10 Best Songs by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians

In 1979, The Soft Boys released their debut album, A Can of Bees. By 1985, the members of the now-defunct group were enjoying vastly different fortunes. Guitarist Kimberly Rew was enjoying an international top ten hit with his new group Katrina & the Waves – ‘Walking on Sunshine’. Penned by Rew, it’s described as “the crown jewel in EMI’s catalog,” due to its lucrative royalties from airplay and advertisements.

Meanwhile, the other three Soft Boys continued to toil away on the college rock scene. Robyn Hitchcock, drummer Morris Windsor, and bassist Andy Metcalfe joined forces with keyboardist Roger Jackson and released their debut album as Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians in 1985. Fegmania! is one of Hitchock’s best records in a storied career. It displays his odd preoccupations with songs like ‘Insect Mother’ and ‘My Wife and My Dead Wife’. It adds a 1980s sheen to his 1960s-inspired sounds, where he takes inspiration from the weirdness of Syd Barrett, the jangle of The Byrds, and the smarminess of John Lennon. Hitchcock released six albums with the Egyptians, wrapping the group up after 1993’s Respect.

There’s no room on the list for some of Hitchcock’s most popular songs with the Egyptians – I like ‘Balloon Man’ and ‘So You Think You’re In Love’, but they’re not top ten for me. I was also unable to fit the b-side ‘Tell Me About Your Drugs‘, a song I’ve previously featured in my Great B-Sides series.

10 Best Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians Songs

#10 Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom

from Respect, 1993
Respect was Hitchcock’s final album with the Egyptians. It feels more like a solo album – 1991’s Perspex Island felt like a bid for the pop/rock mainstream. In the wake of Nirvana’s alteration of the alternative rock landscape, Hitchcock moved back to more folk-based music. I mentioned a bunch of other 1960s influences in the introduction, but Bob Dylan’s another key influence on Hitchcock. ‘Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom’ is clearly in Bob Dylan territory – it’s a literate musing on religion. But it feels like Hitchcock’s own work – he’s goofier than

#9 Chinese Bones

from Globe of Frogs, 1988
I’ll let Hitchcock describe this song himself:

This song appeared to me in 1986 in a darkened courtyard on the Isle of Wight. It’s a Halloween song, for those of us who dance internally – my echo of Avalon, the Roxy Music album that spent much of the 1980s in my psychospace. This version was filmed and recorded by my dear friend Adam Buxton about 20 years later, and features an interesting hair solo by self. Chinese Bones remains one of my favourites. Thanks to Chris Cox for suggesting that the middle-eight move to the end of the song.

https://www.facebook.com/robynhitchcockofficial/posts/this-song-appeared-to-me-in-1986-in-a-darkened-courtyard-on-the-isle-of-wight-it/1177691108930710/

#8 One Long Pair of Eyes

from Queen Elvis, 1989
The Egyptians were reduced to a three-piece after Jackson’s departure. Bassist Andy Metcalfe is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, covering keyboards and guitar, as well as bass. He’s all over this track – his fluid piano arpeggios enliven one of Hitchcock’s prettiest tunes, while his fretless bass provides melodic interest. It’s followed on the second side of Queen Elvis, by ‘Veins of the Queen’, a bizarre Hitchcock fantasy accompanied by trumpet from Dave Woodhead.

#7 Glass

from Fegmania!, 1985
‘Glass’ is one of Hitchcock’s favourite songs from his own catalogue. He later told an interviewer that “songs like “Airscape” — and a lot of the stuff off of Element Of Light — and “Glass” off Fegmania!, a few of the songs off Trains I think are really good, and I’m sorry more people haven’t heard them. I hope eventually they become known over the next 300 or 400 years and find their place in Earth culture.” There’s an unsettling guitar riff at the centre of ‘Glass’ – it’s tricky to follow the beat on the instrumental interludes.

#6 Bass

from Element of Light, 1986
‘Bass’ is an oddly constructed song – the chorus is essentially a terrific Metcalfe bass lick, with Hitchcock speaking the word “bass” over the top, pronounced like the fish rather than the instrument. The verses are nonsense rhymes, also often concerned with fish – “The juicy flounder and the tender chub/Will swim around you when you leave the pub.”

#5 My Wife and My Dead Wife

from Fegmania!, 1985
Hitchcock wrote that ‘My Wife and My Dead Wife “seems to be my best-known song.” It’s quintessentially Hitchcock, with its surreal lyrics. Hitchcock’s father was a writer, known for his novel Percy about a penis transplant – The Kinks provided the soundtrack for its movie adaptation. It’s clear that Hitchcock inherited some of these tendencies – it’s an ambiguous song. Is the narrator remembering a lost spouse? Planning to murder the current one?

#4 Heaven

from Fegmania!, 1985
Fegmania! is full of Hitchcock’s usual weirdness, but it ends with the surprisingly straightforward Heaven. It’s written by Hitchcock so it still features odd lines like “You’ve got arms and you’ve got legs and you’ve got heaven”. But at the same time, it could fit on the soundtrack of a John Hughes film with its big harmonised chorus and catchy keyboard riff.

#3 Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis)

from Globe of Frogs, 1988
The Egyptians were reduced to just Metcalfe and Windsor for their major-label debut. Hitchcock fills out the sound with guests – R.E.M.’s Peter Buck is on guitar for songs like ‘Chinese Bones’. Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook harmonises with Hitchcock on the closing ‘Flesh Number One’. It’s one of Hitchcock’s sweetest and most optimistic songs, even if there’s a little sting in the tail: “There’s a plane crashing down/On the studio, but/We’re in luck, we’re not there.”

#2 Airscape

from Element of Light, 1986
‘Airscape’ is written about the cliffs on Hitchcock’s favourite beach – Compton Beach on the Isle of Wight. It’s a gorgeous melody, with Hitchcock singing at the top of his register. It’s given a spacious arrangement, with Jackson playing glass harmonica.

 And ah, so I worked out that, that the cliffs where I pace, in another hundred years’ time will disappear completely, and that my ghost will be fifty feet above the beach. There must be other ghosts out to sea, as the ghosts get further out to sea their costumes get older, so you’ve got you know, ghosts from the fifties about twenty feet out, and ghosts from World War II ghosts just beyond that, and you’ve got Great War ghosts with their goggles, and Edwardian ghosts with their mantles and Victorian ghosts with their cravats and canes, ah Jacobean ghosts with their… legs. And it just goes back on, whatever they had, those things to stop ’em smelling too bad. And about a mile out, there must be Cro-Magnon ghosts, clubbing each other to death and grinning. Now I guess there’s going to be a few more of those inland as well. Anyway, this is a song from my ghost to those who walk underneath it.

Robyn Hitchcock, dialogue from Storefront Hitchcock

#1 Madonna of the Wasps

from Queen Elvis, 1989
On their second shot at a major label record, Hitchcock and the Egyptians delivered a more mainstream effort. ‘Madonna of the Wasps’ is a terrific leadoff track, tuneful and memorable with Peter Buck prominent on guitar. Insects are a frequent theme for Hitchcock, but here he’s able to turn them into a more universal song, like a metaphor for an ended relationship. “Madonna of the wasps/She’s lying in the frost/I wonder what she cost me”.

Did I miss your favourite Robyn Hitchcock song with The Egyptians?

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