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Guest: Robyn Hitchcock, Musician/Author

In this episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we are joined by Robyn Hitchcock, the fabulous, iconoclastic British singer-songwriter/author and our first returning guest, who discusses his second memoir, Stranded In the Future (Askashic Press).  

Hitchcock’s latest continues where his debut book chronicling the most influential year of his life, 1967: How I Got There and Why I Left, left off. It spans 1968 to 1978 as he teaches himself to write songs, perform live, and eventually form his breakthrough but sadly short-lived band, the Soft Boys. Central to it are his two great obsessions: a split-personality character largely based on Pink Floyd’s ill-fated founder, Syd Barrett, and Ms. C, his high school girlfriend who continues to dart through this decade. It is a series of short, sharp chapters filled with his singularly comic wordplay and the occasional slip through a trap door into pure surrealism.

Read more about the book in my earlier print review here: https://www.popmatters.com/robyn-hitchcock-stranded-in-future

"Reading is Funktamental" is a monthly one-hour show about great books written about music and music-makers. In each episode, host Sal Cataldi speaks to the authors of some of the best reads about rock, jazz, punk, world, experimental music, and much more. Occasionally, the host is joined by notable musicians who have written about their careers. Recent guests have included eccentric British singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock, Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera, Traffic co-founder Dave Mason, and Moon Zappa. Expect a great conversation and a playlist of great music to go with it.

Sal Cataldi is a musician and writer based in Saugerties. He is best known for his work with his genre-leaping solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music, and is also a member of the ambient guitar duo, Guitars A Go Go, the poetry and music duo, Vapor Vespers, the jazz ensemble Hari Karaoke Trio of Doom and the quartet, Spaceheater. His writing on music, books and film has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, PopMatters, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, Inside+Out Upstate NY, and NYSMusic.com, where he is the book reviewer.