Detroit Free Press
April 4, 1988
Robyn Hitchcock Has Cult Status
by Gary Graff
When he was a child, Robyn Hitchcock had a particular, and peculiar, career interest -- time travel.
"I wasn't interested in growing up to be a pilot or a doctor or a sex-symbol or anything," the 34-year-old British performer-composer said. "All I wanted from life was to invent a time machine. I just wanted to travel through time. I remember bursting into tears when I was 12, saying, 'I'm gonna crack time! I will! I will!'
"They led me out of the classroom and said, 'Never you mind, Robyn, it'll be all right.' You can quickly become very cynical when you have wishes like that."
Offbeat, rather than cynical, is the best word to describe Hitchcock, who first came to prominence during the early-'80s with his band The Soft Boys. A self proclaimed "category of one", he uses fish as recurring images in his songs. In one tune on his latest album, Globe of Frogs, Hitchcock introduces us to a man whose bulbous head explodes, splattering "tomatoes, hummus, chickpeas and some strips of skin" on the narrator.
He even wrote one ditty about the bubonic plague.
The crafted eccentricities extend offstage and off-record. Asked if it were any different making records for a major label (A&M) than for the independent company that released his previous albums, he replied, "Not at all. They're done in completely the same fashion, crafted by old Welsh ladies. They actually knit the records, using old Welsh wool made from old sheep."
Kevin Kane of Canadian Pop band Grapes Of Wrath remembered finding Hitchcock outside the Grapes' dressing room before one show, "just standing there, bewildered. I said, 'Can I help you?' And he said, 'Oh, I'm just looking for an empty beer can.' I found one for him. I guess he wanted to use it for an ash tray -- because he didn't want to dirty a regular ash tray. I didn't ask why."
Push aside the oddities, however, and Hitchcock emerges as an impressive songwriter with a knack for catchy melodies and rollercoaster rhythms. "Fun-House Pop" is what Rolling Stone called it. You can hear the surrealistic influences of Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett, and Captain Beefheart, but there's also an energy steeped in late-'70s British Punk and New Wave that keeps Hitchcock from sounding like just another psychedelic flashback.
His particular difference is the lyrics, full of oddball images and discordant themes. Songs about sailors drowning in the ocean, after all, aren't easy Top 40 fair. But they keep the fans guessing.
"People are free to interpret you as they like," Hitchcock said, though he feels his songs are often misunderstood by those who try to read too much into them.
"I'm trying to reflect the totally jumbled society in which we live," he said. "We're a very confused people, aren't we? People don't seem to be able to help themselves; they need trouble, can't survive without it. We've got a planet of 50 billion people, all looking for trouble. It's amazing we haven't blown each other up yet."
That explanation offered, Hitchcock offered one other piece of advice for listeners: "I think people could listen to the music more. The lyrics tend to get stuck in their digestion."
With Globe Of Frogs, more people are listening to Hitchcock and The Egyptians -- bassist Andy Metcalfe and drummer Morris Windsor -- than ever before. The record has topped the college-radio charts, where Hitchcock has long been a cult favorite. And with the weight of A&M's strong record -distribution system behind him, Hitchcock seems to be tiptoeing toward the Pop mainstream. "As long as they don't try to market me like Bryan Adams or The Psychedelic Furs (or something)," he said, "I can live with it."
But would he really like a hit single? "No," he said. "I'd rather have an alligator." And what would he do with it? "I'd keep it as far away from me as possible, that's for sure."
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