FEATURE
‘I pictured the Soft Boys as bloodless, spectral entities’: how the Soft Boys made Underwater Moonlight
SOURCES
— ‘The geopolitical tide… felt bad outside.’ Hitchcock, Robyn, 'I Wanna Destroy You’, Substack, 16 October 2025: https://robynhitchcock.substack.com/p/i-wanna-destroy-you
— ‘a protest song against human nature… demagogues urge us to indulge.’ Hitchcock, Robyn, 'I Wanna Destroy You’, Substack, 16 October 2025: https://robynhitchcock.substack.com/p/i-wanna-destroy-you
—- Hitchcock remembers Cambridge as an Inbetween… pendulum has yet to begin its dismal swing back to the Right.’ Hitchcock, Robyn, Underwater Moonlight & the Green Bass, Substack, 25 August 2025: https://robynhitchcock.substack.com/p/underwater-moonlight-and-the-green
—- 1975 seeps into 1976. Beneath the beards and hair… we have roadies and a few fans too. Hitchcock, Robyn, Underwater Moonlight & the Green Bass, Substack, 25 August 2025: https://robynhitchcock.substack.com/p/underwater-moonlight-and-the-green
— In his illuminating memoir… about Mack the Finger and Louie the King and the thousand telephones that don’t ring…’ Page 30-34, Hitchcock, Robyn, 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left (Constable, 2024)
— ‘A lot of people kind of bleached out… went for us, I suppose.’ THE MAKING OF UNDERWATER MOONLIGHT BY THE SOFT BOYS, FEATURING ROBYN HITCHCOCK, Episode produced, edited and mixed by Dan Nordheim: https://lifeoftherecord.com/the-soft-boys-notes
— Matthew Seligman was adding… with some lyrics off the hoof. Hitchcock, Robyn, Underwater Moonlight, liner notes in Underwater Moonlight (45th Anniversary Remaster), released autumn 2025
— ‘After a nine-year apprenticeship… words and arrangements.’ Hitchcock, Robyn, liner notes in Underwater Moonlight (45th Anniversary Remaster), released autumn 2025
— ‘His wizardry at the 4-track tape machine… garnish that with three double-tracked voices: Kim’s, Morris’s and mine’. Hitchcock, Robyn, 'I Wanna Destroy You’, Substack, 16 October 2025: https://robynhitchcock.substack.com/p/i-wanna-destroy-you
— When David Fricke first saw The Soft Boys live… the room with cleansing force’. Fricke, David, liner notes in Underwater Moonlight (45th Anniversary Remaster), released autumn 2025
— ‘I remember playing the album for some friends… I heard it again with my own ears I knew it was great.’ Hitchcock, Robyn, liner notes in Underwater Moonlight (45th Anniversary Remaster), released autumn 2025
— ‘I pictured the Soft Boys as bloodless… capable of enormous influence.’ Hitchcock, Robyn, liner notes in Underwater Moonlight (45th Anniversary Remaster), released autumn 2025
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fricke, David, liner notes in Underwater Moonlight (45th Anniversary Remaster), released autumn 2025
Hitchcock, Robyn, 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left (Constable, 2024)
Hitchcock, Robyn, 'I Wanna Destroy You’, Substack, 16 October 2025: https://robynhitchcock.substack.com/p/i-wanna-destroy-you
Hitchcock, Robyn, ‘Underwater Moonlight & the Green Bass’, Substack, 25 August 2025: https://robynhitchcock.substack.com/p/underwater-moonlight-and-the-green
Hitchcock, Robyn, liner notes in Underwater Moonlight (45th Anniversary Remaster), released autumn 2025
Nordheim, Dan, THE MAKING OF UNDERWATER MOONLIGHT BY THE SOFT BOYS, FEATURING ROBYN HITCHCOCK, Episode produced, edited and mixed by Dan Nordheim: https://lifeoftherecord.com/the-soft-boys-notes
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ESSAY
7 March 2026