Gotta Let This Hen Out!

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Gotta Let This Hen Out!
Live album by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians
Released	October 1985 (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
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Rolling Stone (favorable) link
Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians chronology
Fegmania! (1985) Gotta Let This Hen Out! (1985) 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".

Contents 1 Track listing 1.1 Side one 1.2 Side two 1.3 CD reissue bonus tracks 2 Personnel

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Robyn Hitchcock.

[edit] Side one

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

[edit] Side two

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

[edit] CD reissue bonus tracks

1. "The Fly"
2. "Only the Stones Remain"
3. "Egyptian Cream"

[edit] Personnel

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