Gotta Let This Hen Out!

Infobox Album
Name = Gotta Let This Hen Out!
Type = Live album
Longtype =
Artist = Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians


Released = start date|1985|10
Recorded = April 27, 1985, The Marquee, London
"Repaired" at Alaska Studios
Genre = Rock
Length = 49:46
Label = Relativity Records
Rhino/WEA
Producer = Pat Collier, Roger Jackson, Andy Metcalfe
Reviews = * Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:p1w67ul0h0ja link]
*"Rolling Stone" (favorable) [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/robynhitchcock/albums/album/170139/review/5941819/gotta_let_this_hen_out link]
Last album = "Fegmania!" (1985)
This album = "Gotta Let This Hen Out!" (1985)
Next album = "Groovy Decoy" (1986)

"Gotta Let This Hen Out!" is a live recording of Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians recorded in April 1985, shortly after the group had come together for "Fegmania!".

The set was recorded at the Marquee and the tapes cleaned up for release at Alaska Studios with minor drop-in overdubs. The gig was also videotaped and appeared on VHS with a few additional numbers, interspersed with several studio recordings available through their promo videos.

The material selected for this album includes titles ranging through Hitchcock's back catalogue, from Soft Boys songs ("Kingdom Of Love", "The Face Of Death") through his first solo album ("Acid Bird", "Brenda's Iron Sledge") and up to the recently released "Fegmania!" ("Heaven", "My Wife and My Dead Wife"). The live recording captures the new band just it was defining its sound and fairly documents the highlights of Hitchcock's live set and musical focus in the mid-1980s.

The cover features a painting by Hitchcock depicting airborne fish, jelly fish and an array of ducks and chickens. As with a number of his albums, Hitchcock handwrote the liner notes. The album title is taken from the lyric of the song, "Listening to the Higsons", the penultimate track on the album.

The Rhino CD reissue adds "Egyptian Cream", "The Fly", and a staple of his live sets, the Soft Boys' "Only the Stones Remain".

Track listing

All songs written by Robyn Hitchcock.

ide one

# "Sometimes I Wish I Was a Pretty Girl" (2:03)
# "Kingdom of Love" (4:04)
# "Acid Bird" (4:25)
# "The Cars She Used to Drive" (2:44)
# "My Wife and My Dead Wife" (3:54)
# "Brenda's Iron Sledge" (2:57)

ide two

# "Leppo and the Jooves" (4:52)
# "America" (4:08)
# "Heaven" (3:40)
# "Listening to the Higsons" (2:36)
# "The Face of Death" (3:13)

CD reissue bonus tracks

# "The Fly"
# "Only the Stones Remain"
# "Egyptian Cream"

Personnel

*Robyn Hitchcock - Vocals, guitar
*Roger Jackson - Keyboards
*Andy Metcalfe - Bass, vocals
*Morris Windsor - Drums, ice cream