Listen To Your Old 78s

The consistently excellent Rho-Xs music blog has three albums from '78 available for 'sampling'. Unfortunately, neither of of my two favourite albums from that year - 'Parallel Lines' and 'All Mod Cons' - make the final cut, but the albums chosen are worth investigating.

Devo have always left me cold - the studied whackiness can be off putting - but from time to time, I'll hear some music on tv or on the radio, think it's rather good then bite my lip when I discover that it's an old Devo track.

Which sorts of leads me into saying that the XTC album profiled, 'White Music', was never one of my favourite albums from one of my favourite groups for the self-same reason that I've never really got Devo. The music's too jerky and synthetic, and if I was a member of the XTC fanclub, I'd get kicked out for stating that I'm happy that keyboardist, Barry Andrews, went onto pastures new. Maybe XTC did settle back into more conventional new wave poppy songwriting style after his departure, but they were the better group because of it.

Oh, and there's a couple of Kate Bush albums from '78 featured as well in the post.

Chalkhills and Children

Todd Bernhardt: [laughing] Los Angeles.

Andy Partridge: Which everyone knows, in Spanish, stands for "City of Lying Bastards"! [laughs]

Latest installment from the XTC MySpace page has Todd B and Andy P discussing 'Chalkhills and Children' from XTC's 1989 album, 'Oranges and Lemons'

XTC's 'Great Fire'

Latest song under discussion by Andy Partridge and Todd Bernhardt over at the XTC MySpace page is the excellent 'Great Fire' from the 'Mummer' album. (I've previously declared my opinion on the song on the blog here.)

Not as instantaneous a pop classic as a lot of their early singles, 'Great Fire' did have to creep up on me before becoming one of my favourite XTC songs. But for all that, I was still surprised to discover that the song didn't even chart when it was released as a single in '83. Coming so soon after 'Senses Working Overtime' and 'English Settlement', I bet it was a bigger surprise for the band and their record company at the time.

Andy P reveals in the interview that the song was played on Radio 1 a grand total of one time! That was when Radio 1 could make or break a song in a matter of weeks. It'd have probably been better if it had never been played at all. That way they could have at least claimed they were victims of some sort of deliberate campaign to kill their career.

I'm trying to think back to why they might have been so out in the cold by '83. I can only speculate that by that point in their career they were caught between the hard rock and the missing chart place of not being pretty enough to compete with the Duran Durans and Spandau Ballets on the one hand and not having that cache of being new or left-field enough to still be championed by the likes of John Peel and Janice Long (the last XTC Peel Session was way back in '79).

Any chance of being part and parcel of the Second British Invasion of America at that time was effectively killed off by Partridge's stage fright and refusal to tour, and it would be another three or four years before XTC would become an overnight sensation in the States via 'Dear God' picking up airplay on college radio.

OK, I'm getting off topic and before I start hunting high and low on the internet to see if John Hughes ever featured an XTC song in one of his films*, I'll jump back on blogging track by echoing the opinion of one of the posters on the XTC MySpace page in stating that this is definitely one of the best interviews so far in the series between Andy P and Todd Bernhardt.

Granted a great bulk of the interview is made up of the muso bits that leaves me in a fog, but even I in my musical illiteracy recognise that it is in the bridge of the song, when Andy P. kicks in with the line "I've been in love before . . . " and the music totally shifts in mood and tone that moves it up from a good XTC song to a great one.

To placate us musical numpties, the interview also carries the by now expected abundance of Andy P's anecdotes, skewed viewed of the history of XTC and the world, and a brilliant humour which spells out once again that you have to be a clever bastard to write with the acuity and wit of Andy Partridge. I especially loved this passage from the interview:

AP: I was listening to the song today, as is the sort of thing I do when you ask me about these songs, so I put it on and had a listen. But, just to show you how paranoid I am -- I know there are some fans traipsing around the town [there was a meeting of XTC fans that weekend in Swindon, to see The SheBeats and tribute band The Fuzzy Warblers play at a local club the night before this interview], so I sat here with headphones [chuckling] so they wouldn't hear the sounds of my music coming out of my house and think, "What a wanker he is, listening to his own songs!"

I actually heard a horrible story about Sting -- where'd I hear this story, about someone who went to dinner with him, and a few other people...

TB: I sent you that! From the Holy Moly newsletter...

AP: Yeah, you did! He pulls out his iPod during dinner, cutting himself off from the conversation...

TB: ... and the guests ask Trudi if they said anything wrong, to make him be so anti-social. She says, "He always does it, and the worst thing is, he's listening to his own fucking music."

AP: Yeah! Unbelievable. Well, I didn't want that to be the case, I didn't want people thinking, "Wow! There's Andy, and he's listening to his own songs!"

TB: [laughing] Right. Sobbing.

AP: [laughs] Yeah. Sobbing gently.

I think that passage is all the more brilliant and funny, 'cos I can hear him telling this story in his West Country accent. (You can check out more wondeful quotes from this series of interviews in this old post from the old blog.)

And after the recent Colin Moulding slideshow on the blog, I thought would also include a picture of the 'Great Fire' record cover with this post. I'm glad that I sought it out, 'cos it tipped me the wink to the possibility that there is another XTC fan within the ranks of the SPGB back in Britain. How else do you explain that the cover of 'Great Fire' carries such a strong resemblance to a particular Socialist Standard front cover from the mid to late nineties?

At the time of the issue's appearance, I remembering thinking that the layout editor of the Standard must have been on something to come up with such an outlandish design but I now think that it was nothing more than being exposed to a bit too much Psonic Psunshine. OK, I'll stop here before this paragraph turns into a Super Furry Animals lyric.

*It turns out that XTC had the song 'Happy Families' on the soundtrack of the 1988 John Hughes film, 'She's Having a Baby'. Never seen the film, never heard the song. Never will see the film, but I'm off to hunt down the song.

Friday's 2032 Playlist

A One-Off List:

From Black Sea 'Generals and Majors' (1980)

From Oranges and Lemons,'One of the Millions' (1989)

From The Big Express 'Washaway' (1984)

From Drums and Wires, 'Making Plans For Nigel' (1979)

From Psonic Psunspot, 'Vanishing Girl' (1987)

Rag and Bone Buffet: Rare Cuts and Leftovers, 'The World is Full of Angry Young Men' (1990)

From English Settlement 'Ball and Chain' (1982)

From Skylarking, 'Grass' (1986)

From 25 O'Clock, 'What In The World?' (1985)

from Skylarking, 'The Meeting Place' (1986)

"Joe Stalin's three-album plan!"

Not a particularly favourite XTC track of mine off one of my least favourite XTC albums (too urgent, not enough melody), but Andy Partridge's discussion of the track, 'Meccanik Dancing', over at the XTC's MySpace Page is fun if for no other reason than AP coming clean about the dynamics of the band at the time, and his feeling threatened by what is known in the music business as the 'George Harrison Effect': a third songwriter entering the recording studio.

PS - yep, AP discussing 'Meccanik Dancing' was what prompted my sudden fascination with all things John Leckie.

Leckie Lacking

You've got a resume that includes producing The Fall, Radiohead, (early) Simple Minds, The Verve, XTC, Magazine and Mark Owen, but all that doesn't matter if you've got a crap Wiki page; that, sadly, will be what John Leckie will be remembered for if a mixing desk was to collapse on him tomorrow.

The Swindonian Institute

I feel I've been amiss in not before now bringing to your attention a wonderful series of interviews on the official XTC MySpace page between XTC's lead singer, songsmith and all-round wit Andy Partridge and Todd Bernhardt, whereby - week on week - they discusses in-depth an individual song from the band's 25 year history.

From the obvious choices such as 'Dear God' or 'Making Plans for Nigel' to the obscure classics like 'Thanks For Christmas' and 'Wrapped In Grey', Andy and Todd go down a memory lane that takes them all the way from White Music in '78 right up to Wasp Star.

Admittedly, 75% of the archetypal interview has them waxing lyrical about "dub echoes in the middle section", and other such muso stuff that has my eyes glazing over but as the snippets alongside the links below indicate, there's enough room left over for Andy to dispense his sarcasm, intelligence and expert bullshit detector for all that's ridiculous and pompous about the music business and life in general.

Hand on heart, I'd have to say that I always preferred Colin Moulding's songs over Andy's but he's not the one putting himself out in such a glorious manner, is he?

If you haven't already done so, check out English Settlement and Skylarking in their entirety. They're bona fide classics.

'Statue of Liberty' (White Music)

"But I was sat there, banging around these three chords, thinking, "If Lou [Reed] can do it, so can I!" And I remember she was ironing -- she used to love ironing for some reason, I don't know why -- and she got the ironing cable all tied up, and she was holding it in the air, sort of trying to let the cable unwind itself. And her hair was -- I don't know if she'd just washed it and it was all sticking all over the place, or whatever -- but I looked up, and I thought, "Jesus, she looks like a weird, futuristic version of the Statue of Liberty, holding this hot iron with her arm up in the air like that and a handful of washing in her other arm, like the book or something."

'Science Friction' (Fossil Fuel)

"It was an arrogance, and a desire to get up the nose of the audience and make them work hard, make them think, make them listen. But sometimes I wish that we'd put a steady 4/4 all the way through it, and then we could have invented the B-52's along the way [laughs]."

'Are You Receiving Me?' (Go 2)

"How the Catholics missed me, I do not know. I mean, I'm just a natural-born Catholic. I'm just loaded with guilt."

'Battery Brides' (Go 2)

"Yeah, it was like The Young Ones, you know. We were living in this house . . . [I was] probably Neil, actually. No, no, Rick -- definitely. I'm too gauche and too full of himself. I think Terry was Viv -- [Viv voice] "Very metal!" Or Barry Andrews was Viv. Colin was Neil, I think. [chuckles]"

'Making Plans for Nigel' (Drums and Wires)

"They went and found some Nigels in British Steel factories, and interviewed them, and of course they all said how fantastic their jobs were. I think they probably all lost their jobs within five years of saying that, though."

'Helicopter' (Drums and Wires)

"Frank Hampson painted an ad for Lego in which there were two schoolboys with jetpacks on, flying over this Lego city -- in a Lego land, you know. And that image stuck in my brain, as a kid. Because, as a schoolboy, I thought, "Wow, that's going to be the future! We're going to have our own jetpacks -- our own helipacks -- to go to school or work, or holiday on Venus," you know. But of course it never ends up like that."

'Respectable Street' (Black Sea)

"I used to stand in the front room, in the area where I used to do most of the writing -- it was a little space where I could lay out my amplifier and a cassette player and a microphone and a few effects, or whatever -- and I'd stand there looking out the window, and there was Bowood Road. I noticed that several of the houses had this very English thing: a caravan -- a trailer -- in the front garden. And I thought, "I've never seen those move! They must be like status symbols, telling people 'We could go away, if we choose to.' ""

'Senses Working Overtime' (English Settlement)

"Speaking of being English, I like the crows on the song, too. We got them off some sound-effects record. I wanted it to be very English, and I thought, "What's the sound that you hear in your head when you think of the plowing medieval serf? The sound you're going to hear is the jingle of harnesses -- and crows cawing!" So, we had to get some crows. I think they're crows, anyway. Maybe some ornithologist out there will write in and say, "No, they're rooks, actually." But, to me, that was important to put the final full stop of the medieval thing we had going on there."

'Jason and the Argonauts' (English Settlement)

"I think I never got over "Tales of Brave Ulysses," by Cream. I thought, "If they can do a song about Greek myth, then so can I!""

'Snowman' (English Settlement)

"Actually, "Snowman" contains Dave's favorite lyrical couplet -- the phrase, "People will always be tempted to wipe their feet/On anything with welcome written on it." Dave told me one time, [imitates Gregory] "You know, Partsy, that's the best lyric you ever wrote.""

'Love On A Farmboy's Wages' (Mummer)

"I'm obviously bitter about not getting the money I thought I ought to deserve or something. I look around, and I see people like Elvis Costello, or other contemporaries, and I think, "Jesus, they're so much richer than I am!" You know -- "I wrote songs as good as he did!" I can say that -- not facetiously or boastfully. I think I've written songs as good as Elvis."

'Ladybird' (Mummer)

"I remember laying on the seat in the back of the van in a fetal position, sobbing quietly, not knowing who the hell I was."

'Thanks For Christmas' (Rag & Bone Buffet)

"[effete voice] "But who is Andy thanking? Is it a loving God he's thanking?" That's the sort of stuff people would ask. No, I'm just saying thanks. Just thanks! You know, the same thing you thank when the shit comes out smooth, or when you find that public lavatory when you're really bursting! You just think, "Oh, thank you.""

'All You Pretty Girls' (The Big Express)

"I also wanted to do one [video] where we were underwater with our instruments, in a swimming pool . . . And she said, "No no, you can't show electric instruments near water! Children will imitate you and they'll die." And then Madness did it, and everyone said, "Oh, isn't that great, where they're in the swimming pool?""

'Season Cycle' (Skylarking)

"I have to say, we were invited up there [Todd Rungren's house] for [sighs] -- a solar barbeque . . . we were all starving hungry, and Todd had bought a solar barbeque. It was supposed to be sun-powered. And, you know, after we waited for two hours, all we had were some lukewarm steaks. [laughs] It was a case of, "Right, let's just go and get a pizza in town," you know. It was some sort of weird fucking hippy idea of [mellow voice] "Wow, it's really healthy, the sun cooks your meat." And you could have fried it better if you'd laid it on the bonnet of a black car!"

'Dear God' (Skylarking)

"Though I thought those Dear God books -- you know, kids' letters to God -- were a pretty tacky concept, I liked the title. I liked the idea of writing to God to address the fact that I didn't believe he existed. I just wanted the thing to come back with an angelic stamp on it, saying "Return to Sender." Written in fiery letters!"

'Little Lighthouse' (Psonic Psunspot)

"People often ask how I write songs, and I tell them, "Well, I might find a chord, and it might remind me of fog, and then I'll start going on about fog," but this is actually a case where I found the chords, and they did make me think of fog!"

'Garden of Earthly Delights' (Oranges and Lemons)

"You know the sound that introduces the song? People must of thought, "Oh they spent hours in the studio putting together a melange of Eastern sounds." No, it was [laughs] a patch that [producer] Paul Fox had on a keyboard, and it was called something like "Eastern Bazaar"!"

'The Mayor of Simpleton' (Oranges and Lemons)

"Yeah, Scientologists eat babies -- you heard it here first."

'Merely a Man' (Oranges and Lemons)

"There is a ZZ Top connection, because on our way to a gig once, in the early days, our manager and his assistant were following us to a gig. We pulled over into a motorway services to get some greasy-spoon food, and I remember he gathered us all around the table, and he said, "You don't have a strong enough image, chaps. We've been thinking about people with a strong image, like ZZ Top and David Bowie." He mentioned a couple more, and announced they'd come up with this thing where we were to come on stage in cowboy hats, like ZZ Top, but with a lightning flash across our faces and some kind of sequined posing pouch! I mean, we would have looked like the four kings of assholes if we'd have come on stage dressed like that."

'The Ballad of Pumpkinhead' (Nonsuch)

" . . . what would happen if there was somebody on Earth who was kind of perfect?" I just started to extrapolate on that idea, and really mess around with it in a kind of Dylanesque way. I thought, "Why don't I come up with 'The Ballad of' -- the ballad of somebody who's pretty much perfect?" And the more I thought about it, the more I thought, "god, they'd make so many enemies!" You know, if they really encouraged humanity and humaneness and love and sharing and giving, they would really piss off so many people in power, that those people in power would do everything they could to stop them, including killing them!"

'Wrapped in Grey' (Nonsuch)

[Kate Bush] "did one poxy tour, for Christ's sake, around England! And then that was it -- no more. We toured our asses off around the world for five years, got sick and tired of it, and then we were not allowed not to tour. You know -- "What's the matter with you? Keep going!""

'I'd Like That' (Apple Venus Volume 1)

"Paul is probably my favorite, because after about 1965 I think he was the powerhouse behind the band, whereas Lennon seemed to give up. I think you can see that arc -- Lennon is pushing, pushing, pushing until the Beatles are a real big hit, and then he sort of gives up, and kind of hands over the reigns to McCartney."

'Harvest Festival' (Apple Venus Volume 1)

"When the acoustic guitar joins in on verse 2, all the way through recording that and mixing it, [producer and engineer] Nick Davis would turn to me and say, "That's the Beatle moment." He would say that every time! [laughing] It got to the point where the guitar would come in, and I'd just look at him, and we wouldn't say anything, but I knew he was thinking "That's the Beatle moment.""

'Stupidly Happy' (Wasp Star: Apple Venus, Volume 2)

"I'd forgotten this! McDonald's wanted to use it!"

'We're All Light' (Wasp Star: Apple Venus, Volume 2)

"But the actual idea for this song sprang from just scrubbing away on the guitar, in a very high, George Formby-esque way. [laughs] George Formby, for those who don't know, was a huge star in England in the '20s, '30s, and '40s. He played a banjolele, a four-stringed tiny banjo, and he sang these very risque songs. In fact, he was banned by the BBC because some of them were so risque."