WEBVTT

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER] It's your
fault for bringing it up.

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You mentioned the TARDIS.

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[ROBYN HITCHCOCK] Oh, yeah.

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER] Which Doctor
Who is your favorite and why?

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(audience laughs)

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[HITCHCOCK] My
favorite Doctor Who,

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since you ask, is Tom Baker.

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I'm not the familiar with
the more recent ones,

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but I thought Tom Baker had that

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sort of cosmic
insolence perfect.

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He was a bit like if
Harpo Marx could speak.

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He had the awful,
terrible, curly hair

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and he, also in real life,
got off with his co-star.

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Um, but I loved all
the early Doctor Whos.

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Did you ever see
the very first one,

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William Hartnell?

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER]
Yeah, sadly, I've seen

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probably almost every episode.

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(audience laughs)
[HITCHCOCK] Of all of them?

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[EVAN SMITH] He says
"sadly." Why is that sad?

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER]
I mean, the ones

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that are available
post-BBC fire.

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[HITCHCOCK] Oh, okay.

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Yeah, well, it all adds
to the legend, doesn't it?

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Black and white,
incineration, the rest of it.

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It's like they
did it on purpose.

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER] But Tom
Baker's my favorite, too,

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so I'm really happy right now.
[HITCHCOCK] Really?

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What's your favorite
recent Doctor Who?

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER] Uh,
it's not a fair question,

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we still air some of those, um.

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[HITCHCOCK] Who
would you recommend

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that I should watch or avoid?

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER]
Eggleston's probably the one

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you're gonna like the best,

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and last one before, the last
two, the most current two.

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[HITCHCOCK] Uh huh.

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Have they got back to having
older people in it yet

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or is it still
hot young Doctors?

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER] There
was, and then they

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actually finally have
a woman. It's great.

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[HITCHCOCK] Have a woman, right.

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER]
So, the show's great.

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[HITCHCOCK] Thank goodness.

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(audience laughs)

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER] Only
took a hundred years.

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[HITCHCOCK] Well, you
know, then hopefully

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the presidency will follow suit.

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(audience laughs, applauds)

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Sadly we've had a couple of,

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we've had a couple of female
prime ministers in Britain

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and they haven't been
such great Doctors.

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(audience laughs)

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[SMITH] Hasn't taken, huh?

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[HITCHCOCK] It hasn't
taken the way it should,

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but you know, that's good.

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Oh great, okay, thank you
for your advice on that.

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[SMITH] Thank you.

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Who else?

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Come on, yeah, ask
a question, please.

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER] I was
just curious, have you,

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I imagine you heard the cover of

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"Madonna of the
Wasps" by Neko Case?

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[HITCHCOCK] Yeah, yeah.

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER] What was
your impression with that?

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[HITCHCOCK] Oh, it sounded
good, it sounded like her,

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and it sounded like
the song I wrote

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but it was, uh--

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[SMITH] You don't feel like if

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somebody else covers your stuff

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that it's obligated that they

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make it sound like the original?

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You want it to sound like them?

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[HITCHCOCK] I want it to,

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well, like I said, I don't
think that I have a sound,

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so I wouldn't expect
them to sound like me.

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But, I mean, I'm always
slightly embarrassed

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when people cover my songs,

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which I shouldn't
be but I kind of--

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[SMITH] Why?

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Well, you cover so many
people's songs, right?

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[HITCHCOCK] Yeah, but
I don't know them.

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(audience laughs)

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Or they're dead, you
know, I mean I...

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Plus, I don't cover, I don't
interpret people's songs,

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I simply channel them.

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So I take what I think
is, that person was doing

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and I become it.

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I'm like a sort of
method actor or an actor.

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I simply try and amplify that,
the feeling I got from them,

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so I'm not trying to
Robyn Hitchcock-ize it.

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I actually, to me,

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I'm going into
character if I can.

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I wanna become that song.

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I don't want that song to
become part of me, you know?

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But I'm, essentially I'm like,

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someone described me as the
Peter Sellers of rock, you know?

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(audience laughs)

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There is no me.

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There is simply what I love

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and I absorb, I think.

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[SMITH] Do you have a favorite
cover of one of your songs,

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is there one that you like
particularly that someone did?

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[HITCHCOCK] No, I listen
to each of them once

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and I think, "Well, that's
very nice they did that"

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and I get a little bit
of royalties for it.

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[SMITH] All right,
how about the inverse?

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iI there a song
of somebody else's

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you've covered that
you like especially

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that you think was
especially successful?

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[HITCHCOCK] You mean, my
cover of someone else's songs?

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[SMITH] Of someone else, yeah.

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[HITCHCOCK] Not really, I
don't think they're that good,

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but they're more just,
they're part of me, so.

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Like for instance
I've been listening to

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"Visions of Johanna"
by Dylan since I was,

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before I had a guitar.

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So I still play that quite
regularly as an encore

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and I'm still working
on the performance

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of "Visions of Johanna"
[SMITH] Yeah.

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[HITCHCOCK] It probably has
become Robyn Hitchcock's now.

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Over the years, I think it's,

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but I still sing the
words so you can hear 'em,

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so that differs from Dylan's.

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[SMITH] That's a big
distinction, right, exactly.

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(audience laughs)
[HITCHCOCK] And I still follow

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what I think Bob
Dylan's melody was.

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So I would take my version
of "Visions of Johanna"

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over Bob Dylan's current one.

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[SMITH] Over his own, actually.

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[HITCHCOCK] Yeah,
but that sadly goes

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for an awful lot of Dylan's
performances but that's,

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Dylan, the paint never
dries on his compositions

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so I think after about
20 years they just,

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it's like wax just
melts, it's gone.

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You know, it's up to
someone like me to come in

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and go, "Oh, here it is,

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"I'm reconstructing 'Visions
of Johanna,'" you know?

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But that's the thing with songs.

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If songs spend enough
time inside you,

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they kind of become part of you.

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And even if you
didn't write them,

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they're sort of...

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They're you, I
mean, in some ways

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those songs are as much me
as anything I've written.

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I sort of feel very
passive about it all,

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I just keep the money.

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(audience laughs)
But I sort of like,

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as far as what's me and
what's somebody else,

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I don't know, maybe
the appeal of it is

05:25.266 --> 05:30.266 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80%
that you can actually transcend
yourself or escape yourself.

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You start to merge
with something when
you sing a good song.

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So but I'm just very touched
that Neko recorded it.

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[SMITH] Well, she's
terrific, absolutely.

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[HITCHCOCK] She did a good job.

05:40.466 --> 05:41.400 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80%
[SMITH] You're telling me that

05:41.400 --> 05:43.600 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80%
we have to stop? Okay, good.

05:43.600 --> 05:45.100 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70%
Sorry about that,

05:45.100 --> 05:46.333 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80%
we started a little bit late.
[HITCHCOCK] Okay, universe.

05:46.333 --> 05:47.500 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70%
[SMITH] We know that
Robyn needs to get on

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to his show tonight
at the Cactus,

05:48.433 --> 05:49.900 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80%
so please give him a big hand.

05:49.900 --> 05:51.833 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80%
(audience applauding)
Thank him for being here.

05:51.833 --> 05:54.833 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70%
Thanks to all of
you, we'll see you.