Robyn Hitchcock Goes Backwards In Boxed Set

10/02/07 5:00pm

by Michelle Singerman (CHARTattack)

Three out-of-print '80s albums and 57 bonus tracks are included in psych-pop singer/songwriter Robyn Hitchcock's five-disc boxed set, I Wanna Go Backwards, which will be released on Nov. 13 by Yep Roc. A limited-edition eight-record vinyl boxed set will be issued simultaneously.

The collection includes Hitchcock's first solo album, Black Snake Diamond Role, as well as I Often Dream Of Trains and Eye. All have been digitally remastered and feature bonus tracks and enhanced liner notes, including Hitchcock's reminiscences, poetry and an excerpt from a novel in progress. There are also previously unseen photos, Hitchcock cartoons and a two-disc compilation of Hitchcock's unreleased solo B-sides, outtakes and home recordings titled While Thatcher Mauled Britain Part 1 & 2.

The three remastered albums will also be released individually in their expanded and enhanced versions. Another long out-of-print Hitchcock album, 1982's Groovy Decay, will be released exclusively as a digital download.

A second boxed set, tentatively titled Bad Case Of History, is due out early next year. It will include the three Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians albums (Fegmania, Gotta Let This Hen Out and Element Of Light) as well as an alternate/outtake collection called Dynasty.

Tracks from I Wanna Go Backwards can be sampled on the Yep Roc website.

Here are the tracks on I Wanna Go Backwards:

"The Man Who Invented Himself"
"Brenda's Iron Sledge"
"Do Policemen Sing?"
"The Lizard"
"Meat"
"Acid Bird"
"I Watch The Cars"
"Out Of The Picture"
"City Of Shame"
"Love"
"All I Wanna Do Is Fall In Love"
"A Skull, A Suitcase & A Long Red Bottle Of Wine"
"It Was The Night"
"I Watch The Cars No. 2"
"Give Me A Spanner Ralph"
"It's A Mystic Trip"
"Grooving On A Inner Plane"
"Happy The Golden Prince"
"Nocturne (Prelude)"
"Sometimes I Wish I Was A Pretty Girl"
"Cathedral"
"Uncorrected Personality Traits"
"Sounds Great When You're Dead"
"Flavour Of Light"
"Ye Sleeping Nights Of Jesus"
"This Could Be The Day"
"Tram Of Old London"
"Furry Green Atom Bowl"
"Heart Full Of Leaves"
"Autumn Is Your Last Chance"
"I Often Dream Of Trains"
"Nocturne (Demise)"
"Winter Love"
"The Bones In The Ground
""My Favourite Buildings"
"I Used To Say I Love You"
"Chant/Aether"
"Heart Full Of Leaves" (Alternate)
"I Often Dream Of Trains" (Demo)
"Not Even A Nurse"
"Slow Chant/That's Fantastic Mother Church"
"Traveller's Fare"
"Cynthia Mask"
"Certainly Cliquot"
"Queen Elvis"
"Flesh Cartoons"
"Chinese Water Python"
"Executioner"
"Linctus House"
"Sweet Ghost Of Light"
"Transparent Lover"
"Beautiful Girl"
"Clean Steve"
"Raining Twilight Coast"
"Agony Of Pleasure"
"Glass Hotel"
"Satellite"
"Aquarium"
"Queen Elvis II"
"Century"
"Shimmering Distant Love"
"Lovers Turn To Skulls"
"The Beauty Of Earl's Court"
"She Reached For A Light"
"August Hair"
"Take Your Knife Out Of My Back"
"Fiend Before The Shrine"
"Raymond Chandler Evening"
"Birdshead"
"Victorian Squid"
"You've Got"
"Captain Dry"
"Raining Twilight Coast" (Demo)
"Point It At Gran"
"Vegetable Friend"
"Flesh Number 1"
"Surgery"
"I Got A Message For You"
"If I Could Look"
"Parachutes & Jellyfish"
"Queen Elvis" (Demo)
"Nothing"
"Stranded In The Future"
"Melting Arthur"
"The Abandoned Brain"
"You're So Repulsive"
"Opiatrescence"
"September Cones"
"Lovely Golden Villains"
"Dr. Sticky" (Live)
"Toadboy"
"Trash"
"Pit Of Souls" (Country Version)
"Mr. Deadly"
"Let There Be More Darkness"
"Listening To The Higsons"
"College Of Ice"
"My Favourite Buildings" (Demo)
"Lightplug"
"Sleeping Knights Of Jesus" (Demo)
"Insect Mother"
"I Wanna Go Backwards"