Monday, April 26, 2010

Fate Forces Me to Post

In the past week, I have posted two comments linking to Robyn Hitchcock videos. Yesterday, Gavin M. at smart snark central posted a link to a Robyn Hitchcock video.

Robyn has, in one combo or other, been in the music business since the mid-to-late seventies. He writes gorgeous pop songs about, for the most part, grotesque subjects (Edgar Allen Poe would probably use the term "Arabesque"). His somewhat nasal vocals may take some getting used to, but he plays the guitar with a jangly virtuosity that is immediately accessible.

While there doesn't seem to be much of a market for pretty songs about crustaceans, disease, decay, and the like, Robyn has always had a dedicated cult following. If one distilled out the "normal" songs in Robyn's thirty-some-odd year career, one could probably put together a smash hit album, the sort of record that soccer moms and Dockers-wearing guys could listen to in the minivan while driving the kids around.

Here's Robyn at his prettiest (although there are a couple of trademark touches of grotesquerie in this lovely song, originally found on 1986's Element of Light album with backing band The Egyptians):





The sound in this video is not quite as good, but I am posting it as well, because *GLOATING* I was at this concert *GLOATING*.

7 comments:

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Robyn has always had a dedicated cult following

GUILTY!!

Vonnie said...

Me too. Guilty on all counts.
Great link!! Good song!!

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Can I gloat about seeing him with the Egyptians?

How about multiple shows in a 300 person club, as close as I wanted to be?

Substance McGravitas said...

Okay gramps. Sha Na Na were great too.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Can I gloat about seeing him with the Egyptians?

Only to someone who hasn't, old chum!

How about multiple shows in a 300 person club, as close as I wanted to be?

Met him in the basement at Toad's in New Haven, gave him directions to the pissoir, and a musician friend **GEEK ALERT** gave him a tape.

Hey, everybody should be a Robyn fan, he's like an architecht... of dreams.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

well, sure, it's easy to see all the coolest bands when you're in NEW YORK.

JUST TRY to see them perform in a Midwestern cow town. JUST TRY.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Passive-aggressive zombie is passive-aggressive.
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