In which our hero Robyn Hitchcock pays homage to vintage pop, circa 1967.
This album is an audio accompaniment to his new and rather wonderful autobiography surprisingly called 1967 in which he lovingly describes his personal musical revelations from that momentous year.
Hitchcock says of the record that “these songs are folk songs now, and I hope they sound like them. They’re the soundtrack of when the world went into colour and the child I was hatched into a teenager”.
The choices herein are mostly familiar to any self-respecting pop fan, all delivered with reverence and oodles of love.
Opening with Procol Harem’s classic Whiter Shade of Pale it reveals itself as a majestic piece of audiophonic surrealism, with inspired lead guitar instead of Gary Brooker’s solemn keyboards, a triumph.
The Small Faces Itchycoo Park will have you singing along like a stoned hippy in a tie-dye tee shirt, it’s all too beautiful indeed!
My White Bicycle is another banger (as i believe the youngsters say). There’s also Hendrix, Pink Floyd, oh! and The Move, with a tremendous version of I Can Hear the Grass Grow.
And and the Kinks get a look in too.
Most of the material is acoustic, although there are snippets of backward guitar and sitar. After all it was the sixties.
Our reviewer John Haylock with Robyn Hitchcock
Kimberley Rew of Hitchcock’s Soft Boys helps out on guitar and his wife Lee Cave Berry contributes backing vocals.
Saving the best till last is a pristine version of A Day in the Life. Here Robyn sounds remarkably like Lennon. It is commendably restrained and perfect in every way.
Get the book. Get the record. It’s all too much!
Words by John Haylock
More information about 1967 visit here.
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