Robyn Hitchcock - Acoustic Covers, Volume 12: 2013-2014

It's time to post more Robyn Hitchcock music. I've been working my way chronologically through his career. I've probably posted more albums by him than anyone else, yet I'm still only to 2013. This is yet another album consisting entirely of his acoustic cover versions.

As is usually the case with the other albums in this series, all of the performances here are officially unreleased, and all of them come from concert bootlegs. That said, I was careful to keep the sound quality high by avoiding the dodgy sounding boots. 

The song "Box of Rain" has been heavily edited. I play the guitar, and I know first hand that the song is surprisingly difficult to play, with lots of tricky chord changes and sections. I believe this recording is the first and only time Hitchcock played the song in concert. To be honest, he flailed around some, struggling to find the right chords as well as sometimes flubbing the words. I edited it to remove the worst flubs, for instance when he went back and redid a line or two. It's better now, but you can still hear some missed chord changes and some incorrect lines. I'm keeping it here despite the flaws because it's a great song and he got the spirit of it despite the rough edges.

This time around, Hitchcock happened to heavily focus on playing the songs of many of the greatest names in music, with only the one-hit wonder "Funkytown" being a left field choice. He was especially in a Bob Dylan mode, playing four of his songs, including the very rare "I'm Not There (1956)" from the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions.

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

01 The Only Living Boy in New York - Simon & Garfunkel
02 Simple Twist of Fate - Bob Dylan
03 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
04 Senor [Tales of Yankee Power] - Bob Dylan
05 Box of Rain [Edit] - Grateful Dead
06 Ashes to Ashes - David Bowie
07 Beware of Darkness - George Harrison
08 Dark Globe - Syd Barrett
09 Open the Door, Homer - Bob Dylan & the Band
10 Suzanne - Leonard Cohen
11 Dead Flowers - Rolling Stones
12 I'm Not There [1956] - Bob Dylan
13 Fancy - Kinks

Here's the usual song list:

01 The Only Living Boy in New York (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 Simple Twist of Fate (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 Funkytown (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 Senor [Tales of Yankee Power] (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 Box of Rain [Edit] (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 Ashes to Ashes (Robyn Hitchcock & Grant Lee Phillips)
07 Beware of Darkness (Robyn Hitchcock & Grant Lee Phillips)
08 Dark Globe (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 Open the Door, Homer (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Suzanne (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 Dead Flowers (Robyn Hitchcock & Steve-Kilbey)
12 I'm Not There [1956] (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 Fancy (Robyn Hitchcock)

This album is 47 minutes long.

https://www.upload.ee/files/15274558/RobynH_2013c-2014_AcousticCoversVolume12_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is from a 2014 concert in Nashville.