Robyn Hitchcock wants to go backwards: Part 2 · Oct 27, 09:03 PM by Don
As Robyn Hitchcock’s gig at Shank Hall on November 2 approaches, I’m sharing music and a lengthy profile/interview I did with Robyn in 1996 for Josh Modell’s Milk magazine. Yesterday I shared the piece’s intro. Read it here. Here’s the next section, titled “Falling Leaves and Midnight Fish.”
Too often, Robyn is portrayed as a loony recluse in the realm of modern pop music. An out-of-the-blue quip about him even surfaced in a recent profile of Rage Against The Machine: “[Robyn’s] been around forever, nobody understands him.” Reason #1: Robyn has always employed rich plant and animal imagery in his lyrics, often to perplexing ends. With his first band, a psychedelic folk outfit called the Soft Boys blossoming amidst the urban decay of late-70s English punk, he sung about crabs, prawns, and reptiles. The lizards, crustaceans, and fish would continue to infest Robyn’s lyrics. But these were not always the rantings of a biology-obsessed poet. On 1993’s Respect, the lizard Robyn sang to was the Snake in the Garden of Eden. With a sympathetic tone, he interrogated the Snake about the day Eve took a bite from the Apple.
Plants too have been growing in Robyn’s songs for many years. “Heart Full of Leaves,” “Vegetable Man,” “Luminous Rose,” and “Vegetation and Dimes” are obvious examples. Robyn’s means may seem contrived (“Another song about plants?!”), but there is often sincere emotion lurking in the foliage. “Raining Twilight Coast,” off Robyn’s last solo effort, 1990’s Eye, is the most affecting example of this. Stuck in a surreal rain forest where rain falls up from the ground, he mournfully sings, “Just one thing, baby, you forgot my heart,” as pointillistic acoustic guitar twinkles.
Don: I’ve never really heard you pontificate about this next point, so you might-
Robyn: Oh, I love pontificating. Just try me.
Don: How would you explain the insects, plants, and nature images that have popped up in your lyrics?
Robyn: It’s just the way I’m inclined really. I like words. I like words too much to be a songwriter in the conventional sense. It’s richer or something. Maybe it diverts you from the true emotional path but words in songs get to beso banal and I’ve always hated cliches. So one of the things I’ve always wanted to do in songwriting was to produce images that weren’t cliches. Or images that generally weren’t used in songs. Because, there are millions of words that are used and yet only a fraction of them make it into songs. It was liberated a bit by Bob Dylan to an extent but the old barriers are back and words in pop music are as banal as they ever were. I’m pretty conventional as a musician. My chord sequences came out of the mid-60s. But that’s okay; it’s being dug up again by the Oasis brothers.
Read Part 1.
mp3 – Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom :: from Respect (1993)
:: :: ::
Songs in the MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 format are offered for a limited time only. Songs that are no longer downloadable from Timedoor can be streamed for several weeks courtesy of Hype Machine. Dead mp3 links take you to the top of page one.
Support your favorite artists by buying their music at your local independent record store or eMusic.
Commenting is closed for this article.
Robyn Hitchcock wants to go backwards: Part 1 Robyn Hitchcock wants to go backwards: Part 3
In a lot of ways I think the key album in the Hitchcock canon remains I Often Dream of Trains – because that’s the first album where it became clear that his riot of imagery could express not just goofiness or weirdness but real pain. This despite ostensibly humorous tracks like Hitchcock does Freud (“Uncorrected Personality Traits”) or Hitchcock does Hitchcock, A. (“Sometimes I Wish I Was a Pretty Girl”): the emotional depth of that album made clear that Hitchcock’s imagery had heart (granted, that heart might suddenly sprout tentacles and wear a policeman’s helmet).
Someone should also notice that, over the years, Hitchcock became a first-rate guitarist in both the acoustic realm and as soloist on electric. I’m somewhat surprised, in fact – given that a lot of their musical heritage is held commonly – that he’s never collaborated with Richard Thompson. That would be rather interesting, I think.
— 2fs Oct 27, 09:24 PM #
Serpent is, by far, my favorite Robyn song of all time. And that’s saying a lot – listen to Eye and Respect and try NOT to eye and respect him!
I went to see him many times in the 90s – had dinner with him a few times, too. He’s no loony, just an amazingly deep and interesting person.
— Stephen Foskett Nov 1, 08:19 AM #