do or see or think of > if it interferes with nothing might as well is > all and arrows all of tears > Nobody hears > All them famous people > Wash off in the rain > Leave not even a puddle, baby > All they leave is your name > Uh hah hah hah hah hah hah your name > I got a name for you baby > {refrain} > > Listen > And you can hear the dripping of the clocks the reaping > of the sun the vengeance of the hammer and > the squeamish tight explosion of the lyre (liar?) > Burn in the fire Gazing With unforseeing eyes into the smoke the lungs of war and all the endless formulations of unusable beginnings that have grown from hungry rivers into trees Nobody sees > All them hungry people > They don't look so good > But I don't let it bother you > I don't see why it should > No no no no no no no uh hah hah > {refrain}x2 > ahh.. that feels better ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 10:20:29 -0700 Subject: Re: silver linings and nasty grey clouds From: Tom Clark To: "ostrander" , "fegManiax" Thanks for the transcription, Ken. I noticed that it was attributed to "arnold", do you know if this was Gina Arnold? I usually respect her writing, but I never knew how she felt about RH. -tc ************************************* * Tom Clark * Apple Computer, Inc. "Knowledge Is Good" * tclark@apple.com -Emil Faber * tclark@netgate.net * tclark@eworld.com * http://www.netgate.net/~tclark ************************************* ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 13:47:34 -0500 (CDT) From: "Jeffrey with 2 f's Jeffrey" To: "Us...we wanna be some anglepoise lamps yeh!" Subject: chorus de Leppo Someone, a few months back, posted what I think is a more convincing version of that mysterious line in the chorus of "Leppo & the Jooves." It ran sumpin lahk dis: They'll j-j-j-j-j-jump on anything that moves On taxis, coffin lids, Americans, piano [heads?], and rooves! "rooves" being, of course, the plural of "roof." For a long time I thought there was something about Texas in this line, also a reference to "America's piano" ("Texas coughing is America's piano"? Nah....) I think that person's version (congratulations, whoever you are) is best I've heard so far. --Jeff "The biggest wagon Jeffrey Norman is the empty wagon University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is the noisiest... Dept. of English & Comp. Lit. Jefferson, I think we're lost." e-mail: jenor@csd.uwm.edu --R.E.M., "Little America" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 95 15:07:35 EST From: kenster@MIT.EDU (ostrander) To: Tom Clark Subject: Re: silver linings and nasty grey clouds Cc: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu >Thanks for the transcription, Ken. I noticed that it was attributed to >"arnold", do you know if this was Gina Arnold? I usually respect her >writing, but I never knew how she felt about RH. > >-tc yes, gina. author of 'route 666: on the road to nirvana' (st. martin's press). bay area freelance writer. she likes the soft boys, but thinks robyn's solo work is spotty. now, slagging all of the post-hen egyptians work in one lazyass swoop is downright infuriating. the explanation of his work turning "slightly serious" is tedious, since we all know that his visions of funky aquatic lust can get cynical, but are never dry. and besides, a little variety makes for a better rounded artist. GLOBE OF FROGS, to me, is the least of these releases; but in the opinion of ms. arnold, quite the opposite seems to be true. how she can slag EYE and praise YOU AND OBLIVION is beyond me. i think many folks will find her rating of his first solo release curious, since this is the one that sounds the most like the soft boys. still, she saves herself with "there is, however, no such thing as a worthless robyn hitchcock album". so what can be said? wouldn't it be cool if we could get her e-mail address and pick her review apart for her? ken ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 16:21:48 -0400 (EDT) From: roLLerCOasTEr boy To: Fegmaniax List Subject: Re: Lyrics corrections: On Wed, 11 Oct 1995 dwillem1@IC3.ITHACA.EDU wrote: > LEPPO & THE JOOVES > > {It's just Lep-Lep-Leppo and the J-J-J-J-J-J-Jooves > They jump on anything that M-M-M-M-M-Moves > On taxes coughing it's America's piano hits and ... > Leppo} After *years* of attempts to decipher this, i believe it is: On taxis, coffee lids, americans, piano heads, and rooves. (i.e., roofs) i always picture jumping on coffee CAN lids, but that's perhaps me... i've also convinced my self that a "piano head" is the lid thingy that gets proped up on baby and full grands and just sort of flips up in a silly way on uprights. anyway they're all things which one could jump on... doug ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 14:52:11 -0700 (PDT) From: Glen Uber To: Underwater Moon-list Subject: Re: silver linings and nasty grey clouds On Wed, 11 Oct 1995, ostrander, with a desire to see justice done, wrote: > wouldn't it be cool if we could get her e-mail address and pick her review > apart for her? > > ken > Why doesn't someone do a WAIS search? Perhaps those with CompuServe, Prodigy, AOL, et. al. could search the member directories. Maybe bay area fegs would be so kind as to conduct a search of users on their servers in the hope of finding Miss Arnold. Slainte! ****************************************************************************** Glen E. Uber University of Washington Departments of Linguistics and Germanics E-mail: hirsute@u.washington.edu *** Quotations of the week: *** "Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does, the better." -Andre Gide "Information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom is not truth, truth is not beauty, beauty is not love, love is not music. Music is the best." -Frank Zappa "Music is the cup which holds the wine of silence" -Robert Fripp ------------------------------ From: jimm@dbu.edu Date: Wed, 11 Oct 95 17:54:32 -0500 To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: RE: silver linings and nasty grey clouds hmm..... > in 1988, hitchcock signed to a&m and-exhausted, perhaps, by a >decade of prolific brilliance-began churning out albums that lacked some >essential punchiness that permeates his earlier work. Funny, but I think Robyn's work has grown in quality as he has matured as an artist, songwriter and musician. I do like the Soft Boys--but I guess I just think his newer stuff surpasses what he did back in the 70's. But I also think that people are always going to prefer certain songs or certain types of songs over others. It appears that this reviewer is fond of Robyn's "jangly", "Beatlesque" material over and above his other kinds of tunes. I happen to love those types of songs, as well, but I also think that if that's all he did--he wouldn't have half his appeal. One of the things I like best about Robyn is that he does so many different things with his music--he is not tied down to one particular format or style. Granted, he does have similar types of songs running through the whole of his material--but within that there is great variety. But--what this particular reviewer is talking about is taste. I might not like "Child of the Universe" especially, while another fan might think it is his best work. So who's right? I think both of us are. And for that, I think this reviewer has erred--she is merely expressing her taste, which has nothing at all to do with the quality of Robyn's work. I rest my case, Beaker Shapiro ------------------------------ From: ZeroSummer@aol.com Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 19:03:45 -0400 To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: Spin Sucks So the pornographer's kid has gone from doing an unbearably pretentious magazine to publishing an unbearably pretentious book o' criticism. Yick. And consider that, as Robyn fans, we have a pretty healthy tolerance for pretentious anything. But the music guide is just too much. I flipped through it in Barnes and Noble today but couldn't take much. The Robyn review was off enough (the title character in Queen Elvis doesn't show up until Eye, Gina), but really, listing the revered Sundays as a sub-head with the pouty, lowercased cranberries was really too much. I buy all significant record guides, so I'm not buying this one. Ira Robbins' gang ain't perfect, but at least after reading from Trouser Press, you won't feel all dirty and ashamed. All right. I'm done. Now I can be nice again. --Joe ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 19:07:48 -0400 From: beach house tiki god To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: RE: silver linings and nasty grey clouds jimm@dbu.edu sez: >And for that, >I think this reviewer has erred--she is merely expressing her taste, >which has nothing at all to do with the quality of Robyn's work. but taste is impossible to divorce from one's opinion of quality. woj ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 17:37:55 -0600 (MDT) From: Horselover Phat To: exterminating angelfish Subject: Re: Lyrics corrections: On Wed, 11 Oct 1995 dwillem1@IC3.ITHACA.EDU wrote: > LEPPO & THE JOOVES > > Crabwise > Over the end ... and extensions of the life and loves how bout "over the ANDALUSIAN extensions"? not sure about that, but i think it's suitably Robynesque--and it's what i've always heard. incidentally, andalusian has always been one of my favorite words. other lyrical sightings of it: _debaser_ by the pixies--which is of course a musical version of "Un Chien Andalou" (sp?), the late 1920's (or early 30's) surrealist film by Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel. 16 of my favorite film minutes--if you haven't seen it, it may be rentable. There are a couple of video places here (Boulder) that carry it. slicin up eyeballs, uh huh huh huh, zach _________ MOONBOOTS MOONBOOTS MOON. ("i'm hol ding out for a spa ceman"). ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 16:47:40 -0700 From: librik@netcom.com (David Librik) To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: Gina Arnold Fegs -- Don't bother pestering Gina Arnold, who wrote the Robyn Hitchcock summary for that record guide.. She is mostly notable for her strong and idiosyncratic opinions about everything -- she hates the Grateful Dead, worships the Ramones, and writes incessantly about her firmly-held beliefs. She is one of my very favorite critics, even though she's dead wrong more than half the time. Anyway, as a result of this she gets tremendous amounts of hate mail, and is incredibly defensive. It's not worth writing, you won't see "justice done." I have to say that, given all this, it's pretty strange to pick someone like Gina Arnold to write for a Record Review Guide. She's out of touch with everyone else and _knows_ it -- this makes for good music criticism but lousy recommendations. - David Librik librik@cs.Berkeley.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 17:06:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Glen Uber To: Underwater Moon-list fegs, Here is the _in toto_ transcription of a review of Robyn's 9/29 shown in Seattle. The review appears in the October 11-25 issue of "The Rocket", which is a northwest music and entertainment guide. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ROBYN HITCHCOCK The Backstage, Seattle, 9/29 They say the devil has all the best tunes. He must have been at the club that night, because he gave more than a few to Robyn Hitchcock; not that the man needs them. Since the days of the Soft Boys, he's been doing nicely by himself, thank you. Whether it was songs about tomatoes or tiny pink insects that are really bombers, this was a typical Hitchcock performance, a theater of the moderately absurd paraded before us. Appearing solo, his eccentric charm was quite effortless. He didn't have to win over the full house; they were his from the moment he walked onstage. It's Robyn's slightly loopy world view and wonderful between-song prattle that gets written about, but one thing that tends to be ignored is his songwriting style. While he exists somewhere that is outside time, he is, in fact, quite the child of the '60s. His work mixes classic pop structures, left-field weirdness of English psychedelia (a lot of his material isn't that far removed from Syd-era Floyd, for example) and guitar techniques of traditional Britfolk. These elements made his version of Hendrix's "Wind Cries Mary," a particularly interesting and curiously apt choice for a cover song. Robyn's no Jimi, but he _is_ a vastly underrated guitarist, whether on th acoustic, utilizing a number of different tunings, or on the electric, where he could move a little further out still. More recognizable material, like "Glass Hotel" and the deliciously lush "I Got a Message for You" ("It's about why the English reproduce"), got the best reaction from the audience, most of whom seemed more familiar with the idea of Robyn Hitchcock than his work. That's fine because, like some improvising magician, you never knew quite what he was going to pull from his hat. It was good that he steered clear of the "hits"--no "Beatle Flesh No. 1" (sic) or "Brenda's Iron Sledge," and the occasional cry for "My Wife and My Dead Wife" went, thankfully, unheeded. Instead, he took us on a circutious path around the fringes of his career. This is what a Hitchcock show should be about; a stroll through an overgrown garden, where one is never quite sure whether that large plant in the corner will emit perfume or try to devour you. Or, possibly, both. Whether it was good or bad (and actually, I've seen him better, if you need to know) doesn't quite matter. You can't judge Robyn by those standards. He simply is, and there's no one quite like him. Every performance is going to be a series of earthly (and sometimes earthy) delights. Moris Teper, holding down a far-too-short middle slot on the bill, was the ideal choice for an opener. Having worked with both Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits, you knew this was a man who would be, at the least, slightly skewed. As it was, he turned out to be totally, wonderfully warped and completely exciting. Songs like "Then We'll Sail," and "Scratch o'Life" echoed his previous employers well, but they were more than shot through with his own brand of romanticism. It was to the eternal shame of the crowd that many of them--supposedly revelers in the strange--decided to talk through his set. Yet they'd been happy to receive Tiddas, the Australian women who opened. Granted, they were very professional, an Indigo Girls Jr. with spot-on harmonies, enthusiasm, and large amounts of liberal guilt, but this wasn't a night for professionalism. It was an evening when the unlikely should have been allowed to become the possible, sprout dragonfly wings, and take to a cartoon sky. CHRIS NICKSON ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I shall refrain from commenting on the review pending responses from you. Slainte! ****************************************************************************** Glen E. Uber University of Washington Departments of Linguistics and Germanics E-mail: hirsute@u.washington.edu GUber23556@aol.com *** Quotations of the week: *** "Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does, the better." -Andre Gide "Information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom is not truth, truth is not beauty, beauty is not love, love is not music. Music is the best." -Frank Zappa "Music is the cup which holds the wine of silence" -Robert Fripp ------------------------------ From: bing@student.umass.edu Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 12:26:56 -0400 Subject: campaign To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Am I allowed to campaign for my song on the tribute? Actually, I just want to be on a CD with Vic Chesnutt. That's a good reason, though. I haven't heard my song, really, so I don't know if it's good or not. I know it probably defeats the whole point of digital quality, but otherwise... Vote for me doing Queen of Eyes! Bradley and Vic: Now and Forever. Or-- Now more than ever. whatever. vot for me, Bradley :) [][][][][][][][] End of this Fegmaniax Digest. Archives can be found at ftp://fegmania.wustl.edu/fegmaniax/archives/ For administrative questions, send mail to owner-fegmaniax@nsmx.rutgers.edu For subscription requests, send mail to majordomo@nsmx.rutgers.edu. Slipping you the midnight fish...