Robyn Hitchcock "The Man Downstairs" 2017 Demos & Rarities + "The President" 2020 - 7"/45rpm EP

These songs were mostly recorded in 2013 as demos for "The Man Upstairs". These tracks were recorded in Cardiff by Charlie Francis in his attic, and in many cases didn’t survive being re-cut with Joe Boyd in London when it came to session time...
...The concept for "The Man Upstairs" was that Joe and I make a kind of Judy Collins 1965-era album: half covers, half originals. That method has been extended for this limited edition outtake album. I hope you enjoy it! - x RH
trax:
01 All Love And No Peace 02 River Man 03 Arnold Layne 04 Cavendish Square 05 The Threat of Freedom 06 The Tower Song 07 I Pray When I'm Drunk 08 On Seeing Your Photograph 09 Born In Time 10 Recalling The Truth

"The President" 2020 - 7"/45rpm EP
I wrote ‘The President’ in the spring of 1986 after Ronald Reagan had been talking in a very inflammatory way about Russia (and a patronising way about Europe) during a visit to what was then West Germany. At this point the Cold War still felt to many of us that it might go nuclear. And like many that bleak April, I was horribly scared. The song, recorded on ‘Element Of Light’ by the Egyptians and myself, caught a lot of that dread - I hope 34 years later, the latest and most monstrous in a line of egregious Republican Commanders-in-Chiefs is a shameless bullying gangster who, abetted by a coalition of Greed and Ignorance, is aiming to scupper the forthcoming US election and proclaim himself Emperor of America. Bizarrely, one of his greatest allies is in this is Russia - which is almost the opposite of the Reagan scenario. But this man’s offense to human decency is far greater than Ronald Reagan’s. I’m aware that in comparing him to a pig, I’m insulting pigs - and I apologize to any who are reading this. He is physically disgusting to behold, like some extruded prolapse that’s managed to squeeze itself into a suit and tie. He looks uncomfortable with himself, as if one half of him would love to detach from the other and float away. Of course, I could be projecting here... - x RH
trax:
01 The President (2020 version) 02 The Cross, The Dollar & The Gun