Chalkhills, Number 111

                 Friday, 12 October 1990
Today's Topics:
                         Dear God
             mostly about Rag And Bone Buffet
                 Andy's Production Skills
                 Re: Re: Chalkhills #110
              English Settlement studio tape
                   Re: Chalkhills #110

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From: Kevin J Martin <sigma@rpi.edu>
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 90 15:57:40 EDT
Subject: Dear God

I've just joined up, so I have but one curious question:  *Why* is _Dear_God_
not on most copies of _Skylarking_?  Was it there and then removed, or just
added on some versions as a bonus track, or...?  I was disappointed to find
that it isn't lurking (unlisted) on my copy of _Skylarking_, but the album is
still excellent.

Kevin Martin
sigma@rpi.edu

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Date: Thu, 11 Oct 90 16:50:59 -0400
From: Captain Kamikaze and Lemming! <jsd@gaffa.mit.edu>
Subject: mostly about Rag And Bone Buffet

John M. Relph talks about why they stuck the b-sides in between sides
one and two on the CDs:

>In the case of _The Big Express_ I think it was done because the end
>of the album is supposed to be The End.  Finale.  If those songs
>appeared after "Train Running Low" the impact of that song would be
>diminished.  Same with _Mummer_ and "Funk Pop a Roll".  And in fact,
>there really isn't any good place to put them.  So as far as that
>goes, between the two sides seems fine.

No question.  The only other appropriate place to put them might be at
the very start of the disc and separate them from the 'regular' album
with a long band of silence, sort of like a warm-up or something...  I
think the solution they chose is ideal.

>I, for one, would rather get the extra tracks than have the original
>album undisturbed.

Exactly.

And now, stuff about Rag N Bone Buffet, which I just purchased not 30
minutes ago... (ah, it sounds so nice to have Extrovert on CD...)

>>Happy Families
>>a remixed version of the song from the _She's Having a Baby_ soundtrack
>>(frankly, I prefer the other mix).

>By "the other mix", do you mean the version on the soundtrack?  Is the
>version on _Rag & Bone Buffet_ different from the soundtrack version?
>If so, then it's the original version that XTC mixed themselves.  Andy
>says they definitely prefer the original mix (that is, the one they
>mixed themselves) over the soundtrack mix, which was redone without
>their approval.

Well, my keen ear tells me that it's the "original" (ie: XTC-mixed)
version which was on the B-side of the XTC Wants To Be Tears For Fears
For A Day single.  You can tell by the absence of string sections and
prominent cheesiness of the drum machine.  You may call me a heretic
but I actually prefer the version on the She's Having A Baby
soundtrack - hides the cheesiness better.  Good song either way
though.

>If you mean that the version on _Rag & Bone Buffet_ is indeed the
>version on the soundtrack, then I'm unhappy.

You may commence being happy.

>"Heaven is Paved with Broken Glass" is probably the mix from
>_Beeswax_, and not the original mix from the _Ball and Chain_ 12".

According to the (extremely poor) liner notes:
"Band's own mix UK Ball And Chain single B side Previously only
available on B's Wax album"

The version on R&BB is the Beeswax version (ends with glossolalia
chanting rather than swelling synth passage - see Xplaining XTC!)

Andre De Koning sez:
[re Mermaid Smiles being on R&BB]

>Big deal, I have the UK _Skylarking_.

Yeah, but I don't.  So it IS a big deal!  Now I can edit together a
"real" version of Skylarking, if I really felt like it.  (Which I
probably wouldn't since I never loved that song too much.)

>BUT: are you sure this is the SAME version as on _Skylarking_?
>This would be the only track on _R&BB_ that is already available on CD. Looks
>to me that they could just as well have included Dear God instead (as it's
>not on the UK _Skylarking_).
>After all, this IS a UK release, isn't it?

It's not the ONLY song that is already available on CD that is
duplicated on R&BB actually -- Tissue Tigers and Blame The Weather are
available on a UK CD-3 for "Senses Working Overtime."  And "Dear God"
is also available on a UK CD single.  I do agree that it seems odd,
almost as if they were thinking about us poor Yanks, since it is
extremely difficult to get an import copy of an album that is
available domestically (almost impossible, in fact).

From: dkletter@adobe.com (It's all fun and games until someone PUTS AN EYE OUT)

>i just got _Rag & Bone Buffet_ and while it's great, i'm really
>disappointed that Virgin didn't do anything in the way of liner notes.

Yeah, it sucks, but hey, at least you've got all these incredible rare
tracks on one nice shiny disc, right?  Be thankful they even put it
out at all!  Now if I could just convince EMI that there'd be a market
for a similar volume of Thomas Dolby rare tracks...

and once again John M. Relph <chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org>
presents...

>More quotes from "X-plaining XTC Part 2" by Steve Kolanjian and David
>Dasch, from some issue of _Aware_ Magazine from 1983:

Hey, John, would you be by any chance compiling all these great
articles into one mega file that we could ftp?  I'd like to have it
all stitched together, so I can dump it onto a Macintosh and do it up
with nice formatting...

/j/
"sleepyheads, sleepyheads..."

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Date: Thu, 11 Oct 1990 16:35:11 PDT
From: John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Andy's Production Skills

According to the DJ I just spoke to on Live 105, KITS-FM 105.3 San
Francisco, Andy Partridge was producing some tracks by The Mission UK,
but when the band listened to the finished tracks they decided that
they didn't like them, so they decided not to continue with Andy as
producer.

I don't know how reliable this report is, but I find it interesting
nonetheless.

	-- John

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From: dhgpa!adkoning@hvlpb.att.com
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 90 08:23 MET
Subject: Re: Re: Chalkhills #110

OOPS!

Due to my boss who is trying to get as much work out of me as possible, I
made the following mistake:

I wrote:
>Is there anybody out there who knows the sources for _Go 2_ ?

What I meant to write was:
Is there anybody out there who knows the sources for _Go +_ ?

The "+" is right on the other end of my keyboard so I can't explain this err.

Sorry.

--Andre

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Date:         Fri, 12 Oct 90 05:19:40 EDT
From: Ben Zimmer  <ZIMBENG@yalevm.bitnet>
Subject:      English Settlement studio tape

>From "X-plaining XTC Part 2":
>several hours of cover versions (Hendrix, Led Zeppelin)
>recorded during the _English Settlement_ days.  A tape of
>these covers is known to be in circulation.

No kidding?  Anyone know of this tape's existence, or of anything else from
the _ES_ sessions?

                                                         Ben Zimmer
"I cough upon my wheezy chest
 My penicillin does its best."

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Date: Fri, 12 Oct 90 11:55:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: Chap Godbey <cg47+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Chalkhills #110

I just found in this latest issue of _Goldmine_ a two-7" set of acoustic
Oranges and Lemons songs off LA radio.  Anyone know what gives with that?

The (extremely) Little Express just bounced into my hands.  Seems that
they forgot to do the summer issue, but a big one's coming.  In the
meantime they just mention that Andy's producing like crazy, Colin and
Barry(!) did a gig with someone in Swindon, and lots of session work by
all.  The new album is being started on soon; the guys say they're
getting itchy.  Scratch away, I say...

 ________________________________________________________
|                                                        |
|        Chap Godbey (WACK@DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU)       |
|                    (cg47+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU)              |
|========================================================|
|                                                        |
|                 Un! Znqr lbh ybbx!                     |
|________________________________________________________|

<FLAME ON>
What? The letter is finished? Darn..
<fizzle>

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