Steve Robinson - It's a Lie 1978

What a Cover! He looks like he's wearing pyjamas but really it's a shirt, we know we're in the late seventies for sure here. Instead of a mike, he's talking to an iguana in the fake backdrop of a tropical forest. Is this a satirical image, referring to some other famous cover? But turn the record over, because his eponymous poem (set to music) "it's a lie" is a really doozie, to use a word little-heard these days. I was delighted to see that the incomparable Muck Groh plays guitar on this record, along with Michael Bundt on synthesizers. Also credited are John Bedson on drums, Brian Henderson on bass, Klaus Kreuzder on flutes and saces, Hubert Stutz on guitar on the last track. The cover photo is actually from Bundt.

Steve Robinson, born Ladenburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, has quite a resume, having been a member of Aera, Michael Bundt & Nerve, Nine Days Wonder, Twenty Sixty Six and Then. His birth name was Reiner Geyer. (All this info from rym.)

From the German private pressed progressive files I alluded to earlier, a good comparison to the style would be with the nine days wonder songs, a touch of progressive with basic germanic late seventies smooth rock. I would add that the playing is somewhat amateurish in a lot of places on this record, perhaps due to the fact Robinson attempted to be a multi-instrumentalist here but sadly wasn't quite up to the task (ditto with his English). On the other hand his songwriting skills are exemplary. Some very odd touches can be heard throughout, whispering in the background on track 2, a very poor echo sound on track 1, off-tempo playing on track 4, he gives up on the melody and is reduced to reciting his poem partway through "It's a lie" but to make it progressive distorts the voice, etc. Some of the out of tune stuff you'll hear is not due to the rip -- it's the do-it-yourself quality of this strange record. It was printed by "blubber lips records".

I should add that peter hammill or late VDGG must have been an influence here too, note the punchy use of saxes to add emphasis to certain chords on track 7, if I had to guess, I'd say Hammill was this guy's secret idol.

I've transcribed the poem for you to read whilst listening to this, it's highly entertaining:

"
Ideas're [sic] burning in me
Frighten my mind
Ideas get mouldy in me
I find no reason why
Feelings are floatin' into
Harmony lines
Lookin' for the way out
Too helpless and blind to find what's right

I know it's a lie
That corrupt crowds are goin' to die
I know it's a lie
God brought the cancer it's his try

...

I vanish into myself
It's one way to slip out of my strange destiny
Profit owns me
Profit always tries to get more of me
Profit has the power of fear
and that's why the wings that set me free are cropped
I'm lamed [sic] cause I'm the product of my parents
Have only their coise [?] to find a woman
only their coise [??] to follow my destination
All my erotic fantasies rise from the armpits
of my exchangeble mother
I'm a part of the common man out of the
waters from thousands of lavatories
avoid me, cause I'm the dust in your being
avoid me, cause I'm the catastrophe makin
Your scheme start to stagger
Chase me cause I'm the one catapulting
Your tears into the unknown
Chase me, cause I'm the fear of your dreams
I vanish into myself
And I know -- being born secondly
By the call of the nature
My soul is consuming me
My soul demands more of me
My soul got power over you
And that's why your wings, that set me free,
are paralyzed
I was destined as product of my parents
was destined to except their coise [???]
was destined to be like you
so I created fantasies into my own eros
I had become individual -- as an ego --
within thousands of lavatories

I'm the Karcinom Man
in that perfect land
Who slips into the ass
Of his motherland
I'm the parasit [sic]
In your secure society
Be satisfied
Call me : you needed alibi

I know it's a lie
Slowly human hopes...


Track 1, Malina:


Track 3, When you leave me:



I don't imagine this album will get a cd reissue anytime soon, if ever.
Priority: 243,889