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

I Pray When I'm Drunk - 4/5 - I like it when Robyn goes country, and this is among his more memorable efforts at it.

 

"I Pray When I'm Drunk" - this song is slight but is really boosted by the full-on country arrangement here, and at just over 2 minutes, it doesn't outstay it's welcome. 3.8/5.

 

Agree with @pocketcalculator that the arrangement and short, snappy length definitely make this one.
"I swarm with the bees, and I ooze with the mackerel, and I think about you everytime I strum" is a modern classic Hitchcock lyric!

These first three tracks make a great opening. As we've often discussed, Robyn's track sequencing isn't always the best, but I think he really got it right on this album.

4/5

 

Our votes for "I Pray When I'm Drunk"

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Average: 3.7167

 

Today's song is "Mad Shelley's Letterbox", written by Robyn Hitchcock and produced by Brendon Benson and Robyn Hitchcock.

Robyn Hitchcock – Mad Shelley's Letterbox Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

Robyn Hitchcock: vocals, guitars, keyboards
Anne McCue: guitar
Russ Pahl: pedal steel guitar
Jon Estes: bass
Jon Radford: drums

 

Great track, ominous build-up, much more effective with this band than some of the Venus 3 stuff (I think they sounded too relaxed), steams along, no idea what it's about. I haven't been listening - I though the letterbox was full of broken hearts....

Checked out Anne McCue - like Emma Swift, born in Sydney and moved to Nashville. Coincidence? Whatever, she adds a lot to the sound.

4.5/5

 

A fantastic track with a wonderful crunchy chug and a lovely Byrdsy bit in the middle. Some really nice low-key jangly guitar playing around the verses too. I think he once explained that the song was based on someone he knew but I can't recall the details.

This would have been a great single; bright and poppy enough to appeal to the uncommitted but with a weirdness to delight the aficionados. It's the sort of beautifully crafted pop song that was the hallmark of Fountains Of Wayne and I imagine Brendan Benson had a large hand in that.

Mad Shelley's Letterbox 4.75/5.

 

Mad Shelley’s Letterbox

The chiming guitars and the soaring “Oh god you were beautiful” part in this one give me goosebumps. I have no idea what the lyrics are about, but it doesn’t matter. The “Mad Shelley’s letterbox is full of birthday cards” part stalls it a little, but that’s okay.

4.5/5

 

MSL

One of his best songs, absolutely gorgeous

5/5

 

Mad Shellys Letterbox - 5/5 - Might be the best song on the album. Happy to see him put together something exceptional, particularly after the last couple of albums.

 

Letterbox -- strong 5/5. This is an outstanding track on an album full of them. It works as a solo acoustic song, but even better with a full band behind him on it. This album does not have a duff track on it so far.

 

And it never will....

 

"Mad Shelley's Letterbox" - This seems to be about someone the singer once knew, and maybe once loved (though not necessarily in a romantic sense), and now when they meet, years later, that person maybe has dementia or another mental illness, or is so far removed emotionally from where they had been together years before, that they can't communicate, and recognition is only one sided. The music is gorgeous. I particularly love the descending guitar part after the second refrain, and the "I don't know what your mind is thinking" bridge, and the harmonies at the very end which remind me much of the Soft Boys/Egyptians. 4.5/5.

 

Well, this is a taut little rock song, isn't it? Love the melody, the guitar, the building energy and the thunderous sound of it. Really, this sounds like the Soft Boys should have sounded when they did their reunion album. Beautiful stuff.

5/5

 

Our votes for "Mad Shelly's Letterbox"
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Average: 4.75

 

Today's song is "Sayanara Judge", written by Robyn Hitchcock and produced by Brendon Benson & Robyn Hitchcock.

Robyn Hitchcock – Sayonara Judge Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

Robyn Hitchcock: vocals, guitars, keyboards

Anne McCue: guitar
Russ Pahl: pedal steel guitar
Jon Estes: bass
Jon Radford: drums
Pat Sansone & Emma Swift: backing vocals

 

Sayonara Judge is just about perfect--5/5

 

"Sayonara Judge" - What do you have when a relationship is at an end, and everything that went with it has also been trashed? And the person you put your faith in, and your future, and whom you looked at as a better mirror, now just shows you what a loser and dope you are? When you're past the shock, but the emptiness remains? Well, you try to write a kiss-off song as good as this one. Robyn strikes the right balance between anger, bitterness, regret, and sadness. 4.8/5.

 

I was so disappointed with the Soft Boys reunion album that, after listening a dozen times for those hits that just had to be there if I listened a little more closely, I just filed it away and never listened to it again. For whatever reason, most of the songs that wound up on that album just weren't that inspired, musically or lyrically. Lyrically, some of the songs on Robyn Hitchcock are better than others, but Robyn is really bringing the good tunes to this one.

 

Sayonara Judge

The guitars make this song. First, the gorgeous, keening pedal steel sets the mournful tone. Then later, the crunchy electric guitar changes that tone to an angry one.

I never could make any kind of real sense out of the lyrics, but @pocketcalculator came up with a good interpretation, and the music does support it. Not sure if I totally buy it, but that’s okay. It’s still a gorgeous song.

4.5/5

 

An absolutely gorgeous break-up song with all the players on top of their game. Anne McCue's delicate guitar and the pedal steel really add to the atmosphere, which is both sombre and uplifting in keeping with the themes of the song. The only thing I don't like is the "goodbye teddy bear" bit at the end which seems unnecessarily trite within the context of a very honest and moving track. At nearly six minutes it's one of his longer excursions but unlike some of the others, such is the quality that it never feels as if it's dragging on.

The lyrics deal with the split with Michele and his subsequent rebirth in Nashville, in which he seems to portray himself as both perpetrator and victim. Clearly this was a painful and confusing time and I guess he sees this song as a kind of catharsis . RH - 1L = 1M.

Certainly the video (which I'm not mad keen on) is fairly unambiguous. It was made by Hugh Hales-Tooke who is one of the early Soft Boys Cambridge alumni. I'm not sure why Kimberley is featured in the "losing my friends" line as I don't recall any falling out between the two. RH has talked about how the split resulted in him losing custody of many of his former friends and bandmates but it seems as if he feels the ends justify the means. For all the pain and regret, "I'm walking on air".

Sayonara Judge 4.75/5.

 

I'd not paid too much attention to this extremely pleasant little track with its extremely heavy lyrics, so the above explanations have made me listen again properly. The video has some interesting references - the white tie and tails very Winchester - and I've never heard of Hugh Hales-Tooke, wonder where he fitted in to the early SB scene.... and he probably did lose touch with Kimberley, who has always been very firmly East Anglia based.

You may all have gathered by now that, for whatever reason, I've never been so keen on those songs of Robyn's which involve a lot of intense self-reflection, because I think with him it blurs very quickly into self-indulgence.... but in this case, and being unfamiliar with the circumstances, it's a 4/5.

And what's trite about teddy bears? Pretty essential element in our deepest sentiments! Still have mine. Must go and give it a cuddle.

 

https://twitter.com/hughhalestooke/status/1042817823934951424/photo/1

 

Sayonara Judge is really beautiful.
Pedal steel isn't always an instrument I love - it has to be used carefully, I think - but it really works here. The sound matches the mixture of mournfulness and uplift in the lyrics beautifully.

This might be one of RH's most mature relationship lyrics, and perfectly captures the contrasting feelings of regret, loss and freedom that come as you move on to a new chapter in your life.

5/5

I missed Mad Shelley, but that's a great one too!

 

Sayonara -- has always reminded me musically of NY Doll. But I love that song and this one just as much. 5/5