''Fegmania!'' is the fourth studio album by

Robyn Hitchcock Robyn Rowan Hitchcock (born 3 March 1953) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano, and bass guitar. After leading the Soft Boys in the late 1970s and releasing th ...

and his first with his backing band

The Egyptians ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...

. The Egyptians included the former

Soft Boys The Soft Boys were an English rock band led by Robyn Hitchcock primarily during the 1970s, whose initially old-fashioned music style of psychedelic/folk-rock became part of the neo-psychedelia scene with the release of '' Underwater Moonlight''. ...

Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor. "The Man with the Lightbulb Head" was conceived on

Archway Road The A1 in London is the southern part of the A1 road. It starts at Aldersgate in the City of London, passing through the capital to Borehamwood on the northern fringe of Greater London, before continuing to Edinburgh. The road travels throug ...

in London and provided a springboard for Hitchcock's first attempt at film making for a promotional video. Stills from the video were reproduced as cover art for the front and back of the LP sleeve. The album was quickly followed by the live album, ''Gotta Let This Hen Out!'', recorded at one gig at The Marquee Club in Wardour Street, London.

Reissues

Eight bonus tracks were added to the subsequent Rhino CD reissue of the album, including an acoustic demo of "Insect Mother" which had been recorded for possible inclusion in the earlier ''

I Often Dream of Trains ''I Often Dream of Trains'' is the third album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in 1984. It is Hitchcock's first acoustic-based album. After the break-up of The Soft Boys, Hitchcock recorded two solo albums — 1981's ''Black Snake Diamond ...

'', and "The Pit of Souls", a lengthy psychedelic instrumental in four 'movements'. Two alternative versions of "Egyptian Cream" appear as bonus tracks. The 2008 YepRoc reissue added seven bonus track to the original album. The outro which previously appeared as a

hidden track In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes called a ghost track, secret track or unlisted track) is a song or a piece of audio that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, LP record, or other recorded medium, in such a way as to ...

after "Heaven" is now included as a separate, twelfth untitled song. This reissue was also included in the retrospective Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians boxset '' Luminous Groove''.

Reception

John Leland of ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' wrote, "Unpredictably brilliant songs, synapse-bending lyrics, and vigorously inventive guitar. This is still the music of a man who refuses to grow up, but however dark Hitchcock's paranoid delusions, all of his songs have pretty elements: a

Merseybeat Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music genre that developed, particularly in and around Liverpool, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from American rock and roll, rhythm and blues, skiffl ...

harmony, a pristine organ part, or a neatly resolved guitar line."

Track listing

All songs written by

except as indicated.

Side one

# "Egyptian Cream" – 3:33 # "Another Bubble" – 2:46 # "I'm Only You" – 4:28 # "My Wife & My Dead Wife" – 4:19 # "Goodnight I Say" – 3:14

Side two

# "The Man with the Lightbulb Head" – 3:05 # "Insect Mother" – 1:54 # "Strawberry Mind" – 2:50 # "Glass" – 3:12 # "The Fly" – 3:50 # "Heaven" – 4:41

Midnight CD bonus tracks

# "

Bells of Rhymney "The Bells of Rhymney" is a song first recorded by folk singer Pete Seeger, which consists of Seeger's own music accompanying words written by Welsh poet Idris Davies. Composition The lyrics to the song were drawn from part of Davies' poetic work ...

" (

Idris Davies Idris Davies (6 January 1905 – 6 April 1953) was a Welsh poet. Born in Rhymney, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, he became a poet, originally writing in Welsh, but later writing exclusively in English. He was the only poet to cover signific ...

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...

; arranged by

Roger McGuinn James Roger McGuinn (born James Joseph McGuinn III; July 13, 1942) is an American musician. He is best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with the Byrds. As ...

)) – 3:30 (single) # "Dwarfbeat" – 3:00 (B-side from "Heaven" single) # "Some Body" – 3:24 (B-side from "Heaven" single)

Rhino CD reissue bonus tracks

# "Bells of Rhymney" (Idris Davies, Pete Seeger) – 3:30 # "Dwarfbeat" – 3:00 # "Some Body" – 3:24 # "Egyptian Cream"

emo Emo is a rock music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of and hardcore punk from the Washington D.C. hardcore punk scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore and pioneered b ...

– 4:35 # "Heaven" ive# "Insect Mother"

– 4:53 # "Egyptian Cream" ive# "The Pit of Souls arts I-IV – 9:57

YepRoc CD reissue bonus tracks

# "Bells of Rhymney" (Idris Davies, Pete Seeger) – 3:30 # "Some Body" – 3:20 # "Heaven" ive – 4:55 # "The Pit of Souls -IV – 9:59 # "The Drowning Church" – 3:12 # "The Man with the Lightbulb Head" nstrumental – 2:52 # "Lady Obvious" – 3:21 Note: "Dwarfbeat" was dropped from this release.

Personnel

;Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians *

- vocals, guitars, bass guitar on "The Man with the Lightbulb Head" *Morris Windsor - drums *Andy Metcalfe - bass guitar, keyboards on "I'm Only You", "My Wife & My Dead Wife", "Goodnight I Say", "Insect Mother" and "Heaven" *Roger Jackson - keyboards on "Strawberry Mind", "Glass", "The Fly" and "Heaven" with: *John Kingham - drums on "The Man with the Lightbulb Head" *James Fletcher - saxophone on "Dwarfbeat" *James A. Smith - guitar on "The Pit of Souls" Part I *Justin Grimaldi - guitar on "The Pit of Souls" part II ;Technical *Pat Collier - recording

References

{{Authority control 1985 albums Robyn Hitchcock albums Slash Records albums Albums produced by Robyn Hitchcock