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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Lance LaSalle, May 15, 2020.

  1. chrism1971

    chrism1971 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glos, UK
    Positive is my favourite song on the album and shows the change from some of the 78-79 work to this clearer vision. What helps are the shorter lyrical lines, added instrumentation, and block harmonies - Robyn's voice is smoothed off. This and Queen of Eyes are the poppiest they would get.

    I do think they had the ability in 1977-9 to come up with great focussed studio tracks - we've seen a few - but a good producer was needed.

    And I've no idea who Andy King was/is. Not one of the Cambridge bunch as far as I remember. 5/5.
     
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  2. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    This song really does rock and it's an excellent way to show off the Soft Boys Mach 2 (or is it Mach 3, Mach 4?)'s skills. Just a great sounding band song. Yes, the lyrics harken back to the sixties and are probably by far the most positive lyric that Hitchcock had written -- as if he was self-consciously attempting to throw off the shackles of darkness his songs had been swathed in. Favorite moment is the drawn out coda: with the guitar and then the "vi-ii-brations"and the way that just builds into pure rock jangling ecstasy.

    Overall the song doesn't quite rise to the heights of the first two for me, but there's just so much to like about it that I'm still giving it a 4.7/5
     
  3. brownie61

    brownie61 Forum Resident

    Positive Vibrations is another catchy song, but I don’t think it’s in the same league as the first two songs on the album. I like it well enough, but don’t find anything truly remarkable about it.

    3/5
     
  4. dthomas850

    dthomas850 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cleveland, Ohio
    2nd listen for me and this one is already sticking in my head, yeah, this is so good. 5/5
     
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  5. Shriner

    Shriner Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ann Arbor, MI, USA
    Another 5/5 -- UM starts out strong and keeps going and going...
     
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  6. bzfgt

    bzfgt The Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    I'm not sure the lyrics are entirely positive, it seems to have a dark undercurrent...every verse brings up something that is a bummer, except maybe the third but even there the metaphor of oil burning in the sea is kind of suggestive of dark doings...
     
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  7. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Well, I guess you can see it as two ways; one being that despite all this the "positive vibrations" continue, uh, vibrating; the other is just shining a harsh light of reality on the whole positive vibrations idea -- but you are definitely right.
     
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  8. bzfgt

    bzfgt The Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    Exactly, I'm never sure which is the way its intended.
     
  9. chrism1971

    chrism1971 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glos, UK
    But this was in 1980, and RH and the others have said that the times had taken a turn for the worse after the elections in the UK and US, the Afghan war, and the situation with the USSR. I think they were looking for light at the end of the tunnel....

    'There you go killing for peace
    Don't you know
    You'll never get peace any more?
    Just get war...

    Forget your paranoia
    It'll only destroy ya'

    and there's this BBC ON THIS DAY | 27 | 1980: North Sea platform collapses

    Matthew : 'the world may be about to end, but let's make this one great album'.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2020
  10. AlienRendel

    AlienRendel Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, il
    Positive Vibrations - terrific on it's own, but I agree that it's not quite up to the previous 2 songs.
    4.5 out of 5
     
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  11. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    'Positive Vibrations' is a great, great pop song, but for me it only reaches the 'average' tier for this album and its sessions. No knock on it: that's just a mark of how strong the band was at this point. Other groups would be fondly remembered if this was the only decent thing they'd released.
     
  12. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    You made me double check, and it's definitely "ramble." I love those lines because they mix up the cosmic and the demotic, the wildly romantic and the bathetic, and it's the "ramble" and the "butcher's" that provide the essential grounding elements. They're also anchoring words because of they're so evocatively parochial.
     
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  13. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Our votes for "Positive Vibrations"

    1-0
    2-0
    3-1
    4-1
    5-5
    Average: 4.5143
     
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  14. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Today's song is "I Got the Hots For You", written by Robyn Hitchcock and produced by Spaceward Studios.

    Spotify: I Got the Hots
    lyrics.
     
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  15. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    I love the blues riff. This hearkens back a bit to the A Can of Bees era Soft Boys, but it's tighter, more focus and less clutter -- Seligman making a palpable difference. The way the verse segues into the chorus is sublime. The guitar solo at the end is eerie and affecting. The disassociated images and slightly groteque humour works for me. It's a bit below the first three for me, but still a really cool song.

    3.8/5
     
  16. chrism1971

    chrism1971 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glos, UK
    I like the contrast in sound with the other tracks. Agree with the above - SB had learnt how to inject space into the format. Docked a point for the out of tune singing on the verses which drags it down somewhat. 3.5/5.
     
  17. brownie61

    brownie61 Forum Resident

    I Got the Hots for You - Am I supposed to laugh when I listen to this song? Because I always do. :). The verses of this song sound like one of Robyn’s stream of consciousness rambles (which I adore), with a simple riff to accompany him while he does his thing. The lyrics are the star of this song.

    4/5
     
  18. Colin Sandwich

    Colin Sandwich Active Member

    Location:
    Kent
    Blimey! I put that up on YT years ago! A better quality version has surfaced since then. I shall have to check through my stuff. Positive Vibrations -- that was a guy called 'A.M.' right? He was quite excitable
     
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  19. Colin Sandwich

    Colin Sandwich Active Member

    Location:
    Kent
    I think the solo version is from a live tape at Ronnnie Scotts (UK)
     
  20. Colin Sandwich

    Colin Sandwich Active Member

    Location:
    Kent
    I'm really late to the game with this thread, I'm going to have to plough my way through and catch up. Thanks to all the contributors so far. I'm learning a lot *thumbs up emoticon with big grin*
     
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  21. Surferghost

    Surferghost Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dis United Kingdom
    Random drive-by post!
    (sorry I've not been able to pay this thread the attention it deserves, bizarrely the Lockdown has increased my IRL workload rather than pushed it off a cliff)


    Heh-heh, yes he was. Robyn was not pleased by the 'critical' stance of Positive Vibrations (the fanzine), to put it mildly. He shot me a probably-random intense glare at a gig around that time, and I thought he'd somehow found out I'd been a contributor to it and was giving me the evil eye :laugh: (for the record I was one of the nice ones Robyn!)
    There is that Ronnie Scott's version, but another 'studio' version turned up a few years ago (which is definitely RH on his own as opposed to the Meatpackers version). It's uncertain when exactly it was recorded though.
     
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  22. AlienRendel

    AlienRendel Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, il
    I Got the Hots - 3.5/5 - kinda sounds like a Can of Bees tune. It's not bad, but doesn't fit that well into the album, imo, and not nearly as strong as the previous 3 tunes.
     
  23. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    :)
    You don't have to read the entire thread to participate; just the last page or so: it's a song-by-song thread.
     
  24. mr. steak

    mr. steak Forum Resident

    Location:
    chandler az
    I Got the Hots - 4.2 out of 5. It's got all the touchstones of what I love about Robyn's solo work. It's also my favorite out of the first 4 tracks. Way more unique personality than the other 3. And the ending solo is killer.
     
  25. bzfgt

    bzfgt The Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    I like it but not one of my favorites.
     
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