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| Emma Swift and Robyn Hitchcock |
Since the quarantine began, singer/songwriter Robyn Hitchcock
and his partner Emma Swift have been performing concerts live from their couch
in Nashville. You can view the concerts through the Stageit website on
Wednesday evenings, 8PM in the Central Time Zone. I’ve watched about 4 or 5 of
the shows, which Robyn and Emma have titled “Sweet Home Quarantine,” and they’re
all very entertaining.
Last night’s show, which was week 9, was David Bowie-themed.
As a huge Bowie fan, I was excited for this. Robyn has covered Bowie in concert
fairly regularly, although I don’t believe he’s done any Bowie covers on his records.
The show last night began with “Soul Love,” from The Rise
and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. It’s a cool song that
is probably one of the lesser-known tracks on that classic album. Robyn said
that the saxophone solo is one of the few saxophone solos he enjoys. Next up
was “Moonage Daydream,” with Emma taking the lead vocal, and it showed just
what a fantastic song that is. One of the great things about Sweet Home
Quarantine has been seeing and hearing Robyn and Emma sing together—their voices
blend very well, and the harmonies really give his songs a different sound.
Robyn and Emma have recorded a few songs together, but they haven’t made an
album together, and I’ve still never seen Robyn and Emma sing together live.
(At the last Robyn show I was at in 2018, Emma was handling the merch table,
but didn’t sing with him.)
Up next was another Ziggy Stardust track, “Starman,”
which was a lot of fun to hear. “Starman” is just a great Bowie song, with that
sing a long chorus. Then came two songs from Bowie’s 1971 LP Hunky Dory, “Quicksand”
and “Life on Mars?” “Mars” featured Emma again singing the lead vocal, and she
did a fantastic job on it. Robyn accompanied on his Fender Telecaster. Robyn
then sang the iconic “Heroes,” but he gave it more of a Velvet Underground
vibe, which was very cool, and very different from Bowie’s version. Robyn also
sang “Sons of the Silent Age,” which has a very odd melody and is a hard song
to sing.
Robyn and Emma were back harmonizing together on the
underrated “Drive-In Saturday,” and the lovely “The Prettiest Star,” both off Aladdin
Sane. Robyn sang “Kooks,” Bowie’s sweet ode to his son Duncan, and “Golden
Years,” another tricky one to sing, but they pulled it off quite well. Robyn
and Emma got a verse or two into “Wild is the Wind,” with Emma on lead vocals,
before they got cut off. (The Stageit concerts are 30 minutes, plus a 20-minute
encore, but they cut you off right at 50 minutes, no matter where you are!)
It was lovely to hear some great Bowie songs again, in the
hands of two artists who clearly love Bowie’s music.
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