From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@ecto.org To: fegmaniax-digest@ecto.org Reply-To: fegmaniax@ecto.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@ecto.org Subject: Feg Digest V4 #257 Fegmaniax Digest Volume 4 Number 257 Thursday December 26 1996 To post, send mail to fegmaniax@ecto.org To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@ecto.org with the words "unsubscribe fegmaniax-digest" in the message body. Send comments, etc. to the listowner at owner-fegmaniax@ecto.org FegMANIAX! Web Page: http://remus.rutgers.edu/~woj/fegmaniax/index.html Archives are available at ftp://www.ecto.org/pub/lists/fegmaniax/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Topics: ------- ------- Re: XTC Question/XMAS Robyn? RH News Subject: Re: Thanx for the posters and Happy Holidays! Oh yeah, and... Re: XTC Question/XMAS Robyn? Rhino posters Re: XTC Question/XMAS Robyn? RE: Queen of Eyes Cover posters, and XTC Re: Question on that Goldmine Article from Ages Ago XTC/3 Wise Men info (was Re: XTC Question/XMAS Robyn?) Re: posters, and XTC Raygun article Thought you might be interested a question... off-topic crumpled posters XTC Xmas song Re: crumpled posters Another Message on the Warner Bros. Site Re: Robyn Covered message 666 marked for deletion Rain Parade Off center request Vegan Bones Re: Vegan Bones administrivia ------------------------------ From: Ross Overbury Date: Mon, 23 Dec 96 12:29:33 EST Subject: Re: XTC Question/XMAS Robyn? > > 1. Anyone ever heard of Robyn performing any Christmas songs live? Nice cover, Russ! Now you're on topic. Read on ... I've answered your real question below. > > 2. XTC Xperts: I picked up a CD called "Just Say Noel" which includes an XTC > Xmas tune ("Thanks for Christmas" I think it's called). I recall playing an > XTC single (under the pseudonym The Thee Wise Men) when I was in college > radio. This particular tune is creditred to XTC, but production credits go > to "The Three Wise Men", and author credits--though the song sounds very > obviously XTC authored--are given to three people who's names rang no bells. > > > I'm wondering if anyone knows whether this is that mid-'80s single or a NEW > offering (which would be big news, I'd think), and can anyone verify whether > or not the three songwriters listed are actually partridge/moulding/the- > other-guy using different names? > > The CD is on Geffen, which may or may not have been XTC's label at the time > of the 80's single. It's been so long since XTC recorded anything new I > don't know if they're still with Geffen...I would think not. > > -russ > I've got "Rag and Bone Buffet", a collection of re-mixes, b-sides, etc that features this tune. It's called "Thanks for Christmas" by "The Three Wise Men", as you remembered, so if this year's release has the same title, the best you could hope for is a remix. It's XTC in Brian Wilson mode, much like the type of material on "Nonesuch". I've never heard it on the air, and I'm not holding my breath waiting. The industry ignores XTC almost as well as they do Robyn. The Crash Test Dummies do a note-for-note remake of Peter Pumpkinhead, and it's all over the airwaves. The original gets nowhere. I would like to wish you "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Christmas" or "Hi, There" as appropriate! -- "The man who has not anything to boast of but his illustrious ancestors is like the potato - the only good thing belonging to him is underground." (Sir Thomas Overbury, 1613) Ross Overbury Montreal, Quebec, Canada email: rosso@cn.ca ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 10:18:49 -0800 (PST) From: Griffith Davies Subject: RH News I pulled this of the Yahoo news: HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - A concert performance film starring British singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock is set for theatrical release next fall. Orion Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to "Storefont Hitchcock," which was directed by Jonathan Demme. The film was shot the week of December 9 in New York, with Hitchcock performing in a downtown storefront before a live audience. Demme's credits include the five-time Academy Award-winner, Silence of the Lambs. Others are Philadelphia, Melvin and Howard, and the Talking Heads concert film, Stop Making Sense. Reuters/Variety Happy Holidays!!! ______________________________________________________________ Griffith Davies hbrtv219@email.csun.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Dec 96 13:09:54 EST From: "mark allen" Subject: Subject: Re: Thanx for the posters and Happy Holidays! Tim wrote: Oh no - are there RH posters left at Rhino Records? I just picked up a couple of the Rhino reissues and saw the note about the posters but the offer expired last year. Did I miss a pointer to one of these? There probably are posters left but you'll have to check the feg archives for the address and who to notify. Or mebbe one of you fegs still has that info avaialble for Tim. Ciao. - - - - - - - - - - Mark Allen Computer Specialist http://etsweb.ets.org/helpdesk/pages/mark.html http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/1344 mallen@ets.org ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Dec 96 13:29:26 EST From: "mark allen" Subject: Oh yeah, and... For those fans of John Cale, I've just recently picked up "Songs for 'Drella" by Lou and John, and I've been unable to take it out of the player. Do yourself a favor if you can find it. - - - - - - - - - - Mark Allen Computer Specialist http://etsweb.ets.org/helpdesk/pages/mark.html http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/1344 mallen@ets.org ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 13:56:20 -0500 (EST) From: Bayard Subject: Re: XTC Question/XMAS Robyn? On Mon, 23 Dec 1996, Russ wrote: > > > > 1. Anyone ever heard of Robyn performing any Christmas songs live? > he reportedly did something called "Christmas Story" on dec 28 or 29, 1992, at the 9:30 club, but i couldn't make it to that show. I'll have to watch the video JH kindly sent me, but alas, the vcr is not working at the moment. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 14:19:15 -0500 (EST) From: Tracy Aileen Copeland Subject: Rhino posters For those of you who missed this the first time - Rhino has leftover posters promoting the reissues. If you send your snail-mail address to jim_neill@rhino.com he'll mail you five of them; Rhino will even pick up the postage. So far as I know they haven't run out of posters yet, and even when they do there will probably be plenty of people who don't need five identical posters and are willing to pass the extras on. Tracy "I would like some candy canes sunny-side up on the toast" Copeland ------------------------------ From: Hedblade@aol.com Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 15:31:17 -0500 Subject: Re: XTC Question/XMAS Robyn? << 2. XTC Xperts: I picked up a CD called "Just Say Noel" which includes an XTC Xmas tune ("Thanks for Christmas" I think it's called). I recall playing an XTC single (under the pseudonym The Thee Wise Men) when I was in college radio. This particular tune is creditred to XTC, but production credits go to "The Three Wise Men", and author credits--though the song sounds very obviously XTC authored--are given to three people who's names rang no bells. I'm wondering if anyone knows whether this is that mid-'80s single or a NEW offering (which would be big news, I'd think), and can anyone verify whether or not the three songwriters listed are actually partridge/moulding/the- other-guy using different names?>> This is indeed XTC and none other. The track was originally released as a 7" under the name The Tree Wise Men, so you're correct again. This was a little goof the boys did and indeed, they changed their names for the credits. So, to answer your question, it is the same song and it is penned by Partridge / Moulding / and Dave Greggory. Trivia: 1) As the band was signed to VIrgin Records at the time, Andy wanted the song to be released under the band name The Virgin Marys and to have some of the office girls sing on it. The label had different ideas. 2) The b-side to the 7" was called "Countdown To Christmas Party Time" and is an awful piece of white boy funk! (both songs are available on the XTC compilation "Rag And Bone Buffet.") <> They were signed to Virgin in the UK and licenced to Geffen in the US starting with English Settlement in 1982 (I believe). So, yeah, it would have been recorded / released when they were under contract to Geffen. For those interested, XTC are still together even though they haven't released an album since 1992's Nonsuch. They have just freed themselves from a horrible contract with Virgin UK and are currently shopping for deals. Word from Andy is that they'd like to do a double CD next time 'round, one that is standard XTC pop and one that is all orchestrated. Safe bet- don't look for this release in 1997.... it's XTC, after all!! Happy Holidays!!!! Jay ------------------------------ From: Robert Sutton Subject: RE: Queen of Eyes Cover Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 10:21:57 -0800 Yes they did. I have seen them do it. I think I got it on a CD here somewhere... rob >---------- >From: Graham Penn >Sent: Saturday, December 21, 1996 5:22 AM >To: fegmaniax@ecto.org >Subject: Queen of Eyes Cover > > >Didn't Sup Pop's Fastbacks do a cover of good old "Queen of Eyes" about five >or six years ago? > >Possibly hallucinating, > >Graham ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 20:56:09 -0800 From: txc@echonyc.com (Tom X. Chao) Subject: posters, and XTC The Three Wise Men are, indeed, XTC. The two songs they recorded under that name can be found on "Rag and Bone Buffet," the XTC rarities collection. In addition to "Thanks For Christmas," there's also "Countdown to Christmas Party Time," which is as silly and disposable as the title suggests. I received my Robyn posters from Rhino, but sadly, the &*$%@#!!! post office went out of their way to smash the mailing tube so that there's big wrinkles in the middle of Robyn's face. The person who mailed the posters also rolled them the long way, which I utterly cannot understand. Oh well, they were free so how can I complain? Anyway, everyone put on "Countdown to Christmas Party Time" and have a great one! Mine is gonna suck! TXC ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 21:26:13 -0500 From: Carpalman Subject: Re: Question on that Goldmine Article from Ages Ago >On Fri, 8 Nov 1996 HAMISH_SIMPSON@HP-UnitedKingdom-om4.om.hp.com wrote: > >> I've just finished reading the Goldmine article (so I'm slow). Is it > >Hello all, > >I just finished the semester from hell so I'm only now sorting through >old messages of interest. Can someone tell me if the Goldmine article >was worth reading or was all the information pretty much available else- >where. i.e., Should I bother to track down a copy? If you track down anything, it should be the Raygun interview. That was my favorite Robyn article of the year. I posted it once before. If you want me to post it again, let me know. /-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- John B. Jones e-mail:jojones@mailbox.syr.edu web: http://web.syr.edu/~jojones "The Higsons come from Norwich Norwich, Massachusetts And they eat alot of pancakes..." -Billy Bragg, 16 Nov 96 \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 21:42:48 -0500 From: Carpalman Subject: XTC/3 Wise Men info (was Re: XTC Question/XMAS Robyn?) >1. Anyone ever heard of Robyn performing any Christmas songs live? No >2. XTC Xperts: I picked up a CD called "Just Say Noel" which includes an XTC >Xmas tune ("Thanks for Christmas" I think it's called). I recall playing an >XTC single (under the pseudonym The Thee Wise Men) when I was in college >radio. >I'm wondering if anyone knows whether this is that mid-'80s single or a NEW >offering (which would be big news, I'd think), and can anyone verify whether >or not the three songwriters listed are actually partridge/moulding/the- >other-guy using different names? Russ- The "Thanks for Christmas" song also appears on another new XMAS compilation (worth buying in my opinion--lots of great stuff) called "New Wave Xmas" (a subsidiary of the Just Can't Get Enough--New Wave Hits of the 80's series of compilations. Here's the liner notes on "Thanks for Christmas": XTC's "Thanks For Christmas" was the brainchild of the group's leader, Andy Partridge, who originally conceived of the tune being sung by secretaries from the group's British label, Virgin. The result could then be cleverly billed as by "The Virgin Marys" and rush-released in time for Christmas 1983. However, this idea was nixed by the label, who, not sharing Andy's perverse sense of humor, deemed his reference in poor taste. Undaunted, XTC released the song themselves under the alias The Three Wise Men. Not one to miss a chance to poke fun at the religiously devout, Partridge (who is, by the way, an atheist) used the happy coincidence that the producer for this session was named David Lord to great effect on the single's label, which reads "Produced by The Three Wise Men and The Good Lord." I had never heard this song until I bought the New Wave Xmas compilation. But now I hear it everywhere---in a convenience store, at a TGIFridays, and on the radio (!!!) Whassupwiddat???? The other Robyn related tune on there is Captain Sensible doing a song called "Christmas Catalogue". Its a good tune. I seem to remember hearing another Xmas related song he did a few years back called "The Toys Take Over". The best song on the CD for me is called "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues with prominent vocals by Kirsty Mac Coll (which I guess is also Robyn related, since Kirsty has sung on a Billy Bragg song or two, and he toured with Robyn.) Bye all, Happy Holidays to all you fegs. ps. okay, there may not be a robyn christmas song, but is there any song of his that mentions christmas or anything holiday-oriented? Just curious. I'm on a hunt for the closest thing to a Christmas song by Robyn. I guess until one of you come up with something better it'll have to be "Winter Love." /-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- John B. Jones e-mail:jojones@mailbox.syr.edu web: http://web.syr.edu/~jojones "The Higsons come from Norwich Norwich, Massachusetts And they eat alot of pancakes..." -Billy Bragg, 16 Nov 96 \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 21:53:22 -0500 From: Carpalman Subject: Re: posters, and XTC Tom was saying: >I received my Robyn posters from Rhino, but sadly, the &*$%@#!!! post >office went out of their way to smash the mailing tube so that there's big >wrinkles in the middle of Robyn's face. whoops....sorry, my fault. i'll be more careful next time. /-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- John B. Jones, United States Postal Worker e-mail:jojones@mailbox.syr.edu web: http://web.syr.edu/~jojones "The Higsons come from Norwich Norwich, Massachusetts And they eat alot of pancakes..." -Billy Bragg, 16 Nov 96 \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 22:02:30 -0500 From: Carpalman Subject: Raygun article So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish / Rabelaisian Without A Clue Meets The New Robyn Hitchcock by Jason Cohen and Michael Krugman This article appeared in Issue 41 (November 1996) of Raygun Magazine, and is reprinted without permission. Much thanks, tho. A word of advice: don't ever ride on top of an open double-decker bus during a rainstorm on a windy British island. This is where we found ourselves one Saturday this past summer [August 10, 1996], at the invitation of Robyn Hitchcock. He was gathering together 100 of his closest friends (okay, British members of his fan club, mostly) for a little trip around the Isle of Wight where, amidst the soaring cliffs and spectacular oceansides, he would deliver a few impromptu sets. Being visiting journalists from another country, we were given priority seats up top. So we probably deserved to shiver in the rain and cold, and shiver we did. Which isn't to say our endurance wasn't rewarded- for one thing, we were memorably introduced by Robyn as "Jason Cohen and Michael Krugman, who are joined by some ghastly umbilical." And he doesn't even know us that well. Anyway, after a long ride past many green valleys and just as many (mad) cows, the bus lurched up a hill and deposited us in a shoreside parking lot. As mystified surfers and beachgoers looked on, our little crowd formed a half-circle around Robyn and his compatriots, Tim and Jake [from Homer]. Together they delivered a set that included stuff from the new one, _Moss Elixir_, as well as oldies ranging from "One Long Pair of Eyes" to "Queen of Eyes." A little later, after the rain had begun, a second set was delivered, at a quaint, seemingly abandoned carnival and shopping plaza, the kind of place that sells sand sculptures and candy. It looked like the kind of place where the big ending of a Hitchcock film would happen. Alfred, that is. Considering that Hitchcock has long been one of those English guys who does better in America than his home country, it was reassuring to find out that he has British fans. And what a fine thing to do, spending an afternoon in the countryside with them. To top it off, as we returned to the bus stop and ferry launch, we happened upon two poor souls who had arrived late on the Isle, missing the trip completely. Generously, Robyn parked under an awning and did an extra half-dozen songs for them. A few weeks later, we met up with Robyn again in London, where he took us on a circuitous walk through the West End to get falafel, over which we chatted. PART I: "A be-in? As opposed to a wasp-out?" M: Was this the first time you did a bus trip like this? R: Last year I did one in the abandoned railway station, for the 25th anniversary of Hendrix's last gig. All the tracks had been taken up years ago, but the station's still there. I think next year we're gonna try and get a boat from the mainland to the island. It needs to be different every year. I really want to get some balloons, or a zeppelin- apparently they're about to reinvent the zeppelin. M: It's cool that you do this for the fans, that you let them get so close. R: The idea is kind of put them in my shoes, as much as possible--without them actually walking in the kitchen. Or, I get up in the morning and they're actually standing in my shoes. On the whole they're quite considerate people. And so it's nice to just take them 'round and say, this is where I wrote that song. That bus, that double decker, I used to listen to my rough mixes on that, I remember putting on the rough mix of "Airscape" and driving around. You wouldn't necessarily want all your fans to witness a divorce, or breaking a leg, or going to the dentist. But I'd really like to take the boat to the island, get on the bus, drive to the top of the hill at Tennyson Down, and then the balloons come and take them up, and I'm in the gondolier, singing. J: Tell us about the band you've been playing with. R: Homer is the band I'm borrowing, they're young British guys. The drummer plays with the Sundays, and the bass player with the Blue Aeroplanes. M: So neither of them are very busy. R: No, exactly. They're a very good little beat group. They don't have the dynamic musical range of the Egyptians, they're a bit more straight ahead. So for my purposes, when I want to sort of shake my flap, and get rid of some very middle aged rocks, I borrow them. M: Is it odd working with new guys after all this time? R: What is odd is when one of them replicates an old drum part, for instance, Morris Windsor, I worked with him for nearly 20 years, so suddenly hearing Patch playing one of Morris's old drum parts, you realize that Morris is probably more creative than he was given credit for, or that he claimed credit for, he was always frighteningly humble. And I heard Jake play one of Andy's bass lines the other night, and there's also Matthew Seligman's old bass line, and things like that, it's all there. Younger guys trying on older clothes. M: Were they Soft Boys fans? R: No, I don't think anyone much heard the Soft Boys. They'd have been too young. M: Tell us about Jonathan Demme. R: He appeared at a gig I was doing just outside New York City last April. I'd never met him before and the guy that runs the place said, "Can Jonathan Demme come and say hello?" and I thought, "Well, he can come up say hello the way Al Pacino could come and say hello, or the late Peter Sellers, y'know? Do stairs have steps? Sure." So Jonathan materialized with his wife and some friends, and it appears he'd been following my ventures for awhile, and I didn't realize this, so I said, "Oh well, I'd love you to do something," and he said, "Yeah." I imagined it more like being a video, but somehow this mushroomed into filming me doing a show in October in New York. It's me and a small audience, there will be cameras, and I've got Deni [Bonet], who plays violin on the album, is gonna do a couple of songs, and Morris Windsor, but its gonna be pretty sparse. And this will be my new album, so I'm busy writing songs for this project. M: When we heard you were going to do a Demme film we were afraid it was going to be Ted. (Explanatory note #1: At which point Michael has to explain that Ted Demme is the nephew of Jonathan, and, as the director of such films as _Who's the Man_ and _The Ref_, not quite his unky's equal in the talent department.) R: Are you going to be quoting yourself? J: I think that's why he said it out loud. R: I'm not familiar with him. J: He created "Yo! MTV Raps." R: A program I couldn't turn myself away from. J: Let's talk about the music business. You were without a record deal for a couple of years, but it seems like it was worth waiting around to end up on Warner Bros. R: It's still fertility month at the moment; we don't know what it's going to be like when the flowers start to wilt. As long as everything's sensible. Things start to go wrong when the record company is expecting a big turnover from an act. It's like they walk up to a tomato plant and just decided to empty all of the water that it needed for six months in one day. So they just get this wagonload of water, dump it on the plant, point at it and say, "GROW! C'mon you measly little fucker, it's time you sprouted!" I'm not a high yield guy. M: Surely they don't expect you to be a pop star at this point, they'll let you do more or less what you want. R: I wanted to put out the record I was making. I had enough money to record, but not enough money to record endlessly with a producer. It was a great, I was in a position where I had to call the shots. Sometimes I get indecisive and I defer to other people because I don't know what I want. That's the lazy side of me, it's better for me not to have other people to refer to, or defer to, because I very often will, but the buck always stops with me. In the end, they say Hitchcock's new record, they don't say Paul Fox or Andy Metcalfe's new record, so I've got to do it myself. M: So what does the company make of you? R: I don't know, you have to look at the fact that they've got people like [Elvis] Costello, and Lou Reed, who probably don't sell millions, so partly I think they like having you as art object, though obviously you've got to pay for yourself. If they don't have to spend millions of dollars making your record, or promoting you, then they can generate the kind of revenue that comes in from you sales, it should pay for itself. I suspect I'm basically decoration, I don't know. I think Warners is still more music-driven than accountancy-driven. J: Are you still doing much writing and painting? R: Well, I painted alot in [Washington] DC, because I couldn't write any songs. I think basically I was in the wrong place. When I got back to Britain, everything changed. It was fantastic coming back here. I'd never liked London until I lived in Washington; suddenly it became an attractive city. Things just went very well for me personally back here. I met the dark princess, and now we share a cat. It's like that. You get the dark princess, you get the cat. Sometimes, you can get poultry. (Explanatory note #2: the dark princess being Robyn's paramour Michele. You'll find the cat [Figgy]--and something close to poultry on the _Moss Elixir_ artwork). So things went well, and I've sort of stopped painting. See, my father, he used to paint and write, and I realized that the reason I paint and write is I saw him do it, on a holiday he'd always be writing a story, and at home he's be sitting in his room painting. I used to imagine he was a skeleton and he'd turn around and grin at me when I opened the door, so I didn't go in for 18 months. He was alive at that point. M: He was a novelist? R: He's got 10-12 books, all his best books were unpublished. They published about eight, which were sex comedies, and spy thrillers, but they weren't Raymond's mind at its most unleashed. My father's head would just roll all over the place. I mean, not literally. But somebody in New York is apparently offering me a publishing deal, so when I finish the Demme project, I'm going to try to get enough short stories together. M: "Spaniard In The Works" would make an excellent title. R: Spaniard in the works? Or Dylan had a "Sheriff In The Machinery," that was his response to that. So I'm going to give this guy some of my father's scripts, see if he'd be interested in relaunching Raymond Hitchcock. Raymond, he was always making up stories, but he had a military background, whereas I was a hippie so my stuff was a lot more rapid, entangled, and caved in on itself. My mother's got a sort of multi-tracked brain, it's just like a four-track, you can fade up any one of the channels to see what's going on, she just fades up different ones to speak, her life is a sort of constant dub mix. I've realized my parents were both quite evasive in a way-- they weren't shy, but I guess they weren't sure about things, so I've grown up incredibly uncertain. Someone reviewed my record once and said the function of Robyn Hitchcock is to make you doubt, just listen to that voice, you can't be sure of anything. I'm not sure if that's true but I wouldn't be surprised. PART II: "May you only get married once." J: Okay, let's talk about the new record. R: (Explanatory note #3: There is a long moment of silence.) Well, I'm sure there must be something I want to say about it but you'll have to trigger it. J: Fair enough. So I'll ask you something trivial, and then you can answer with something profound. M: That's usually how it works. J: So you recycled one of the songs you did on the K Records single. M: Is Calvin Johnson [founder of K] allowed to do that, associate with a major [label]? R: He was appalled at the idea of something of his being on Warners. But it wasn't like I was actually going to tow Bugs Bunny into his basement and prop him up. Maybe he would've liked that. Calvin's a very dry dude, he's got a one-track tape recorder. I think we're both walking away from technology in the same direction. He was a good guy to work with, and very fast. J: Homer play on the record as well? R: Yeah, they're on the ones that needed a rhythm section. It's quite fun, being a rock singer for a few minutes, and then I go back to what I really do, which is virtually nothing to do with rock. To me Nirvana are the ultimate 70s band, because they merged the Sex Pistols with Led Zeppelin, who at the time were in opposing camps, but that's what all that stuff is about. When I saw all that heading down on me in 1991, I kind of knew it was over, it was obviously going to be over for the Egyptians, and for me as a rock person, because there's too much finesse in what we did, it was too middle-aged. We were just clearly so out of sync with the cycle, it was like when the Soft Boys played in '77, we were just diametrically opposed-- they were January and we were July. So I just sort of spent a lot of time getting right away from the whole rock thing. M: Did that rock audience ever really take to you? R: It was never really "rock," but because of the R.E.M. thing, that sort of mid-tempo jangly pop was acceptable. It was something that we, if not pioneered, then we kind of picked up the torch back from the Soft Boys. It was legitimized big in the 80's, and we sort of capitalized on that with the Egyptians. J: You've said that you didn't really like the last two records you made. R: I thought the last two records were quite good but they weren't great Robyn Hitchcock albums. What they were was well produced, very professional, artful records that featured Robyn Hitchcock singing his songs, reasonably loud in the mix, and the whole was created by a producer and three musicians, they were done by committee. So what I really wanted to do this time was to have something that was done by me, me and my ego, thank you very much, bringing in musicians when I needed them. M: The songs themselves were kind of different too, the jokes were sort of toned down on the last few records. R: I just sort of tried to sober up in about '90. '88-'93 were very turbulent years for me, I was in and out of a few relationships, I was moving house alot, I was having severe attacks of drunkenness and sobriety. I didn't even drink for a year, I just had to really clear up; and the result was _Perspex Island_, which was perhaps a bit too sober but maybe it just had too much reverb on it, who knows. It's not as great as we hoped it would be and it's not as bad as many people think it is. It's just a piece of alrightness. In the end something's got to be either good or bad, there's gotta be a point where you discard it. The world of "quite nice' is death to music; to produce "acceptable" music is not enough. Obviously if you played it to a polar bear it wouldn't know either way, whether you were playing it Rage Against The Machine or Michael Jackson. M: I think it would recognize Rage Against The Machine. R: Maybe. Within the spectrum we inhabit, I wanted to make something where everything counted. The other side of it is that my kind of schtick had become something that was virtually a parody of itself 'round about _Globe Of Frogs_. I really wanted to try and move away from that, because I could tell with the feedback it was like, "Here's Hitchcock, let's out with the fruit, fish, vegetables, trains, and dead wives, isn't he wacky?" And it wasn't about that, it was about whether I was a good songwriter or not, not what language I was using. So I wanted to just press the songwriter button. Maybe I lost a bit too much of my plumage, I don't know what I am right now. What did you make of the album? M: I think it's great. It's the one I've liked most for a long time. R: Really? Since like _Eye_, or something? J: _Eye_ and _Queen Elvis_, yeah. M: I like the sound of it, it's not as produced as the last couple. R: Well, you know why that is, because it's built up from the voice and guitar, and then I stuck on what was necessary, where normally you do the backing track and drop the voice over the top, like dropping a jacket out of a helicopter and hoping it falls onto the clothesline. I figured I'd just do what Dylan does; I don't suppose Dylan was strumming his guitar and deciding to sing "Mr. Tambourine Man" over the backing track. J: Is this the record you wanted to make with _Respect_, in some ways? R: The prime difference with _Respect_ was it was meant to document Andy, Morris, and I playing together. And we played together very well. I thought we never really cut it in the studio, we were much more exciting live, and I wanted to just get a document of the three of us singing really simple-- acoustic bass, Morris with the shakers and me with an acoustic guitar [I cannot contain myself: yes! yes! this is what it SHOULD'VE been--jbj]. I should've just insisted on sticking a microphone in a bowl of fruit. M: Did you know it was the end of the Egyptians? R: No, I didn't, but it really makes sense now. We'd gone back to Britain, did the tour, in '93 we came back, and I started recording by myself, then we did some demos together and I just sort of realized that the record I wanted to make couldn't be made with a band, and that furthermore we didn't have to exist, there was no need reason for us to have our legs tied together. Our legs were chafing quite alot, it was time that we went out and breathed some air away from each other. I didn't like what we'd become to each other. We all had our assigned jobs, and I think it stopped us developing. So I'm doing what Dylan did backwards: I started out electric in a band and now I'm reverting back to troubadour-style, I can hear myself. M: And Dylan can't. R: (Doing a fine impersonation) I can't hear nothing no more. I just disappeared. M: Have you ever met him? R: No, you should never meet your heroes. J: It's a professional hazard for us. R: Do you find it makes you a bit cynical, because you're always meeting people and you realize that they're just shmucks? M: We've been lucky. It's mostly the younger bands who are obnoxious and unpleasant. R: I didn't have any success at all until I was 30. But I think it does affect you. I was sort of an alternative demigod in the States in the late 80's, I'd have alot of people buzzing around me the whole time, and I became even more self-centered because of it. It's physics, it's bound to happen that way, if everyone's staring in at you, then you actually start to feel that you're the center. That's why it's so hard for babies, first thing they pop out and everyone stares at them like they've just been in a fatal accident, they all look at the baby because they want to hide everything that's really going on in the world, they show the baby these blank moonlight faces, and they talk to the baby like it's braindead. They often do the same to you when you're dying. So I think, stars, it's a very difficult process for people not to lose perspective, and the chances are you go into the business because you're self-important anyway. If things go well, you're on a roll. I imagine the Oasis brothers are completely unbearable. J: And why wouldn't they be? But they're very distant, whereas you must get the kind of fans who think they know you personally. R: If so that's a good thing, because the idea is to produce something that's intimate, so that people pick up a very vivid impression of what it is like to be someone else. That way they have some sort of personal experience in a way that their idea doesn't clash with their imagination. That's one of the reasons I have a band, to get close, and this relies on trust. I have to trust that these people won't follow me home. This album, I don't know how intimate people could get listening to it, but it's basically my most tender record. I'm always trying hard to reassure people, especially myself. I listen to this record and it hasn't got much of a sting in it, but it's probably got more comfort in it. Because I'm 43-- angry young man is great. Petulant middle aged one is horrible. /-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- John B. Jones e-mail:jojones@mailbox.syr.edu web: http://web.syr.edu/~jojones "The Higsons come from Norwich Norwich, Massachusetts And they eat alot of pancakes..." -Billy Bragg, 16 Nov 96 \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 21:55:41 -0500 From: Carpalman Subject: Thought you might be interested its me again fegs. sorry for so many posts, but my hands are feeling good for a change. anyway, i found this in my mail just now. >Date: Tue, 24 Dec 96 02:15:09 UT >From: "Rita Hardman" >To: jojones@syr.edu >Subject: Thought you might be interested > >Greetings! > >I stopped by your website and enjoyed it. Love the cat pic! >There is a chat with Robyn Hitchcock on MSN in a show called Rifff Jan. 9th, >3pm pst. If you're a member stop by channel 3 in Rifff! >If not here is a way to get a free trial membership and the CD. check out: >http://promotions.msn.com/public/cdorder/cdorder.htm. >Happy Holidays! >Rita >Rifff Forum Manager > /-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- John B. Jones e-mail:jojones@mailbox.syr.edu web: http://web.syr.edu/~jojones "The Higsons come from Norwich Norwich, Massachusetts And they eat alot of pancakes..." -Billy Bragg, 16 Nov 96 \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 23:05:05 -0600 From: LSDiamond Subject: a question... off-topic has anyone ever heard of a foreign group called Savotage? my boyfriend's trying to find them, and they don't sell the album "Dead WInter Dead" here in the states.. he thinks they're from Germany.. LSDiamond ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Is something wrong?", she said. "Of course there is; You're still alive", she said. Oh, do I deserve to be? Is that the question? --Pearl Jam ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 07:29:13 -0500 From: Alex Tanter Subject: crumpled posters Ours were crumpled too--I seem to recall that a lot of people made that comment about their posters. Maybe it happened at Rhino rather than at the post office....? Marcy ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 09:24:53 -0800 From: Theodore Supergrass CC: fegmaniax@ecto.org Subject: XTC Xmas song Hi Russ The XTC Xmas song came out under the name "The Three Wise Men" as a single and was backed with "Countdown to Christmas." It showed up on XTC's Oddities collection called "Rag and Bone Buffet", released on Geffen in 1990. The fake writing credits were Kaspar/Melchoir and Balthazar. Since the compilation is from 1990, it's safe to say the single came out in the 80's. There's no release date for the "Three Wise Men" single on the cd...and I hear they are no longer with Geffen. Merry Crimble Rob Z -- Soul Asylum Site: http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/cagedrat/sanews.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 08:26:01 -0600 From: LSDiamond Subject: Re: crumpled posters ooh, good point, there.. i just requested some. hope they're not too bad!!! me best friend & i are huge fans.. can we say belated Chrissy present? *grin* *crosses fingers* LSDiamond At 07:29 AM 12/24/96 -0500, you wrote: >Ours were crumpled too--I seem to recall that a lot of people made that comment >about their posters. Maybe it happened at Rhino rather than at the post >office....? > >Marcy > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Is something wrong?", she said. "Of course there is; You're still alive", she said. Oh, do I deserve to be? Is that the question? --Pearl Jam ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 08:05:22 -0800 (PST) From: Griffith Davies Subject: Another Message on the Warner Bros. Site Here it is: FROM: Rita DATE: Mon Dec 23 18:16:33 PST 1996 Greetings! There is a chat with Robyn Hitchc--k on MSN in a show called Rifff Jan. 9th, 3pm pst. If you're a member stop by channel 3 in Rifff! If not here is a way to get a free trial membership and the CD. check out: http://promotions.msn.com/public/ cdorder/cdorder.htm. Happy Holidays! Rita Rifff Forum Manager Check it out. griffith ______________________________________________________________ Griffith Davies hbrtv219@email.csun.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 11:10:07 -0500 (EST) From: Richard Plumb Subject: Re: Robyn Covered > Tom Clark wrote: > > Bayard informed us of: >>man who invented himself- replacements > > Where can this be found? This little nugget is on a Replacement bootleg tape I have which I've lent to Bayard. Presumably it'll be part of some future tree. rich ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 11:59:39 -0500 (EST) From: Bayard Subject: message 666 marked for deletion hey carpal man, how about "ye sleeping knights of jesus"? that's kind of a carol, isn't it? after a few bowls of egg nog my family always starts singing that one (in a round, of course) many thanks to the fegs who showed up friday night. i missed those of you who couldn't, but i understand. rich, your holiday brew #419 is awesome! anyone on the list who can burn CD's from DAT, please email me! we've got yet another challenge to the list's cd project. shoould be easily surmountable. see you in the future... =b ------------------------------ From: Terrence M Marks Date: Wed, 25 Dec 1996 07:25:35 -0500 (EST) Subject: Rain Parade Is there any sort of Rain Parade web page/mailing list/etc? Couldn't get anything via ftp.uwp.edu or webcrawler... funny that such a good band is entirely unrepresented (and they're not even *that* obscure..) Terrence Marks Second Student in the Tendo Kasumi School of Philosophy -Seeking enlightenment through normalcy. normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Dec 1996 18:25:17 -0800 From: Ferris Subject: Off center request This isn't even close to related to Robyn, but bear with me. My sister has asked if there is available on video anywhere a copy of "Cucumber Castle," a tv (BBC?) special of the Bee Gees' from sometime in the early 70's. It would have to be in VHS format (american) or transferred. And, again, from her, does anyone know about getting tickets to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions? Sorry. Back on course: happy new year, all. ferris. ferris.thomas@snet.net -- ". . .it's tough waking up from a deep REM delerium starring you as the focal point of the universe to an Eraserhead reality in which you're the condiment guy at Der Wienerschnitzel." -Dennis Miller ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Dec 1996 07:27:43 -0800 From: Keith Hanlon Subject: Vegan Bones Hello everyone! Happy holidays if you celebrate one... I've been off the list for the past month or so, but I'm happy to be back. I hope I didn't miss much. Robert wrote: > > Are you sure this isn't the Dead song "China Doll"? Suzanne Vega did a > version for this for the "Deadicated" tribute CD (Arista), all the > proceeds benefit the Rainforest Action Network. I seriously doubt she did > "Chinese Bones". I just can't see Suzanne Vega with the Dead behind her > singing > > "I met an interesting dwarf and he told me a story..." You can't? Please, think again! I'm listening to "99.9 F" right now, and there's plenty to compare to Robyn (IMO). Images like the Megaphone Man in "Fat Man and Dancing Girl." Actually, "Blood Sings" is on right now, and besides being something Robyn himself could easily cover, Suzanne just sang, "I know these bones as being mine and the curving of the lip..." Call me crazy, but I think she owes a lot to Robyn. I always got a kick out of "Book of Dreams." Suzanne admitted in an interview at the time that it was inspired by XTC's "Mayor of Simpleton." So, who can tape this Dead show for me? ...and Timothy Reed wrote: > > Oh no - are there RH posters left at Rhino Records? I just > picked up a couple of the Rhino reissues and saw the note about > the posters but the offer expired last year. Did I miss a > pointer to one of these? Check out the WB site. Some guy from Rhino posted a message offering free RH posters. I don't remember his name or address, but it should be up there somewhere! Later folks, Keith Hanlon formerly ad180@seorf.ohiou.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1996 09:57:20 -0500 From: Paula_Carino@usccmail.lehman.com (Paula Carino) Subject: Re: Vegan Bones "Call me crazy, but I think she owes a lot to Robyn."--Okay, you're crazy. I've seen poetry and lyrics written by Suzanne Vega from her adolescence--when Robyn was merely a gleem in our eyes over in the States--and it's pretty consistent with what she's doing now. She's referred to her influences in interviews, and R.H. may indeed have made an impression on her, but I wouldn't go so far as to say "she owes a lot to Robyn." Incidently, the Suzanne Vega website at www.vega.net is really swell. Paula ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1996 21:02:33 -0500 From: sister ernestine Subject: administrivia fegfolk, just so those digest subscribers who have been suffering in silence for the past week know, i'm back from my "vacation" (three days in the car, four visiting family all over the northeast) and the digest will be going back to its daily distribution again. apologies to bayard: traffic sucked friday night when i got to the d.c. area, so i decided to bag driving back into belt for the glass flesh party in favor of celebrating my neice's first birthday out in sterling (aka suburban hell). i should have called, but couldn't find the sheet of paper i had diligently scribbled the phone numbers on. woj n.p. game theory - distortion of glory ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The End of this Fegmaniax Digest. *sob* .