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

My first exposure to this song. I dig! It is speaking to me on a few levels. Looks like this Sadies record is on Yep Rock which likely had something to do with Robyn appearing on it. Song gets a 3.5/5

 

Nice enough, though I find that sort of watery 12-string a little lacking in oomph (having been brought up on the Byrds and then Buck, this seems to drag just a little). Gosh I'm getting so picky..... 3/5. When was this recorded and who are they?

 

"Crumble" -- some decent lyrics, but just goes nowhere for 6 minutes. 2/5

"Mamie" -- a decent cover with some fun double-tracked vocals. Solid 3/5

"Why Would" -- hey, never heard this one before! Very pleasant jangle. 4/5

 

This album was released in 2004. The Sadies are a Canadian band. I don’t know much about them and this is the only album I’ve heard of theirs. There is a strong country vibe to most of the album. I got this album when I was going through a Joey Burns/John Convertino (both in Calexico) completist phase. These guys often do session work as instrumentalists (Joey contributes cello to this Sadies album) and I have discovered much great and interesting music by picking up some of the albums they play on, although that has happened less in recent years.

 

Why Would Anyone Live Here? - 5/5 - Love it. The Sadies are a terrifically talented band with a heavy Byrds influence. Their biggest problem is coming up with memorable material, so they seem to really shine when they pair up with a great songwriter (i.e. Robyn or Neko Case). This is off my favorite album of theirs and I think the addition of Robyn is pretty inspired.

 

'Crumble Like Dust' is pretty good. It's long, but it sustains its mood and works better than some of the long songs on Spooked. I presume it comes from those sessions? Although it appears on a radio station compilation, it's not a 'radio session': the album consists of 'proper' studio recordings donated to support a fledgling internet radio venture.

The Young Fresh Fellows cover reminds me that I think we missed 'Your Day Will Come', Hitchcock's collaboration with The Minus 5 from their 2000 album Let the War Against Music Begin.

 

"Crumble Like Dust"-- the kind of song that you feel Robyn writes when he's "in the toilet" as Captain Sensible said...or driving his car...or, like, doing his taxes. I think it's too long for it's melodic ideas but it's lyrically pretty good, and, yes, better than almost all of the songs on Luxor and as good as many on Spooked. A bit of vocal fry.

3.5/5

"Mamie Dunn/Good Times Rock And Roll"
Interesting song with some cute slice of life lyrics, and it goes to very interesting places in the chorus and then goes to even more interesting places when the song changes to Good Times Rock And Roll. And gets even more unsual. It is certainly the only song I know of that references the alternative band The Presidents of the United States of America.

Very unusual song, I'm not familiar with the Young Fresh Fellows -- I know they are intrinsically tied to Robyn's latter day stuff.
4/5

"Why Would Anybody Live Here?

Gorgeous. 5/5 The first in quite some time. Robyn is best when he plays off someone else.

 

Our votes for

"Crumble Like Dust"
2-1
4-1
Average: 2.75

"Mamie Dunn/Good Times Rock And Roll"
3-1
4-1
Average: 3.5

"Why Would Anybody Live Here?"
1-0
2-0
3-1
4-3
5-3
Average: 4.2

 

Today, two studio covers of Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians songs: "Madonna of the Wasps" and "Queen Elvis", both songs written and produced by Robyn HItchcock and boht songs recorded by Jessica Corcoran. Both songs released on the Japanese-only compilation of odd and sods Obliteration Pie in 2005.
"Madonna Of the Wasps" is the first song on this album, which is on Youtube:


Robyn with
Tim Keegan: electric guitars, vocals, tambourine

 

"Queen Elvis" starts at about 49'50"


Tim Keegan: harmonica, backing vocal, tambourine

 

I listened to Why Would Anybody Live Here a few more times and it's worming its way into my heart, I'm upgrading it to 4.4/5

All the other Madonnas of the Wasps don't do it for me as much as the original. It always seems too slow or something, although I don't know if it's actually slower. But it's so great in any iteration I will say for this 4.6/5; I'm sure I gave the QE one 5/5. I do like the guitar here.

Similar thing with Queen Elvis. I don't like the harmonica intro, and I don't know why he always adds it in, it's dumb. The vocal line becomes too emotive in both cases, these songs don't need that. And the "shalala" after bjs in the press is unnecessary. Just as I'm getting reconciled to it the harmonica comes back in. But it's so great in any iteration I will say for this 4.5/5; I'm sure I gave the Eye one 5/5. I do like the guitar here, again.

 

Robyn is taking Queen Elvis down the wrong way with his additions to it. Why mess with a classic?

 

"Madonna of the Wasps" such an incredible song....its a 5 here and everywhere! Queen Elvis pretty much the same....its a 5. I love Robyn's records, but i also listen to his field recordings on the archive allot.....i am not distracted by changes and variations...some of his songs are just so good that they just shine.

 

Madonna of the Wasps: 5/5

Queen Elvis: 3.5/5

 

Our votes for "Madonna of the Wasps" [solo Obliteration Pie version]

Average: 4.8667

"Queen Elvis"[Obliteration Pie version] 4.333

 

Today I'm starting on Olé Tarantula, Robyn's first album with The Venus 3, a backing band that included Peter Buck (guitar), Scott McCaughey (bass, vocals) and Bill Rieflin (drums and percussion.)

Peter of course was a long-term collaborator and he'd worked with Scott and Peter both on some spirited songs on Jewels For Sophia/A Star For Bram. And it seemed they had been talking about recording an album together for some time. But with Robyn's schedule and the other's various side projects (The Minus 5, R.E.M.) it seems that they weren't able to make it happen until this point. At some point Bill Rieflin, who had started as the drummer for Ministry, joined the R.E.M. backing band, and thus the band was sort of ready made for Robyn, a seasoned band who had played with each other a lot already.

IN addition to the Venus 3, a number of other musicians collaborated on the album including former Soft Boys Morris Windsor and Kimberly Rew, and Andy Partridge.

Their first album was called Olé Tarantula. It was Robyn's first release on Yep Roc records, an independent minor label based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The tracklist was:

1. Adventure Rocket Ship (Robyn Hitchc0ck)
2. Underground Sun (Hitchcock)
3. Museum Of Sex (Hitchcock)
4. Belltown Ramble
5. Olé Tarantula
6. (A Man's Gotta Know HIs Limitations) Briggs (Hitchcock)
7. Red Locust Frenzy
8. 'Cause It's Love (Saint Parallelogram) (Hitchcock, Andy Partridge)
9. The Authority Box
10. N.Y. Doll

IN addition to the above I'll go over the following extra-album tracks: (as always, thanks to @Summer of Malcontent for having compiled this)

• Embryo Twirl (bonus track available for those who pre-ordered the album)
• I Wish I Was Doing This {from Graciously, a various artist charity album, 2006}
• Sex Food Death and Insects {DVD concert film}

I think that's it! the other extra album songs from this period are actually live versions of songs. As we get nearer the present the extra-album songs get fewer, I suppose they are building up in Robyn's vault, or perhaps he's found some other way to release them (the Patronus or whatever it's called, thing.)

So on the 13th, I will start on the next Venus 3 album, 2009's Goodnight Oslo.

(A number of archival releases were released between the two albums: Shadow Cat, While Thatcher Mauled Britain, Bad Case of History, so Robyn didn't take three years off exactly; but I think we've gone over all of those songs.)

 

Today's song is "Adventure Rocket Ship", written by Robyn Hitchcock and produced by Robyn HItchcock and the Venus 3; recorded by Kurt Bloch, and overdubbed by Jessica Corcoran and Charlie Francis; mixed by Charlie Francis.


Robyn Hitchcock: vocals, guitar
Peter Buck: guitar
Scott McCaughey: bass, vocals
Bill Rieflin: drums, percussion

Chris Ballew, Morris Windsor, Sean Nelson: vocals

 

Adventure Rocket Ship

This band sounds really good playing together, and they elevate some of the material on this album quite a bit. This song is an example. I can’t really point out anything great about this song, but the band makes it quite entertaining, It chugs along pleasantly with good energy and good interplay between the guitars and the rhythm section, and the background vocals sound good, The lyrics are kind of meh, though.

3/5

 

After the turgid Luxor and the earnest but disappointing Spooked, I was delighted that Robyn returned to the band format for the first time in sixteen years (ironically) and what a band it was. I don't like the phrase much, but this quartet were oven ready and hit the ground running; all four seasoned and gifted musicians. I love all of the Venus 3 albums especially this one, and the gigs I saw were absolutely fantastic.

When Ole Tarantula came out both my daughters were still young and the CD was a fixture in my car as I drove them around to various activities. They loved this song and would sing along to it in the back. It's a great opener, driven by what a friend of mine would describe as a "crunchy chug" with great playing and harmonies, as there are throughout the album. I agree that it's not his finest lyric but it's a great pop song and I'm surprised it was never released as a single.

Adventure Rocket Ship 4/5.

 

Yes, it is a pleasure to hear these guys play together, as it was on Jewels For Sophia/A Star For Bram. And as on those albums, I feel that hte material that they've been given with "Adventure Rocket Ship" isn't really top-notch; but that's OK, because it's good enough and the band makes it a good sight better. A welcome blast of rock and roll energy after Luxor, Spooked, Obliteration Pie, Shadow Cat, A STar For Bram, Jewels For Sophia, MOss Elixir and even Nextdoorland.

4/5

 

Sort of If You Were A Priest meets I Wanna Destroy You without reaching the heights of either... I have to admit I haven't listened to this album in at least 10 years so it's fun to hear the tracks again, but this does seem a bit generic, however well-played. 3.5/5

I saw this band around the time of this release in Bristol (England). They looked the worse for wear (stoned?). Very rock n roll. The audience seemed mainly interested in Buck, which is understandable. Sadly the gig was a bit of a drag due to the general state of the band - though not as bad as Clapton's 1977 London performance where he got drunk and went off stage for an hour....

 

Yikes I would think they were getting a little old for that kind of thing. on the other hand I think some of those guys are Olympic-level drinkers.

Maybe they all had the flu or something.

 

Adventure Rocket Ship opens Ole Tarantula in grand style. I didn't think I would ever hear RH rocking like this again and while I enjoy most RH releases I was blown away by this album. This album is definitely in my top RH albums and it's hard to put into words how much joy this has brought me over the years. The songs must mean a lot to RH too because a fairly large number of these are still played regularly to this day.

 

Adventure Rocket Ship is a classic opener, I love it so hard 4.3/5

 

Adventure Rocket Ship - 5/5 - Great, energetic opener. Memorable in a way that many of the songs from the previous few albums were not. Really dig it.