Robyn Hitchcock 18: Robyn Sings

Selling self-manufactured discs via his website seemed to be a good option for somebody like Robyn Hitchcock, who had things to say but shrinking outlets by which he could say them. And even when he wasn’t saying anything new, he could put out an album anyway.

Robyn Sings consists entirely of Bob Dylan covers. His straightforward (for him) liner notes explain how he was transfixed by “Desolation Row” at an impressionable age, sending him on his path as a singer-songwriter. The set is split into two LP-length discs, denoted “Stripes” and “Dots” in honor of Dylan’s mid-‘60s onstage choice of shirt.

Most of the Stripes disc is made up from live acoustic performances, with only the barest augmentation here and there, as shown on the versions of “Visions Of Johanna” that bookend the disc. And it’s not just the “classic” period he shows love for—“Dignity” and “Not Dark Yet” are hardly staples of Dylan tributes.

The Dots disc presents the electric half of his heavily bootlegged recreation of the “Albert Hall” bootleg on its thirtieth anniversary, recorded in a London club. The band and audience knows the songs (and performances) as well as he does, right down to the sneered twixt-song comments and muttering.

For the most part his renditions are faithful—he is, as he admits, performing a kind of karaoke to songs he’s committed to memory—but every now and then he throws in a surreal rhyme. There’s a wonderful moment in “4th Time Around” where he loses his place, then backtracks through events of the previous verses to find his way back.

Ultimately, Robyn Sings is a curio, an option for those not into file-sharing or tired of trawling eBay for the promo that offered songs for a limited time. It’s a labor of love, a worthwhile listen for fans of both gentlemen, but hardly essential.

Robyn Hitchcock Robyn Sings (2002)—3