Robyn Hitchcock's Magical Realms
The Psych-Pop Troubadour Continues To Amaze 40+ Years Into His Career
Listening to a Robyn Hitchcock album is like entering a series of magical realms. A musical white rabbit, Hitchcock draws music lovers in with ‘60s pop hooks and playful song titles that often deliver us into swirling psychedelic spheres populated by ghosts, anthropomorphized insects, dark literary icons, and the odd balloon man.
Whether strumming an acoustic or backed by the jangling guitars, grooving bass, and pounding drums of a world-class band, Hitchcock delivers his surreal lyrics with the ease of a crooner and the menace of a macabre storyteller. All of that while occasionally writing some of the most heart-wrenchingly earnest love songs ever.
It would be an amazing trick for any artist to pull off on a couple releases, but Hitchcock has done it consistently across 20+ studio albums. And he’s still writing and recording some of his most vital material 40+ years into a stunning career.
I was reminded of all this at his sold out show in LA on Saturday. As a longtime fan, there were many Hitchcock/Soft Boys/Egyptians/Venus 3 songs I hoped for (alas, a few like “My Wife & My Dead Wife,” “The Yip Song” and “I Wanna Destroy You” were on the previous night’s setlist!), but the unpredictable song choices are part of the fun when seeing Hitchcock live—he’s got a deep, dark well of material to pull from.
The evening featured an opening set from singer/songwriter Kelley Stoltz who was accompanied by songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Bart Davenport. (Stoltz and Davenport would later become Hitchcock’s rhythm section for the full band portion of the show, along with Kurt Bloch on lead guitar.) In between, Hitchcock played a short acoustic set, occasionally performing with his talented wife Emma Swift.
Additional guest performers included Jason Falkner on tambourine for a cover of Pete Seeger’s “The Bells of Rhymney” (The Byrds’ version), and Luther Russell of Those Pretty Wrongs with some impressive Rickenbacker 12-string on a handful of songs.
The setlist spanned his eclectic catalog from “Brenda’s Iron Sledge” off his debut 1981 solo album Black Snake Diamond Röle to “The Shuffle Man” from 2022’s Shufflemania! It’s incredible to think that those two songs, released 41 years apart, could sit so comfortably in the same set, but it speaks volumes about the specific stylistic threads in Hitchcock’s music.
The crowd was also treated to fan-favorites like “So You Think In You’re In Love” (Perspex Island), “Madonna of the Wasps” (Queen Elvis), The Soft Boys’ “Queen of Eyes” (Underwater Moonlight), “Goodnight Oslo” (Goodnight Oslo), and “Autumn Sunglasses” (Robyn Hitchcock), among many others.
Although I’d loved his music since the mid-’80s, I didn’t see Hitchcock perform live until 1993. I was managing a club in Eastern Europe and he and Joe Strummer co-headlined a benefit concert that we helped organize. Talk about starstruck!
Watching him perform a solo set from the lip of the stage in an old art deco beer hall was mesmerizing. That’s the night I officially went from Robyn Hitchcock fan to Robyn Hitchcock disciple—and I’ve remained devoted ever since.
These days, I count two of his albums among my all time favorites—Underwater Moonlight by The Soft Boys, and Fegmania! by Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians. A couple standout releases from the 2000s include Goodnight Oslo by Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, and his excellent self-titled solo album from 2017.
But you can pretty much jump in anywhere and find more than a few songs that will blow your mind—and many that will take you on a kaleidoscopic journey through the magical realms created by a living musical legend.
Robyn Hitchcock Tour Dates & Live Streams
If you’ve never seen Robyn Hitchcock in concert—either acoustic or with a full band—I highly recommend it, for the incredible music and the entertaining stream-of-consciousness storytelling between songs. Go to Hitchcock’s tour page to find dates and tickets. And you can always catch one of his entertaining live streams.
Big fan of RH. In all his guises and bands. Your 5 song picks would all make my top ten. Excellent choices. I’m kicking myself for not seeing him when he recently came to San Francisco. But money is tight and I’ve seen him a dozen times. Thank goodness for YouTube.
I've always liked his songs, but have never done a deep dive outside of Underwater Moonlight, though I did give the self-titled a number of listens when it came out.