Robyn Hitchcock | 1967:Vacations In The Past | Album review

Robyn Hitchcock: 1967:Vacations In The Past

(Tiny Ghost Records)

CD | LP | DL

Out 13th September 2024

PRE-ORDER HERE

One of our foremost purveyors of post-psychedelic surrealism, Robyn Hitchcock, takes a significant step back into a time which shaped his whole life through the release of his new album, 1967:Vacations In The Past.

Ian Corbridge gets totally absorbed in these nostalgic reflections for Louder Than War through an album of covers which sits as a very fine companion to Robyn’s recently published memoirs.

Whilst I firmly believe in the here and now and looking very much towards the future, I have always considered it a very healthy trait to recognise who and what made you as a person to fully understand and realise your sense of self-worth and purpose in life. Perhaps even more so in terms of an artist within the music business, as whilst we all tirelessly seek something new, original and exciting, you can never get away from all that has come before you and influenced the sounds that you make. In the case of Robyn Hitchcock, he is a singer/songwriter who has always acknowledged the fact that his flame was very much ignited by Bob Dylan back in the 60’s, fuelled further by the likes of The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix.

Alongside all of his musical influences, Robyn will no doubt give equal recognition to mentors such as William S. Burroughs, Dali, De Chirico and JG Ballard as this rock’n’roll surrealist continuously channels his energy and creative spirits into the absurd, revelling in the beauty of the unexpected. Whilst never quite rising to the surface of the mainstream, Robyn has nonetheless remained an influential touchstone for so many musicians throughout his extensive career, with his songs notably being covered by the likes of REM, The Replacements, Neko Case, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Lou Barlow, Grant Lee Phillips, Sparklehorse, Suzanne Vega and the Grateful Dead among many others.

Having being born in 1953, Robyn Hitchcock came of age in the 1960s where he attended Winchester College, an eccentric hothouse boarding school in the south of England. This is the subject of his new memoir entitled ‘1967: How I Got There And Why I Never Left’ which describes how the music of Dylan, The Beatles, Hendrix and so many others drastically transformed the direction of his life when he left home for this strange new world. And as a vital companion to this memoir, Robyn now releases his new album, 1967:Vacations In The Past on which he performs acoustic covers of numerous songs from that year, all of which clearly have a strong resonance to an embryonic stage in this artists development in the very widest sense.

This embryonic theme feeds very much into the ethos behind the recording of this album as Robyn explains, “I want to present these songs as they would have been written, shorn of the state-of-1967 production that encased them on record.” And with the assistance of some former band mates and long-term friends such as Kimberley Rew, Lee Cave-Berry, Davey Lane, Charlie Francis and Kelley Stolz, who adds some very interesting sitar to a number of tracks, we get to hear some (mostly) familiar tunes in a way you might never have expected. But let’s face it, this approach is not untypical of Robyn Hitchcock.

Robyn’s take on Procol Harum’s Whiter Shade Of Pale opens the album in outstanding fashion. Still considered by myself to be one of the greatest, most uplifting and iconic songs ever written, Robyn’s acoustic take gives it a somewhat darker edge, whilst not stopping the beautiful melody from flowing out from the very core of the song. A truly unique version which offers a whole new perspective. Itchycoo Park (The Small Faces) follows as a song which always retains a strong personal resonance for me given that they were the first proper concert I ever attended back in 1977. Whilst this version transports the song into demo territory, it still can never shift away from the jaunty rhythm which became such a hallmark of that era.

Burning Of The Midnight Lamp (Jimi Hendrix) has a more psychedelic aura about it with a vocal which has deep shades of John Lennon coming through, almost making it sound like an outtake from Double Fantasy. That vocal sound also carries right through into I Can Hear The Grass Grow (The Move) which presents in a more folky blues style arrangement, losing the strong melody which made the original such a hit. However, it’s still a very interesting interpretation, especially when the sitar kicks in later on which takes you right back to that era.

San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Colours In Your Hair), written by John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas and originally performed by Scott McKenzie, is a stark acoustic take with a far more sombre edge to what was a true flower power anthem. In fact, it sounds almost like a mystical fusion of Jarvis Cocker and Johnny Cash. When that sitar jumps out of the mix, it conjures up strong images of those hazy lazy summers of free love that symbolise the era from whence the song came.

Waterloo Sunset is perhaps closer to the sound of the original than most on this album. But, of course, The Kinks wrote some of the greatest songs from this era and hearing them played in a more embryonic acoustic style is not entirely unusual or out of character. See Emily Play has all the wild and madcap sonic imagery that Syd Barrett brought to those early years of Pink Floyd and which ultimately shaped what I consider to be a unique musical genre all of its own.

My White Bicycle still retains some of its original quirky edge brought to it in its original form by Tomorrow, whilst still edging more towards a squall of psychedelia in this more robust reimagining of the song by Robyn. Traffic’s classic No Face, No Name, No Number is relayed in the slow tempo that brought such a haunting quality to the original, but with a much starker presentation which takes the song onto a whole new sonic plateau. Way Back In The 1960s from the Incredible String Band’s definitive 1967 album The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion will no doubt be considered one of the more obscure selections for this album for all those who weren’t there at the time, but is certainly appropriate given its reflective narrative.

This sense of reflection carries right through into the one original song by Robyn on this album, Vacations In The Past, which is embellished with sumptuous sitar and psychedelic leanings such that it sits easily amongst the rest of the classic songs from this era without sounding the least bit out of place. A Day In The Life closes the album in classic fashion with glorious harmonies and plodding piano lines which became such an iconic part of the whole Sgt. Pepper legacy.

As an artist who has always described his songs as “pictures you can listen to”, there is little doubt that this collection of classic songs paints a vivid sonic portrait of the era in which they were born and which would influence so many artists who followed in their wake. As Robyn describes, “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.” 1967:Vacations In The Past will stand as a lasting testament to an iconic period in the history of music and a perfect accompaniment to Robyn Hitchcock’s memoirs from that time.

To coincide with the release of the album Robyn Hitchcock has a UK tour lined with dates as follows:
August
30 – West Malvern, Social Club
31 – Hebden Bridge, Trades Club
September
01 – York, The Crescent
03 – Newcastle, Common Room
05 – Bath, Komedia (full band show)
06 – Cambridge, Portland Arms
07 – Cambridge, Portland Arms (full band show)
08 – Oxted, United Reformed Church
10 – Oxford, Jericho (full band show)
11 – Brighton, Komedia
12 – Ramsgate, Music Hall
13 – Twyford, St Mary’s Church
14 – London, Earth Theatre (full band show)

You can buy tickets for his tour dates here.

You can pre-order the album here.

You can find Robyn Hitchcock on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram and Bandcamp and his website.

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All words by Ian Corbridge. You can find more of his writing at his author profile here.