Viva! Sea-Tac Releases Gigs Lyrics Comments

Details

Author
Robyn Hitchcock
According to our records, Robyn has played this song 113 times, most recently at The Atlantis on October 25, 2024. He first performed it at Backstage on June 07, 1997, 27 years and 4 months earlier.
Title Artist Label Type Year
Jewels for Sophia Robyn Hitchcock Warner Brothers Album 1999
Inflatable Hitchcock Robyn Hitchcock [none listed] Bootleg 2000
Rare Jewels Robyn Hitchcock Warner Brothers Promo 2001
Elixirs & Remedies Robyn Hitchcock & Grant Lee Phillips Scotopia Pictures Video 2005
Venue Billed As City State Country Date
Backstage Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 06/07/1997
Crocodile Cafe Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 06/13/1997
12 Bar Club Robyn Hitchcock London England UK 07/30/1997
Robyn at Sea Robyn Hitchcock Lymington Harbour England UK 08/16/1997
Bumbershoot Festival Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 08/30/1997
Two Bells Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 08/31/1997
Joiners Arms Robyn Hitchcock Southampton England UK 12/03/1997
Largo Robyn Hitchcock Los Angeles California US 01/09/1998
State Theater (SXSW) Robyn Hitchcock Austin Texas US 03/19/1998
Mean Fiddler Robyn Hitchcock London England UK 04/04/1998
Bottom Line Robyn Hitchcock New York New York US 06/12/1998
Aladdin Theater Robyn Hitchcock Portland Oregon US 06/25/1998
Crocodile Cafe Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 06/26/1998
a West Village sidewalk Robyn Hitchcock New York New York US 11/18/1998
Southbank Centre - Queen Elizabeth Hall Robyn Hitchcock London England UK 11/30/1998
Largo Robyn Hitchcock Los Angeles California US 04/03/1999
Metro Robyn Hitchcock Chicago Illinois US 07/17/1999
Metro Robyn Hitchcock Chicago Illinois US 07/18/1999
Showbox Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 07/23/1999
Showbox Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 07/24/1999
Roseland Theater Robyn Hitchcock Portland Oregon US 07/25/1999
Open Mind Music Robyn Hitchcock San Francisco California US 07/27/1999
The Fillmore Robyn Hitchcock San Francisco California US 07/27/1999
Palookaville Robyn Hitchcock Santa Cruz California US 07/29/1999
KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic Robyn Hitchcock Santa Monica California US 07/31/1999
Rhino Records Robyn Hitchcock Los Angeles California US 08/01/1999
The Palace Robyn Hitchcock Los Angeles California US 08/01/1999
Twist and Shout Robyn Hitchcock Denver Colorado US 08/04/1999
33 Degrees Robyn Hitchcock Austin Texas US 08/07/1999
Stubb's Bar B Q Robyn Hitchcock Austin Texas US 08/07/1999
9:30 Club Robyn Hitchcock Washington DC US 08/13/1999
Tramps Robyn Hitchcock New York New York US 08/18/1999
Agora Theatre Robyn Hitchcock Cleveland Ohio US 08/22/1999
Two Bells Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 09/02/1999
Two Bells Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 09/04/1999
Bumbershoot Festival Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 09/06/1999
Stables Robyn Hitchcock Wavendon England UK 09/21/1999
Cactus Café Robyn Hitchcock's ROCK ARMADA Austin Texas US 10/23/1999
Cat's Cradle Robyn Hitchcock's ROCK ARMADA Carrboro North Carolina US 10/26/1999
Fletcher's Robyn Hitchcock's ROCK ARMADA Baltimore Maryland US 10/27/1999
The Upstage Robyn Hitchcock's ROCK ARMADA Philadelphia Pennsylvania US 10/29/1999
The Bowery Ballroom Robyn Hitchcock's ROCK ARMADA New York New York US 11/01/1999
Crocodile Café Robyn Hitchcock's ROCK ARMADA Seattle Washington US 11/16/1999
Aladdin Theater Robyn Hitchcock's ROCK ARMADA Portland Oregon US 11/17/1999
Great American Music Hall Robyn Hitchcock's ROCK ARMADA San Francisco California US 11/19/1999
The Troubadour Robyn Hitchcock Los Angeles California US 11/20/1999
Storyville Robyn Hitchcock Arezzo Italy 01/16/2000
Bottom Line Robyn Hitchcock New York New York US 06/16/2000
Crocodile Café Grant Lee Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 06/24/2000
Memorial Stadium The Young Fresh Fellows Seattle Washington US 06/25/2000
Assembly Rooms - The Supper Room Robyn Hitchcock Edinburgh Scotland UK 08/04/2001
The Garage Robyn Hitchcock and.... London England UK 01/25/2002
Crocodile Café Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 04/21/2002
Largo Robyn Hitchcock Los Angeles California US 11/25/2003
SXSW Tradeshow Robyn Hitchcock Austin Texas US 03/19/2004
Club Congress Robyn Hitchcock Tucson Arizona US 03/26/2004
Bumbershoot Festival Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 09/04/2004
Kitty Kat Klub Robyn Hitchcock Minneapolis Minnesota US 11/04/2004
Scranton Cultural Center Robyn Hitchcock Scranton Pennsylvania US 11/11/2004
Crocodile Café Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 03/05/2005
La Zona Rosa Robyn Hitchcock Austin Texas US 03/18/2005
Schuba's Robyn Hitchcock Chicago Illinois US 03/31/2005
The Hideout Robyn Hitchcock Chicago Illinois US 04/02/2005
Victrola Coffee Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 08/31/2005
Crystal Ballroom Robyn Hitchcock Portland Oregon US 09/08/2005
Shepherd's Bush Empire Red Locust Frenzy London England UK 11/22/2005
ABC Robyn Hitchcock & the Minus 3 Glasgow Scotland UK 01/30/2006
The Coach House Robyn Hitchcock with Minus 5 San Juan Capistrano California US 02/24/2006
Sam Bond's Garage Robyn Hitchcock with Minus 5 Eugene Oregon US 03/02/2006
Crocodile Café Robyn Hitchcock with Minus 5 Seattle Washington US 03/04/2006
Cannon Hill Park Robyn Hitchcock & the Minus 3 Birmingham England UK 06/24/2006
The Key Club Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 West Hollywood California US 10/27/2006
Metro Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 Chicago Illinois US 11/08/2006
The Mod Club Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 Toronto Ontario Canada 11/10/2006
Sellersville Theater Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 Sellersville Pennsylvania US 11/14/2006
Easy Street Records Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 Seattle Washington US 11/25/2006
Triple Door Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 Seattle Washington US 03/21/2009
The Drake Hotel Robyn Hitchcock Toronto Ontario Canada 06/12/2010
Jet City Stream Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 10/29/2012
Triple Door Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 Seattle Washington US 10/29/2012
The Drake Hotel Robyn Hitchcock Toronto Ontario Canada 09/12/2014
Columbia City Theater Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 03/16/2015
KEXP Studios Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 04/14/2016
KEXP Studios Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 04/15/2016
Fremont Abbey Arts Center Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 10/04/2016
Monty Hall Robyn Hitchcock Jersey City New Jersey US 02/15/2018
Turf Club Robyn Hitchcock & The LA Squires Saint Paul Minnesota US 04/25/2018
Underground Arts Robyn Hitchcock & The LA Squires Philadelphia Pennsylvania US 04/27/2018
Neptune Theatre Robyn Hitchcock & The Nashville Fabs Seattle Washington US 10/05/2018
Aladdin Theater Robyn Hitchcock & The Nashville Fabs Portland Oregon US 10/06/2018
Huichica - Walla Walla Robyn Hitchcock Waitsburg Washington US 09/14/2019
Fremont Abbey Arts Center Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 02/27/2020
Robyn & Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift Nashville Tennessee US 07/15/2020
Robyn & Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift Nashville Tennessee US 07/17/2020
Robyn and Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift London England UK 01/22/2021
Private House Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift Nashville Tennessee US 07/21/2021
Robyn and Emma's house Robyn Hitchcock London England UK 04/06/2022
Unknown Hotel Robyn Hitchcock New London Connecticut US 07/14/2022
Private House Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 03/15/2023
Neptune Theatre Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 03/17/2023
Doug Fir Lounge Robyn Hitchcock Portland Oregon US 03/18/2023
The Old Church Robyn Hitchcock Portland Oregon US 03/19/2023
The Chapel Robyn Hitchcock San Francisco California US 03/21/2023
Kuumbwa Jazz Center Robyn Hitchcock Santa Cruz California US 03/22/2023
Zebulon Robyn Hitchcock Los Angeles California US 03/24/2023
Zebulon Robyn Hitchcock Los Angeles California US 03/25/2023
The Bowery Ballroom Robyn Hitchcock New York New York US 04/01/2023
City Winery Robyn Hitchcock Boston Massachusetts US 04/02/2023
The Grey Eagle Robyn Hitchcock Asheville North Carolina US 04/16/2024
Industrie Fluviali Robyn Hitchcock Rome Italy 07/12/2024
Fremont Abbey Arts Center Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 10/11/2024
Fremont Abbey Arts Center Robyn Hitchcock Seattle Washington US 10/12/2024
The Atlantis Robyn Hitchcock Washington DC US 10/25/2024

Comments

Oral history of the song by 97.3FM KIRO
Viva! Seattle-Tacoma, Viva viva Sea-Tac! Viva! Seattle-Tacoma, Viva viva Sea-Tac!

That’s the chorus from “Viva! Sea-Tac,” a song written in London and recorded in Seattle 25 years ago by Robyn Hitchcock.

Over the past few decades, the song has become something of an anthem for the region, at least among a certain demographic. Robyn Hitchcock will be performing in Seattle this Friday night, so KIRO Newsradio set out to create the “unofficial oral history” of this somewhat esoteric — yet pretty darn catchy — song.

Heard on the recording is British folk rocker Robyn Hitchcock, who wrote the song. Hitchcock is backed by Peter Buck, founding guitarist of REM; a guitarist named Tim Keegan, who’s played with Hitchcock for years; Scott McCaughey, founder of the Young Fresh Fellows; plus Young Fresh Fellows drummer Tad Hutchinson and guitarist Kurt Bloch. The song was released in 1999 on the Robyn Hitchcock album “Jewels for Sophia.”

Details are murky, but it’s believed that the song was first played live at the old Crocodile Café in Belltown circa 1997 and was recorded right around the same time. Inspiration for the song goes back a bit further to 1994 and an impromptu musical event, also at the Crocodile, which was called “Viva! SeaTac” but which was also known as “The Popsicle Shoppe Incident.” Again, the details are murky.

Robyn Hitchcock has been performing since the 1970s when he was a founding member of a band called the Soft Boys. He spent a lot of time in Seattle in the 1990s, not long after his friend Peter Buck had moved to the area. Hitchcock told KIRO Newsradio he loves the name “SeaTac” – not just because of the airport, though that’s likely where he first heard it as a frequent visitor to the region. Hitchcock added “Viva” to it to give it a bit more zing.

For a songwriter, creating such a catchy phrase led, naturally, to Hitchcock writing a song.

“As often happens, you know, I have a title, and then a song will appear from it,” Hitchcock said from his home in the UK. “So I was sitting there with my guitar one evening in London, and out popped ‘Viva! SeaTac,’ pretty much intact in one piece.”

“It’s one of those songs that wrote itself in about 10 minutes,” Hitchcock said.

It’s a catchy pop song, to be sure, but it does have some darkness in it.

Do you want to pay for this in cash?
Viva! Seattle Tacoma, viva viva Sea-Tac
Viva! Seattle Tacoma, viva viva Sea-Tac
Viva viva viva viva viva Sea-Tac
They’ve got the best computers and coffee and smack
Coming and going it has to be Boeing
The best form of defense is blow them up
In a regular cup
Have an espresso. You will? Oh I guess so
I feel my heart is gonna start to jump
‘Cause it’s wired to a pump


For many, the line, “Do you want to pay for this in cash?” really captures the out-of-control feel of Seattle during the tech boom in the mid-1990s when everyone, it seemed, was making a fortune in stock options and buyouts and leaving traditional jobs for the tech sector. They were crazy years for those who lived here then.

Robyn Hitchcock says that beyond just the locals, people around the world were starting to notice Seattle for high tech and a handful of other specific things, not all of which were good, but which were on the rise in the 1990s.

“You could feel it there, but you could feel that vibe about Seattle from grunge and the heroin revival and the coffee” in other countries,” Hitchcock said, referencing the line in the song about “coffee, computers and smack.”

“Starbucks, I think, making it across the Great Divide and starting to appear all around America and then appearing in Britain made a huge impact … Those three things really put it massively on the map,” Hitchcock said. “It was like Liverpool in 1964 … Suddenly, Seattle wasn’t just the place where Jimi Hendrix was born.”

Along with Hendrix, “Viva! SeaTac” namechecks all kinds of other local people, places, and things, including Ballard, Kurt Cobain, and even “all of the groovers [who] came from Vancouver [and] some of them came up from Oregon.” Among the other lyrical highlights is the landmark-personifying refrain, “The Space Needle points to the sky, the Space Needle’s such a nice guy.”

Speaking of Ballard, the studio where the song was recorded was called Hanzsek Audio, located just a few blocks east of the Ballard Bridge on Leary Way.

“Yeah, it was in Ballard,” Hitchcock said. “It was a concrete block [structure] that had no visible features or charm. It was just like something that might have been designed to be bulletproof.”

“It had a coffee machine, and it had ants,” Hitchcock continued. “I remember somehow the ants had come up through the floor. I remember seeing a little trail of ants wandering around.”

Longtime Seattle audio guy Chris Hanzsek built his studio in that ancient concrete building – which he says originally housed a rectifier for the nearby street railway on 14th Avenue NE. Hanzsek Audio operated at that location from 1993 to 2005.

Hanzsek, who recorded hundreds of Seattle bands over the past 40 years or so, doesn’t play favorites, but he is clearly happy that “Viva! SeaTac” was recorded in the old concrete building on Leary. He understands and appreciates how certain recording studios become like “supporting characters” in so many cool stories and even mythology about recorded music – places like Muscle Shoals in Alabama, Sun Studios in Memphis, or Abbey Road in London.

“They are contributing entities,” Hanzsek told KIRO Newsradio. “The fact that the music existed is due in small part to the fact that the studio existed. They’re kind of like mothers that give birth to little things that then grow up to be bigger things.”

Hanzsek says he knows of no photos of Robyn Hitchcock or the other musicians arriving at the studio to record “Viva! SeaTac” in 1997.

“I didn’t know the internet was coming,” Hanzsek joked. “I didn’t bring a camera with me to work, I would have lost it. There was never any inclination whatsoever to say, ‘Hey, we got a bunch of rock stars here. Snap a few pics. Grab a selfie,’ you know.”

“I didn’t know what a selfie was,” Hanzsek admitted, though nobody did in 1997.

Scott McCaughey, who plays guitar and keyboards for the Young Fresh Fellows and who is involved with a number of other significant bands and musical projects, played bass on “Viva! SeaTac.” On the recording, it sounds like the musicians gathered at Hanzsek Audio were having a really good time.

“We were,” McCaughey confirmed. “We had a blast. It was so much fun. It was a really no-pressure kind of session. I don’t know. It was just . . . it was super fun.”

Kurt Bloch is a founder of the Fastbacks and a member of the Young Fresh Fellows, known mainly as a guitarist. He was thrilled to be invited to play with Robyn Hitchcock – whose music he’d loved since the 1970s.

But then Bloch realized that there were already three guitarists taking part, and Hitchcock wanted him to play keyboards.

“Well, you realize that I’m not a keyboard player?” Bloch said, re-creating the dialog which preceded the recording session. “’That’s okay, we’ll work all that stuff out,’” they told him.

“And all of a sudden, it turned from being the most exciting thing to, like, the most panicked, weird thing of all time,” Bloch continued, as he relived the anxiety of having to learn a new instrument for a recording session with one of his favorite artists.

“I was like, ‘You guys, do you have any, like, tapes of the songs were going to do or anything like that, so I can prepare in any way?’” Bloch said.

The answer was no. But Kurt needn’t have worried.

Bloch is a talented multi-instrument musician, and the keyboards sounded great in the converted concrete building on Leary Way. For proof, just listen to the buoyant chords from Bloch’s keys heard clearly throughout the recording.

Or, take Pete Gerrald’s word for it. Gerrald was an audio engineer for the “Viva! SeaTac” recording session.

“We just knocked it out,” Gerrald told KIRO Newsradio. “It was very kind of fun and low-key. It was no pressure at all, just really fun.”

“Probably did it on the third take, and that was it,” Gerrald continued. “Pretty straightforward. And then we may have done a backing track and may have dubbed a couple of things. But it’s pretty much live” with all the musicians in the same room, and the vocals recorded at the same time as the instruments.

Gerrald knows his historic regional theme songs; he was also the engineer on Sicko’s indelible version of “Washington, My Home.”

And speaking of historic regional theme songs, did Scott McCaughey have any idea people would still be talking about “Viva! SeaTac” 25 years later?

“I knew when we did it, I go ‘This is really cool. Like, I could see this at least around here being like a smash hit, you know,’” McCaughey said, chuckling heartily.

McCaughey still has the master tape, and though the sheet attached to the tape box has no date for the session, it does appear to confirm Gerrald’s memory that the third and final take was considered the best of the bunch.

The final moments of “Viva! SeaTac” include a spoken word blessing or what might even be considered a benediction for the people of the Evergreen State.

Long live everything in Washington state,
Including everybody
May they live to a million years
May they reproduce until there’s no room to go anywhere
Clustered under the Space Needle
Like walking eggs with arms and legs


One only has to revisit the “Louie, Louie” debacle of the 1980s to recall that officially sanctioned music can be tricky for the politicians involved in making such decisions. But it seems like “Viva! SeaTac” – with its clever lyrics and catchy tune, its deeply local connections to beloved artists and a fondly recalled studio, and its unflinching honesty about the challenging parts of Seattle culture in the 1990s – could possibly at least be designated as ‘the official song about Seattle written by an Englishman.’

“I don’t know how many English men have written songs about Seattle,” Hitchcock said when presented with this possibility. “It’s probably a limited pool, so I might well come first. I’d be thrilled if somebody wanted to put a plaque on it, you know, saying, ‘This here is Robyn Hitchcock’s contribution to our great folk culture.”

Meanwhile, “Viva! SeaTac” was already given a significant yet ephemeral honor when it was chosen as the first song played on-air and online when KEXP inaugurated its new home at Seattle Center in April 2016.

“I was actually driving from the new station while it was under construction near the Space Needle back to the old one when I heard this song on our station,” KEXP’s John Richards wrote in an email earlier this week. “And I knew that when we opened up one day, I would play this song first.”

As everyone knows, the Space Needle’s such a nice guy.

Lyrics

People flocked like cattle to Seattle
After Kurt Cobain
And before him the rain

Hendrix played guitar just like an animal
Who's trapped inside a cage
And one day he escaped

Do you want to pay for this in cash?
Viva! Seattle Tacoma, viva viva Sea-Tac
Viva! Seattle Tacoma, viva viva Sea-Tac
Viva viva viva viva viva Sea-Tac
They've got the best computers and coffee and smack

Coming and going it has to be Boeing
The best form of defence is blow them up
In a regular cup

Have an espresso. You will?  Oh I guess so
I feel my heart is gonna start to jump
'Cause it's wired to a pump

And the Space Needle points to the sky
The Space Needle's such a nice guy
But he never knows...
Viva Seattle Tacoma, viva viva Sea-Tac
Viva Seattle Tacoma, viva viva Sea-Tac

All the Norwegians, man, you should see them
Out in Ballard looking soulful at the pines;
And also the swedes

All of the groovers came from Vancouver
And some of them came up from Oregon
In case you don't know

But the Space Needle points to the sky
The Space Needle's such a nice guy
But you never know...
Viva Seattle Tacoma, viva viva Sea-Tac
Viva Seattle Tacoma, viva viva Sea-Tac
Viva viva viva viva viva Sea-Tac
They've got the best computers and coffee and smack

Viva Seattle Tacoma, viva viva Sea-Tac
Viva Seattle Tacoma, viva viva Sea-Tac
Viva Seattle Tacoma, viva viva Sea-Tac
Viva Seattle Tacoma, viva viva Sea-Tac

Long live everything in Washington state
Including everybody
May they live to a million years
May they reproduce until there's no room to go anywhere
Clustered under the Space Needle
Like walking eggs with arms and legs

Alright, we can probably stop

<Alternates>
Then one day he got out                              6a

Ruby Montana's can sell a banana                    25.1a
That counts up to one hundred and turns pink        25.2a
In less time than you think                         25.3a

But he never gets...                               20,31a

Do you want to pay for this in cash?                29a
Well, do you want to pay for this at all?           30-31a