Sun-Sentinal
February 8, 1988
Singer-Songwriter Finds Contradiction In Success
By Deborah Wilker
He is one of Pop music's longest-running, best-kept secrets -- an engaging philosopher with a penchant for irresistible melodies -- who often is compared to John Lennon and Bob Dylan.
He is Robyn Hitchcock, and now, after more than a decade of fine critical notices but relative obscurity, the singer-songwriter finally appears poised on the brink of recognition.
But to Hitchcock, 36, the contradiction is clear. He knows he doesn't belong on Madison Avenue. His music is not particularly commercial, nor is he.
Yet, he is here anyway -- at the Madison Avenue headquarters of A&M Records -- amid a frenzy of attention from reporters and office-workers. The occasion is the release this week of his ninth LP -- Globe of Frogs.
Hitchcock is smiling through the obligatory sell-the-album interviews, but
it's a chore he'd rather forsake. He is keenly aware of the damage that too
much exposure can bring. He has an ultra-hip following, is unknown by most
everyone else, and he'd almost prefer to keep it that way.
"My records have been seeping out for much of the past 10 years, like wires through cheese," Hitchcock says. "That's how I see my music. It oozes -- like wires going slowly through a block of Jarlsberg. It's not like I've just come on the scene all at once, like a mallet hitting an orange."
He speaks like he writes, in strange, hypnotic and darkly funny phrases, rarely saying the same thing twice to anyone. He calls his stark imagery "dreaming in public" -- a songwriting style that has won him a devout, progressive following, mostly on college campuses.
Despite his counterculture roots and bizarre musical messages, Hitchcock
is fashionably dressed in a sleek silk and wool double-breasted suit and pointy leather shoes. He is well over six feet tall, and is quite handsome. He could parlay his piercing looks into sex-symbolhood if he desired, but "being Sting" is not for him.
Hitchcock's signing with a major label, after a career with several Alternative music labels, should bring him closer to the forefront of Rock's cutting edge, giving him the opportunity to truly have an impact on music. But despite the new clout behind his sound, the mainstream selling of Hitchcock's winsome wit may not be simple. Are we ready to embrace a Pop minstrel who writes songs such as "My Wife And My Dead Wife"?
Hitchcock does not pander to radio's trends, nor is his music easily understandable -- a fact that has led some critics to call him a creator of
eccentric nonsense. Others simply file him under "Acid Casualties". But The
New York Times soundly endorsed him in a story last year, saying, "Talent
of this caliber simply can't be ignored -- or consigned to a cult following --
much longer."
While the team around him now is hoping Globe of Frogs will be Hitchcock's breakthrough, the singer-songwriter says continuing in obscurity would be just fine. "Success hasn't eluded me," he says, "because I've never really been looking for it."
Hitchcock has been on the brink of success several times throughout his career, but he has seen fame fleet by before he could seize it. He began in 1976 as the leader of the British group The Soft Boys, but the group fell victim to poor commercial timing. Among its many roadblocks was the emergence of The Sex Pistols, who ignited the British Punk movement, eclipsing The Soft Boys just as they were coming to critical prominence.
Hitchcock stayed with The Soft Boys through the early-'80s, then retired for two years so he could paint, think, and work as a gardener. He reemerged in 1984 with an acclaimed solo-acoustic LP, I Often Dream Of Trains. The next year, he formed his current group -- Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians -- and released Fegmania!, also to good notices.
Three LPs later (he is among the most prolific writers around), A&M scooped him up. Now that he is part of a commercial machine, should we expect a more saleable product?
"No," he says emphatically. "My records are meant to be listened to, not talked over," he says, referring to current chart hits and trends. "Ideally, I would never sing the same song twice."
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