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Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
Thanks Jer for sending me this link! Robyn Hitchcock posted a playlist on Rhapsody a couple of years ago (October
'06), which I didn't know about until today. It's got a nice mix of old and new, stuff I know and stuff I've heard of and stuff I have not.
- "Wang Dang Doodle," by Howlin' Wolf
- "Say Man," by Bo Diddley
- "Champagne Supernova," by Oasis
- "Lucifer Sam," by Pink Floyd
- "Finest Worksong," by R.E.M.
- "In Liverpool," by Suzanne Vega
- "Look At Miss Ohio," by Gillian Welch
- "Happiness," by Grant Lee Buffalo
- "Slow Dog," by Belly
- "God," by John Lennon
- "The Red Telephone," by Love
- "Kicks," by Lou Reed
- "The Lark in the Morning," by Steeleye Span
- "Station To Station," by David Bowie
- "To Turn You On," by Roxy Music
- "Lately I've Let Things Slide," by Nick Lowe
posted evening of March 17th, 2009: Respond
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Tuesday, March third, 2009
 56 years old today and absolutely in his prime musically.
posted afternoon of March third, 2009: Respond
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A fegmaniac recommended this mix tape the other day -- I was intrigued by the mention of Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus, and thought I'd check it out. Well I'm back to report: it's all right, and you ought to take a listen. Most of the songs are standards; some of performances are highly unconventional. I was really taken aback at the opening of Musee Mecanique's performance of "I Ain't Got No Home In This World Anymore" -- the pipe organ seemed totally counter to the spirit of that song. But by the end it had won me over. There are interesting shades of meaning in experiencing that political song as a purely æsthetic phenomenon -- a truly beautiful one. The haunting vocal in Headlights' "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies" is going to stay with me for a while. Some of the straight "folk music" performances are not as interesting, but they serve nicely to leaven the weirdness of the other tracks.
posted morning of March third, 2009: Respond
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Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Driving home from work, I was listening to Robyn Hitchcock's April 3 1999 show at the Largo (in LA? I think so) and some of his patter caught my attention. And I thought hey, it's been a little while since I posted a transcription of Hitchcock's stage patter, why not give it a whirl? So here you go. Note: I don't think Robyn is really at the top of his game in this concert -- he sounds tired and probably drunk, and the music and patter both have a lot of rough edges -- I think he is acknowledging this when he says, after "Viva Sea-Tac", "Man, I am so rocking. Not even." He manages to come up with some interesting ideas amid the incoherence though. Patter below the fold.
↷read the rest...
posted evening of February 25th, 2009: 4 responses
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Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
Robyn Hitchcock was on BBC Radio 4's Material World last Thursday, on Darwin's birthday -- the show does not usually feature live music, but they marked the occasion with Robyn singing "We Evolve". What you call God
I call evolution.
What you call fate
I call mum and dad.
They drive you mad... Download the podcast from the BBC -- music begins about 15 minutes in.
posted evening of February 18th, 2009: Respond
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Monday, February 9th, 2009
Robyn Hitchcock's playlist this morning included a Beatles title I didn't recognize, "Rain" -- I asked Ellen about it this morning and she hummed a few familiar-sounding bars; I thought I'd look into it. Turns out "Rain" is the B-side of "Paperback Writer" from 1966. It is by John; it was not released on an album until "Hey Jude" in 1970. According to Wikipædia, it is the first commercial recording to feature backwards vocals. Sweet sounds! Here is video of the boys inventing MTV:
posted evening of February 9th, 2009: Respond
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Sunday, February first, 2009
Thanks for linking this video, Dad! "Mind Wall", by Towa Tei. Note: if you click the little square icon in the bottom right, you can view this video on your full screen, recommended. Also, there is higher-quality video available; for some reason you can only request it after you have started playing the video -- click on the up-arrow icon in the bottom right, one of the options that comes up will be "HQ".
posted evening of February first, 2009: Respond
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Saturday, January 31st, 2009
YepRoc Records has posted video of Robyn and friends singing "Up to Our Nex", from the November 22nd show at Symphony Space -- presumably this is part of the documentary film they're making of that tour.
On stage with Mr. Hitchcock are (from left to right) Amir El Saffar, Terry Edwards, Gaida Hinnawi, and Tim Keegan. The song will be released on Goodnight Oslo. Thanks for the link, Woj!
posted afternoon of January 31st, 2009: Respond
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Friday, January 30th, 2009
This seems a little weird to me, but I've been seeing news squibs for the past couple of days claiming that Robyn Hitchcock is planning to produce a musical stage adaptation of Magnum Force -- the only Hitchcock-Dirty Harry connection I really knew of already was the song (from Olé! Tarantula) "(A Man's Got to Know his Limitations) Briggs" -- now I see him quoted as saying, "It's a film that seemed to be on all the time when I was on tour. By the fifth time [I saw it], I became addicted to it. It's taken a very strange hold on my life." Interesting... Here's the Grauniad article, which is the most detail I've seen so far. (Not much but still.)
posted morning of January 30th, 2009: Respond
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Thursday, January 29th, 2009
Here is the structure of blues as I hear it:
| 2 bars melody, I I or I IV | | X bars fill |
| 2 bars melody, IV IV | | X bars fill |
| 2 bars melody, V I | | X - 1 bars fill, 1 bar turnaround |
I usually expect X = 2, a 12-bar pattern. (The fill is usually all I chord, turnaround is V.) I can picture a slow 15-bar blues with X = 3 -- I may have played this on occasion, not sure. I was really surprised when listening to Mountain Blues & Ballads, to hear Gene Autry's "Black Bottom Blues" -- something just seemed wrong about it and I couldn't figure out what. Come to realize, it's a 9-bar blues -- X is 1! I didn't even know that was possible! A-and later in the same collection, a fiddle blues called "Tipple Blues" (not sure just now, who the artist is -- this is essentially the same melody as "Deep Elem Blues") which unless I'm mistaken, is 10 bars -- X is 2 on the first line, 1 subsequently. So cool, the form is a lot more versatile than I had realized.
 (And funny, the thing is I'm pretty sure if I covered "Black Bottom Blues", I would play 2 bars of fill -- that's etched deeply on my brane as the correct amount.)
posted morning of January 29th, 2009: 2 responses
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