Robyn Hitchcock just released his memoir, 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left, last week, and now he’s announced a companion album, titled 1967: Vacations In The Past, which will be out September 13 via Tiny Ghost.
In the memoir, Robyn explains why 1967 (when he was 14) was such a formative year for music, and the album features covers of songs from the era, including ones by Pink Floyd, The Move, The Kinks, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Small Faces, Traffic, and more, plus the title track, which is an original Robyn Hitchcock composition.
“I love playing these 1967 vintage compositions,” says Robyn. “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.”
Today, Robyn has shared his cover of Small Faces’ psychedelic classic “Itchycoo Park,” where he’s joined by his former Soft Boys bandmate Kimberley Rew. “Finally, after 45 years of playing together, my old pal Kimberley Rew and I strum two acoustic guitars on this version of ‘Itchycoo Park,’” says Robyn. “Given how deafening the pair of us were in the Soft Boys this is quaint and merciful. ‘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.”
Listen to Robyn’s version of “Itchycoo Park” and check out the tracklist and album art below.
For more on the year that titles the album and memoir, Robyn says, “1967 is the point when I and the world went through the change. It was all just blissful synchronicity as I grew nine inches in 15 months, just as Dylan was electrified and pop groups turned into rock bands. Arguably as much was lost as was gained, but at the same time, you had Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd and others producing music that couldn’t have even been described three years earlier. You had The Beatles producing inaudible shows with tiny amplifiers wearing suits and ties, in many ways playing to the old rules of showbiz, and then suddenly up came Dylan with his thousand-watt PA and Jimi Hendrix with his Marshall stacks, and the whole thing erupted.”
Robyn will be doing a few book events this summer, including Hoboken, NJ’s Little City Books on July 31, where he’ll talk with WFMU’s Todd-O-Phonic Todd, and NYC’s Rough Trade on August 1, where he’ll talk with music journalist David Fricke. He’s also got regular shows, too, and all dates are listed below.
Robyn Hitchcock – Vacations in the Past:
A Whiter Shade of Pale (Procol Harum)
Itchycoo Park (Small Faces)
Burning of the Midnight Lamp (Jimi Hendryx)
I Can Hear The Grass Grow (The Move)
San Francisco (Flowers In Your Hair) (Scott McKenzie)
Waterloo Sunset (The Kinks)
See Emily Play (Pink Floyd)
My White Bicycle (Tomorrow)
No Face, No Name, No Number (Traffic)
Way Back In The 1960s (The Incredible String Band)
Vacations In The Past (Robyn Hitchcock)
A Day In The Life (The Beatles)
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
4 – London, UK – EartH
* IN-STORE BOOK EVENT