ROBYN HITCHCOCK: INVISIBLE HITMAKER!

Well, I am here to praise Robyn Hitchcock. A singer-songwriter-musician who has made a definite critical, artistic and cultural difference in his two decades of creative work, in my humble opinion of course.

One of the biggest thrills I have had as a freelance music writer is interviewing the great man himself a couple of years back. Robyn was promoting his debut album for Warners - Moss Elixir and I found him to be (in that hour-long trans-continental telephone conversation) likeable, down-to-earth and an extremely witty person. He even offered to come down to Singapore and perform for me in the lift at the Warners offices! Heh!

Ponder that for a moment. How does someone so virtually unknown, so "under the radar" get a recording deal with the gigantic Warners? Maybe because he may not be well-known to everybody but the people who do love his work are in the position to do something about it. Ask Jonathan Demme. Demme of course is the Academy Award winning director of Silence of the Lambs and other movies. He was sufficiently a fan of Robyn's to make a film of Robyn's solo acoustic show shot from the perspective of a storefront. Hence, Storefront Hitchcock was released in 1998, yet another testimony to the great man's importance despite everything else.

But Robyn's achievements are more than the sum of these trivia facts. Much much more. First of all, he was an integral member of Cambridge quartet The Soft Boys. The Soft Boys' biggest mistake was playing psychedelic rock in the age of punk. From 1977 to 1980, the Soft Boys (Robyn, Kimberley Rew, Morris Windsor, Andy Metcalfe & later Matthew Seligman) released albums of incandescent power informed by the influence of Robyn's heroes viz Bob Dylan, John Lennon, the Byrds, Syd Barrett, Lou Reed, Captain Beefheart etc. The debut Can of Bees would highlight already Robyn's bizarre lyrical gifts for the whimsical, songs like Sandra's Having Her Brain Out & Leppo & the Jooves illuminated by offbeat concepts and non-sequitur phrases. But the Soft Boys' finest hour would be their last act, the Underwater Moonlight album which traded the free-form jams for more traditional pop jangle rock formats. Though, a commercial failure, the album would be a source of inspiration for US alternative bands in the 1980s, like the Replacements, REM and the so-called Paisley Underground bands like Three O'Clock and Rain Parade.

Tracks like I Wanna Destroy You, Kingdom of Love, Queen of Eyes & Positive Vibrations served to illuminate Hitchcock's obscure brilliance.

With the Soft Boys consigned to history, Robyn embarked on a stuttering solo career, releasing three albums in a five-year period in the early 1980s.

His solo debut - Black Snake Diamond Role, was virtually the third Soft Boys album, the tone and sound very a logical extension of Underwater Moonlight. Psychedelic wonders like The Man Who Invented Himself, Brenda's Iron Sledge and the classic Acid Bird, highlighting the album's importance in the Hitchcock scheme of things. The difficult Groovy Decay found Robyn knee deep in the quagmire that was 80s pop with all it's implications as synthesiser wash, treated saxophones & shiny production work (by Gong's Steve Hillage) all but buried Hitchcock's edgy songwriting. Robyn would react to the public indifference to Groovy Decay by recording a stripped-down acoustic folky album, I Often Dream of Trains which include the likes of Sometimes I Wish I Was A Pretty Girl, Cathedral & Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus. Robyn's continuing disillusionment with his career led him to take a hiatus from recording and he took to writing songs for pal, Captain Sensible (of the Damned)

Robyn's creative juices were kick-started again by a reunion with ex-Soft Boys rhythm section Metcalfe and Windsor to form Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians. The early indie albums Fegmania and An Element of Light were vibrant albeit lo-fi affairs but feature such distinct Hitchcock fare as My Wife And My Wife, Egyptian Cream, If You Were A Priest, Somewhere Apart, Ted, Woody and Junior and Airscape. The Egyptians even managed a "live" album Gotta Let This Hen Out! which showcased Robyn's somewhat distinctive stage manner and rescued some of Groovy Decay's finer moments - The Cars She Used To Drive and America. It was the late 1980s and the US college radio circuit became a viable commercial avenue for many alternative acts. Robyn and the Egyptians were picked up for better things by major label A&M.

By 1991, Robyn and the Egyptians had released the magnificent Perspex Island, were on the verge of breaking through with the catchy So You Think You're In Love single and went on a world tour supporting good friends/admirers REM (who were rumoured to be instrumental behind the subsequent Warners solo deal).

Alas, the advent of Nirvana and all things grunge put paid to any chances of the Egyptians' quirky, eccentric psychedelic folk-rock making any significant in-roads into the modern rock scene. The writing was on the wall and not long after the John Leckie-produced Respect, the Egyptians were no more. Though largely dismissed by Robyn himself, Respect (dedicated to Hitchcock's father Raymond and John Lennon) is an sublime lesson in jangle rock dynamics as wondrous tracks like The Yip Song, Railway Shoes, The Wreck of the Arthur Lee and Serpent At the Gates of Wisdom testify.

Robyn would go on another hiatus until Warners came along. Last year's sublime Jewels for Sophia backed by the likes of Jon Brion, Tim Keegan and old friend Kimberley Rew failed to enhance Robyn's marketability one bit and in an age of major label mergers and down sizing, Robyn would be released from his Warners contract.

Leaving Robyn to self-release Stars For Bram, in early 2000 -- a collection of out-takes from the Jewels for Sophia sessions, which true to form included such oddities as I Saw Nick Drake, 1974, Philosopher's Stone and the hip-hoppy (!) Antwoman (Dub). Where Robyn goes from here remains to be seen but wherever it is, one can be certain that it will be interesting, funny and definitely worthwhile.

N.B. Robyn's work (pre-1988) has been re-issued by Rhino, except for the Soft Boys by Rykodisc. The rest is available either from A&M or Warners and Stars From Bram can be acquired from www.robynhitchcock.com.

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Kevin Mathews: December, 2000

Kevin Mathews: November, 2000

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