Robyn Hitchcock
"It’s still odd for me to think of the 1980s as being in the past," Robyn Hitchcock says of Luminous Groove, the second in a trio of retrospective box sets gathering some of the revered English singer/songwriter/guitarist’s most enduring vintage recordings. "Back then, they were a baleful future that we refugees from the 1960s were marooned in. I never thought I’d get out alive, from Reagan, Thatcher and shoulder pads. But time wins again. This music was recorded as the compact disc was emerging and music was becoming more disposable. I’m glad we’re getting it out on vinyl this time."
The five-CD, 90-track Luminous Groove (which is also being released as a set of eight vinyl LPs) combines three classic ’80s Hitchcock albums with a treasure trove of rarities, many of them previously unreleased, from the same era.
In addition to 1985’s Fegmania!, 1986’s Element of Light and the 1985 live release Gotta Let This Gen Out! – all of which appear here in expanded editions featuring rare bonus tracks – the set features a pair of additional CDs that assemble an assortment of unreleased material. Subtitled Bad Case of History Vols. One and Two, the first disc focuses on studio demos and outtakes, while the second is comprised of previously unreleased live tracks. All five discs feature Hitchcock’s beloved backup combo the Egyptians.
Robyn Hitchcock’s consistently iconoclastic output has established him as a world-class tunesmith, as well as a singular lyricist with an uncanny penchant for incisive whimsy and vivid surrealist metaphor. Hitchcock’s prolific and influential body of work spans more than three decades, from his late-’70s work as leader of seminal post-punk psychedelicists the Soft Boys to his subsequent releases under his own name. But many of Hitchcock’s devoted followers retain a particular affection for the mid-’80s years that are the focus of Luminous Groove. It was during that period that he became a regular presence on American stages, and began to build the rabidly devoted U.S. fan base that continues to support him more than two decades later.
Luminous Groove also documents Hitchcock’s long and productive association with the Egyptians, which featured former Soft Boys Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor on bass and drums, respectively, as well as keyboardist Roger Jackson, who left the band following Element of Light. Hitchcock, Metcalfe and Windsor continued as a trio, recording a series of albums for A&M Records before going their separate ways.
"For me, the period that Luminous Groove covers is the great arc between the Egyptians’ first U.S. tour in 1985 and our final one in 1993," says Hitchcock. "Inadvertently, we’d been part of the jangle revival that spawned R.E.M. and the Smiths, which was eventually washed away by Nirvana in the early 1990s."
The three vintage Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians albums that anchor Luminous Groove are among the most celebrated releases in the Hitchcock oeuvre. Fegmania!, which marked the Egyptians’ recording debut as well as Hitchcock’s first-ever U.S. release (on Slash Records), features such enduring Hitchcock standards as "My Wife and My Dead Wife," "Heaven" and "The Man with the Lightbulb Head." Element of Light played a major role in expanding the artist’s American fan base, thanks to the enthusiastic airplay and press acclaim that greeted such tunes as "If You Were a Priest," "Raymond Chandler Evening" and "Lady Waters and the Hooded One."
Gotta Let This Hen Out! is a persuasive document of Hitchcock and the Egyptians’ prowess as a subtly powerful live act. It also functions as a crash-course introduction to the early Hitchcock songbook, with memorable renditions of the Soft Boys chestnuts "Only The Stones Remain," "Kingdom of Love" and "Leppo and the Jooves," along with such early solo numbers as "Sometimes I Wish I Was a Pretty Girl," "Brenda’s Iron Sledge" and "The Cars She Used to Drive."
"It’s funny how, from here in 2008, the 1980s seem more dated than the 1970s," Hitchcock observes. "Music and movies from the ’70s seem to have a classic patina, where ’80s stuff can sound tinny and brittle. By the time we recorded as the Egyptians, we were deep in the digital corridor, and the sounds of that era still cling to those recordings: chorused guitars, digital keyboards, and the snare-you-can-land-a-plane-on sound. At the time, a friend said ‘Wow, you sound so much less old-fashioned!’ Now it’s nostalgic to hear these records. I still love them, shoulder pads and all."
While Luminous Groove’s three main albums rank with Hitchcock’s most popular work, the 32 tracks on the two Bad Case of History discs mark a significant addition to the Hitchcock catalogue. All but one of those tracks are previously unreleased, the lone exception being "Wild Mountain Thyme," originally recorded under the pseudonym Nigel and the Crosses for the long out-of-print Byrds tribute album Time Between. Included are many previously unheard Hitchcock compositions, as well as several live numbers on which he and the Egyptians reinvent the material with arrangements that diverge substantially from the songs’ studio incarnations.
"The live material," Hitchcock says, "really shows what we were all about. Andy and Morris were very in synch as rhythm section and harmony singers, and what could feel like uptightness in the recording studio came through as tightness on stage. In 1992, we decided to get rid of the amps and full drum kit on stage, and to concentrate on the vocal sound. This is really apparent on songs like ‘Driving Aloud’ and ‘The Live-In Years.’ My favorite is the live ‘Globe of Frogs’ – great artificial tablas and piano!"
"I still play many of these songs on these sets today," Hitchcock notes, adding, "Some of them feel like kid’s songs; others are more mature than I could have been then. A song is often a camera trained on the artist, telling them about their own situation in a detached way; John Lennon’s ‘Nowhere Man’ is a good example. I must have written hundreds like that. For me, songs are an emotional truth rather than a literal one. People are sometimes surprised that I don’t live in a house full of bats."
Assessing the period that Luminous Groove chronicles, Hitchcock states, "I went into it aiming to create work that would last and also pay for me to live. I came out of it jaded by not fulfilling ambitions that I never had when I went in. In the course of this, however, I met many people, accumulated a quiver full of songs, and learned a lot. And I had a lot of fun."