2002-05-01 - 1:23 a.m.

You know what? I always check "H" and "S" whenever I go to any record store. 'Cause you never know.

"H" for Hitchcock. And 'cause it's always nice to see Helium, or Husker Du, or Heavenly (even though I don't really like 'em).

"S" for the Soft Boys, Sebadoh, and especially the Softies. And �cause it's nice to see the Smiths, and Sonic Youth. And so on.

I see less and less of my "H" bands each time. Hitchcock neighbors Hendrix, and Jimi always has at least seven or eight CDs representing him. Robyn, uhhh.

But if you look, and look every time, you just might get lucky and snag an import that's going used for $50 on E-bay.

I "have" every Robyn Hitchcock issue, in that I have everything "official." But Robyn is very giving to his completists, and so are his fans, and there are a couple of maybe so maybe not CDs out there.

In the past year or so, I've snagged:

A Star for Bram (a follow-up to the disappointing Jewels for Sophia), which is maybe his best CD in 10 years.

Working Class Hero, which looks like a CD jewel case, but which is actually an Italian mini-book on Robyn, along with a three-song CD (only one is good).

Stand Back Dennis, which is a live recording from the late 80's, with Peter Buck (of R.E.M.) appearing late in the game. Not all that great as a CD, but invaluable as an object of love.

And now Robyn Sings.

Soooo good.

It's a 2CD set, the first half being acoustic Dylan covers, and the second half a 99% accurate reproduction of a live Dylan performance.

There's one song on it, and it reminds me of Norwegian Wood, called Fourth Time Around.

So. I love this song. Don't knock me for not loving it 'till I heard Robyn Hitchcock cover it (by the way, he does it better, but that's fodder for an argument, not a question).

So. I get the Norwegian Wood. I get the joke at the end (I think it�s a joke), I never asked for your crotch, don't ask for mine.

I also understand the term Dylanesque. When someone is being Dylanesque, s/he says a bunch of wacky shit that seems to make sense, but then you realize that it was all up to interpretation (or was it?).

I hate when people do this. Songwriters ruin their songs this way. Nothing makes me more upset than when I really fall in love with a song, and then realize that it is not complete. That the writer all of a sudden has to spoil it at the end by, oh, I dunno, saying something obscure at the end, or by reaching through and then breaking the transparent film covering the song by reminding us all that the song is, indeed, a song. Or by all of a sudden, and at the very last minute, turning it into a love song (classic example, Cortez the Killer).

But I think that Fourth Time Around is actually pretty direct, and it can redeem itself and attain perfect song status if it answers just two simple questions.

One, I kinda get. What's with the boot-filling thing? If Dylan fills his boot with his foot, then I'm satisfied.

The other, who is the person in the wheelchair? Does this person also have crutches?

Why is this person, presumably the one whose crutch Dylan never asked for, presumably the one that takes Dylan in after his Jamacian rum experience, even in the song?

Why be so direct, and then take off and run for the hills? Dude. You gotta know that Dylan knew that he had a good thing going when he wrote the music to the song. And at the time, the dude was in his songwriting prime.

Why can't the song just be about Dylan's experiences with the first woman? Why not start a story, and then finish it? Why start a story, and then finish it with the middle part of a different story?

Is that Dylanesque?

Is that supposed to show me some kind of greater wisdom?

(It did.)

(But I still have problems with the song.)