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

Which version is on the Soft Boys 2CD compilation? Is the other version available somewhere?

 

The version on the Soft Boys compilation is from The Living Room Sessions and is a bootleg. Only three songs from it have been released officially, although all of the songs have later versions that were released and which we'll talk about in due time.

The tracklisting I have for The Living Room Sessions is:

1. Give it to the Soft Boys
2. The Size of a Walnut
3. Ugly Nora
4. Wey Wey Hep a Hole
5. Where Are the Prawns
6. Innocent Boy

I am only holding the three songs bolded up for discussion, as those are the only ones from these sessions that have been released officially.

The other version of "Walnut" was apparently recorded at the Radar sessions (a little info below) and is presumably available on bootleg but has not been released officially. (I haven't heard it, but I suppose the reason it hasn't been released is that the earlier one is probably better, as @chrism1971 asserts.)

The Soft Boys attempted to record an album for Radar records in 1978; only four songs from those sessions have been officially released, although all the songs apparently circulate on one bootleg or another. I have a few of those songs, but I don't have "It's Not Just the Size of a Walnut" from those sessions.

More on that aborted album when we get to 1978!

Regarding re-recordings of songs that were released: I do plan on holding those up for discussion separately. That is part of what makes this such a big task is sorting the various versions out; luckily there are online resources that help with that: I'm using this brilliant resource to help me.

 

I agree with you (although I like "Walnut" a lot more). The Soft Boys could be a bit hit and miss in my opinion; but when they miss in a way I tend to admire, even if I don't always love the results. At least they were doing something different!

 

You know, I think I"m just going to go on to the next song: there's been enough participation already to justify it.

Votes for "It's Not Just the Size of a Walnut":

1-0
2-0
3-1
4-1
5-0
Average: 3.7

 

Today's song is "Ugly Nora", written by Robyn Hitchcock and recorded by Chris Hamburger in Robyn Hitchcock's living room in March 1977. Line up same as above, i.e.:

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



Lyric is available on Google.

The song was later re-recorded, with a very different arrangement, for the aborted Radar album in 1978. It has not been released but circulates on The Day They Ate Brick bootleg.

A live version recorded circa 78/79 was released on some reissues of A Can of Bees.

 

The released live version of "Ugly Nora" from the Can of Bees reissues is the same arrangement as the unreleased Radar version: opens with some well-executed, high pitched a capella vocals and features a pounding tribal beat and the Can of Bees style psychedelic attack with the guitars.

I have to say I prefer the Living Room Sessions version here, as released on 1976-1981 : while certainly more conventional and less adventurous, the blues-rock heart of the song is more readily apparent: the later version, like other songs from the Can of Bees era put arrangement over song, something which I find interesting but also (vaguely) annoying.

The song is a well-written piece of craft, if not particularly deep: it seems to be mocking a neighbour who had complained about the noise that the band was making.While this sort of youthful put down is the very stuff of rock and roll attitude, I have to say that as a 49 year old man, I don't relate to the kind of mean-spiritedness of the song, though I do recognize it's humor.

We also hear Robyn Hitchcock playing the solo here ("go Robby go" he encourages himself): a very idiosyncratic wild, abrasive style, it reminds me a bit of some of Lou Reed's solos on Velvet Underground and Nico: perhaps a bit less noisy, but certainly not lovely or melodic: I suppose the solo was, after all, built to irritate.



It's a fun song, and well-recorded, considering. I enjoy it, but it's ultimately a trifle.

2.7/5

 

Ugly Nora became a live favourite (see the live version from November 1978) after Kimberley joined and added his very loud Gibson SG. In 77 it was lighter and less insistent.
Nora joins Brenda (Captain Sensible LP) and other Robyn ladies of a certain English type... I think Gladys gets a look in somewhere.

 

Nora is a better song than Walnut because of the guitar solo. 2/5

 

Is that Robyn's solo?

I don't have a ton to say about Walnut, it's obviously a rough demo yet contains a lot of RH-isms right off the bat. I don't think it's especially cohesive or finished sounding, and you can hear his voice still finding itself. But Ugly Nora sounds like a proper Soft Boys song, for sure.

Also, for someone who can't get away from the "Syd" comparisons to save his life, this shows (IMO) strong american influences- the riff sounds like CCR, the rest sounds a lot like something from the Basement Tapes to me. The solo is pure Lou Reed in the Velvets days.

 

If you look at the CD booklet for the 1976-81 comp you'll see near the end a copy of a handwritten setlist for one of the earliest SB gigs (if not the first). The originals were Wey Wey Hep, The Stain, Harmony, Give it to the SB, Innocent Boy, Ralph, Walnut and Look into your Mirror. Non-originals are from the Band, the Byrds, the Velvets, the Contours (via Brian Poole) and Jerry Lee Lewis (via Richard Thompson) - so those were early influences.
'Walnut' was basically Robyn plugging in for the first time having previously sung acoustic in folk clubs.

 

I think it is, but, you know I could be wrong. But beyond him announcing the solo as if he's playing it, and the interjections (now I'll use me fork! Go Robby Go!) it just sounds like his playing on later Soft Boys cuts.

He's quite distinctive from Kimberly Rew, who has greater chops. Of course Rew was not in the band yet; but the country-ish licks of "Walnut" seem a lot more conservative and George Harrison-like, if you will than this solo, which is anything but; and the main riff on "Nora" continues behind the solo, so I assume that's Alan Davies playing that.

 

I love the live version of 'Ugly Nora'. It's a middling song, but that's such a great arrangement it really elevates it. I believe that live version was first released on the second reissue of the album from 1984. I don't envy you the task of sorting out all the different versions of that album!

 

Average for "Ugly Nora": 2.35

 

Today's song is "Wey Wey Hep a Hole", written by Robyn Hitchcock.

Lyric available on google.

It was recorded in March 1977 in Robyn Hitchcock's living room and released in 1993 on the compilation 1976-81.

A studio version was recorded in 1978/1979 for the album that was eventually released in 1983 as Invisible Hits, however, I will make a separate entry for discussion for that version when the time comes; live versions have been released on:

• a 1990 reissue of Invisible Hits (recorded November 27th 1978 at Lady Mitchell Hall)
• Where Are the Prawns? recorded January 1994

 

The opening guitar lick/riff that the song is based on is almost impossibly convoluted, a Soft Boys trademark; and Alan Davies' countryish guitar playing is tasteful and I quite like it; but the star for me on this song musically is probably Morris Windsor's really groovy drumming. it manages to gently rock while making me groove: the way it holds down the backbeat against the other various rhythms of the song is stellar. When they hit the goofy chorus it is really a laugh out loud moment for me: it's really one of the the silliest things I've ever heard: not only in the nonsensical lyric, but the very rhythm and the strutting melody and the beat all going together is just inspired funniness.

The thing about these songs, especially this one and "It's Not Just the Size of a Walnut" is that while they seem almost like novelty songs, I feel they are really kind of ironic comments on songwriting conventions and cliches: especially lyrical cliches: "Walnut" has the lyrical structure of being a classic folk love song, but it's only framed that way: what's inside that classic framework is, well, next to nonsense: yet it works because Hitchcock knows tthe frame is what actually matters; the music will still carry nonsense. It's an intellectual application of a really strong songcraft.

And the same goes here: there's a lot familiar in this song; but the ultimately I feel it's another intellectual exercise: comical, goofy; but there are bits of love/sex cliches turned on their ear by the disturbing and vaguely sexual imagery: yet it's never too disturbing; and the fact is there is a lyrical loveliness to the words.

4.0/5

 

Yeah I think so. I love "Keeps me fairly warm at night..."

 

You go man. I appreciate your ambition and look forward to coming back every day.

 

That's a very astute summary of where RH was coming from in the late 70s. Most of the rock n roll songs they took onboard had the lyrics twisted in some very English way. I suppose one of the meanings you can ascribe here, though, is that the shape of the human brain is often compared to that of a walnut, and the point made is that it's... rather larger and can hold a lot....

'Walnut' was dropped from the live shows by the end of '77 but revived in a harder version with Kimberley for the Radar album sessions in July 1978.

 

Actually recorded mid-1979 just after Matthew joined. And also (unreleased) for the Radar album sessions, July 1978.

 

Wey Wey -- 2.5/5. This one has a soft spot due to being more familiar with the remake, but it's (so far) the best of these early songs.

 

Sorry, haven't been scoring them so far!
Nora 2; Walnut 2.5; Wey Wey 3.

 

This thread has prompted me to burn some Soft Boys collections for listening to in the car:

Raw Radar - basically all the studio tracks from disc one of 1976-81, plus 'Vyrna Knowl' (from Raw Cuts) and the single mix of 'Face of Death'.

All the tracks from the (first) four versions of A Can of Bees. (Am I correct that the studio 'School Dinner Blues' on the 1990 CD had not been released anywhere before?)

Live at the Lady Mitchell Hall, 1978 - six tracks from 1976-81, plus the various live tracks from the various Cans of Bees (I assume they're from this concert?), plus 'Wey Wey Hep Uh Hole' from the Invisible Hits CD.

Live at the Portland Arms - I'd already done this one. Vinyl rip, plus 'Deck of Cards'.

Invisible Hits - standard album plus the three original mixes from singles ('Asking Tree', 'Love Poisoning', 'When I Was a Kid') and the early versions of 'Insanely Jealous' and 'Underwater Moonlight'.

Underwater Moonlight reconfigured as a double album - most double albums could be improved by trimming them down, but this is a rare single album where almost all of the outtakes are nearly as good. I'm including the Near the Soft Boys b-sides and four of the five Only the Stones Remain tracks. This gives me (I think) nineteen tracks to play with, and leaves the following as imaginary a-sides and b-sides: 'Only the Stones Remain' (single mix), 'Old Pervert' (Disco Version), 'The Bells of Rhymney' (you could bung this on the album too, if you like, but I prefer to leave 'Queen of Eyes' as its sole Byrds tribute). I'm not sure what to do with the 'Stomping All Over the World' single. It's the Soft Boys, but I'll probably leave it as its own thing rather than try to fold it into this version of the album.

Lope at the Hive - the five original album tracks, plus the four from 1976-81, plus 'Zip Zip' / 'Astronomy Domine' from Maxwell's.

I'm only working from officially released sources for the sake of my sanity (and sound quality). There are a few overlaps between CDs, but I think this accounts for everything the original incarnation of the band released.

 

I love "Wey Wey" so much that I'll just blanketly give it a 5 in pretty much any incarnation I can get it in.

 

Uptdated ratings for "Walnut" -- I failed to count one vote originally:

2.725

Ugly Nora: 2.3333

And "Wey Wey Hep a Hole"[living room version]

1-0
2-0
3-2
4-1
5-1
Average: 3.625

 

Zounds, this one is their breakout number!