VIA PRESS RELEASE | Robyn Hitchcock has announced that his eagerly awaited new memoir, 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left, will be published in the United States by Akashic Books on June 28. Pre-orders are available now.
Told with the inimitable wit, wisdom, wordplay (and original illustrations) fans have come to expect from this one-of-a-kind artist, 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left is a singularly unique portrait of a bright, slightly awkward boy becoming a significantly taller young man, as both he and the black-and-white world around him blast off into an iridescent new future. Hitchcock details a truly epochal year via his own exceptional experience, expertly chronicling a life-changing, mind-blowing 12-month span that both redefined the shape of everything to come and left an indelible mark on his own work as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist.
1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left begins as 13-year-old Robyn arrives at Winchester College, a 600-year-old boarding school in the south of England, away from his rather complex relationship with his rather complex family for the first time. Hitchcock is quite suddenly thrown into the bottom tier of a determinedly male hierarchical universe, a backdated realm of arrested academics still living in their monochrome past as hormone-addled teenage boys teetering on the precipice of young manhood. Slowly and not entirely surely, he finds his way—and his place in this strange, peculiarly English, new world—through the strength of his humor, intelligence, and most importantly, an ever-increasing love of art and music.
With the help of his school’s antiquated House Gramophone, Hitchcock hears sounds that he had never heard before, from the early songs of Bob Dylan to the earth-shaking appearance of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the latter of which shook him to his very core and undeniably shaped his own work and worldview forever to come. The secrets of the universe are soon revealed via encounters with a young (but already exceedingly Eno) Brian Eno and the electrified mayhem of Jimi Hendrix and the Pink Floyd, revelatory music that ultimately inspires him to play his first guitar and begin writing songs of his own. By 1967’s end, the young Robyn Hitchcock is no longer a boy, still not quite a man, but undeniably, irrevocably different—slightly wiser, somewhat less innocent, and beginning to take shape as the band leader, master songwriter, and utterly original artist he would soon become.
“1967 is the point when I and the world went through the change,” Hitchcock says. “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 wearing suits and ties producing inaudible shows with tiny amplifiers, 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.”
Hitchcock is marking the impending arrival of 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left with a typically busy tour schedule that sees him traveling the US, Europe, and the UK through September and beyond. Highlights include a series of US dates featuring special guest Eugene Mirman as well as a West Coast run of full band shows backed by Kelley Stoltz & His Men. For complete details and ticket availability, please visit www.robynhitchcock.com/tour.
