Monday, April 27, 2020

Robyn Htichcock - Tin Angel, Philadephia, PA, 3-26-1995, Early Show

I am very delighted to present this Robyn Hitchcock solo acoustic concert, because it's a pristine soundboard that I know for a fact has never been available anywhere before. 

I know that because I was involved with two other musical friends (Lil Panda and Daniel) to convert it from an old cassette to digital. Lil Panda had a hand in recording it all those years ago, but didn't have a means to concert it until a few days ago. So if you're a Hitchcock fan, you definitely should listen to this.

I've already posted the two Hitchcock shows from the night before, March 25, 1995, at the same venue. They're soundboard bootlegs too, thanks to the same taper. See the links here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/04/robyn-hitchcock-tin-angel-philadelphia.html

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/04/robyn-hitchcock-tin-angel-philadelphia_5.html

I'm posting the early and late shows from March 26, 1995 as well, with this one being the early show. Admittedly, the shows are somewhat similar. But luckily, Hitchcock plays different set lists each time. Plus, he has lots of entertaining banter between songs, and I understand he never repeats the same story twice.

What's especially remarkable is this early show contains an unreleased song, apparently called "I Stayed Too Long," though that's just a guess, that has never appeared anywhere else. There's a vast Hitchcock Internet database called The Asking Tree that has tracked the majority of his concert set lists through 2006, yet there's no evidence of this song ever being played at any other time. And it's not one of his many spontaneous improv songs; it appears to be a fully formed song.

As mentioned above, the sound on this is great, since the taper was allowed to plug in directly to the soundboard. But there was one problem: a quiet but steady hum. It sounds a bit like one holding a keyboard key down for the entire recording. I discovered that during the songs it's quiet enough to be completely drowned out by the music. But it was still noticeable during the talking between songs. So, for the talking tracks only, I used some noise reduction to greatly reduce the hum. Hopefully, you won't even notice it. Normally, I'm loathe to ever use noise reduction, but I think it's okay in this case since I never used it on any of the actual music.

Another problem was that the talking parts were considerably quieter than the songs. So I moved those to their own tracks and then boosted their volume. I consider that problem fixed now.

This early show is 59 minutes long. It starts without any sort of introduction or audience reaction, so it's possible there's more at the start that didn't get recorded. But if so, I think it's very little, considering that the early show from the night before was also 59 minutes long.

01 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 Queen of Eyes (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 52 Stations (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 I'm Only You (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 De Chirico Street (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Egyptian Cream (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 Chinese Bones (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
14 Queen Elvis (Robyn Hitchcock)
15 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
16 I Something You (Robyn Hitchcock)
17 One Long Pair of Eyes (Robyn Hitchcock)
18 I Stayed Too Long (Robyn Hitchcock)
19 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
20 The Yip Song (Robyn Hitchcock)
21 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
22 Never Stop Bleeding (Robyn Hitchcock)
23 Arms of Love (Robyn Hitchcock)
24 Only the Stones Remain (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15272095/RobynH_1995_Tin_AngelPhiladephiaPA__3-26-1995__Early_Show_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is from a concert in early 1996.

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