[Cover photo credit to Emma Swift]
Robyn Hitchcock has announced 1967: Vacations In The Past, an acoustic musical companion to his new memoir, 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left, arriving via Tiny Ghost Records on Friday, September 13. 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left is on sale now from Akashic Books and Hitchcock will be on tour.
The album is a 12-track collection comprising all-new versions of songs from and inspired by that significant year. 1967: Vacations In The Past is heralded by a premiere of Hitchcock’s rendition of The Small Faces’ classic “Itchycoo Park,” performed with longtime friend and musical companion Kimberley Rew.
Hitchcock says:
Finally, after 45 years of playing together, my old pal Kimberley Rew and I strum two acoustic guitars on this version of ‘Itchycoo Park. Given how deafening the pair of us were in the Soft Boys this is quaint and merciful.
I love playing these 1967 vintage compositions. As great songs do, they bottle fragments of time like fireflies in a jar. The original recordings were heavily produced, but my versions on this album are based on one or two acoustic guitars with a few effects thrown in to spice the sound and nod to the times.
‘Itchycoo Park’ was written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane of the Small Faces. Like many songs from this era, it appears to celebrate being on the right side of your drugs: seldom a long phase, alas.
1967: Vacations In The Past sees Hitchcock offering up his takes on songs by Jimi Hendrix, Traffic, The Move, and others. Produced by Hitchcock with his longtime collaborator Charlie Francis (R.E.M., The High Llamas, Martin Carr) at studios in Sydney, Cambridge, Cardiff, and San Francisco, the album features auxiliary musical contributions from such friends as Kelly Stoltz, Kimberly Rew, guitarist Davey Lane (You Am I, The Pictures), and Lee Cave-Berry.
Highlights are stripped-bare takes on classics such as The Beatles’ “A Day In The Life,” The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset,” Pink Floyd’s “See Emily Play,” Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” and fittingly, “Way Back In The 1960s” by The Incredible String Band.
Tracklist:
A Whiter Shade of Pale
Itchycoo Park
Burning of the Midnight Lamp
I Can Hear The Grass Grow
San Francisco (Flowers In Your Hair)
Waterloo Sunset
See Emily Play
My White Bicycle
No Face, No Name, No Number
Way Back In The 1960s
Vacations In The Past
A Day In The Life
ROBYN HITCHCOCK – TOUR 2024
JULY
12 – Rome, Italy – Industrie Fluviali
18 – Nashville, TN – Parnassus Books *
31 – Hoboken, NJ – Little City Books *
AUGUST
1 – New York, NY – Rough Trade NYC *
5 – Cambridge, MA – Porter Square Books *
30 – Malvern, UK – West Malvern Social Club
31 – Hebden Bridge, UK – Trades Club
SEPTEMBER
1 – York, UK – The Crescent Community Venue
3 – Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK – The Common Room Of The Great North
5 – Bath, UK – Komedia Bath
6 – Cambridge, UK – The Portland Arms
7 – Cambridge, UK – The Portland Arms
8 – Oxted, UK – United Reformed Church
10 – Oxford, UK – The Jericho Tavern
11 – Brighton, UK – Komedia
12 – Ramsgate, UK – Ramsgate Music Hall
13 – Twyford, UK – St. Mary’s Church, Twyford
14 – London, UK – EartH
* FREE IN-STORE EVENT
