Uplister.com
March, 2001
Robyn Hitchcock's Invisible List
by Jaan Uhelszki
Robyn Hitchcock has been called a latter-day Syd Barrett, with his skewed vision of life (which stops just this side of the macabre). The witty and whimsical artist made his first mark in the Postpunk Psychedelic group The Soft Boys, until the beloved outfit called it a day in 1981. Following what many consider the premature demise of The Soft Boys, Hitchcock spent his time writing for the equally eccentric Captain Sensible before forming his own group, The Egyptians, with Andy Metcalfe, Morris Windsor, and Roger Jackson. This new outfit cut a wide swatch through music's "outsider element", with raging monologues on the odder aspects of life. Songs like "Man With The Lightbulb Head", and perhaps their best-loved release "My Wife And My Dead Wife" -- a modern day ghost story about the intrusion of the protagonist's late wife into his current relationship -- exemplified The Egyptians' appeal through surreal subject matter.
Creem magazine's Bill Holdship once proclaimed, "God walked among us," after witnessing a Hitchcock performance -- an experience that even jaded critics have described as hypnotic. Considered one of the most respected singer-songwriters of recent times, Hitchcock has influenced the Los Angeles Paisley Underground Movement, and bands from R.E.M. to The
Replacements (who once begged Hitchcock to produce an album for them). This hero of Alternative music is currently in the process of reforming The Soft Boys and recording a live album with them March 29th at Detroit's St. Andrews Hall -- a reunion sure to cause flutters in the hearts of hard-core fans akin to the reconstitution of The Beatles.
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