Wey Wey Hep a Hole Ding Dong: Robyn Hitchcock the song by song, album by album thread

Later in June 1977, the Soft Boys recorded an EP for Raw Records, an independent punk label whose owner ran a record shop in Cambridge. I'm afraid I don't know much biographical information on Robyn Hitchcock. I may order a biography.

The line ups was still as it was during the living room sessions, i.e.:

Robyn Hitchcock: Vocals, guitar
Alan Davies: guitar
Andy Metcalfe: bass, vocals
Morris Windsor: drums, vocals

The EP was entitled Give it to the Soft Boys and it's contents were:

1. Wading Through a Ventilator (Robyn Hitchcock)
   
   
2. The Face of Death (Hitchcock-Davies-Metcalfe-Windsor)
3. Hear My Brane (Hitchcock)
   
   The songwriting credits above are from the discogs entry on this EP. On other EPs the songwriting credits are simply "The Soft Boys."

The EP was later expanded with three additional songs recorded at the same sessions and released as Wading Through Your Ventilator on 12-inch vinyl in 1984, and again in 1987; and reissued yet again as Raw Cuts on CD and vinyl in 1989.

The tracklisting for these expanded reissues were all the same:

1. The Yodelling Hoover
2. Give it to the Soft Boys
3. Vera Knowl Is a Headbanger

4. Hear My Brane
5. The Face of Death
6. Wading Through Your Ventilator

Although the later expanded EP's might be considered definitive for these early sessions, for the purpose of this discussion, I plan to hold up the songs in the original order and the other three songs as "bonus tracks": for no other reason than that a rule of consistency is needed in a discography as wildly inconsistent as Robyn Hitchcock's and the Soft Boys' discographies.

So after the first three listed way up at the top of this post, i.e., the original EP it will be:

• The Yodelling Hoover
• Give it to the Soft Boys
• Vera Knowl Is a Headbanger

 

Today's song is "Wading Through a Ventilator" written by Robyn Hitchcock; or credited by the Soft Boys, depending on the release.



It was recorded at Spaceward Studios, produced by Mike Kemp, who owned the studio, and the Soft Boys. It was the A-side of the 7"EP Give it to the Soft Boys, released in 1977. It was later released on the EPs Wading Through Your Ventilator and Raw Cuts in 1984, 1987 and 1989; and finally on the collection 1976-81 in 1993.

Most of the lyrics can be read HERE, where the song can be streamed.

 

The living room version I posted above is on the compilation. The unreleased Radar version presumably circulates on bootleg.

Even though though I do have a few unreleased songs from those 1978 sessions, I have never heard that particular version.

 

The songs recorded at Spaceward in June 77 reflected various influences but were all a lot more interesting and innovative than the first batch of SB songs (which are mostly on that handwritten list in the booklet). This is partly because Spaceward had a very nice multi-track recorder which they could experiment with, and a couple of savvy electronics engineers who were inventing gizmos (one of them got very rich as a result).

'Ventilator' has really out-there lyrics which satirise various genres but the music juxtaposes two - punk/rock and a Byrdsy arpeggio style in the middle section - which itself builds, explodes and morphs back into the punk. The sudden ending was quite rare at the time. These days every Glasto-friendly band does it. Like all these 6/7 tracks it has a control which was slightly lacking after K Rew replaced Alan D.

We've mentioned the Vyrna Knowl version but as has been said, it was a bit mean-spirited (to attack your next door neighbour for complaining about the noise). Robyn has acknowledged that a certain arrogance was a feature of the group - something which hindered their progress early on.

'Ventilator' here refers to the air-con device as pictured on the poster for the single - not the medical equipment we're now horribly familiar with.

3.5/5

 

"Wading Through Your Ventilator" is an amazing song to me; and yes, they really had come a long way from the Living Room demos a few months earlier; they'd obviously paid a bit of attention to the punk rock phenomenon and yet they seem unable to really fully jump on that bandwagon: instead they deconstruct it and put it back together with various pieces of leftover prog, early seventies folk-metal, sixties guitar groups and Hitchcock's gorgeously lyrical sense. t's strange the way the sheer sound of the words suggest anger and humor without really holding much linear meaning that I can discern at all.

Yet the song is also genuinely funny, as it goes on, jumping from section to section, with the dramatic vocals and smorgasboard of musical ideas, it's completely over-the-top; and yet oddly beautiful. I think it's one of their best songs, and I like the way it straddles lines between nonsense and poetry, humor and nihilism: this song seems to not care at all what you think about it; yet it goes down so well and easily thanks to the lucious guitars and a judicious use of various effects and echoes and stuff, not to mention an incredible control over what seems very likely to spin out of control.

I always find the Soft Boys a bit hit or miss, but this one's a definite hit to me. I agree with @chrism1971 that when they replaced Alan Davies with Kimberly Rew they lost a little restraint even if they gained something else. "Wading Through Your Ventilator" is like a whirlwind, a brutal tornado of sound, yet it's all very tightly packed.

Anyway...

4.5/5

 

I forgot to mention that a live version of "Wading Through Your Ventilator" was also released on most editions of the A Can of Bees album.

 

Yes, Wading Through A Ventilator is great!

Though "control and restraint" is not what I want from the Soft Boys, the early period with Kimberly Rew is my favourite.

 

Kimberley didn't join until 6 months after this was recorded - sorry! Or did you mean something else?

 

It was the last track on side two of the original LP - we'll come to that later!

 

He was replying to my post wherein I agreed with you about the change in personnel resulting sometimes in a lack of restraint/control that this single has: he likes the single but loves the wild early Kimberly Rew stuff.

 

Exactly. But I also love this Give It To The Soft Boys EP!

 

Awful cover for the EP though...!

 

"Wading Through a Ventilator" Wow, this is a wild track. I like it on first listen. I'm not real familiar with The Soft Boys even though I've been listening to RH since the 80's! Well, now i'm going to rectify that. I just listened to Invisible Hits this morning (sounded great) and will be spinning A Can of Bees & Underwater Moonlight later this week. And then onto the 76-81 compilation. I've got a lot of catching up to do! Well, anyway this track sounds really cool. I love the somewhat chaotic drumming and guitar work.
4/5 (but may increase with more listens)

 

Ventilator -- solid and getting better as a band -- definitely relistenable! -- 3/5 (because I'm saving higher ratings accordingly)

 

The Living Room Sessions show the band as idiosyncratic amateurs. Hitchcock has always been a funny and weird lyricist, but these initial songs strike me as 'jokey' rather than actually funny (i.e. the wordplay signifies "funny" rather than actually being funny). There's a lot of promise, but not enough discipline, and 'Walnut' is the exemplar. It's like four different songs had a head-on collision because none of them would give way. Fortunately, all of their respective hooks survived, but it's still a bit of a mess even though I enjoy it a lot. You can also hear that the band is at the very limits of its proficiency performing such a complicated song, and I'm almost holding my breath hoping they get through the take in one piece.

My overall impression is that this is a band in desperate need of a jolt of punk energy. Upping the speed of something like 'Walnut' would force them to streamline it, for instance. We've got a before and after example in 'Ugly Nora', and the difference is night and day.

Well, a jolt of punk energy (with a detour through Captain Beefheart) is exactly what arrives for the debut EP, and the difference is shocking. They've suddenly developed a muscular and coherent band sound, and are starting to create some brilliant arrangements. 'Wading Through a Ventilator' isn't much of a song, but it's a hell of a performance, and its esoteric shifts are held together through pure musical commitment. Next up is Robyn Hitchcock's first fully-realized masterpiece.

 

Aw, what's not to love about an acid lime nipple?

My copy of this came without a cover, so I didn't know what I was missing for many years.

It's better that the covers of the expanded reissues, at any rate:

 

Agreed. 4.5/5

Ferocious and brilliant. I love how there’s a little jingle jangle in the bridge too.

 

Our votes for "WAding Through Your Ventilator"

1-0
2-0
3-1
4-2
5-2
Average: 3.9

 

Today's song is "The Face of Death" written by Robyn Hitchcock, Alan Davies, Alan Metcalfe and Morris Windsor; produced by Mike Kemp.Line up is the same as above.


Lyrics here.

"The Face of Death" was released on the three-song "Give It to the Soft Boys" EP recorded in June 1977 and re-released on subsequent expanded EPs Wading Through Your Ventilator (1984) and Raw Cuts (1989.) Live versions have been released on

• Gotta Let This Hen Out! (recorded April 1985, Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians)
• Where Are the Prawns (recorded January 1994, the Soft Boys)

 

3.5/5

 

For me, this is where everything truly clicks for the first time. Great pop hooks, a funny / creepy lyric, and great performance and arrangement, including those surprisingly lush harmonies that would become a band trademark. I first heard the song on the marvellous Gotta Let This Hen Out album back in the eighties, and it took me quite a while to track down where the song originally came from.

Oh, and note that a slightly different mix (Mix 11), with count-in and studio chatter, was released as a single in 1989. As I recall the single mix is a little more straightforward, with less echo and other effects. (Or vice versa - I should probably actually do a direct comparison before commenting!)

 

Let us know if you do! I've never read or seen one. I think I read he's toyed with the idea or writing one but never got too far. I'd love to read it!

There's a few really excellent podcasts he's been on, the Joseph Arthur one, Marc Maron's WTF, and a Dylan one (sorry blanking on the name). He's always entertaining and charming on podcasts. I'd say definitely try at least the WTF one if you haven't heard it.

His father wrote the book that became the movie Percy, that Ray Davies did the soundtrack for (nearly a proper Kinks album, really). His attending the Isle of Wight festival in 70 seems to be a big turning point for him. His musical influences are probably obvious to all of us here, but Dylan was and is really the substantial part of the equation. I think I heard him once dismiss the Beatles as great but at the time like, teeny bopper stuff your kid sister would like.

 

Great song. If I had to boil it down I'd say it's the smartest 77 punk (so, Pink Flag by Wire) meets the seething, drawn out vowels of Bob 11 or 12 years before, referential without being a cloying homage. The first bridge with the creeping 12 string part (lol... ok, even Robyn has said that he used to have too many parts, and can now say it in 1 chord versus 5- or something like that) sounds like the beginning of smart, 80s guitar pop, U2/REM, etc. I know the latter were listening, at least.

 

Another song with a heck of a lot going on. The main riff reminds me of Matty Groves by Fairport, but plus some uppers and probably less drawstring clothing. The Syd-like wayward progression, the double tracked vocals, the reverse reverb- a lot of psychedelic touches while still being like, skinny tie approved. This is how music is pushed along! Sure, we all like stuff from the old days but slavish recreation is such a trap. I think it served him really well to work toward editing down and bring out the hooks he was writing, but you can't say this sounded like much else at the time.

 

What gizmo would that be?