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

One of the early greats. Really good track and lyrics. 4/5

Not sure what the idea was with the picture of Stonehenge. The stones of the song are grave stones - all these things happened to all these people, but now they're gone. Only the stones remain.

 

Stones -- 5/5 One of the classics from the era, for sure.

 

Stones = 5/5

 

I get that but it could also just be nothing left but rubble, or scorched earth with only rock showing...which is to say I don't think it's locked into the gravestone reading but it's there

 

Our votes for "Only the Stones Remain"

1-0
2-0
3-0
4-3
5-4
Average: 4.6

 

Today's song is "Where Are the Prawns [version 2]", written by Robyn Hitchcock and produced by Pat Collier.

Spotify: Where Are the Prawns
Lyric.

This version was released on the half-album Only the Stones Remain, which was part of the Two Halves for the Price of One release in 1981. Since 1990, it has been included on CD and digital reissues of Underwater Moonlight.
An earlier version of "Where Are the Prawns" was recorded for Radar Records in 1978 and discussed here.

 

This is a nice sounding version and a good song at any rate; but I think the earlier version is much better and I prefer Andy Metcalfe's rather wild bass playing over Matthew's more conservative take; and the twin-guitar solos of the original version is one of my favorite Soft Boys moments and that moment seems rather limp here. The extended psychedelic ending is cool, but doesn't make up what it lacks. Still, it's a good song give a pretty good performance, but the energy seems a bit lacking in this song which was at least two years old at this point.

3.4/5

 

I should add, however, that, though the Radar version may predate this version, the Radar version was actually not released until 12 years after this version was released.

Perhaps in 1981, when this came out, I might’ve rated it higher without the experience of the earlier one.

 

Prawns: it's a decent song, and chugs along pleasantly enough without quite sparking into life. Like Lance, I much prefer the earlier version, which I didn't hear until years later - this one seems strangely listless in comparison.

 

Perhaps, though that wasn't my experience. I feel it's a better song now I've heard the earlier, more engaging take on it.

 

I actually don't really like what they did with this in 80/81, having grown so used to the 1977/78 version - especially the recording with Hammond organ - the long outro just seems to wibble on interminably, so only 2.5/5.

However the song was one of the highlights of the 1994 reunion performance that I saw (Cambridge Corn Exchange).

 

The only version I know is the one on the Underwater Moonlight 3 CD set. Hitchcock continues to offer us his strange subject matter, the band juggle prawns in the background.
I'm not scoring - but this is a solid 4/5, lots to enjoy.

 

There's a three-CD edition of UM? I know of a three-LP edition, but not CD.

 

Prawns -- the extended ending here drags it down in this version. 3/5 because of that.

 

Our votes for "Where Are the Prawns"[version 2]

1-0
2-0
3-3
4-1
5-0
Average: 3.225

 

Today's song is "The Bells of Rhymney", written by Pete Seeger with lyrics drawn from an Idris Davies poem; it was produced by Pat Collier and is an entirely faithful rendition of the Byrds' version of the song and thus bears an "arranged by McGuinn" credit. The song was produced by Pat Collier.

LYRIC.

Robyn Hitchcock would later remake this song for an EP in the mid-eighties, on which Soft Boys Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor played; the experience would lead them to form The Egyptians, who would back Hitchcock on many albums.

 

A fine incredibly faithful cover with some very nice harmonies....maybe a little too faithful. But the song is a favored and the Byrds' rendition is basically definitive and this tribute has both the jingle and the jangle that i crave.

3.8/5

 

Nice version, but again I prefer the other one (1984). 2.75/5.
Again, while these late Soft Boys tracks sound very polished, they sometimes lack the commitment of the early stuff (most of UM excepted).

Any Welsh readers will know that the place is pronounced (roughly) Rrrmmney, not as McGuinn had it. Pete Seeger had a go at getting it right.

 

Interesting. I had not heard this version until just now. I have always liked the Byrds version of this very much and also Robyn’s other version. As long as there are those McGuinn-like jangly guitars in this song, I’m going to like it. I like the later version much more. This one is rather dense sounding and doesn’t give the music much room to breathe. I’m not going to rate this one.

 

As promised, I've had a go at this, and it's very hard to tell the difference. The "amniotic mix" from the 1995 CD is much more compressed than the original mix from the '87 CD, which doesn't help.

As far as I can tell, taking that into account, the main difference is in the drums / percussion, with the "amniotic mix" tending to have them louder in the mix, with more reverb. Easiest place to spot the difference for me was with the two cymbal crashes in quick succession at about 1.45, just after the line "The grasshoppers curl up and burst". They're much louder and more prominent in the "amniotic mix". In the regular mix the second one is rather buried. Just after that, on "Brenda's iron sledge" (1.57 to 1.59), you should be able to hear the difference between the drums on the respective versions quite clearly.

 

It's a lovely version of the Byrds arrangement, but I confess I'm not all that interested in hearing the Soft Boys play songs by anyone other than RH. I guess that, as with Cold Turkey and Vegetable Man, it allows them to make a respectful nod towards one of their antecedents.

 

I like the later version of Bells more. This one is OK. 2/5

 

Bells - 4/5 - lovely, but mostly just a good Byrds immitation.

 

Our votes for "The Bells of Rhymney"

1-0
2-1
3-1
4-2
5-0
Average: 3.1375