Raymond and the Wires Releases Gigs Lyrics Comments

Details

Author
Robyn Hitchcock
According to our records, Robyn has played this song 87 times, most recently at Robyn & Emma's house on December 11, 2024. He first performed it at Old Town School of Folk Music on November 22, 2014, 10 years earlier.
Title Artist Label Type Year
Robyn Hitchcock Robyn Hitchcock Yep Roc Records Album 2017
Patreon 2021 Robyn Hitchcock Internet 2021
Venue Billed As City State Country Date
Old Town School of Folk Music Robyn Hitchcock Chicago Illinois US 11/22/2014
Band on the Wall Robyn Hitchcock Manchester England UK 06/02/2015
Brudenell Social Club Robyn Hitchcock Leeds England UK 06/09/2015
The Fleece Robyn Hitchcock Bristol England UK 10/29/2015
The Trades Club Robyn Hitchcock Hebden Bridge England UK 11/01/2015
Railway Inn Robyn Hitchcock Winchester England UK 11/02/2015
City Winery Robyn Hitchcock New York New York US 11/20/2015
Green Door Store Bring Back British Rail Brighton England UK 12/20/2015
The Generator Robyn Hitchcock Johannesburg South Africa 02/06/2016
Iron Horse Robyn Hitchcock Northampton Massachusetts US 03/22/2016
Ready Room Robyn Hitchcock St. Louis Missouri US 04/04/2017
KDHX Robyn Hitchcock St. Louis Missouri US 04/04/2017
First Avenue Robyn Hitchcock Minneapolis Minnesota US 04/06/2017
89.3 The Current Robyn Hitchcock Saint Paul Minnesota US 04/06/2017
Thalia Hall Robyn Hitchcock Chicago Illinois US 04/08/2017
Marathon Center for Performing Arts Robyn Hitchcock Findlay Ohio US 04/10/2017
The Majestic Robyn Hitchcock Detroit Michigan US 04/11/2017
WAPS Studio C Robyn Hitchcock Akron Ohio US 04/13/2017
The Kent Stage Robyn Hitchcock Kent Ohio US 04/13/2017
WYEP Community Broadcast Studio Robyn Hitchcock Pittsburgh Pennsylvania US 04/14/2017
Mr. Smalls Theatre Robyn Hitchcock Millvale Pennsylvania US 04/14/2017
Plan 9 Records Robyn Hitchcock Richmond Virginia US 04/19/2017
Lyric Theatre Robyn Hitchcock Blacksburg Virginia US 04/20/2017
WVTF Robyn Hitchcock Roanoke Virginia US 04/20/2017
Jammin Java Robyn Hitchcock Vienna Virginia US 05/11/2017
SiriusXM The Loft Robyn Hitchcock Chicago Illinois US 06/19/2017
The Drake Hotel Robyn Hitchcock Toronto Ontario Canada 09/21/2017
Duck Room at Blueberry Hill Robyn Hitchcock St. Louis Missouri US 11/14/2017
Monty Hall Robyn Hitchcock Jersey City New Jersey US 02/16/2018
Firehouse Center For The Performing Arts Robyn Hitchcock Newburyport Massachusetts US 02/17/2018
Narrows Center for the Arts Robyn Hitchcock Fall River Massachusetts US 04/12/2018
City Vinyard at Pier 26 Robyn Hitchcock New York New York US 11/18/2018
Hạ Long Bay Robyn Hitchcock Hạ Long Vietnam 12/02/2018
The Stone Church Robyn Hitchcock Brattleboro Vermont US 04/16/2019
Firehouse Center For The Performing Arts Robyn Hitchcock Newburyport Massachusetts US 04/17/2019
South Street Arts Center Robyn Hitchcock Reading England UK 04/30/2019
The Wedgewood Rooms Robyn Hitchcock Southsea England UK 05/01/2019
The Smokehouse Robyn Hitchcock Ipswich England UK 05/03/2019
Music Box Supper Club Robyn Hitchcock Cleveland Ohio US 06/19/2019
The Drake Hotel Robyn Hitchcock Toronto Ontario Canada 06/23/2019
The Bristol Folk House Robyn Hitchcock Bristol England UK 07/26/2019
St Paul's Church Robyn Hitchcock Birmingham England UK 10/25/2019
The ArtsCenter Robyn Hitchcock Carrboro North Carolina US 11/14/2019
Drygate Brewing Co Robyn Hitchcock Glasgow Scotland UK 01/26/2020
Fremont Abbey Arts Center Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 02/28/2020
The Orpheum Theater Robyn Hitchcock Flagstaff Arizona US 03/07/2020
Robyn & Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift Nashville Tennessee US 05/20/2020
Robyn & Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift Nashville Tennessee US 06/21/2020
Robyn and Emma's house Boothby Graffoe Songs and Stories London England UK 11/26/2020
Robyn and Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift London England UK 12/18/2020
Robyn and Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock London England UK 12/20/2020
Robyn and Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock London England UK 06/02/2021
Robyn and Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock London England UK 07/02/2021
Ipswich Transport Museum Robyn Hitchcock Ipswich England UK 09/11/2021
The Swiss Cottage Robyn Hitchcock Twyford England UK 09/19/2021
More Music Robyn Hitchcock Morecombe England UK 09/25/2021
The Crescent Robyn Hitchcock York England UK 09/28/2021
St Mary's Creative Space Robyn Hitchcock Chester England UK 09/30/2021
Summerhall Robyn Hitchcock Edinburgh Scotland UK 10/02/2021
Jammin Java Robyn Hitchcock Vienna Virginia US 10/07/2021
Robyn and Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock London England UK 02/09/2022
Brudenell Social Club Robyn Hitchcock Leeds England UK 03/20/2022
Olympia’s Zorba Music Hall Robyn Hitchcock Lowell Massachusetts US 04/09/2022
Turf Club Robyn Hitchcock Saint Paul Minnesota US 04/16/2022
Stoughton Opera House Robyn Hitchcock Stoughton Wisconsin US 04/19/2022
Cluny 2 Robyn Hitchcock Newcastle upon Tyne England UK 05/01/2022
Clwb Ifor Bach Robyn Hitchcock Cardiff Wales UK 05/06/2022
Storey's Field Centre Robyn Hitchcock Cambridge England UK 05/12/2022
Robyn and Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock London England UK 09/17/2022
South Street Arts Center Robyn Hitchcock Reading England UK 09/21/2022
Eddie's Attic Robyn Hitchcock Decatur Georgia US 11/12/2022
Robyn and Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock London England UK 12/21/2022
Mono - Kings Court Robyn Hitchcock Glasgow Scotland UK 03/01/2023
The Court House Robyn Hitchcock Bangor Northern Ireland UK 03/05/2023
Private House Robyn Hitchcock Minneapolis Minnesota US 03/27/2023
The Betsey Trotwood Robyn Hitchcock London England UK 06/30/2023
Claypath Delicatessen Robyn Hitchcock Durham England UK 08/18/2023
Mid Sussex Music Hall Robyn Hitchcock Hassocks England UK 09/03/2023
Ludlow Assembly Rooms Robyn Hitchcock Ludlow England UK 09/08/2023
The Talleyrand Robyn Hitchcock Manchester England UK 09/09/2023
McGonigel's Mucky Duck Robyn Hitchcock Houston Texas US 01/19/2024
Old Town School of Folk Music Robyn Hitchcock Chicago Illinois US 05/04/2024
Hopmonk Tavern Robyn Hitchcock Sebastopol California US 05/17/2024
Komedia Robyn Hitchcock Brighton England UK 09/11/2024
Fremont Abbey Arts Center Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 10/12/2024
The Atlantis Robyn Hitchcock Washington DC US 10/25/2024
Robyn & Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift Nashville Tennessee US 12/11/2024

Comments

Notes from Robyn on Patreon in 2021

Charlie and I also recorded a demo of “Raymond And The Wires” a song I’d recently written in a kitchen in Sydney. It refers back to the time when I was 11 and went to ride on a soon-to-be-extinct electric bus with my father Raymond. He had recently given me a book about buses and I had become particularly obsessed by electric-powered vehicles (trolleybuses & trams) that were on the way out. I loved the way they drew voltage from the thick black wires that hung above them like a kind of handwriting in the sky. A few years later I felt the much same way about electric Bob Dylan...

Raymond was an ex-soldier with a stiff left leg that still ached from a war wound in 1944, 20 years previously. He wore thick glasses and often looked lost, walking with a distinctive lurch. Because he’d been that way all my young life it didn’t occur to me how much he must have constantly suffered from his disability: as a teenager he had been a sprinter. He and I didn’t have a very direct relationship, but every so often he would focus on doing something with me. Whenever I was with him I absorbed him at point-blank range, and he fuelled me with the creative drive that compels me to this day.

So it felt special that he indulged my electric-traction fetish and took me to Reading, just outside London which still had the overhead wiring and silent, hissing trolleybuses: a town famous for manufacturing biscuits/cookies, and where Oscar Wilde was criminally jailed. But to me Reading will always be where my father and I attempted to bond, sitting downstairs on a now long-demolished trolleybus.

Lyrics

My eyes have seen the trolley bus
On her pneumatic tyres
Vamping down the highroad
Drinking from the wires

My eyes have seen the trolley bus
Her rivets and her wheels
Sinking electricity
I wonder how that feels
I wonder

My eyes have seen the trolley bus
In 1964
I caught one with my father
We climbed through the back door
We couldn't sit upstairs because
My father's leg was bad
He spoke to me behind the glass
He was a lonesome dad

My eyes have seen the trolley bus
The silent way she moves
You miss the love you never had
The needle skips the grooves
I never knew my father close
Although I took him in
He travels round beside me now
He goes everywhere I've been
I wonder
I wonder

My eyes have seen the trolley bus