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 V5 #22 Fegmaniax Digest Volume 5 Number 22 Saturday February 1 1997 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: How big is yours? Davies/Hitchcock Comparisons (not total RH :)) RH Concerts in the South-eastern US Re: How big is yours? Re: How big is yours? Re: RH Concerts in the South-eastern US b-day Re: Robyn Hitchcock in MD 3/5/97 @ 8 by 10 club (fwd) Re: AOL SPINonline features Robyn Re: How big is yours? Re: Robyn / Demme article; Big Star ruminations Re: Underwater Moonlight cover The Alpha and the Omega Re: Grooving On An Inner Plane ------------------------------ Subject: Re: How big is yours? Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 16:58:32 +73600 (PST) From: "Daniel Saunders" > So question #1: who's got the *smallest* collection? Is there anyone on this > list with just 10 albums on the shelf? 50? And I'm not talking about > people who's ex-wives absconded with 1,000 albums, or those of you who've > had to sell off everything to support your internet habits. I have only about 20 CDs, since when I started buying albums it was in that horrible stage when LPs were starting to disappear and CDs were still just a dream. So I have a bunch more cassettes. Robyn Hitchcock's I Often Dream of Trains was about my 3rd or 4th CD. Daniel Saunders Life is heaven and hell. All else is silence. - Robyn Hitchcock ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 20:12:12 -0600 (CST) From: Truman Peyote Subject: Davies/Hitchcock Comparisons (not total RH :)) Warning: this deals with a comparison of Robyn and Ray Davies, not with Robyn alone, so kill it if you aren't interested :) :). On Fri, 31 Jan 1997, Gary Sedgwick wrote: > the wit) - and I would say musically, Robyn's melodies are most comparable > to his. And then there's Ray Davies... (random thought - isn't the style > of writing in Elixir's liner notes similar to RD's X-Ray?) I'm not exactly sure about that. Robyn is quite a bit more fanciful and has a tendency to be deliberately obscure, while Davies tends more towards a devastating combination of ironic understatement and Barnum-esque over the top BS (ex. the parts in X-Ray where he's discussing Dave's sexual adventures: "Without naming names, one person entertained two ladies in a Melbourne hotel room, one of whom insisted on performing with a large Alsatian dog in front of members of our crew.....As I was unable to attend, I am unsure as to whether the Alsatian actually took part in the activities, but I find it hard to believe that the dog was there merely to watch. I also understand that chains and manacles were involved in the event" :)). You could argue that their sensibilities are remarkably similar in some ways- both are dry-witted and take devastating aim at various sacred cows, and both are fairly romantic and idealistic- but Davies' language tends to be clipped and sardonic, while Robyn's is quite a bit lusher and more sensual. The main thing they have in common, as songwriters and writer-writers, is a certain undefinable "Englishness" and a healthy sense of the absurd. Love on ya, Susan ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 20:11:29 -0600 From: LSDiamond Subject: RH Concerts in the South-eastern US Is there such a thing!??? i'm down here in Alabama and until i got on the net, i'd never even HEARD of Robyn... does he ever do shows in places like Nashville, Atlanta or Birmingham??? LSDiamond ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Where was I? I forgot the point that I was making I said that if I was smart that I would save up for a piece of string And a rock to wind the string around. Everybody wants a rock To wind a piece of string around. ~ They Might Be Giants - "We Want a Rock" ------------------------------ Subject: Re: How big is yours? From: guambat@juno.com (The Guambat) Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 23:16:59 EST I only have 1 CD, but it's so freaking huge that every album in the history of music except for some Paul Stanley solo album is on there. There's even that one with the cats and dogs singing on it on there. The Guambat has spoken. ------------------------------ From: Terrence M Marks Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 23:39:03 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: How big is yours? Could you tape it for me? Terrence Marks Second Student in the Tendo Kasumi School of Philosophy -Seeking enlightenment through normalcy. normal@grove.ufl.edu On Fri, 31 Jan 1997, The Guambat wrote: > I only have 1 CD, but it's so freaking huge > that every album in the history of music > except for some Paul Stanley solo album > is on there. There's even that one with > the cats and dogs singing on it on there. > > The Guambat has spoken. > ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 22:46:34 -0600 From: Outdoor Miner Subject: Re: RH Concerts in the South-eastern US At 08:11 PM 1/31/97 -0600, LSDiamond wrote: >Is there such a thing!??? > >i'm down here in Alabama and until i got on the net, i'd never even HEARD of >Robyn... does he ever do shows in places like Nashville, Atlanta or >Birmingham??? I've lived in Nashville since 1988, and he's only played here twice in that span -- solo/acoustic for two shows, same night, at the Bluebird Cafe in 1990, w/Egyptians at 328 Performance Hall on the great 1992 tour. He does play Atlanta more regularly (like this year w/Billy Bragg). B'ham, I'm not sure about. Later, Miles, who often considers moving to New Haven or the Bay Area just to get to see Robyn and Richard Thompson more than once every five years or so... ====================================================================== "I don't know a single damn thing 'bout these words or the world or the feelings that force me to sing" -- Anton Barbeau, "Heather Song" Miles Goosens goosenmk@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu ====================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1997 01:59:17 -0500 (EST) From: Bayard Subject: b-day On Fri, 31 Jan 1997, James Francis wrote: > > Hmm..I don't have the tape, but that reminds me of a tape I have.. > > Between songs, the audience starts singing Happy Birthday to him and > > he stammers and protests it. > > "Look...look, it's not my birthday. Do I look like a Gemini to you? > > No. I'm a pisces" Is this the Kennel Club 5/91 SF show? That one surprised me b/c it is supposedly from FM, yet as i remember at one point he says, "fuck off, it's not my birthday!" but maybe people harass him like this periodically. (ie, more than once a year.) maybe it's a pre-broadcast. > I'm going to try to swallow my embarrassment at asking such a "fan"-type > question and ask it anyway: when is Robyn's birthday? Well, don't be embarrassed, we're mostly fans here. (; Robyn was born in west London on March 3, 1953, which i guess makes him 44 next month. =b ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1997 00:48:32 -0500 From: nicastr@idt.net (Ben) Subject: Re: Robyn Hitchcock in MD 3/5/97 @ 8 by 10 club (fwd) >Rob (the guy who looks just like woj) just let me know that Robyn's in >Baltimore on the 5th. Get me a ticket Rob! As locals will attest, this >is an awesome club due mostly to its miniscule size and nifty balcony. >I think i also heard it may not be around much longer (oh, i think that >was hammerjacks.) What's the venue for this show? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 01 Feb 1997 11:22:26 -0500 From: mr bean jeans Subject: Re: AOL SPINonline features Robyn >> File:SUM.WAV (315988) bytes >> Estimated Download Time (28800 baud): < 3 minutes >> Download Count: 52 >> >How about sending it up here? actually, that's not a good idea as one of the few posting rules i'm going to enforce is that binaries are not to be posted to fegmaniax. woj ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 01 Feb 1997 12:05:27 -0500 From: mr bean jeans Subject: Re: How big is yours? also sprach Russ Reynolds: >I'm interested in finding out which of us discovered Hitchcock at the >earliest stage of his/her record collecting career. the first song of robyn's that i heard was "uncorrected personality traits", which i heard on suny binghamton's radio station (whrw) sometime after iodot was released. i think it was the winter of 1985. at the time, the only other musical artists that i was seriously head-over-heels about were KaTe bush and suzanne vega (both of whom i was also introduced to by deejays on whrw). i don't remember what album of robyn's i bought first, but it was either decoy or invisible (the relativity cassette releases, both of which have long since disappeared into the ether; i think i still have a bsdr relativity cassette though). in either event, it was purchased in 1985, when the only other albums i had were _hounds of love_, suzanne vega's first, fleetwood mac's _rumors_, supertramp's _breakfast in america_, a couple albums by styx (i'm not cringing) and a couple by blue oyster cult (still like them too). >So question #1: who's got the *smallest* collection? not me. i can guarantee that. >and question # 2 (not counting the follow-ups to #1): Is there anyone who's >*first* LP or CD purchase was a Hitchcock recording? 10th? 50th? first lp/cassette, no. first cd, no. second cd was _trains_. woj ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 01 Feb 1997 12:09:38 -0500 From: mr bean jeans Subject: Re: Robyn / Demme article; Big Star ruminations also sprach RxBroome@aol.com: >1) BIG BIG BIG feature on the Robyn / Demme film in this week's LA Times >Sunday Calendar section. Photo and everything. Please don't make me >transcribe it. okay. :) there's a link to the article from the fegMANIA! website (http://remus.rutgers.edu/~woj/fegmaniax/index.html) and a text-only copy will soon appear on the ftp site as well (ftp://ftp.ecto.org/lists/fegmaniax/). i've also put the known list of tour dates up and am trying to track down a more complete list (if, indeed, such a thing exists). the warner brother's site maintains that there are no upcoming shows. woj ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 01 Feb 1997 12:29:33 -0500 From: mr bean jeans Subject: Re: Underwater Moonlight cover also sprach M R Godwin: >Further research reveals that my LP of Underwater Moonlight is not an >original release, as I had assumed, but a release on the Living Cream >label, number MOIST 1, marked "(C) 1986". This confuses me, as I would >have thought that the copyright would date back to the original issue in >1980 / 81. the living cream album is a re-issue, which came out in 1986 (hence the copyright date). the original release was on armageddon records in 1980 (arm 1 is the catalog number) and featured lal's mannequins on the cover. this is why rykodisc used that cover for the cd re-issue. the real question is why did living cream decide to use the aerofish cover, not the other way around! by the way, the canadian release on attic records has the mannequin cover as well. woj ------------------------------ Subject: The Alpha and the Omega From: guambat@juno.com (The Guambat) Date: Sat, 01 Feb 1997 12:38:42 EST The Guambat speaks! Actually, come to think of it, my first CD WAS a Robyn Hitchcock CD. I can't believe I forgot that! See, I had heard Robyn on MTV and seen a couple of interviews and I thought he was so bloody witty, intelligent and funny. He also didn't seem to have the "music-biz" egomania, which is very rare, indeed. Anyway, to make a long story longer, as I began collecting his music, I quickly discovered--as have all of you--that there is a LOT of stuff out there. At the time I only had cassette/LP listening capability, but while at the mall one day I found this little "CD3" with "Balloon Man", the earlier version of "Ghost Ship" and an electric "GoF". I bought it, although I had no way of actually hearing it, but I figured I could get a friend to tape it for me. Then the next week I discovered an indie CD/LP/T-shirt shop and found the CD "Invisible Hitchcock" (which incidentally has the title (mis)printed on the CD as "Element of Light"), and that settled it-- I had to buy a CD player. So I did. Now I have more RH CD's than any other artist (to my wife's chagrin). She's my wife, though, not my dead wife, so that's ok. The boring story has ended! Hallelujia! The Guambat has spoken! The Guambat guambat@juno.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 01 Feb 1997 13:09:48 -0500 From: mr bean jeans Subject: Re: Grooving On An Inner Plane also sprach Runion, Michael R.: >Forgive me if this has come up before... i think it has, but it was a long, long time ago. >I have the Glass Fish cassette version of "Invisible Hitchcock", and, as >opposed to the Glash Fish CD, it has "Grooving On An Inner Plane" as like >track 6 or 7 on side A. if you have an _invisible hitchcock_ cassette with "grooving..." on it, you actually have the united states' relativity re-issue. the original uk glass fish release doesn't have "grooving" on it at all! >But this is an entirely different version (vocals & >music) from the one on Groovy Decoy (or Gravy Deco). as others have pointed out, these are different versions. the one on all decay releases, the decoy cd, and deco is the dreaded "wang-bo" version, recorded during the decay sessions with sara lee on bass. also sprach Tom Clark : >There were two versions recorded. One was "Grooving On *An* Inner Plane" >and the other was "Grooving On *A* Inner Plane". One had Matthew >Seligman on bass, the other had Sara Lee. huh. never noticed that difference in spelling, but you're right! are you sure about matthew seligman playing bass on the invisible hitchcock version? there weren't any credits included with that lp (maybe the cassette has some?). to make things more confusing, carolyn hamilton's discography claims there is a *third* version of "grooving" on a flexi that was sold with the first release of the "the man who invented himself" 7" single. this version is a bonus track on the rhino bsdr re-issue. i haven't done a comparison between this version and the invisible hitchcock version, but it's possible that they are the same. it's also possible that they are different takes from the same session. who knows? i tend to trust carolyn on matters such as this -- at least until i confirm or deny it myself. back to michael: >the "Grooving" on Gravy Deco clocks in at like 5:10, vs. the Groovy >Decoy length of 4:55. Hmmm...puzzling. probably just a mastering difference. for instance, the track clocks 4:53 on the line records decay cd. woj ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The End of this Fegmaniax Digest. *sob* .