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

Some points. I'm not aware of those. I'd be most interested in hearing them. If there are YouTube links, put 'em up.

AT this point participation is rather limited, as you'd expect from a new thread about what's ultimately a cult artist. So I see no problem with discussing stuff as we go -- it's not like this is a Beatle thread that grows fifteen pages a day and thus a few detours and extra info doesn't generally hurt too much and can be fun learning experience: I'd rather talk about old stuff than get ahead and talk about stuff we haven't got too, mind.

Of course, I won't be holding up songs for rating that haven't been officially released at least once; for no other reason than there are certain rabbit holes it's best not to go down and that's one of them. And also because most people will not have heard them and they may not be the best work an artist has to offer (usually isn't, especially in the era of archival releases and bonus tracks: if it hasn't been released sometimes it just isn't that good.)

 

Our votes for "Where Are the Prawns"

1-0
2-0
3-0
4-2
5-2
Average: 4.425

 

Today's song is "Salamander", written by Robyn Hitchcock and produced by Andy Arthurs. (?)

Lyric can be read HERE

Another song from the Radar sessions, this was released on the 1993 compilation 1976-81.

 

I first saw RH at the Portland Arms folk club in Cambridge in Summer 1975 and he was around with the Meatpackers for a year after that. One of them was Rosalind, his partner of the time who I guess he met when in London between 1972 and 74/5 (see the song '1974' previously mentioned). 'Wish I had my baby' on the Portland Arms LP is a fair representation. 'The Unpleasant Stain' was played at the first few SB gigs with Rob Lamb and was, er, tasteless ('She has to explain/she has to explain/the unpleasant stain').

 

Oh, Salamander's just popped up. Will give my thoughts later! (produced by John Acock at Rockfield by the way).

 

Here's the Maureen And the Meatpackers track on YT:

'The Unpleasant Stain' is reportedly Robyn's first proper composition from his teenage years, of similar nature and intent to 'Walnut'. A studio version of 'Zip Zip' (not to be confused with the later live Soft Boys version) also circulates.

The alleged Worst Fears tracks from 1975 are in my own collection - I acquired them from the guy who edited and produced the 'Positive Vibrations' fanzine, but I'm on the fence as to whether they're genuine or not.

 

Heh, yes, it is the kind of lyric you'd expect from a teenage boy.

A solo 'demo' version of the song also circulates.

 

Blimey, better than I remember it! Musically very Barrett, lyrics EVEN WORSE than I remembered.
Hippies!!

 

Love this one. The English folk-rock music influences on Robyn's writing are regularly underestimated. It's understandable I suppose considering the size of his American audience, but I hear Martin Carthy in Robyn's playing in general just as much as I hear Syd Barrett.

 

This is wild! Never heard it at all.

 

Thanks!

 

Yes. Well, I'm American (originally, I left) and they seem clear; I suppose it's that the average American isn't enough that knowledgeable about folk music in general, not even American folk music. To be honest, I get really sick of the Syd Barrett comparisons in every single article about Hitchcock. I mean, I hear it, but there's more to him than that and in fact I think he's better.

But yes, this is really a very English-folk sounding yet very psychedelic song. I just love this song. I mean, it just -- it's actually my favorite song we've discussed yet. Every single element of it is utterly perfect to me; and although it's quite a complex song with a lot going on and some very strange, un-pop-like structures and rhythms, it's really beautiful and catchy and somehow almost sounds like a hit.

The arrangement is so lush, like a wet jungle in summer; again I'm amazed at this band, not just Robyn Hitchcock -- the bass line during the "scattering the parrots and loosening the leaves" just leaves me gasping, as does that little riff thing they do after "what clatters towards us". Robyn's voice typically gorgeous, and underrated singer really, the lyrics, the rhtyhm of it all.

I don't really try to analyze the lyrics because I have no idea; I let the gorgeous sound of the words and the odd images they bring (a bit fantasy, I suppose like a Jack Vance novella is what they call to my mind) wash through my mind.

Another 5/5 for me for this technicolor masterpiece.

 

Very interesting! Thank! You're right, it does sound a bit like that extreme early period of "Walnut" -- bit sixties. Not that great, really, but the elements are there that would be developed.

 

Mine too, I think.

*reaches for pretentious hat*

For me, it's as though the artist Arcimboldo had been commissioned to write a folk song in the same style he'd paint a portrait.



It's presented in a highly unorthodox - even bizarre - manner, but you still instinctively know what it is and what it represents.

The songs we've heard up to now appeal on a number of different primal levels, but this one is the first that appeals (to me at least) on an intellectual level (there are others to come, of course). A real shock to the cerebellum like being plugged into something like a repressed racial memory (which is where the very specific Englishness kicks in) that just for a split second overloads your brain and threatens to rewire it completely.

And Grace reveals her knees.

5/5

 

You know, pretentious or not, I think you nailed my feelings about the song very well, even down to the Arcimboldo reference.

 

Salamander has always been one of my favourite SB tracks. The song came at the end of the track listing for the songs recorded for the Radar album in July 1978 (see my post #140 above). As such, and as it differs in feel so much from the rest of those tracks, I've always seen it as a brilliant afterthought.

The general sense from the Radar tracks is of a not very sympathetic producer spending too much time on the drum and bass sound, rather wiry and wayward guitar playing, and a sloppiness in Robyn's lead vocals which undermines the whole project, as if he was losing interest. The end result is it's unsurprising that Radar dropped them afterwards. The remakes of the 1977 material (Hoover, Brane, Death) simply don't have the spirit of the originals, and there are almost no songs which were brand new at this point ('Salamander' being the exception). However, the 3 other songs which were done very well were 'Wey Wey Hep', 'Ugly Nora' (the song had been around for a year) and 'Look Into Your Mirror' (very early song and this is it's only studio recording). Any of those were worth releasing - but an Andy Arthurs LP from the spring would have been a lot better.

Salamander reminds me of other dream/myth songs by RH such as The Fly on Fegmania and The Leopard - (which was recorded just too late for the original Element of Light LP). Taking the identity of a reptile ('my golden skin inflates with pride') is brilliantly imaginative, coupled with the focussed guitars and Andy Metcalfe's superb sliding bass. The musical and lyrical sincerity of the song are a cut above some of the whackiness of earlier stuff. The tank soundtrack at the end adds to the jungle atmosphere. I have a feeling that the lead vocal for the released version was rerecorded at a later date, possibly as late as the 1990s CD, as the original single-tracked vocal was intimate but a bit lazy, especially on pitch. Anyway, 5/5. (though the playing is in 6/8)

 

I can't explain why exactly*, but it just 'works' for me in a way that actual genuine (English) folk-rock often doesn't.


* although I might come back and have another go at it later.

 

Salamander 4.6/5

Brilliant.

Wow, I never owned the 1976-81 collection and I had no idea that there was an album or more of material
pre-A Can of Bees. It’s been a blast to hear this early stuff while following this thread.

 

To me, Fatman´s Son, Where Are The Prawns and Salamander are all superior to Anglepoise Lamp.
They have a better flow somehow, and I like them as songs more. Also great guitar playing/arrangements.
Close to 5/5 for these!

 

"Where are the Prawns"...is another really good one. But "Salamander"...wow, this is great, love the guitar work, and yeah everything about this one is spot on! 5/5

 

Salamander -- another 4/5 for me. It was a highlight/discovery of the 76-81 collection for me. Great bass line.

 

Salamander is in addition to everything said above the most Beefheart-y one we've considered I think

 

As I was late to the thread, here's my own markings out of 5 so far:

• It's Not Just the Size of a Walnut 2.6
• Ugly Nora 3.2
• Wey Wey Hep a Hole 3.7
• Wading Through Your Ventilator 3.5
• The Face of Death 3.8
• Hear My Brane 3.5
• The Yodelling Hoover 2.8
• Give it to the Soft Boys 3.3
• Verna Knowl Is a Headbanger 3.3
• Anglepoise Lamp 4.5
• Fatman's Son 4.2
• Where Are The Prawns? 4.4
• Salamander 4.9 and a bit (slight revision)

Nora, Wey Wey, GittSB, Anglepoise Lamp and Prawns - I personally prefer the later and/or live versions, but more about that when we get there.

 

I missed Anglepoise Lamp - a song that more or less changed my life and career trajectory. I'd give it a 7.800,724,514 out of 5, if possible. I wish the original 45 version were better known and easier to access for the general public.

 

Never heard that before. Really interesting! The lyrics aren’t much, but I dig the music. Definitely sounds like the building blocks of Robyn.