Song Of The Day 2/25/2016: Robyn Hitchcock – “Up To Our Nex”

Next Best Original Songs – I haven't actually seen Rachel Getting Married from whence this song came. I think it's on my Netflix list, unless it's been taken off, which they seem to do on a not very amusing, scattershot schedule. But this is sort of separate from that anyway, as it's part of my unspoken agenda to fit Robyn Hitchcock on this blog as much as humanly possibly without seeming creepy. (Same with John Cale, if you haven't noticed.) One thing I love is how director Jonathan Demme has kept Robyn in his back pocket as a sort of floating cinematic Easter egg. This all started when Demme made Storefront Hitchcock, a performance documentary not completely unlike Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense, which Demme also directed and is the greatest music documentary of all time. Storefront Hitchcock was exceptional as well. Not long after, Hitchcock popped up in Demme's decent remake of The Manchurian Candidate as (SPOILER ALERT) the shady contractor in cahoots with the enemy.

Again, having not seen it, I don't know how far I should get into describing Hitchcock's contribution to Rachel Getting Married. Let's toss it to the Los Angeles Times:

There's no real score to the film, at least not in the traditional sense. Instead, director Jonathan Demme has musicians on-screen in nearly every scene, noodling in the background. Their acoustic fiddling, picking up on strains of jazz and classical, becomes a personal, living chamber hall to pre-wedding tension played-out by the characters in the film. 

It meant that some of the more pivotal scenes in the film, such as when Anne Hathaway's Kym purposely loses control of her car, would play out without a score. It helps lend a more natural feel to the proceedings, even when the film's grand wedding scene is blown out with massive drum processional and a performance from singer/songwriter Robyn Hitchcock... 

"Up to Our Nex" gets a showcase slot in Rachel Getting Married. It's a buoyant little ditty, with a minor horn section and some dizzyingly jubilant guitar strumming. Electric guitar notes add a hint of spacey distortion, and its mix of absolution and stubbornness mirrors the tone of the film ("Forgive yourself, and maybe, you'll forgive me," Hitchcock sings)... 

"I read the script and I wrote the song," Hitchcock says. "I didn't know if he had a song for the film. So I said, 'Do you want one?' He said, 'What have you got?' 'Up to Our Nex' is my take on the movie. It's a synopsis of what the movie is saying emotionally to me."

Also fiddling around in Rachel Getting Married were early rap legend Fab 5 Freddy and reggae legend Sister Carol -- with whom I also have a brief but notable history. It's a long story. Maybe I'll talk about it later. At Christmas or something.