Robyn Hitchcock - Surfer Ghost - Non-Album Tracks (1991-1995)

Yet another Robyn Hitchcock album. This one is of the stray tracks variety (as opposed to all acoustic or all covers).

It starts out with two 1991 songs that I've already included on a previous compilation, "Dark Green Energy" and "Watch Your Intelligence." That's because the previous versions (which I put on the album "Kiss Yourself") are solo acoustic versions, and these are significantly different full band versions. This version of "Dark Green Energy" is particularly interesting because it has Michael Stipe of R.E.M. singing on it.

Unlike most of my Hitchcock stray tracks albums, the vast majority of these songs have been officially released, with a bunch of them coming from B-sides. As a result, the sound quality is generally excellent. Only two songs - "Yes I Do" and "Direct Me to the Cheese" are unreleased, from concert bootlegs. Most of the songs are also done with a full band.

But that doesn't count the two bonus tracks, "The Fortunate Son" and "The Mousaka Song." are fun original songs. Unfortunately, they were only done rarely in concert, maybe only once, and the recordings here come from audience bootlegs that sound significantly worse than everything else. Thus I'm only including them as bonus tracks.

01 Dark Green Energy (Robyn Hitchcock with Michael Stipe)
02 Watch Your Intelligence (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 Ivy Alone (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 Bright Fresh Flower (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 The Live-In Years [The Living Years] (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 Yes I Do (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 Lost Tribes (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 Surfer Ghost (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 Testosterone Blues (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Zipper in My Spine (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 I Something You (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 Statue with a Walkman (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 Direct Me to the Cheese (Robyn Hitchcock)

The Fortunate Son (Robyn Hitchcock)
The Mousaka Song (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15122244/RobynH_1995_SurferGhst_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I decided it would be fun to go in a very literal direction. I found a drawing of the Silver Surfer surfing through space and added some semi-transparent space background to make it seem like he's a ghost.