Robyn Hitchcock - Acoustic Covers, Volume 1: 1986-1991

In a previous post about Robyn Hitchcock, I mentioned that I've made three kinds of his albums for this blog: 1) acoustic versions of songs on his official albums, 2) collections of stray tracks, and 3) acoustic cover versions, usually done live.

So far, I've posted a few albums of the first two types. This is the first one of the third type. I've had to wait because I couldn't find any examples of Hitchcock doing acoustic covers until 1986. That's because he didn't tour much until around 1985. Then, for the next few years, he mostly played with his band the Egyptians, and quality bootlegs of his occasional acoustic concerts are rare.

As far as I can tell, he didn't perform acoustically much until 1990, after the release of his acoustic "Eye" album that year. But luckily we do have some occasional quality acoustic recordings from this early phase of his solo career that predate that.

If you enjoy this album, you'd be glad to hear that there's a lot more to come! This is the first of ten albums I've made containing nothing but Hitchcock playing songs by other artists. There are a total of 140 songs in the ten albums, with none of them repeated.

Mind you, this does NOT include any music from any of his full band concerts where he's played entire albums (plus bonus tracks) by other artists! I figure those are worth their own posts at a later time.  Over the years, he's performed:

all of Bob Dylan's 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert
The White Album (The Beatles)
Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Pink Floyd)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Beatles)
Abbey Road (The Beatles)
Hunky Dory (David Bowie)
Clear Spot (Captain Beefheart)
Revolver (The Beatles)
The Basement Tapes (Bob Dylan)
Sweethearts of the Rodeo (The Byrds)
a show just of Syd Barrett songs
a concert of what he called "Naff 1970s Hits."

If I could ever examine Hitchcock's music collection, I imagine it would closely mirror my own, based on his cover choices. As you can see from the albums he's performed, he loves Bob Dylan and the Beatles most of all, and he also really loves Pink Floyd (especially the Syd Barrett era).

That's reflected in his acoustic covers, as he covers those three artists the most. Over the ten acoustic covers albums I've made, you'll also see more than one cover of: David Bowie, The Doors, The Byrds, The Velvet Underground, Richard Thompson, Van Morrison, Roxy Music, The Kinks, John Lennon (solo), Lou Reed, Nick Drake, Jimi Hendrix, The Incredible String Band, The Band, Love, The Grateful Dead, George Harrison (solo), Leonard Cohen, and Neil Young, plus many, many other artists he does one or two songs of.

That's pretty much a list of my very favorite musical artists of all time! (Though I must admit I've never really gotten into Roxy Music or The Incredible String Band.)

No, Hitchcock doesn't have an incredible voice like Aretha Franklin's or Elvis Presley's. But he has a very good one, with character, and he always does justice to the many classic songs that he clearly loves. I don't know of any other artist who has played so many cover songs acoustically in concert. And yet he's not even close to being a "covers artist" because his covers only make up a small percentage of all the songs he does in a typical concert. It's just that he loves to vary things up instead of playing the same songs over and over again. Many of the covers I've included in these albums were only ever publicly performed by him once.

By the way, on top of everything else, I've also made an album I'll post later on just of his acoustic versions of songs by the Soft Boys, his original band. I figure those should be treated separately since he wrote those songs.

For all of these acoustic albums, I've removed the audience noise wherever I could. That's to create a consistent listening experience, since some of the songs come from radio station performances and other occasions where there was no audience.

Only one song on this album has been officially released. The two Van Morrison cover "Fair Play" was recorded at a 1991 concert, but were included as B-sides to a single that year.  The rest are from bootlegs. There are more songs I could have included but didn't because I felt the sound quality wasn't up to snuff.

By the way, I want to give a shout out to The Asking Tree, a website of Hitchcock data. This series wouldn't have been possible without it. To see what a human jukebox Hitchcock is, check out this below weblink to a list of all the songs he's covered. (I didn't include lots of them in this series because they were done with a full band, often in one of his shows playing a full album by someone else, or because there's no quality bootleg recording.)

The Asking Tree

Here's a list of the original artists for each song:

01 The Book of Love [Acappella Version] - Monotones
02 That's When Your Heartaches Begin - Ink Spots
03 False Knight on the Road - traditional
04 Went to See the Gypsy - Bob Dylan
05 Big-Eyed Beans from Venus - Captain Beefheart
06 No Strange Delight - Roxy Music
07 The Crystal Ship - Doors
08 Charlotte Anne - Julian Cope
09 Avalon - Poor Man Story - Roxy Music
10 I Found a Reason - Velvet Understand
11 Here She Comes Now - Velvet Understand
12 Brown Paper Bag - John Hegley
13 Draft Morning - Byrds
14 Strawberry Fields Forever - Beatles
15 The Ghost in You - Psychedelic Furs
16 Wild Mountain Thyme - traditional / Byrds
17 Withered and Died - Richard and Linda Thompson
18 Fair Play - Van Morrison

Over You - Roxy Music

Note that the second part of "Avalon," "Poor Man Story," appears to be a story Hitchcock made up on the spot while he continued to play the music from "Avalon" on the guitar. I came up with the title, since I felt the need to call it something.

And here's the regular song list:

01 The Book of Love [Acappella Version] (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 That's When Your Heartaches Begin (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 False Knight on the Road (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 Went to See the Gypsy (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 Big-Eyed Beans from Venus (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 No Strange Delight (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 The Crystal Ship (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 Charlotte Anne (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 Avalon - Poor Man Story (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 I Found a Reason (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 Here She Comes Now (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 Brown Paper Bag (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 Draft Morning (Robyn Hitchcock)
14 Strawberry Fields Forever (Robyn Hitchcock)
15 The Ghost in You (Robyn Hitchcock)
16 Wild Mountain Thyme (Robyn Hitchcock)
17 Withered and Died (Robyn Hitchcock)
18 Fair Play (Robyn Hitchcock)

Over You (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16067939/RobynH_1986-1991_AcousticCoversVolume1_atse.zip.html

I made the cover based on a photo from 1992. I couldn't find any really good ones of him playing an acoustic guitar in concert from before then.