My first Robyn Hitchcock show. I hardly knew what I was in for.

My memory of this recording is worse than it is, though it does have its problems. In hindsight, I probably thought that because it pales in comparison to the next night’s shows at McCabe’s. IMO, the Lingerie was a fairly crap room for an acoustic show. Really sounds like there’s reverb added at the desk, but it’d be unnecessary with everything bouncing off all that brick and glass. Then there’s the noise from the bar and that idiot laughing close to the mic. Rock ‘n’ Roll!

Anyway, here it is. I was gonna say ‘warts and all,’ but there was some serious mic cable noise in Raymond Chandler Evening that I muted so as not to offend your ears or destroy your speakers. Also, one channel was really muffled and noisy so I just removed it. Glorious mono!

I’ve seen and might have even participated in conversations about The Man Who Invented Himself and who it might be about. Just before starting it, he says ‘This is about Bob Dylan… and people like that.’

Tape flip occurs at a particularly bad moment in that it loses what’s probably most of [The Angel Upstairs, a rare song only known to have been performed three times as of 2023]. It’s got lyrics about ‘the people around you’ and ‘the messenger’s waiting.’

Peace,

Phideaux3