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

Today's song is "There's Nobody Like You", written by Robyn Hitchcock.

Spotify: There's Nobody Like You
Lyrics.

"There's Nobody Like You" was released in 1981 on the half-album Only the Stones Remain, on the Two Halves for the Price of One release.

 

"There's Nobody Like You" lacks the melodic magic that my favorite Hitchcock songs have, but it makes up for it with some cool Dylan-esque surreal put-downs, some stellar, out-of-nowhere harmonies and a smoking set of solos from Messrs. Rew and Hitchcock. A good shot of rock and roll energy: reminiscent of their Can of Bees era rave-ups, I suppose but as always, less cluttered and more focused.

4.1/5

 

There's Nobody Like You: I love this. Still my favourite track on the Only the Stones EP. Compelling groove, great lyrics, fabulous trading of four bar phrases in the guitar break.

Lines like "Mr Rogers and I have done nothing but sigh ever since you walked into the shop" point up one of the many things I love about Robyn Hitchcock. With a throwaway gesture he manages to hint at a whole world, a landscape peopled with odd characters who have a life outside of and beyond the song, just glimpsed through a window as we pass.

 

Yeah, great track, though as you say lacks something of the colour of earlier and later RH. I think this era (79-81) was more about being cool and normalising.... another classic guitar duel though - and another pig (not Mucky but maybe mucky). 3.75/5.

PS Have we missed 'Reptile'? (released before UM).

 

No, we will be doing it, I'm covering the Only the Stones Remain songs now, before we get into the rest of the Invisible Hits songs and then the rehearsal songs.

As for the spell-check, I find it odd that yours tries to correct to American spelling, because mine tries to correct to UK spelling!

 

That's odd - actually I deleted that part of the post as it wouldn't have shown after editing.

 

i know you deleted as I was posting...

 

"Nobody" is great! Great dual guitars! Could easily have been on Underwater Moonlight and fit right in! 5/5 - no question.

 

I believe it wasn't released until 1983 (single promoting the belated release of Invisible Hits)

 

Our votes for "There's Nobody Like You"

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Average: 4.2833

 

Today's song is "Innocent Boy", written by Robyn Hitchcock and Martin Stanway-Myers.

LYRIC.

"Innocent Boy" dates back to pre-Soft Boys times; it was released on the half-album Only the Stones Remain; and later released again on a three song EP that came with the 2001 vinyl reissue of Underwater Moonlight.

 

"Innocent Boy" is a curious thing: Hitchcock's singing, very unusually, reminds me of Jonathan Richman of all people; and in fact, the lyric isn't too far away fro Richman's earliest stuff either; though the writing of this song may have pre-dated Modern Lovers' release.

So there's this Jonathan Richman-meets-Byrds thing going in this music in my mind. But it's not a bad combination and in fact, I think that this is a pretty irresistable piece of jangle pop, instantly catchy without being too sweet.

4.2/5

 

Ah, you're correct no doubt - I must have just mentally filed it as the first thing recorded by the Matthew SB. However I wouldn't really say Invisible Hits was a belated release - having settled with Midnight Music, Robyn put out a slew of releases between 84 and 86; I.Hits was just a very serendipitous way of collecting the unreleased SB stuff, followed by Invisible Hitchcock in a similar vein a year or two later.

 

It was weird hearing them redo Innocent Boy late on - perhaps just something to try out after Matthew joined. The Two Halves album was something of a ragbag - and I don't like it much as an LP, unlike I Hits - and this wasn't a standout track for me. Certainly written by September 1976 when they first performed it at the Station Hotel, Station Rd, Cambridge to an audience of about 9. 3/5.

 

Actually, unless anybody objects, when it comes time for the rehearsal songs (the ones released in 2001), I’ll probably just list them and move on to Black Snake Diamond Role. I listened to them yesterday and, while they definitely are interesting, they are also a cut below most Soft Boys’ stuff: neither as abrasive and dense as the early ACAB era stuff, nor as streamlined and likeable as their UM-era stuff.

 

Erm..... you are probably right and it's a 2 CD version !
It's the one with some rehearsal recordings on there...... hmmm, I'll check that too !

 

Nobody Like You is great by the way. Apologies for being slightly behind, been listening to lots of music and having to attend to mundane things like work.....

 

Innocent Boy is an odd one. It doesn't really feel like a Hitchcock song... Not that that is in itself a bad thing, but I just don't connect with it.

 

Now I have a little time I'd like to go all the way back to A Can Of Bees to offer up my thoughts, but I'll spare us all a few hours.


Only The Stones Remain:
A seminal (in more ways than one) late-period Soft Boys work, easily their best single release. "Stained-glass elaborations collapse and candyfloss evaporates, honey" is surely the finest lyric to never have had a chance of bothering The Hit Parade. 4.8/5.

There's Nobody But You :
Musically-simple but highly effective, and one of my favourites from this period (but then I also love 'Heads Down, No-nonsense Mindless Boogie' by Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias ). 4.6/5.

Innocent Boy:
While the hint of an adolescent sneer still marks 'Innocent Boy' out as an early work, it's clearly a compositional step up from more self-conciously wacky stuff like 'The Unpleasant Stain' and 'Walnut'. But if the established timeline holds up and Robyn's involvement with Martin Mayers was confined purely to their time together in The Beetles/The Symptoms, then that would mean 'Innocent Boy' was written no later than 1974/5. Without hearing any other Mayers compositions it's difficult to tell how much actual influence he brought to bear on it though, unfortunately.

It is a strange one, because as Goat says above it doesn't really feel like a Hitchcock song (which is fair enough as it's a co-write), but on the other hand it sounds just Hitchcockian enough to make its way into the repertoire. Of course without hearing the original we don't know what (if any) musical or lyrical revisions Robyn had performed upon it by 1979 to make it suitable for the Soft Boys.

For a very early work, it's a 4/5 (probably the best of those pre-SBs tunes). But viewed in retrospective context against the other Soft Boys material, I'll give it a 3/5.

 

I think 'Innocent Boy' is a lovely song, and I don't know why it's become the most sidelined officially released studio track in the canon ("The Bells of Rhymney" is technically more obscure, having never been reissued, not even on a scarce bonus 7", but the rerecording provides some consolation in that case). As I think I mentioned way, way back, it sounds to me like a close cousin of the classic "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)", especially in Hitchcock's vocal delivery.


It would normally be just below the top tier of Soft Boys tracks, but the song's had such a tough life I'm promoting it to 5!

 

I'm fine with that. When that disc was first released I was totally underwhelmed, and relistening to it again recently it still really only has curio value for me. There are a couple of decent, otherwise unavailable songs on it, but nothing that deserved to be on Underwater Moonlight.

 

Now that I think we've covered all of the constituent tracks, here's my tracklist for a (if I do say so myself) totally awesome Underwater Moonlight double LP:

Side One:
I WANNA DESTROY YOU
DREAMS
WHERE ARE THE PRAWNS?
INNOCENT BOY

Side Two:
KINGDOM OF LOVE
I GOT THE HOTS
INSANELY JEALOUS
SONG #4

Side Three:
ONLY THE STONES REMAIN - Original Album Version, seguing into 'Old Pervert'
OLD PERVERT (Original Album Version)
YOU’LL HAVE TO GO SIDEWAYS
BLACK SNAKE DIAMOND ROCK
THERE’S NOBODY LIKE YOU

Side Four:
TONIGHT
STRANGE
POSITIVE VIBRATIONS
QUEEN OF EYES
UNDERWATER MOONLIGHT

And here are the attendant singles. I contrived "single versions" for a lot of these, just for fun, but obviously there's nothing wrong with the originals:

1979 singles:

HE’S A REPTILE (I did an early fade to get this under 4 minutes)/
WEY WEY HEP UH HOLE

EMPTY GIRL (Various trims to get this down to just over 4 minutes) /
MURIEL’S HOOF / ROUT OF THE CLONES

1980 singles:

KINGDOM OF LOVE (Cut the intro in half and used only one of the descending riffs at the end before the final chord to get this under 4 minutes) /
VEGETABLE MAN

I WANNA DESTROY YOU /
I’M AN OLD PERVERT (DISCO)
(I know the a-side is already perfect single length, but I nevertheless tinkered with this in my Frankenstein workshop to make it more radio-friendly. The details are not for the faint-hearted.)

1981 singles:

ONLY THE STONES REMAIN (SINGLE VERSION -hey, an actual legitimate single version!) /
THE BELLS OF RHYMNEY

LIKE A REAL SMOOTHIE /
GOODBYE MAURICE OR STEVE
Since the two tracks / mixes on the Bucketfull of Brains single would have already been released in this timeline, I imagined that the band offered them a couple of unreleased songs from the Underwater Moonlight rehearsals instead. These are tidied-up edits of the versions from the Underwater Moonlight deluxe (and for my money, the two otherwise unavailable songs most worth saving from that disc.)

 

Innocent Boy -- pleasant enough, but nothing exciting. 2/5

 

Our votes for "Innocent Boy"

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Average: 3.44

 

Today's song is "He's a Reptile", written by Robyn Hitchcock and engineered by Mike Kemp.

Spotify: He's a Reptile
Lyric.

"He's a Reptile" was recorded in 1979 and was one of the earliest songs done after Matthew Seligman replaced Andy Metcalfe. It was released as the A-side to a single in 1983 and released again on the subsequent collection of outtakes Invisible Hits. It was included on the 1976-81 collection and since 1990, it's been included on CD or digital reissues of Underwater Moonlight.