For a widely traveled musician who’s known equally well for intricate acoustic fingerpicking and for shouting “I wanna destroy you!” over screaming electric guitars — even one who’s adept at gathering insight on what squirms inside each of us — a memoir is an ambitious task. Robyn Hitchcock doubled down, emphasizing the profound role of music in his life with his book 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left and its companion album 1967: Vacations in the Past. The LP, which consists of 11 covers and one new original, is an ardent ode to the world of psychedelic sounds that shaped him as a teenager in the U.K., originally recorded by artists like The Small Faces, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks and (of course) The Beatles. The book is a work of beautifully organic prose explaining his life during the titular year, as the shyly precocious artist learned to grow into who he was to become. Beyond a cover album and an autobiography, it’s two different ways for Hitchcock to examine himself as well as an influential period for musical culture.
Best Rock Album and Companion Book
Robyn Hitchcock, '1967'
Robyn Hitchcock at The Groove on Record Store Day, 4/22/2017
