Robyn Hitchcock - THE BEATLES Covered @ Three Kings, Clerkenwell, London, U.K. 2009 (Abbey Road)

 Robyn Hitchcock - Three Kings, Clerkenwell, London, Britain, 11-1-2009 (Abbey Road)

Paul says: From 2003 to 2011, Robyn Hitchcock held yearly benefit concerts at a small venue in London called the Three Kings, with the funds going to various causes opposing the U.S. war in Iraq. Each year, he performed one of his favorite albums by the musical acts that most influenced him. In 2009, he tackled "Abbey Road" by the Beatles. Here it is.

Hitchcock is a massive Beatles fan. I've already posted his versions of "Revolver," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," and "The White Album," done in this series of benefit concerts. I waited on posting this one due to sound quality concerns. Namely, there was a fair amount of echo on the recording, which I find annoying. But, thanks to improving audio editing technology, I could finally fix that problem, so I did. First, I used the MVSEP program to split the vocals from the instruments. Then I used that program's "denoise" function on the vocals. Then I put the vocals and instruments back together again. I think it sounds much better now.

Hitchcock was backed by a full band, as he typically was in this series of concerts. He has a singing voice with lots of character, but he doesn't have an exceptionally high range. So, for a few of the songs that were more difficult to sing, he had other band members take the lead vocals. 

After playing the album straight though, in the correct album order, he played four more songs done by the Beatles in 1969. 

This music here is unreleased.

With this post, I believe I have posted all of the known recordings from these Three Kings benefit shows. However, there have been other occasions when Hitchcock has performed entire albums by other musical acts. So I'll keep working on posting those.

This album is an hour and 17 minutes long. 

01 talk by James Orbinski 
02 Come Together 
03 talk 
04 Something 
05 talk
06 Maxwell's Silver Hammer 
07 talk 
08 Oh, Darling 
09 talk
10 Octopus's Garden 
11 talk 
12 I Want You [She's So Heavy] 
13 talk 
14 Here Comes the Sun 
15 Because 
16 talk 
17 Because - Take 2 
18 You Never Give Me Your Money 
19 Sun King
20 Mean Mr. Mustard 
21 Polythene Pam 
22 She Came in through the Bathroom Window 
23 Golden Slumbers 
24 Carry That Weight 
25 The End 
26 Her Majesty 
27 talk 
28 I've Got a Feeling 
29 The Ballad of John and Yoko 
30 Old Brown Shoe 
31 talk
32 Don't Let Me Down