Released in 1982 as the lead single from their album English Settlement, "Senses Working Overtime" was XTC's highest charting song in the UK. In the US, the video for "Senses" was regularly played on the fledgling MTV cable channel.
The song incorporates a catchy melody, intricate harmonies, and a complex arrangement with a hook inspired by Manfred Mann's "5-4-3-2-1."
"It's like a little prog operetta," frontman Andy Partridge told Prog. "The verses sound like medieval reggae, before it opens up like The Who and the chorus is almost The Strawbs-meets-Manfred Mann. Then it goes sideways into something else for the middle section. I'm notorious for sticking bits together. You can only be the f---ing sum total of how you mash up all your influences. There's no such thing as originality."
"Senses Working Overtime" paints a sonic kaleidoscope of vision, hearing, taste, touch and smell pushing themselves to the limit. This sensory overload mirrors the internal struggle – the fight between good and bad.
"I worked on this kind of stomping, idiot pattern, thinking about the five senses," Partridge recalled to Todd Bernhardt. "Then I thought, 'Well, everyone has five senses, what's great about that? Well, they're not just working, they're going crazy! They're working overtime! They're taking all of life in, and it's too much!' Because life is just too much. It's amazing, you know."
The song's music video, filmed at double speed and then slowed down, adds to the song's quirky and surreal atmosphere. Director Brian Grant shot it in Shepperton Studios while XTC were rehearsing for the English Settlement tour.
XTC's playful antics before their Top Of The Pops performance ruffled feathers in the BBC, ultimately leading to a ban from the iconic music show.
"We were rehearsing 'Senses Working Overtime' on Top of the Pops and the cameramen were just not getting their camera angles correct – you know a shaved chimp could do it," Andy Partridge recalled to Uncut magazine. "We were getting bored running through this song dozens of times, so as young fellas do when they are bored, we started mucking about to entertain ourselves, avoiding the microphone and miming badly. Suddenly I heard this door slamming up on the gantry, and bang, bang, bang coming down this metal stairway. This cameraman said, 'Oh, you're for it now – it's the producer, and I think he's been for a relaxing lunch.'
An extremely red-faced man appeared: 'you punkers are all the same! I'm sick of it, dicking about, f---ing ruining everything, you f---ing punkers! Right, we're going to get this done, and then I'm gonna personally make sure you never come on this show ever again.' He really did make sure we were never invited on again. People would see me in the pub, you've got a new single out, Andy, why is it not on Top of the Pops? I'd explain and they'd think I was pulling their leg." From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/xtc/senses-working-overtime
