XTC - Dear God

 #XTC #new wave #post-punk #progressive pop #art rock #pop rock #baroque pop #art punk #power pop #psychedelic pop rock #1980s #1990s

Andy: “This was the B-side to ‘Grass’, but radio stations started to flip it over. The lyrics really got up some people's noses, and it became a big radio hit. Whoever first flipped it probably saved us.”

Andy (on the band demo): “A lot has been written and wrangled over with this song, and, you know, it hasn't deserved it. I just tried to wrestle with the paradox of God and the last dying doubts of belief that had hung, bat like, in the dark corners of my head since childhood. I'll just say one more time this song failed to crystalize all my thoughts on the subject in under 4 minutes. Human belief is too big a beast to bring to the floor in such a short time.

“This tune had a few incarnations. It started as a kind of skiffle rag with a much bluesier melody but after several blacksmith like bending and bashing sessions (oddly, in my kitchen) it gradually morphed into its well known shape.

“On the run up to the Skylarking sessions with Todd Rundgren, we congregated at Dave's tiny terraced house, in Swindon's Stanier Street, to record a few band demos on his four track reel to reel. So, awash with much tea and ginger biscuits, we tackled this and ‘Summer's Cauldron’, trying to get something presentable for Todd. Dave found a very ‘House of the Rising Sun’ arpeggio guitar figure to ornament my rather pedestrian acoustic strumming, while Colin anchored away with the Linn drum pretending to be a future Prairie Prince. The Mellotron had been living at Dave's for a few months (where he would tend lovingly its Heath Robinsonesque guts) so we decided this would supply the strings, I'd asked for something a bit Gershwin in the middle, a pinch of ‘Summertime’, a soupçon of ‘It Ain't Necessarily So’. You know, ‘Dat Ol' Debbil Be A Coming Missy’, orchestral blues bend. I remember that Dave's front room floral wallpaper seemed to gaze down at us with almost temperance meeting scorn, as we stirred up our sinful sounds that afternoon.

“Surely, for this tune, we will burn in Hull.”

Andy (on the skiffle version): “Found this a while back laying cowering in a corner of a cassette. It's pretty much me feeling-out the tune with blah blah type lyrics. Little did I know that this piece of brain blurt would be the tip of the iceberg to so much more acceptance for XTC in the U.S. Thank you God.”

From: https://xtc.fandom.com/wiki/Dear_God

Andy is a militant atheist. It's amazing how people see what they want want to, no matter how clear the message is. The idea that he must believe in god because it's addressed to god is just silly. It's a lyrical device...take a literature course. For those who refuse to see the song for what it is and how it was meant, here is a quote from Andy about the song: "it [Dear God] failed in part, because it wasn't as caustic as I would've liked it to be. It should've been a nail in throat of the public, but instead some took it as a declaration of faith when I wanted to make it clear that I don't believe in God - and that even if there is a He or a She they have nothing to do with organized religion." Just watch the video for Dear God. Andy is attacking the massive twisted tree (religion) that people are desperately clinging to, which is exactly what he is doing in the lyrics. I really don't see how he could be any clearer.  From: https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/103714/ 

XTC - Then She Appeared

 #XTC #new wave #post-punk #progressive pop #art rock #pop rock #baroque pop #art punk #power pop #psychedelic pop #1980s #1990s

XTC are one of those odd bands that defied convention and actually got better as time went on. Usually a band makes a big splash at the start of their career and continue to make continually less impressive albums as their career progresses. XTC did it the other way round: they started off as a reasonably good power-pop act and actually steadily improved over time. True, there was a slight stumble with Mummer and The Big Express, but they had reached incredible creative heights with Skylarking and by the time of Nonsuch they had reached a point where they had outlasted almost all of their peers and were still making music at least as good as what had been released before. Andy Partridge was still at his height as a songwriter, Colin Moulding was gaining confidence and penning gems like “Bungalow” and Dave Gregory’s guitar and keyboard work was giving the whole band a musical maturity which marked them as a band of rare quality.
Despite it equaling Oranges & Lemons’ chart success, Nonsuch has become increasingly overlooked as a key album in XTC’s career, as it wasn’t cited as an influence on the second wave of Brit-pop that reached its crescendo in the middle of the last decade, not was it hailed by the more heavyweight music press in the same way that Skylarking, and to a lesser extent Oranges & Lemons were. For years the only copies of Nonsuch available in the UK were as a part of a substantial remaster and reissue programme by their former record label.
While Nonsuch has never enjoyed the sycophantic praise smothered over it by lesser acts as their early albums have, or enjoyed the press recognition of being a lost classic in the same way that Skylarking has, it remains one of XTC’s most well-rounded and broad albums. Over two decades on from its original release Nonsuch finally seems to be getting the recognition it deserves for being not only a great XTC album, but one of the finest British pop albums of the 90s. Oddly enough there seems to be a major reissue of it due in the not too distant future, as apparently Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree fame has been following his success of doing similar work for the likes of prog rock acts like King Crimson and Yes, by working on a full bells and whistles version of Nonsuch.
From: https://www.backseatmafia.com/not-forgotten-xtc-nonsuch/

XTC - Respectable Street

 #XTC #new wave #post-punk #progressive pop #art rock #pop rock #baroque pop #art punk #power pop #psychedelic pop #orchestral pop #1980s #1990s

The 1980 release Black Sea represents the last stand of the punchy, angular new wave that had won XTC strong critical and college radio support. Still arranging with an ear toward the stage they'd soon retire from, they continued working in the Drums and Wires style that had christened their previous release. Black Sea brims with XTC trademarks: engaging guitar hooks, cleverly rendered lyrics, and frenetic, creative melodicism. The material represents the pinnacle of XTC's early incarnation - a counterpoint to contemporary punk imbued with style, rhythmic punch, and melodic charm.  From: https://www.roughtrade.com/us/product/xtc/black-sea-1/vinyl-lp

Respectable Street

Andy Partridge: “Actually inspired by my neighbour who spends half her life banging on the wall should I so much as sneeze. Not knocking people who have ‘respectable’ ideals (I know I must have a few), more of a song of people with double or hypocritical values. You know the sort, blind drunk one night, church the next. Or the mother who urges her daughter to go out and have fun dear, isn't abortion wonderful. If their daughter got pregnant they would beat her senseless.”

Andy: “The BBC felt the lyrics on the song on Black Sea would upset people. They asked if I could rewrite it and, being a good boy, I did. Contraception became ‘child prevention’ and abortion became ‘absorption’. Still they wouldn't play it. Here's that old peoples, pre-chewed version.”

Andy: “The A&R man decided the BBC wouldn't play this with words like ‘abortion’ and ‘contraception’, so he took out all the words he didn't like. It wasn't a big hit, though, because the BBC still didn't play it. A couple of bands have covered it, and they always get the chords wrong. The second one's a seventh, formed from the E-string up. They always miss it.”
Dave Gregory: “It's not really a guitarist's chord, that one.”
Andy: “Nope, but it's a Partsy one.”

From: http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/s_RespectableStreet.html

The Dukes Of Stratosphear - Vanishing Girl

 #The Dukes Of Stratosphear #XTC spinoff #1960s retro #psychedelic rock #neo-psychedelia #psychedelic pop #60s psych rock homage

XTC alter-egos, the Dukes of Stratosphear, may have begun as a joke, but this joke band's records rank with their creators' best work. It all started after XTC's Andy Partridge and producer John Leckie (Stone Roses) got tossed off a producer gig for Mary Margaret O'Hara's Miss America record for reasons that may involve strangeness on O'Hara's part, or religious differences, or the fact that Partridge told the band they needed a click track. As Chris Twomey's XTC biography Chalkhills and Children recounts, Leckie wanted to get something back for the time he'd lost waiting for the O'Hara gig. Partridge mentioned that he and bandmate Colin Moulding had written a bunch of psychedelic songs that were too out-there for XTC; Leckie pitched it to Virgin, asking them for £5,000 to cut a record. When they were done, they returned £1,000 of it.
The first EP, 25 O'Clock, shipped on April Fools' Day 1985, and it was rumored at the time (and official not long after) that the Dukes of Stratosphear were really XTC - with Partridge and Moulding as Sir John Johns and the Red Curtain, third member David Gregory taking the nom de hoax Lord Cornelius Plum, and David's brother Ian, E.I.E.I. Owen - on drums. But some people believed the band was real, and that the records really had been dredged out of a warehouse after decades of neglect. Why not? Not only did the Dukes stick to period instruments and effects, not only did they wear paisley shirts and floppy felt hats to the studio, and not only were all the silly lyrics and psychedelic excesses forgivable, but the band is fantastically, blindly in love with its material. And the songwriting kills. The Dukes began as a joke, but this joke band's two albums rank with XTC's best.
Quoting Partridge from definitive source Chalkhills.org: "The Dukes were the band we all wanted to be in when we were at school: Purple, giggling, fuzztone, liquid, and arriving. If you want to know where those cheap charlatans 'The Beatles', 'Pink Floyd', 'The Byrds', 'The Hollies', and 'The Beach Boys' stole their ideas from, well just listen to this and weep." But even though the homages are front and center, picking out influences is one of the dullest ways to dig these records; hearing these guys bathe in their boyhood record collections is the chief hook, followed by way they let their eyes bug out a little farther than on their "proper" albums of the time. XTC's Big Express and Skylarking came from a working band with adult problems and a grown-up's nostalgia; the Dukes have been like way out of it since high school.
Still, picking out the influences on the two Dukes of Stratosphear records is a good music nut's game. Some are obvious: compared to Pink Floyd's subtler "Arnold Layne", Partridge's "Have You Seen Jackie?" throws a victory parade with acid-laced confetti for its crossdressing hero(ine); "Pale and Precious" apes Beach Boys harmonies years before everyone in Brooklyn was doing it. Other references are subtler or better mashed-up, but rarely is the source of the song the point. You don't have to know the Hollies to adore how perfectly Moulding crafted the melody of "Vanishing Girl", or the way he bites off the high notes on the chorus.
And don't let the bits of gibberish and fluff - like young Lily Fraser "narrating" Psionic Sunspot - distract from the inspired arrangements on each song, like the backwards autoharp on "Have You Seen Jackie?" Or the "banana fingers piano" on "Braniac's Daughter", or the didg's and fuzz pedals and sick guitars and harpsichords and drawkcab loops and sped-up singing, and at the end of "Mole from the Ministry" a backward voice actually says, "you can fuck your atom bomb." Hey, it was the times.
Although I've been mixing up both of the albums in this review, there are marked differences between the debut EP and the career-ending LP. 25 O'Clock is more fun and more loyal to its sources; Psonic Psunspot has stronger songs, especially on the front half, but they're also not far removed from proper XTC material. 25 O'Clock is quick and sneaky; Psonic is wilder, but "The Affiliated" wanders, with the Latin section arguably the weirdest thing on the whole set.
The Dukes never gave a big, dramatic reason for breaking up. (Neither did XTC). They just hung up their axes after Psonic Psunspot, shelving a concept for a rock opera called The Great Royal Jelly Scandal. But they did get in one reunion: the reissue of 25 O'Clock includes their 2003 charity recording "Open a Can (of Human Beans)", which pays tribute to nothing more obviously than 90s-era XTC. And it sounds oh so unfortunately grown-up.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12893-25-oclock-psonic-psunspot/

XTC - Ball and Chain

 #XTC #new wave #post-punk #progressive pop #art rock #pop rock #baroque pop #art punk #power pop #psychedelic pop #1980s #1990s

XTC were a long-running cult favourite Alternative Rock band from Swindon, UK, active between 1976-2006. From 1982 to 1998, the band had the following core members: Andy Partridge (vocals, guitar), Colin Moulding (vocals, bass) and Dave Gregory (guitar, keyboards, string arrangements, backing vocals). The band's other two initial members were keyboardist Barry Andrews and drummer Terry Chambers. XTC throughout their existence were based around the two main songwriters, Partridge and Moulding. Their initial style was a frantic, hyperactive variation of New Wave that added in elements of Funk, Punk Rock, Ska and Reggae. This stylistic fusion found favour with the contemporary Punk Rock movement, and the band gained some success with its first two albums. Andrews' resignation from XTC in 1979 and replacement with Gregory proved to be a pivotal moment in the band's career, as Gregory's sixties-influenced guitar style steered the band towards its later sound, and his invaluable contributions to the band's albums helped drive Partridge and Moulding to new musical heights. For a while after Gregory's arrival, the band got slightly more attention from the mainstream and managed to score a few hits, such as the goofy, Moulding-penned single "Making Plans for Nigel" and Partridge's "Senses Working Overtime" and "Sgt. Rock is Going to Help Me". The band retired from touring definitively in 1982 after Partridge suffered a severe mental breakdown, forcing their world tour to be cancelled. They remained studio-bound for the rest of their career, making occasional live appearances on radio and television. In response to the loss of touring income, Chambers left and moved to Australia. Partridge, Moulding and Gregory didn't bother to replace him, instead recruiting session drummers on an album-per-album basis. Once Chambers left, the group completely changed their style, with the dreamy, pastoral folk-rock of Mummer arguably serving as their New Sound Album. From that point on XTC became a full-blown Psychedelic Rock band, taking production cues from The Beatles and The Beach Boys, jangly guitars from The Byrds and idiosyncratic, humorous lyrics critical of society from The Kinks. Soon afterwards, XTC recorded the album commonly regarded as their masterpiece, Skylarking. Besides critical accolades, Skylarking managed to gain them a controversial hit single as well, the Beatlesque rock of "Dear God", where Partridge basically embarked on a long Nay-Theist Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter rant, railing against God's horrendous, callous treatment of humanity. God was so incensed by Mr. Partridge's display of testicular virility that he personally purchased 250,000 copies of Skylarking. Around the same time, XTC recorded some outright Psychedelic Rock Affectionate Parodies, under their alter egos The Dukes of Stratosphear. As The Dukes, the band released an EP, 25 O'Clock (1985), and an album, Psonic Psunspot (1987), where they were all credited under Stage Names (Partridge was Sir John Johns, Moulding was The Red Curtain and Gregory was Lord Cornelius Plum) and did their damnedest to pass the material off as genuine Sixties psychedelia. The EP and album were initially available on vinyl only, but simultaneous with the album the two were compiled as Chips from the Chocolate Fireball on CD only. It wasn't until 2009 that the original works were released on CD separately, with bonus tracks and credited to XTC as The Dukes of Stratosphear. The Dukes were also jokingly thanked in the Skylarking liner notes for allowing XTC to borrow their instruments.  From: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/XTC