1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left

British singer-songwriter Hitchcock wistfully reflects on boarding school and the music that shaped him in this captivating chronicle of the year he credits with sculpting his artistic sensibility. “Maybe I will become real to me, before I finally disappear,” Hitchcock muses in one of the book’s five preludes, before plunging into his memories of being a 14-year-old “inmate” at Winchester College. He recalls being bowled over by artists including the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, and David Bowie, many of whom he encountered for the first time at Winchester. As he set about decoding the school’s social hierarchies—he especially admired the “groovers” (Beat-influenced music lovers) and “scholars” (upperclassman)—Hitchcock designed posters for shows he wasn’t old enough to attend and weaseled his way into late-night parties featuring jazz, incense, and the occasional performance by Brian Eno, who attended art school nearby. He also reflects on how time away from his family shifted their dynamics and recounts growing closer to his parents as they mourned the death of his grandmother. Hitchcock is loose, energetic company, writing with infectious enthusiasm about the liberatory sights and sounds that continue to inspire him. Readers need not be fans of Hitchcock’s music to find this enchanting. (July)