the Soft Boys

A Can of Bees


       Give it to the Soft Boys                  1:57
       The Pigworker                             4:30
       Human Music                               4:30
       Leppo and the Jooves                      5:27
       The Rat's Prayer                          3:19
       Do the Chisel                             3:03
       Sandra's Having Her Brain Out             3:47
       The Return of the Sacred Crab             2:54
       Cold Turkey                               4:17
       Skool Dinner Blues (Live)                 2:26
       Wading Through a Ventilator (Live)        4:08
       Leppo and the Jooves                      5:31
       Sandra's Having Her Brain Out             4:08
       Skool Dinner Blues                        2:14
       Fatman's Son                              2:39
       (I want to be an) Anglepoise Lamp (Live)  2:14
       Ugly Nora (Live)                          3:07

    This album is dedicated to anyone who started out as 
    an animal and winds up as a processing unit.


Can of Bees Sessions

These ran from August to November 1978.  Engineered by Mike Kemp in the
basement of 19 Clarendon Street, Cambridge, Spaceward Studios.  The
band recoded in the basement; Jim Melton overdubbed his vocals from the
church over the road.  There was a bath in the room next to the
studio.  We never used it ourselves.  There was a square cut away where
Kimberly's cat had been.  The sessions were mixed by as few people as
possible, because the conrol room was small and dark, very like a space
capsule with beer in it.  This, enhanced, is the Spaceward sound of
1978.  Upstairs in the kitchen was furry Neil and a never ending supply
of sausages.  The wallpaper twisted into diseased autumnal flowers and
Neil would say, 'Do you want some mustard on it?'

Other bands recorded there, but we were too arrogant to notice.  You 
can't sit around chatting up every dodgy looking musician you meet in
case they become famous, can you?  After abortive experiments with
'production' and costly studios, we were clinging to a dry, untreated
sound in our music - what you heard was what we played only not as loud.
So there is litte reverb or double tracking - a trend we (and Pat Collier)
reversed on "Underwater Moonlight".

In addition to the scarce "Return of the Sacred Crab"; "Skool Dinner
Blues"; "Wading through a Ventilator"; "Leppo and the Jooves" and 
"Sandra's Having Her Brain Out", I have included what details I can
remember of the 'missing' second SB's album.  This is not the 'legendary'
Radar album ('legendary' only because it was too bad to release) but a 
series of songs recorded between "A Can of Bees" and "Invisible Hits"
that for various reasons never came out, tracks as follows:

GOD OF BEAKS - Kimberly on piano; Andy on string bass; Jim and Morris
playing cutlery through a heavy delay and then compressed.  Vocal through
a colander, ADT'd.

I WANNA GO BACKWARDS - Beach Boys arrange a rendevous with Steeleye Span
in a darkened forest, but they never quite meet up.  Nice flange on the
harmonies, though.

MOAN - 15 track Kimberly guitar solo under an Israeli baby food advert,
chanted in mono by all 5 of us.

ARABIAN TAKEAWAY - The guitars were so loud on this that the tape
disintegrated.

BEAUTIFUL SCREAM - Inverted calypso in 5/8 that only Morris could ever
finish.  Nifty piece of gate on the snare.

JERRY SCUD, HOOF-LIPS! - A bit too folky for 1979.

REASONS FOR PARKING - This was too dull to record, let alone release.
Andy would do a brilliant parody of this when extremely drunk.  Oh 
badass world.

THE GREAT CRUSTACEANS - There was a great mix of this, with tremolo
tom-toms and Kimberly on Jew's Harp, but it vanished.  It would have 
been a smash - loping bass and savagely phased harmonies.

LOBSTERMAN - The follow-up that never was, Lobsterman featured Morris on
clarinet, Andy on banjo and was in two time signatures at once, like a
lot of our best stuff.

BONDE M'TEKO STOMP - Only half a take of this exists.  Even Morris couldn't
get to the end of it.  Named after the damp bungalow outside Cambridge
where we rehearsed "Invisible Hits".  Kimberly rented it off the explorer,
Sir Raymond Hoon, and we ate lots of ravioli.

SO YOU THINK YOU'RE IN LOVE - One of the best things I wrote.  It was a bit
personal at the time, so I over-dubbed it myself and didn't play it to
anybody.  It was erased by a horde of bass drum tracks in early '79.

THE 'D' SONG - It never had a title - just a key - so it never had an
identity.  So it never came out.  Every baby needs a name, even if it's
only Zoot.


ROBYN HITCHCOCK  Guitar Vocals
KIMBERLY REW  Guitar Vocals         with
MORRIS WINDSOR  Drums Vocals        JIM MELTON  Percussion Vocals Harmonica
ANDY METCALFE  Bass Vocals          GERRY HALE  Violin


Two Crabs
Universal
Claw 1001 CD

(c)1990 Two Crabs Universal
England: PO Box 333, Bushey, Watford, WD2 3UN. 
Deutschland: Marktgasse 17,7400 Tubingen.
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