Invisible Hitchcock

Details

Artist
Robyn Hitchcock
Year
1986
Original Label
Glass Fish Records
Type
Album

Comments

Collection of outtakes and b-sides from 1981-85. In the liner notes Robyn explains that the songs "didn't fit in with what I was doing at the time and do fit in with each other now". The album's title is a play on Invisible Hits, a previous Soft Boys collection of outtakes and rarities.
Originally released on vinyl, CD and cassette.
The CD and cassette contain more tracks than the vinyl version and are sequenced differently.
There is also a misprinted CD version; the disc is labeled 'Element of Light'.
The cassette and one vinyl version also swap out 'It's a Mystic Trip' for 'Grooving on a Inner Plane'
It was reissued (on CD only) in 1995.
Reissued on digital download and CD by Tiny Ghost in December 2025. Track listing uses 'It's A Mystic Trip' in place of 'Grooving on a Inner Plane'

Notes from Robyn to accompany the 2025 Tiny Ghost reissue
In the first half of the 1980s, I hardly toured at all, though I did generate a slew of songs. It was the time of the portastudio and the personal stereo: suddenly, you could make reasonably good tapes of your songs and listen to them in the comfort of your own mind, wherever you might roam. Home recording was primitive, but so were my compositions.

In this era when New Romantics were at their zenith, I felt more comfortable clutching radishes outside a garden shed than trying to hang out in the Club for Heroes or the Batcave. I couldn’t get my quiff together, nor did I really want the digital patina sprinkled over my songs that seemed obligatory for 1980s pop music. So I clung to the homemade and the low-budget when it came to recording. I did make ‘proper’ albums from time to time, released through small British independent labels, but even they seemed rather formal. So a lot of my best performances were home recordings or studio outtakes. This is a collection assembled in late 1986 from a variety of houses and studios, mostly in red-brick London.

For their help in recording them, special thanks are due to Chris Cox, James A. Smith, Simon & Mary, Noel Thompson, Iain O’Higgins and all the old lags from Alaska Studios in Waterloo. In fond memory of Pat Collier, Matthew Seligman, and James Fletcher, who all contributed to this collage of antiques.

Tracks

  1. All I Wanna Do Is Fall In Love
  2. Give Me A Spanner, Ralph
  3. A Skull, A Suitcase, And A Long Red Bottle Of Wine
  4. It's A Mystic Trip
  5. My Favourite Buildings
  6. Grooving on a Inner Plane
  7. Falling Leaves CD only
  8. Eaten By Her Own Dinner CD only
  9. The Pit Of Souls (Country Version) Robyn Hitchcock, Justin Grimaldi, Simon Kunath, James A. Smith
  10. Trash
  11. Mr. Deadly
  12. Star Of Hairs
  13. Messages Of Dark CD only
  14. Vegetable Friend
  15. I Got A Message For You
  16. Point It At Gran
  17. The Abandoned Brain CD only
  18. Let There Be More Darkness Robyn Hitchcock, Simon Kunath
  19. Blues In A
Additional Reissue Tracks
  1. Listening to the Higsons Rhino/Sequel/Tiny Ghost reissue
  2. Dr. Sticky Rhino/Sequel/Tiny Ghost reissue