"Modern Rock Live"
February 7, 1992
Tom [Calderone]: Live in the studio: Robyn Hitchcock.
["Alright, Yeah" live.]
Tom: All right. Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians on Modern Rock Live. Welcome!
Robyn: We're here, how are you?
Tom: Fine, fine. Where'd you guys just come from?
Robyn: Philadelphia.
Tom: Philadelphia. How'd the show go?
Andy: It was packed, and they turned people away -- which was great!
Tom: Really? That's really important?
Andy: I mean, not great for the people who got turned away.
Tom: That's very important. We're here with Andy and Morris (and, of course, Robyn Hitchcock). And we're gonna take phone calls on 1-800-ROCK. Can you hear okay, Robyn?
Robyn: I can hear you, yeah.
Tom: Oh, great. Let's go to Brian in Toledo, Ohio; listening to us on 89X (the home of the Mudhens). Hi Brian.
Brian: How ya doin'? I'm particularly interested in the way that you write and record songs. I was wondering if you have a certain process for writing them? Do you come up with the lyrics first? Do you always write on the guitar or piano, or...
Robyn: No. Many years ago, Brian, I used to write the words first, and I'd pick up the guitar and try different chords. I didn't know how they stuck together, so I'd be going, sort of [plays dischords], (or something like that), trying to sing over the top of it. And it didn't work. And time goes by. And I realized you can do more with fewer and fewer chords, and just make it simple. I don't think words are very important in...I mean, words aren't as important as music is [in a song].
Tom: All right, let's go to Jack in Fort Collins, Colorado; listening to us on KTCL.
Jack: Robyn, your music excites me so much, and I get so up when I listen to it, and go up and grab a guitar, and I just start writing. And was wondering: when you were younger, what influenced you? And also, was wondering what your favorite fish was?
Robyn: Um, I don't have a favorite fish. Do you?
Tom: He's gone.
Robyn: Oh, hell. Well, I hope you're still alive, Jack -- and it was nice to have you in the middle of my head for three seconds. And as for what influenced me, I can't remember -- it was all so long ago. We all used to listen to The Beatles so...this is years back.
Andy: Yeah, we did. The Beatles.
Robyn: Absolutely. Years back. But you've got a Smiths CD, haven't you?
Andy: I do. I have two Smiths CDs, in fact!
Tom: Andy, which Smiths do you have?
Andy: I've got a big compilation of stuff which was released after they broke up, and--
Tom: You have the ones where Morrissey's whining, right?
Andy: The early ones?
Tom: The early, whining, years!
Andy: I don't, actually. But having said that, I thought The Smiths were awfully whiney when they first started. And I got into it later on (and I've gone back and discovered the delights of the early Smiths since).
Tom: What's your favorite Smiths song? I always like to ask that one.
Andy: God.
Morris: I like "How Soon Is Now?" Or, what was that..."What Difference Does It Make?".
Andy: Yeah. "How Soon Is Now?" is brilliant!
Tom: Great record. Robyn, were you a Smiths fan at all?
Robyn: Um, no. But I liked them after they were dead.
Tom: Let's go to Lynn in Minneapolis, listening to us on KJ104.
Lynn: First, Robyn, I'd just like to say thanks for writing and producing music -- because it's so beautiful, and it makes everybody's life a little better. And secondly, I'd like to know who's your favorite author?
Robyn: Favorite author? Right now probably nobody, because I can't read. But I used to read a lot. But it was so long ago I can't remember. Just depends on what mood you're in. Andy and I both like a man called Mervyn Peake. Have you ever heard of him?
Lynn: No.
Robyn: Well, Mervyn Peake wrote a brilliant thing called The Gormenghast Trilogy. He was actually a draftsman -- an artist. He was a very good line-drawer. He did lots of cartoons. He wrote a three-part story about a, sort of, imaginery English castle with old professors (and stuff) in it. And then he went into premature sinethea, and he died at the age of 50 -- looking like he was 93 (which was a tragic end for him). He's the most exotic writer I can think of -- and I know we both liked him. I'd read him if you haven't read him yet.
Tom: Let's go to Dave in Denver, Colorado.
Dave: Hey, Robyn. This time when you're in Boulder, are you gonna tell all those wild stories in concert?
Robyn: No. I've been trying to keep that down to a minimum. We're trying to play this time.
Dave: They're interesting stories.
Robyn: Yeah, but they come out and we just have a lot of business trying to play -- and it's very hard to concentrate. When I'm on my own, the...I just...all there is is playing guitar and talking. But there's three of us. There's an awful lot of music to play, and you have to focus on that. So, if you want to hear stories don't bother to come this time around.
Tom: It's not a storyteller show, right?
Robyn: No, it's music.
Tom: We go to Eric in Southampton, Pennsylvania; listening to us on WPJT.
Eric: Robyn, I saw you last night at the Trocadero, and I think you guys were great.
Robyn: Oh, thank you very much. We were really tired.
Tom: What was your favorite part of the show, Eric?
Eric: Oh, the whole thing, really. I just had such a great time.
Robyn: Did you?
Eric: Yeah!
Robyn: You didn't notice that we were getting sleepy?
Eric: No, not at all.
Robyn: A credit to us ('cause we were).
Andy: We all fell asleep immediately afterwards.
Robyn: Yeah.
Tom: Did you miss the storytelling, Eric?
Eric: It was brilliant!
[All laugh]
Eric: Oh, god. I just wanted to know what kind of music you listen to now (and if you really did eat a half-cooked chicken with Joan Baez)?
Robyn: Did I ever eat cooked chicken with Joan Baez?
Eric: Yeah!
Robyn: Yeah (metaphorically).
Morris: In his fantasies.
Robyn: My father's fantasies, more like! He had a Joan Baez album, and she had some stuff spilled on her shirt.
Morris: I actually had a Joan Baez record. A single.
Robyn: You knowingly bought it?
Morris: Yeah. [Unintelligible] Remember that one?
Robyn: Yeah, I do. Why did you buy it?
Morris: 'cause it was a Pop record. It's like the old Donovan records, you know: they weren't really fully records. They were Pop records in those days.
Robyn: Yeah, but you must have liked it!
Andy: Yeah, but Morris is very eclectic.
Robyn: I know, but you have certain parameters.
Morris: I was a sensitive nine-year-old, you know?
Andy: I would never have thought of you as verging on the folkie. That was before you had the moustache (which you don't have anymore).
Robyn: Oh, he had a moustache at nine!
Morris: A long time before that, yeah.
Robyn: Morris, dear listeners, is the rocker of the group. And Andy and I listen to all sorts of pansy, acoustic, things. But Morris used to listen to groups like The Hard Groins (and things).
Andy: Blue Oyster Cult.
Morris: Yeah: On Your Feet Or On Your Knees.
Robyn: Shag Vermin And The Sponge Rockers.
["Dark Green Energy" live]
Tom: "Dark Green Energy": Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians. Now, that's not on the new record, actually. That's a CD-5 thing they have now -- a little marketing thing.
Robyn: Yeah, well, it just didn't go with the record. And now it's out on the radio (so it's a little confusing).
Tom: Do you think people can buy that in stores?
Robyn: No. It had to be surgically implanted onto the CD (if you buy it). But there's so many millions of ways of hyping this thing.
Andy: You know, if enough radio stations were playing it I'm sure they'd put it into the shops.
Tom: It'd be coming through your mailbox.
Andy: So we're counting on you. We're counting on you.
Tom: Oh. Everyone go call your radio stations. Keep requesting it. Say, "I want this in the stores immediately. Otherwise Robyn will be mad." Let's talk to Dennis in Petersburg, New York; listening to us on 102.7, WEQX.
Dennis: Yes? Robyn?
Robyn: Hi, Dennis.
Dennis: Hi. I caught your show a couple of years back at SUNY, Albany; and I requested...I talked to you outside the cafeteria, and I requested "Swirling".
Robyn: "Swirling"?
Dennis: It's like, a song. It inspires my life!
Robyn: Does it?
Dennis: A lot. It's really special to me. And I was wondering what exactly inspired you to write "Swirling"?
Robyn: Um...well, I'll tell you. I was sitting cross-legged upstairs in a room I don't normally write the songs in ('cause I normally write them downstairs around the ol' table -- unless I'm overseas). And I started playing in a particular chord, and probably just because of the angle of the light in the room, it became "Swirling". It was meant to be a great song about being detached, you know? But in a, kind of, happy way, if you like. But I never thought it came out. I don't know...we didn't finish it properly. We could've done something extra with the harmonies, or, you know... It's nice of you to like it -- but don't like it too much, because it's not as good as it was mentally. It was gonna be fantastic, Dennis!
Tom: Let's go to Jessica in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Jessica: Hi. I just want to say: I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!
Robyn: Aren't you?
Jessica: I'm going to see you next week in Royal Oak. I can hardly wait. I'm gonna go crazy, but--
Robyn: So you're both unworthy and potentially insane?
Morris: Are you gonna go crazy there, or...
Andy: I know a very good therapist in Ann Arbor.
Jessica: Oh, I was just wondering...I've been very inspired by your works. Like, I once...I made this shrine for "Madonna Of The Wasps". [Robyn laughs] But I was just wondering...since I know you do a lot of painting and album covers...
Robyn: Yes...
Jessica: Do you interpret a lot of your visual arts into your songwriting, or vice versa?
Tom: You're not going to shoot the president for Robyn are you, Jessica?
Jessica: I don't know. If he asked me, I'd do anything!
Tom: Oh, geez.
Robyn: Well, let's work out which president it is and then discuss this off the air. I think it's a bit of a giveaway if you plan an assassination on the air -- although, you know, the best place to hide is in the spotlight. Maybe there was a similar radio program before JFK went -- you never know. No Jessica: the two don't work together. I don't sit there looking at this painting thinking, "Oh boy, I'm gonna sing about this." That's a bit like waking up and looking in the mirror, and thinking, "What an intense specimen of beauty we have here." Y'know? And if you're that narcissistic, you'll just have to go into show business (or something stupid). But the...if I paint, it helps me think. And I sometimes work out lyrics while I'm painting, 'cause I think it's all the same part of the brain. That's why we tend to doodle (and things) on phone calls, you know? There's some link between actually drawing and thinking, in some way. That's a neurological thing (he said sagely).
Tom: Would we see any of your stuff? Any of your painting on display?
Robyn: Well, you certainly won't see them if they're not!
Tom: That's a stupid question. It's an hour show, and I can say one stupid question!
Robyn: I saw an elephant today in Pennsylvania, and it was exactly the same color as the zoo it was in. And I thought it was a fake elephant, 'cause it was dust-and-stone colored.
Tom: Is that the one that went through the bleachers? That one?
Robyn: Uh, no. It's a real elephant.
Tom: Oh, oh.
Robyn: No, it's a real elephant. It had its back to the train.
Andy: The train pulls out slowly past the zoo on your way out of Philadelphia.
Robyn: Yeah. We didn't realize there was a zoo.
Andy: You go past the Museum Of Art, and then past the zoo.
Tom: There was actually an elephant that trampled a bunch of people somewhere. I don't know what town that was in.
Andy: I don't suppose they were in a train?
Tom: No they weren't, actually. Hard to trample people in a train.
Robyn: "Travel by Amtrak, and you don't get trampled by elephants!"
Tom: You never know, though. Dave in Philly.
Dave: Hi, Robyn! I'd like to ask you one question. A lot of your songs seem very ethereal. And that seems to counterpoint against certain other songs -- such as "Uncorrected Personality Traits", and another, "Tell Me About Your Drugs". And I was wondering about the seeming directness of these songs, compared to the more ethereal songs?
Robyn: Well, that's very simple. You cross a dateline, you know? It's like, pople who are totally miserable about life suddenly become really funny. You just go...extreme left suddenly turns into the right, because everything is circular. So, you know, if you get very ethereal for long enough, you just have to come back to the most basic things. You can, you know...in order not to just drift off and disappear, basically.
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