"Waterloo Sunset," of course, is at this point pretty widely recognized as being the most beautiful pop song written in English in the second half of the 20th Century; as for Hitchcock's version, let's just say I think he did Ray Davies' creation justice.
As for rest of the new album, it's a mix of (mostly) covers of stuff from the titular year (a nice "Itchykoo Park," for example) and new originals that are thematically relevant to the year in question.
I'm not gonna comment on the latter stuff, but I must say that of the former, this one is pretty freaking awful.
In fairness to Hitchcock, of course, the song itself -- written by John Phillips, and don't get me started -- was a cynical exploitive piece of shit from jump, and the fact that it was conceived that way -- i.e.. as a wanna-be theme song for the bullshit that was the Summer of Love -- makes it all the more unlistenable to my contemporary ears.
Hitchcock may be making the same point, but hey, who knows -- maybe the above is meant straight. I'll reserve judgement on that until I digest the entire album a little more.
12 comments:
I dunno, deranged, predatory, psycho killer version of San Francisco has certain charms.
yeah, i'm with edward - i think it's creepy on purpose - as we look back on the days of our youth with the benefit of our experience and our disappointments, we realize that the surface picture didn't show us all that was going on
as the alte ker says, "ve get too soon oldt - too late schmart"
see also 97-year-old poem elaborating on this advice by a guy from indiana - raised methodist, the family later learned they had jewish ancestors
https://www.desiderata.com/desiderata.html
by the way, i never paid any attention to robyn hitchcock before - thanks for the info
Just watched an Ethan Hawk movie,
"Juliet, Naked", where he sang with piano
Waterloo Sunset - a spare heart felt presentation.
On either side of the Atlantic this song always strikes as chord.
rob
wikipedia article on "Waterloo sunset" is informative and surprisingly moving
Listened to the Band Camp album,
IMO, not as good as Todd's "Faithful" it reflects Robyn's Pirate radio, BBC English roots. Had to look up several songs - The Move, Nazareth, and of course Floyd.
Several songs never reached our shores.
Waterloo, I could imagine Ray also performing it on a 12 string.
Interesting "album", but that's Robyn.
rob
All but one song is a cover on 1967.
Re: Robyn's 2nd last song, his original
Vacations In The Past
It was bad enough that the Mamas and Papas arrogated to themselves the closing spot at the Monterey Pop Festival. The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Got a Feelilng -- that must have sounded right to someone. That they paused their set to bring out Scott McKenzie to warble his already-by-June chart-topper was a final shonda.
You can understand why the M/P's closed the festival since it was started by the hard work of John, also Michelle to certain ,extent and Lou Adler. Let's just call it their prerogative since they put the whole shebang together.
Don't forget they got every band to play for free - a feat unto itself (except for Ravi)
Country Joe had a side deal
rob
Robyn seems to be an acquired taste. Did you select this album because he included Whiter Shade of Pale? Good God, that San Fransisco cut is unlistenable.
Liked the Soft Boys. Gotta get my weed wacker out when it comes to his hit-and-miss solo stuff. The new album seems pointless and isn't very impressive. He's on my shit list because I saw him earlier this year where he did a two-night stand. One night of his music and another night of Syd Barrett covers. The shows were boring and lifeless. People applauded for no reason. It was weak.
VR
Say what you will about the easy to mock McKenzie, but a lot of people bought into the song. I had a flower in my hair at Monterey. He has a very pure voice and the song is tuneful. It's not Marcia Strassman bad. Summer 1967 is when the rot seeped in but even the Dead hung out till Spring '68.
Also, what rob said about the M&P's closing the festival I agree 100%. Monterey was the grooviest.
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