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 #51 Fegmaniax Digest Volume 5 Number 51 Monday March 17 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: ------- ------- 21,000 shipped... The Recent Shows The recent shows Found the Queen TT The Bear's Iron Horse Groovy Decoy/Uncorrected personality traits Disappointment! Grief! Sorrow! Fanecdotes Fanecdotes that rhino thing...Re: Disappointment! Grief! Sorrow! Re: Disappointment! Grief! Sorrow! Rhino release Re: that rhino thing...Re: Disappointment! Grief! Sorrow! Re: Question about the past Re: Disappointment! Grief! Sorrow! Re: that rhino thing...Re: Disappointment! Grief! Sorrow! rhino comp Re: rhino comp Are you receiving me? Greatest Hits (God vs. Satan) Re: Greatest Hits (God vs. Satan) posters and f*ck up by me The Recent Shows...sorta Knitting Factory shows Sat. night the blob at the end Anecdotes for Rhino The Compleat Robyn Hitchcock Evangelist Glass Flesh Review Massy Lucre ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 14:50:40 -0500 From: Greg Harris Subject: 21,000 shipped... Sadly, Bootlegs, that figure is most probably true. It's never really been my experience that Robyn has a following in this country. I've only ever met about 2 or 3 people who actually enjoy his music (I've spent many years working in music in one form or another) and college stations really don't play his stuff anymore. Ergo, 21,000 copies actually shipping is an accurate figure. Don't despair, though. Just tell your friends & help spread the word. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 17:42:04 -0600 From: Dave Dudich Subject: The Recent Shows Message-ID: <332B339C.128E@erols.com> Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 17:41:16 -0600 From: Dave Dudich Reply-To: dwdudic@erols.com X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: The recent shows Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi. I'm Luther Dudich, A recent addition to the mailing list. I am really into Robyn and his music, of course. To the point that I have been dodging personal and musical comparisons to him for years, etc, etc, blah-blah-blah, ad infirmitarium... How does one get into one of the tape trees (are they made up of Autumn Leaves?) for the current tour? I was sick when he came to Baltimore and missed the show. Does anyone know how it was, and are there any tapes? Also, are there any tapes of the 9:30 Club in DC show last fall? I was floored by Robyn (I STILL can't get "You & Oblivion" out of my mind), and would love a tape. pretty, pretty please with super sugar on it? -Luther W. Dudich, The Artists Formerly Known as Daddy's Soul Donut and Now Up for Suggestions. "All you need is love, but all you get is afraid." -Robyn ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 16:15:18 -0800 (PST) From: Griffith Davies Subject: Found the Queen I found a slightly used copy of Queen Elvis today. Since I already found on for myself, this one is strictly for a lucky member of the list. Send me an email if you are interested, and we can work something out. griffth (who is bummed by not being able to see any of this tour) ______________________________________________________________ Griffith Davies hbrtv219@email.csun.edu ------------------------------ From: tanter@econs.umass.edu Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 21:35:29 -0500 Subject: TT The Bear's Anyone from western Mass. going on Saturday night and want to carpool? Has anyone been to this place before? What's it like? Alex Tanter ------------------------------ From: tanter@econs.umass.edu Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 21:45:49 -0500 Subject: Iron Horse Hey--could someone going to the Iron Horse save us 2 seats please? We can't get there before 6:30 and would like to be able to see those flawless eyes! Thanks! Marcy ------------------------------ Subject: Groovy Decoy/Uncorrected personality traits From: guambat@juno.com (The Guambat) Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 15:00:18 EST Not sure who would want this, but I was looking around in a mom-pop used/new music shop and found a copy of the old Midnight Music "Groovy Decoy" CD--that's right, CD. I didn't buy it, but if one of you collectors out there really wants it I'll go and pick it up for you. I think they were asking $20 for it. Email me if you're interested... Did anyone else receive the email from Jim Neill at Rhino today? I'll forward it to the list. Let me just say that I'm VERY disappointed in this "new" Rhino compilation. For those of you who haven't heard, the track listing has NO rarities. It appears only to be a collection of songs from the Rhino re-issues of '95/'96. I was hoping for something DIFFERENT. The Guambat has spoken! ------------------------------ Subject: Disappointment! Grief! Sorrow! From: guambat@juno.com (The Guambat) Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 15:00:18 EST Fegs--this is the memo sent out by Jim Neill. It has the track listing from the upcoming "Uncorrected Personality Traits" Rhino compilation, and some other info. THE gUAMbat ================ --------- Begin forwarded message ---------- From: jim.neill@email.rhinorecords.com Subject: Fanecdotes Date: Sun, 16 Mar 97 10:21:58 PST Message-ID: <9702168585.AA858536564@email.rhinorecords.com> Hitchcock Anecdotes Wanted Howdy! Hope you got your Hitchcock poster and that your life is swell. Read on! Rhino is releasing "Uncorrected Personality Traits: The Robyn Hitchcock Collection" this August. It covers the post Soft Boys, pre-A&M years. Robyn has done a track by track annotation, and we're writing a brief contextual intro, but we'd love to include some fan quotes and short anecdotes. That's where you come in. If you'd like to submit something for consideration, simply e-mail it to me, Jim Neill at jim_neill@rhino.com. We will attribute the quotes so please include your name (plus city and state) as you'd like it to appear after the quote. It should be no longer than a few sentences. The shorter and pithier, the more likely we are to use it. It can be about a gig, a song, how you first discovered him, a conversation, whatever, but it should be somehow evocative of what the man is about, especially as pertains to the era covered on this CD. To that end, here is the track listing. Sorry, no rarities, but certainly a sweet introduction for newcomers. Robyn had a lot to do with the track selection. Bass, Fifty Two Stations, Acid Bird, Egyptian Cream, Uncorrected Personality Traits, Heart Full Of Leaves, Trash, Queen Elvis, She Reached For A Light, If I Could Look, Airscape, My Wife And My Dead Wife, Night Ride To Trinidad, Raymond Chandler Evening, Linctus House, Beautiful Girl, If You Were A Priest, Autumn Is Your Last Chance, Nocturne (Demise), City Of Shame. Incidentally, we offer no financial renumeration for your words, nor do we guarantee their use. We do reserve the right to use them, along with your name, in any potential advertising, and of course in the CD booklet, but that's good news, right? Imagine how impressed your grandkids will be when crazy ol' grandma and grampa point out their names in one of them wacky antique compact disc thingies they used to play before entertainment chips were installed directly into our brains... --------- End forwarded message ---------- ------------------------------ From: bootlegs@ix.netcom.com Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 12:11:42 +0000 Subject: Fanecdotes A guy I know at Rhino sent this to me, but I think he meant to send it to the whole list. Hitchcock Anecdotes Wanted Howdy! Hope you got your Hitchcock poster and that your life is swell. Read on! Rhino is releasing "Uncorrected Personality Traits: The Robyn Hitchcock Collection" this August. It covers the post Soft Boys, pre-A&M years. Robyn has done a track by track annotation, and we're writing a brief contextual intro, but we'd love to include some fan quotes and short anecdotes. That's where you come in. If you'd like to submit something for consideration, simply e-mail it to me, Jim Neill at jim_neill@rhino.com. We will attribute the quotes so please include your name (plus city and state) as you'd like it to appear after the quote. It should be no longer than a few sentences. The shorter and pithier, the more likely we are to use it. It can be about a gig, a song, how you first discovered him, a conversation, whatever, but it should be somehow evocative of what the man is about, especially as pertains to the era covered on this CD. To that end, here is the track listing. Sorry, no rarities, but certainly a sweet introduction for newcomers. Robyn had a lot to do with the track selection. Bass, Fifty Two Stations, Acid Bird, Egyptian Cream, Uncorrected Personality Traits, Heart Full Of Leaves, Trash, Queen Elvis, She Reached For A Light, If I Could Look, Airscape, My Wife And My Dead Wife, Night Ride To Trinidad, Raymond Chandler Evening, Linctus House, Beautiful Girl, If You Were A Priest, Autumn Is Your Last Chance, Nocturne (Demise), City Of Shame. Incidentally, we offer no financial renumeration for your words, nor do we guarantee their use. We do reserve the right to use them, along with your name, in any potential advertising, and of course in the CD booklet, but that's good news, right? Imagine how impressed your grandkids will be when crazy ol' grandma and grampa point out their names in one of them wacky antique compact disc thingies they used to play before entertainment chips were installed directly into our brains... REPLY TO: JIM.NEILL@EMAIL.RHINORECORDS.COM ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 14:10:25 -0800 (PST) From: "Infinity's Ragged Shore" Subject: that rhino thing...Re: Disappointment! Grief! Sorrow! On Sun, 16 Mar 1997, The Guambat wrote: > Fegs--this is the memo sent out by Jim Neill. It has > the track listing from the upcoming "Uncorrected > Personality Traits" Rhino compilation, and some > other info. not that i am against (or would say anything rash like "i'd rather eat robyn's underpants in a cone full of radishes than buy another...") compilation cds. but, what is the basis for issuing this cd--where is the material coming from, again? i forgot. as i remember it was unreleased stuff, but why was it held until now? and i assume the banana bunch that crafted the weighty a&m comp had no input into the amount of bananas used in the cover photo... > Hitchcock Anecdotes Wanted... what does this entail in a short terse bit? should it be a la the master of the anecdote himself (i.e. irrelevant to the topic at hand) or should be typical crazed fan blather (i.e. "we named our hamster after robyn, but our cat who we named after robyn's father, raymond, eat it, and then our dog who we named after robyn's daughter, maizie, chased the cat, raymond, who had eaten robyn") of course someone should submit that one...any other comment here? ideas, directions, purpose??? over, .chris ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Disappointment! Grief! Sorrow! From: guambat@juno.com (The Guambat) Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 17:44:17 EST On Sun, 16 Mar 1997 14:10:25 -0800 (PST) "Infinity's Ragged Shore" writes: > but, what is the basis for issuing this cd--where is >the material coming from, again? i forgot. as i remember it was >unreleased stuff, but why was it held until now? and i assume the >banana bunch that crafted the weighty a&m comp had no input into the >amount of bananas used in the cover photo... > If you read the memo you'll see that despite earlier predictions, there WILL BE NO UNRELEASED MATERIAL ON THIS COMPILATION. Again, here's the track listing that Jim Neill from Rhino included in the email: Bass, Fifty Two Stations, Acid Bird, Egyptian Cream, Uncorrected Personality Traits, Heart Full Of Leaves, Trash, Queen Elvis, She Reached For A Light, If I Could Look, Airscape, My Wife And My Dead Wife, Night Ride To Trinidad, Raymond Chandler Evening, Linctus House, Beautiful Girl, If You Were A Priest, Autumn Is Your Last Chance, Nocturne (Demise), City Of Shame. The songs--the identical versions, I presume--are merely taken directly from the Rhino re-issues from '95/'96 ! That's why I'm bamboozled... I can't for the life of me figure out why they would do this... AND I DON'T WANT TO BUY IT JUST FOR THE NEAT LINER NOTES!!! The GuambAt weePs!!!!! ps. I'm sure that Rhino will have better cover art than A&M, but that's not much of a consolation! ------------------------------ From: tanter@econs.umass.edu Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 18:25:50 -0500 Subject: Rhino release I don't know if this is any kind of a parallel, but there are several albums of Squeeze compilations that don't have any new/unreleased stuff on. I think they just expect fans to buy them because they're fans. Maybe Rhino is counting on the people who didn't buy the rereleases this year...? Marcy ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 17:25:34 -0600 (CST) From: Truman Peyote Subject: Re: that rhino thing...Re: Disappointment! Grief! Sorrow! No, as the Guambat says, no unreleased goodies. Which does make ya wonder exactly who this CD is meant for. Especially since as far as I know the best-selling CD in the Rhino series was "Y&O". You would think it would make more financial sense (Rhino, as lovely as they are in many respects, is not, after all, a charity organization) to do another rarities comp. Perhaps there's nothing The Man Himself wants to release officially at this time. I know they are probably just trying to cash in on the notoriety swirling 'round the Demme film, but really, I don't think there are going to be -that- many converts. And just for the record, I for one am glad they're doing it this way, anyway. You know you are too, deep down, cause I think we'd all resent being conned into buying a CD just for one or two rare tracks (can anyone say "Greatest Hits"? :)) All rarities or none, I say! :) Love on ya, Susan ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 18:32:18 -0500 (EST) From: Gary Assassin Subject: Re: Question about the past Don't know the year, but he did it at Maxwell's in NJ, and I was there. =============================================================================== If you have proper protection (ie. sunscreen SPF 15 and a condom) you can visit http://www.li.net/~gsa/index.html On Tue, 11 Mar 1997, Ethyl Ketone wrote: > I've been remembering past shows lately and I seem to recall, years ago, > whenever Mr. H played solo (at certain venues), that he had a piano on the > stage as well as guitars. He usually did a "piano set". Since I quite doing > drugs a LONG time ago, it's definately not an alternate reality I am > remembering. Anyone else who saw him in the 80s remember a piano on the > stage and anyone have any knowledge on why he stopped using this during his > solo shows? > > Just pondering, > Carrie > > "After God, Shakespeare created most." > - Dumas > > > ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Disappointment! Grief! Sorrow! From: guambat@juno.com (The Guambat) Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 19:55:14 EST On Sun, 16 Mar 1997 17:25:34 -0600 (CST) Truman Peyote writes: > >And just for the record, I for one am glad they're doing it this way, >anyway. You know you are too, deep down, cause I think we'd all resent >being conned into buying a CD just for one or two rare tracks (can >anyone >say "Greatest Hits"? :)) > >All rarities or none, I say! :) > >Love on ya, >Susan > You've got a great point there... at least I won't be tempted to buy it because it's got a demo version of "If I Could Look" on it or somthing like that..... THe GuAmBat reverberates! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 18:14:05 -0800 (PST) From: "Infinity's Ragged Shore" Subject: Re: that rhino thing...Re: Disappointment! Grief! Sorrow! On Sun, 16 Mar 1997, Truman Peyote wrote: > No, as the Guambat says, no unreleased goodies. Which does make ya wonder > exactly who this CD is meant for. It looks like a cry for the "Campaign for Real Rarities" to resume. > All rarities or none, I say! :) This is indeed to their credit--albeit is Albanian currency. over, .chris ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 22:46:51 -0500 (EST) From: Bayard Subject: rhino comp i'd much rather buy a covers album, like a&m was planning, or a kickass solo live album (i guess there will be a live album in conjunction with the movie.) I think something like _uncarved pumpkins_ would sell a lot better and be much more interesting too. maybe we should start a petition? ------------------------------ From: Terrence M Marks Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 01:04:07 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: rhino comp Yeah! How come we can come up with all these great compilations and Rhino+A&M can only manage the Madonna of the Wasps B-sides? Terrence Marks Second Student in the Tendo Kasumi School of Philosophy -Seeking enlightenment through normalcy. normal@grove.ufl.edu On Sun, 16 Mar 1997, Bayard wrote: > > i'd much rather buy a covers album, like a&m was planning, or a > kickass solo live album (i guess there will be a live album in conjunction > with the movie.) I think something like _uncarved pumpkins_ would sell a > lot better and be much more interesting too. maybe we should start a > petition? > > ------------------------------ From: "A. David Wright" Subject: Are you receiving me? Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 23:08:41 -0700 The last couple of posts I've sent to this list have not ever made it back to my mailbox, nor have I received any bounces or replies. If anyone sees this, I'd appreciate a quick reply to let me know I'm not crazy. -David ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 21:46:51 -0800 From: librik@netcom.com (David Librik) Subject: Greatest Hits (God vs. Satan) I'm kind of stunned to find this reaction from everyone. I can't speak for anyone else, but I've always thought Robyn Hitchcock needed a greatest hits album, just to introduce people to the man's brilliant work. The years 1981-1987 contained some of his finest, and certainly most classic, songs. And yet there was nothing. Except, of course, _The Man Who Invented Himself_, a semi-bootleg out of Greece that covered the albums from _Black Snake_ to _Hen_. A girl I knew mentioned that Robyn sounded like Syd Barrett, my favorite musician at the time, and so I went to the record store in 1986 and bought this greatest hits compilation. I was hooked. But soon _The Man_ vanished from the shelves, and the closest thing to a Greatest Hits was _Globe of Frogs_, a sort of commercial retread of his musical and lyrical themes. (And one of my favorite albums, I hasten to add.) Finally, we got a real Greatest Hits from A&M, but only of the A&M years, which misses most of the great stuff everyone was raving about when he was a Cult Artist in 1985. And now we have this CD on Rhino. Fegs, this album is not for us. It's for our future friends. - David Librik ========= I wrote that up just now, but the more I wrote the more uneasy I became. Here's why: It's not 1987. Robyn Hitchcock is not just a cult artist with a "great undiscovered treasure house" of brilliant songs. He's already had his burst of popularity, and in the minds of the public, he's one of those names associated with the music scene around 1988-1991, the pre-grunge Alternative days of college rock. What does the fact that _Y&O_ sold more than any other reissue imply? Nobody bought it but fans looking for rarities. (If lots of other people had bought it, I'd see more of it in the used CD bins.) So it means that the Rhino reissues didn't sell to anybody but fans, and since we already had the imports we didn't spring for new copies. Maybe there isn't a big potential base of Robyn Hitchcock fandom out there, and this Rhino Greatest Hits will drop into the same black hole the reissues did. I always thought that if only the American public could get _Fegmania!_ without having to go to a weird import shop, everyone would become a huge fan. Apparently not. So if fans are the only ones buying Robyn's stuff, maybe we should press harder for more rarities. Though, to be honest, I think the contents of _You & Oblivion_ shows that there isn't much more out there. - kirbiL divaD ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Greatest Hits (God vs. Satan) From: guambat@juno.com (The Guambat) Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 01:39:09 EST On Sun, 16 Mar 1997 21:46:51 -0800 librik@netcom.com (David Librik) writes: > >I'm kind of stunned to find this reaction from everyone. >I can't speak for anyone else, but I've always thought Robyn Hitchcock >needed a greatest hits album, just to introduce people to the man's >brilliant work. The years 1981-1987 contained some of his finest, and >certainly most classic, songs. And yet there was nothing. >Fegs, this album is not for us. It's for our future friends. > >- David Librik I think the person below put it nicely. Why would this Rhino "Greatest Hits" suddenly be the vehicle to increase Robyn's popularity and bring him new fans? Certainly the A&M "Greatest Hits" would seem to have more of a chance to do that. But it was just as much of a commercial flop as anything else--if you go by numbers. You can't even get the Rhino stuff at most places... Best Buy used to carry them, but they have vanished from all 11 stores in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex--why? I'm sure it's because they've been sitting on them for 2 years now. Someone else today posted a sort of defense of Rhino--and don't get me wrong--I love Rhino and I'm so happy that they have been providing reissues and new Robyn stuff for us for the last two years... it's just I can't understand why we need a greatest hits from the Rhino catalog? I mean, what about the "Virgin Sampler" --the one that has 10 songs, one from each reissue and then "Statue with a Walkman"? What about the other sampler that they released--I think it has 20 songs...? It just seems like a duplication of effort to me... Again, I did not intend to come across as slamming Rhino. I just don't get it... I guess we're going to have to wait for the movie soundtrack to get some new stuff. Here's hoping that the soundtrack will have some "Daisy Bomb", "Dark Princess" and "Don't Tell Me About Gene Hackman" on it... The GuambAt flucTuates! ps... seconding Bayard that we need a new LIVE CD!!!! > >Robyn Hitchcock is not just a cult artist with a "great undiscovered >treasure >house" of brilliant songs. He's already had his burst of popularity, >and in >the minds of the public, he's one of those names associated with the >music >scene around 1988-1991, the pre-grunge Alternative days of college >rock. > >What does the fact that _Y&O_ sold more than any other reissue imply? >Nobody bought it but fans looking for rarities. (If lots of other >people had bought it, I'd see more of it in the used CD bins.) So it >means that the Rhino reissues didn't sell to anybody but fans, and >since >we already had the imports we didn't spring for new copies. > >Maybe there isn't a big potential base of Robyn Hitchcock fandom out >there, and this Rhino Greatest Hits will drop into the same black hole >the reissues did. I always thought that if only the American public >could get _Fegmania!_ without having to go to a weird import shop, >everyone >would become a huge fan. Apparently not. > >So if fans are the only ones buying Robyn's stuff, maybe we should >press >harder for more rarities. Though, to be honest, I think the contents >of >_You & Oblivion_ shows that there isn't much more out there. > >- kirbiL divaD > > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 04:52:59 -0500 (EST) From: Gary Assassin Subject: posters and f*ck up by me I got a message from the gentleman who sent out the free Rhino posters asking me to send in any blurbs I may have to add to a greatest hits (or something like that) cd. I just got back from Switzerland and had over 150 messages, so I just deleted all those that weren't addressed specifically to me (although this one was, so I don't know what I did). I am asking if anyone else who got this message to forward a copy to me, or if he/you can? =============================================================================== If you have proper protection (ie. sunscreen SPF 15 and a condom) you can visit http://www.li.net/~gsa/index.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 09:59:59 -0400 From: lj lindhurst Subject: The Recent Shows...sorta > > -Luther W. Dudich, > The Artists Formerly Known as Daddy's Soul Donut and Now Up for >Suggestions. > I think you should change your name to Maximum Strength. Or how about Terrycloth Candybar? (And the bong ain't even in the room!) lj ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 10:36:22 -0400 From: lj lindhurst Subject: Knitting Factory shows Sat. night Well I got to see both of the Saturday night shows, and I DID get a cone (yay!). The early show was supposed to be all covers and the late show was supposed to be all requests, but really Robyn just played whatever he wanted to, and he did listen to the audience a little bit. Didn't write down the set list (though I saw a couple people in the crowd doing that, were you fegs?), but I can maybe check my rattled brain for som highlights: -- First of all, I was lucky enough to get a SEAT! There are only about nine seats in the whole place, and half of them were reserved for Jonathan Demme, who didn't show up, but some of "his people" did. ANyhow, it was a great seat in the balcony, about ten feet from Robyn...probably the best view in the house. ---Mishy and the Dear Janes were standing behind me through most of the concert! I almost felt like I should offer her my chair, but she kept leaving, etc., plus I figured she's seen all this before a million times. She is a very stunning woman, and she seems to really enjoy Robyn's performance. ---Robyn: Seemed to be in a good mood, he was even drinking some brandy by the end of the night. The sets were kind of short, though, and it seemed like his voice was going a bit. In fact, he said at the beginning of the night, "If you're smoking any strong marijuana, blow the smoke away from me." --when people were shouting out requests, someone shouted out, "Wichita Lineman", which of course delighted Robyn and he made up a song right on the spot. --Other songs: "She Doesn't Want Me" (?? I think-- it's a Dylan song), "Visions of Johanna", "Waterloo Sunset" (fabulous, though he ended it with "...and on and on, etcetera, etcetera."), he also did a Psychedelic Furs song (name escapes me at the moment)-- I'm sure there was more, maybe someone with more sinapses left can fill in the blanks here. This would be a GREAT show to have a tape of. ---started both sets with "Don't Talk to Me about Gene Hackman", which for me was the highlight of the night; also gave us "Dark Princess" and "Daisy Bomb"-- but no "Green Lens Lantern" (is that the name of it?) which everyone was raving about. These new songs are great! --brought the Dear Janes out in the last set to sing "Daisy Bomb" and the beatles' "You won't see me"-- they seemed VERY drunk by this point (the DJ's that is, not Robyn). It was a very fun rendition, even though everyone involved sort of botched it a bit. --the table, lamp, cone, bulb, guest fruit: All in place! ALso a musical banana. --Robyn was playing the Dear Janes' guitar because he dropped his and broke it. That's all I know --he didn't sell out a single night at the Knitting Factory (I asked), but there was a pretty good crowd there for both of these shows. Is it me, or does Robyn seem to attract a lot of MALE fans? I'd say the audience was a good 90% men! And out of that 90%, probably 85% of them were not-so-secretly recording the show!!!! :) --as usual, met not a single feg. Maybe everyone is MEANT to be anonymous! Okay, okay enough already. lj ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Mar 97 11:27:58 EST From: Jeff Rosedale Subject: the blob at the end I can only reassemble small fragments of the last 4 shows, so here goes... Deni was there on friday with her band. They were too loud and very straight ahead, which surprised me; the best bit was a violin solo. There were a bunch of drunk guys right next to the stage, and the night was unbelievably smoky (some *&#(*$# decided to turn off the ceiling fan and it became unbreathable towards the end). Anyway, Robyn played through some more mossy material as well as interesting collaborations like Egyptian Cream with Deni; and lots more stuff on his own. Robyn was really losing his voice towards the end of the second show- he had to drop an octave every now and again, but his guitar and harmonica playing remained exciting throughout. Saturday night's shows were very enjoyable- Robyn seemed almost relieved that he could drop the "no-repeat" formula and just play whatever he wanted. He made up songs on the spot, three of them as I recall... he took quite a few requests, including but not limited to ghost ship, "the dead wife song", I often Dream of Trains, Queen of eyes, and on and on and on; he played several Dylan covers, I think, plus Arnold Lane, a Beatles cover with the janes on backing vox, and Daisy bomb also with the janes, which was outstanding. Pther random selections included gene hackman, I something you, raining twilight coast, heartful of leaves and autumn is your last chance (again!), and some fine spoken bits about red straws in drinks being used to represent a post or the horizon, smiles appearing on the horizon (a phenomenon known as the finnish grin), living in NY being analagous to racking up air miles without having flown, more abuse of Phil Collins, and the insertion of this line into Clean Steve: you could have knocked him down with a cone if you'd bought one Robyn's beverage changed on the last night, from hot brown and frothy to possibly hot, red and with a lemon in it. His voice had not entirely recovered from the previous night ("if you're going to smoke particularly strong marijuana, please blow it over there"), but his levity and wild song selection (a cover of the psychedelic furs' the ghost in you was a real surprise) more than made up for it. Oh, I think the fruit on the cone might have been a grapefruit on the last night, though the celebrity fruit remained the lime (limon vert in french). He played My favorite buildings accompanied by harmonica.. I wanted to hear st. petersburg, and I think he almost did play it but decided not to. Also said he would play eerie green storm lantern but in fact never did. I had moroccan margaritas at a restaurant down the street in between shows which really had an impact. After 7 shows I can say I heard just about everything I wanted to, but it was sad to have to say farewell at 2:15 AM on Sunday morning. Makes me want to abandon all reason and drive to tivoli... --jeff ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 10:07:47 -0800 From: Nick Winkworth Subject: Anecdotes for Rhino Mornin' all, I'm a digest reader, so somebody has probably posted this already. Nevertheless, if you are one of the few who did not order one of the Rhino posters you may be interested to see the following. I happen to think that this is a really neat idea -- and I'm amazed that no-one has thought of it before (at least to my knowledge). It's also good to see Robyn so closely involved in the project. Others thoughts? Anecdotes? Apologies if I'm the forty-fourth person to post this... ~N jim_neill@rhino.com wrote: > Hitchcock Anecdotes Wanted > > Howdy! Hope you got your Hitchcock poster and that your life is swell. > Read on! > > > Rhino is releasing "Uncorrected Personality Traits: The Robyn Hitchcock > Collection" this August. It covers the post Soft Boys, pre-A&M years. > Robyn has done a track by track annotation, and we're writing a brief > contextual intro, but we'd love to include some fan quotes and short > anecdotes. That's where you come in. If you'd like to submit something > for consideration, simply e-mail it to me, Jim Neill at > jim_neill@rhino.com. We will attribute the quotes so please include > your name (plus city and state) as you'd like it to appear after the > quote. It should be no longer than a few sentences. The shorter and > pithier, the more likely we are to use it. It can be about a gig, a > song, how you first discovered him, a conversation, whatever, but it > should be somehow evocative of what the man is about, especially as > pertains to the era covered on this CD. To that end, here is the track > listing. Sorry, no rarities, but certainly a sweet introduction for > newcomers. Robyn had a lot to do with the track selection. > > Bass, Fifty Two Stations, Acid Bird, Egyptian Cream, Uncorrected > Personality Traits, Heart Full Of Leaves, Trash, Queen Elvis, She > Reached For A Light, If I Could Look, Airscape, My Wife And My Dead > Wife, Night Ride To Trinidad, Raymond Chandler Evening, Linctus House, > Beautiful Girl, If You Were A Priest, Autumn Is Your Last Chance, > Nocturne (Demise), City Of Shame. > > Incidentally, we offer no financial renumeration for your words, nor do > we guarantee their use. We do reserve the right to use them, along with > your name, in any potential advertising, and of course in the CD > booklet, but that's good news, right? Imagine how impressed your > grandkids will be when crazy ol' grandma and grampa point out their > names in one of them wacky antique compact disc thingies they used to > play before entertainment chips were installed directly into our > brains... ------------------------------ Subject: The Compleat Robyn Hitchcock Evangelist Date: Mon, 17 Mar 97 15:25:35 -0000 From: The Great Quail >Maybe there isn't a big potential base of Robyn Hitchcock fandom out >there, and this Rhino Greatest Hits will drop into the same black hole >the reissues did. I always thought that if only the American public >could get _Fegmania!_ without having to go to a weird import shop, everyone >would become a huge fan. Apparently not. Yes, yes, the pain. The woe, the misery. We are Beethoven in the time of Rossini; Wagner in the time of Brahms. We have all felt this . . . this guy is soooo *good* why isn't everybody a fan? I have felt this way about Robyn, Laurie Anderson, and Adrian Belew for as long as I can remember. If only I could wish them up a million dollars, a mansion and a yacht . . . or at least evict all of Aerosmith from theirs and turn it all over to Mercury Rev or the Bevis Frond. . . . But then again, doesn't that little angel of doubt then suddenly transmogrify into a wee selfish beastie with horns that whispers, "And then what? You'd be seeing Robyn from Seat 111991DDC from the Astrodome or something, just like what happened with REM! Remember seeing them in a bar in '82??" Or something like that. . . . Well, I am writing this to plead the members of the list to take up thy stethoscopes and walk! Go to the masses! *Make* more Robyn fans! You see, we are already fans. And like any group that is deep into something, we tend to lose perspective. Like a member of alt.music.goth, we can suck up into the black hole of our own mirror-surrounded ego party and forget that once, when we were wee children, the name Andy Metcalf meant nothing; but we knew the names of all the members of Duran Duran. . . . I myself have been a Feg since 1985, and can count at least 8 people who are now fans because of my pushing, and at least that many who are "interested" enough to buy a few CDs. I know that's not a whole lot, but if those 8 people convert 8 people, and so on, maybe one day Robyn will actually grace the cover of Rolling Stone or something. (Ha! And then we'll all be in line for tickets, heh heh. . . . ) So here it is, for better or worse: The Great Quail's Guide to Evangelizing Hitchcock: 1. Go for the Jugular: Make a real killer tape of good - but mostly accessible - songs. I mean, we all love "Point it at Gran," but a newbie would probably be more immediately impressed with "Globe of Frogs" or "Brenda's Iron Sledge." 2. But don't sell out: Add a *few* quirks - No reason to be completely selfless. Add one or two odd bits. I have found "Uncorrected Personality Traits" to be a good one. 3. On Second Thought, Be a Whore: So Robyn has REM ties? And were are all sick of hearing that? (Though I am a HUGE REM fan. . . ) Use it! Abuse it! Throw on "She Doesn't Exist" and "Dark Green Energy." See - hey, yo, Michael Stipe! Wow! Play on that angle . . . see, Peter Buck plays guitar on these tracks, and REM covered this Robyn song here, and. . . 4. Choose your Targets Wisely: If your victim is into 80's stuff, weigh it with tracks from Fegmania and such. If they are a Syd fan, screw it - throw on as many Syd sounding songs as possible. Same for Lennon. Here in Feg-land we know the Truth about such comparisons . . . but the point I'm making is this - hook'em first, then they'll figure it out on their own. 5. Don't be creepy: If you come off with the weird energy of a convert (which is just fine wghen we are locked alone in our rooms, contemplating our cones while brooding over an altar made from dismembered Julian Cope CD's) you may scare people away. Remember the days when you were a *little* frightened by a Grateful Dead fan? A Phishhead? A Red Sox fan or a committed Wagnerite? Hell, I still get the nervous shakes when in the presence of a Jimmy Buffet enthusiast. Play it cool - they can see the drool and the prawn collection later. 6. Give them time: Remember, they will probably not fall in love immediately. Ronbyn usually takes time to grow on someone. (Hmmmm . . . not sure about that image.) Just give them the tape, and suggest they listen to it a few times. 7. Don't hate them: If they think it's shit, don't condemn them to the Ineffible Pits of Suffering and Listening to One Bush Album after Another. More than a few of my friends hated Robyn at first, only to finally come around in the final reel. 8. Live Beats All: Convince them to see Robyn live. Take them. Get them drunk. Put squirrels down their pants. Do whatever it takes . . . I have "converted" a few people just by forcing them to witness Robyn live. 9. Be sneaky: Buy your friends Robyn CDs for their birthday or for other assorted holidays. If you need to guilt them into listening once or twice, go for it. Or throw Robyn songs onto *any* mixed tape you are making. I actually turned one friend on when she wondered what the hell this "Lizard" song was doing on an 80's Goth mix, heh heh. 10. The Hassan I Sahba method: Shoot them up with 100 mics of LSD, tie them to a chair, convince them they are dead, hang live prawns from the ceiling, and invite Robyn to play for them live. After the concert, give them chocolate ice cream, convince them that they are "resurrected," and thrust a copy of Moss Elixir in their hands. This *always* works. So there you are. Maybe it will work, maybe it is painfully obvious, maybe I've spend too much time locked in an abbatoir with a hungry squid. In reference to my conversion schemes, however, I do have this to say: I can hardly wait for the movie. . . . The Quail ---------------------------------+-------------------------------- The Great Quail, K.S.C. | TheQuail@cthulhu.microserve.com | "Keeper of the Libyrinth" | Sarnath - The Quailspace Web Page: riverrun Discordian Society | http://www.microserve.net/~thequail 73 De Chirico Street | Arkham, Orbis Tertius 2112-42 | ** What is FEGMANIA? ** "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." -- H.P. Lovecraft ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 14:57:11 -0600 From: LSDiamond Subject: Glass Flesh Review I got my copy today!!! I've listened to it 3 times already. this is a masterfully done album, and i liked everything at least as much as the original versions of the songs. (and some even a little better.. shh! *grin*) I actually hadn't heard "Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom", "St. Petersburg", "Trash", "Prelude" or "Love" before at all, so that was a fun surprise. :) So far, i think that my abfave songs are (in no particular order): Love (once i get good with Devil's Radio, i want to learn this one--any one got the tab?? :) Listening to the Higsons I Something You (excellent!) Flavour of Night (top 3, definitely! sounds a little like Jean Michel Jarre) Balloon Man (another top 3 and my dad & i LOVED all the soundbytes.. :) One Long Pair of Eyes She Doesn't Exist (personal fave, and the techno-ness was an interesting twist) Old Pervert (Fun!!!!) Serpent... St. Petersburg (new for me, and beautiful) and the rest of the album is marvellous as well. Caroline, the cover art was great! In fact, the whole layout is excellent and gave me some ideas for a tape cover i'm to do for a local band... thanks for the inspiration! :) Will i stop gushing??? *sigh* i suppose so... *grin* A HUGE thank you to everyone who participated and made such a grand piece of ear-Turkish Delight. (ear-candy just doesn't seem fitting.. must get fancy on ya! ;) Off for a 4th listen.. LSDiamond ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Okay Okay i updated my page again (7 March, 1997) I don't beg! Sign the book or live to regret it! *eg* http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/1542 ------------------------------ Subject: Massy Lucre From: guambat@juno.com (The Guambat) Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 16:01:26 EST In honor of all the great shows I missed because I live in bloody Texas and in honor of all the big money that Rhino is going to make on the new compilation CD, I've just taped my OWN compilation tape... straight from my CD collection. I'm calling it "Massy Lucre" Side One ======= Sinister But She Was Happy - ME Chinese Bones - GoF I Something You - K Ultra Unbelieveable Love - PI Egyptian Cream (live) - Feg! I Got the Hots - UM Old Pervert - UM Only the Stones Remain - UM Zipper In My Spine - K Do Policemen Sing? - BSDR The Black Crow Knows - EoL If I Could Look - Y&O Side Two ======== Open the Door Homer - Kershaw Gimme A Spanner, Ralph -- IH Filthy Bird - ME Heliotrope - ME A Man With A Woman's Shadow - ME August Hair - Y&O September Cones - Y&O Sweet Ghost of Light - Eye More Than This - GH Heart Full of Leaves - IODOT Bright Fresh Flower - GH You & Oblivion - ME Anybody want a copy? :) THe GuambAT tapes! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The End of this Fegmaniax Digest. *sob* .