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

You mentioned the TARDIS.

[ROBYN HITCHCOCK] Oh, yeah.

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

(audience laughs)

[HITCHCOCK] My
favorite Doctor Who,

since you ask, is Tom Baker.

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

but I thought Tom Baker had that

sort of cosmic
insolence perfect.

He was a bit like if
Harpo Marx could speak.

He had the awful,
terrible, curly hair

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

Um, but I loved all
the early Doctor Whos.

Did you ever see
the very first one,

William Hartnell?

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

probably almost every episode.

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

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

[AUDIENCE MEMBER]
I mean, the ones

that are available
post-BBC fire.

[HITCHCOCK] Oh, okay.

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

Black and white,
incineration, the rest of it.

It's like they
did it on purpose.

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

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

What's your favorite
recent Doctor Who?

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

we still air some of those, um.

[HITCHCOCK] Who
would you recommend

that I should watch or avoid?

[AUDIENCE MEMBER]
Eggleston's probably the one

you're gonna like the best,

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

[HITCHCOCK] Uh huh.

Have they got back to having
older people in it yet

or is it still
hot young Doctors?

[AUDIENCE MEMBER] There
was, and then they

actually finally have
a woman. It's great.

[HITCHCOCK] Have a woman, right.

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

[HITCHCOCK] Thank goodness.

(audience laughs)

[AUDIENCE MEMBER] Only
took a hundred years.

[HITCHCOCK] Well, you
know, then hopefully

the presidency will follow suit.

(audience laughs, applauds)

Sadly we've had a couple of,

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

and they haven't been
such great Doctors.

(audience laughs)

[SMITH] Hasn't taken, huh?

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

but you know, that's good.

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

[SMITH] Thank you.

Who else?

Come on, yeah, ask
a question, please.

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

I imagine you heard the cover of

"Madonna of the
Wasps" by Neko Case?

[HITCHCOCK] Yeah, yeah.

[AUDIENCE MEMBER] What was
your impression with that?

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

and it sounded like
the song I wrote

but it was, uh--

[SMITH] You don't feel like if

somebody else covers your stuff

that it's obligated that they

make it sound like the original?

You want it to sound like them?

[HITCHCOCK] I want it to,

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

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

But, I mean, I'm always
slightly embarrassed

when people cover my songs,

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

[SMITH] Why?

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

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

(audience laughs)

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

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

I simply channel them.

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

and I become it.

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

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

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

I actually, to me,

I'm going into
character if I can.

I wanna become that song.

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

But I'm, essentially I'm like,

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

(audience laughs)

There is no me.

There is simply what I love

and I absorb, I think.

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

is there one that you like
particularly that someone did?

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

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

and I get a little bit
of royalties for it.

[SMITH] All right,
how about the inverse?

iI there a song
of somebody else's

you've covered that
you like especially

that you think was
especially successful?

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

[SMITH] Of someone else, yeah.

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

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

Like for instance
I've been listening to

"Visions of Johanna"
by Dylan since I was,

before I had a guitar.

So I still play that quite
regularly as an encore

and I'm still working
on the performance

of "Visions of Johanna"
[SMITH] Yeah.

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

Over the years, I think it's,

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

so that differs from Dylan's.

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

(audience laughs)
[HITCHCOCK] And I still follow

what I think Bob
Dylan's melody was.

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

over Bob Dylan's current one.

[SMITH] Over his own, actually.

[HITCHCOCK] Yeah,
but that sadly goes

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

Dylan, the paint never
dries on his compositions

so I think after about
20 years they just,

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

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

and go, "Oh, here it is,

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

But that's the thing with songs.

If songs spend enough
time inside you,

they kind of become part of you.

And even if you
didn't write them,

they're sort of...

They're you, I
mean, in some ways

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

I sort of feel very
passive about it all,

I just keep the money.

(audience laughs)
But I sort of like,

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

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

that you can actually transcend
yourself or escape yourself.

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

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

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

[HITCHCOCK] She did a good job.

[SMITH] You're telling me that

we have to stop? Okay, good.

Sorry about that,

we started a little bit late.
[HITCHCOCK] Okay, universe.

[SMITH] We know that
Robyn needs to get on

to his show tonight
at the Cactus,

so please give him a big hand.

(audience applauding)
Thank him for being here.

Thanks to all of
you, we'll see you.