The Soft Boys have done one or two brief reunions, and, during one of these reunions they did a session on Mark Radcliffe's Radio 1 programme. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I know it was on 18 January 1994. It was an absolutely superb piece of radio, which happily I taped and listened to several times over: both Robyn Hitchcock and Mark Radcliffe firing on all cylinders with absurdist banter about different line-ups of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, and Mark doing a version of the Soft Boys' Rock'n'Roll Toilet on Bontempi organ with rewritten lyrics ("I pulled my pants down and delivered the works / in a Rock'n'Roll Toilet"). Geeky and childish, but hugely entertaining. The versions of the songs the Soft Boys played were also universally excellent.
In fact I suspect it was that radio session that led me to buy this double album (a whopping £20.99 from Their Our Price). I didn't like these (original) versions as much as the session ones. It often turns out this way.
It's nevertheless a good compilation in that 'historical document' kind of way. You can hear the elements of the Magic Band in the sound on the first disc, plus the odd cabaret/barbershop performances. By the time of the songs from their best-known album Underwater Moonlight, there's more of a Byrds sound. Plus of course the usual Hitchcock array of squids, bees and so on.
Oh, and I'd forgotten they (or actually Robyn solo) had done a cover of Lou Reed's Caroline Says. A brave and unusual choice. (It was announced a couple of days ago that Lou himself is going to be playing it live again.)
 MusicBrainz entry for disc 1disc 2 |
Comments