Chalkhills, Number 5

                  Tuesday, 25 April 1989

Today's Topics:
                 Who are the horn players
                       Covers of XTC
                        RE: Re: HI
                      Curt and Roland
                    The lyric marathon
            What makes XTC worth listening to?
                  Re: who sings lead ...
                   Some random memories
                 Re: Some random memories

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Date: Mon, 24 Apr 89 14:53:08 PDT
From: duane@ebay.sun.com (Duane Day, I.R. - Applications Development)
Subject: Who are the horn players

Who plays the trombone and trumpet parts on _Mummer_ and _The Big Express_?
I'm not talking about the euphonium on "Seagulls", which is credited...

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Date: Mon, 24 Apr 89 14:51:27 PDT
From: duane@ebay.sun.com (Duane Day, I.R. - Applications Development)
Subject: Covers of XTC

We know that XTC has done some covers of other artists' material ("Ella Guru",
"All Along the Watchtower").  Does anyone out there know of any other artists
that have done covers of XTC songs?  I only know of one - Dave Stewart and
Barbara Gaskin do "Roads Girdle the Globe" on their Ryko CD "Up From the Dark".
(This is the Dave Stewart who used to play keyboards with Bruford and earlier
on with Steve Hillage, not the Eurythmic Dave Stewart.)  A very interesting CD,
by the way, with catchy covers of Thomas Dolby's "Leipzig" as well as "It's
My Party" and "The Siamese Cat Song" (from "Lady and the Tramp".)  A real
arranger's tour de force.  There are also several very nice originals,
featuring Stewart's wall of keyboards and Gaskin's rich, velvety, often
vibrato-free voice.

Their version of "Roads Girdle the Globe" is an interesting alternative to
the original, but lacks crunch.  Still, I'd recommend this album, especially
to those who like to hear what an inspired arranger can do with familiar and
in some cases extremely mundane material.

Cheerio...

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turns existence into art |ARPA: duane@sun.arpa
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Date: Mon, 24 Apr 89 22:31:51 CDT
From: GJJ5315@star.tamu.edu
Subject: RE: Re: HI

Hello

	I've loved XTC for quite some time, them being the ONLY truly
integrated band I've heard, Partridge being the ultimate songwriter of
deceptively complex pop (I hate that word) songs.

	It is because of this background that I almost ran off the road
when I heard the opening strain of "King for A Day" on a top 40 station.

By the way, does anybody have the lyrics to "This is Pop"?

Thanx

Gary Jedlicka
GJJ5315@TAMVENUS.Bitnet

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Date: Mon, 24 Apr 89 16:32:55 PDT
From: duane@ebay.sun.com (Duane Day, I.R. - Applications Development)
Subject: Curt and Roland

Another question:  I noticed this weekend that _The Big Express_ includes
among its acknowledgements a thank-you to "Curt and Roland".  I presume that
this is Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal, aka Tears for Fears.  Does anyone
have any idea what their contribution to _The Big Express_ might have been?
(A nice place to crash in Bath, perhaps?)

Also, since I've so deftly introduced the subject :-), does anyone have any
news about a new Tears for Fears album?  I did receive the following from our
fellow Chalkhiller, Surfin' Dave:

>From: ihlpb!srfndave (David S Sedovic +1 312 979 2870)
>
>On TFF, Roland and his sidekick showed up in Kansas City (me home town)
>about a year ago to make a proposition to a great jazz singing young
>lady there.  Consequently, she was flown out to England for some demos,
>and is supposed to be doing vocal work on this mysterious "new album".
>Let's hope they're at least a little quicker than Boston!!  :-)
>
>Surfin' Dave

Can anyone add to this?  I heard about a new single, "In My Eyes", about a
year and a half ago.  I've never seen it released.  I've also seen several
blurbs in magazines promising a new album in some subsequent season, which
then comes and goes with no new TFF.  What's the deal here?

************************ |UUCP: {hplabs,decwrl,<others>}!sun!thismoment!duane
..but one of the choices | COM: duane%thismoment@sun.com
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************************ |USPS: 2550 Garcia Ave. M/S M3-76, Mtn. View CA 94042

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Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1989 23:06:31 PDT
From: John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: The lyric marathon

Thanks to Gary for the lyrics to "Living in a Haunted Heart."

The latest lyrics I've been working on are those to "Blame the Weather" and
"Tissue Tigers".  If anybody would like to help, the usual offer stands,
which is to say that I'll mail a copy of what I've figured out so far.

Gee, I looked at my copy of _Mummer_ and it doesn't credit anybody for
playing horns.  The only credits are Steve Nye, on mini-korg (on
"Wonderland") and mellotron (on "Elements"), and Gavin Wright and Nigel
Warren-Green, on strings ("Great Fire").

On _The Big Express_, Steve Saunders plays euphonium on "Seagulls".

Everything else must be synth.

	-- John

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Date: Tue, 25 Apr 89 08:01:39 EDT
From: ektools!martin@kodak.com (Brian Martin)
Subject: What makes XTC worth listening to?

     I wonder?  Has anyone stopped to think about what it is that makes
XTC worth listening to?  There are certainly a number of people on this
mailing list. So, what is it that we all see in this groups music?

What follows is MY opinions about why I listen to XTC:

     I am, by nature, a progressive rock junky.  I go for the albums
withb 2 cuts on them, or the albums with blended songs.  My collection
consists of a broad range of material covering classical, rock, jazz,
folk, new wave, punk, pop, electronic and I'm sure a few more things.
All of these albums have one thing in particular that joins them
together and would explain why they are in my collection.

That is, "They have something DIFFERENT about them!"  In some way each
and every album I have contains some musical idea, some clever lyrics,
somme special production methods that peaked my curiosity.  XTC is, of
course, one of the groups which peaks my curiosity the most.

     The "DIFFERENT" qualities of XTC might be summed up like this:
They dare to be DIFFERENT.  Andy never vears to speak out about
religion, politics, social values or infact anything that comes to his
mind.  He even gives that well warn LOVE topic a new twist.

They dare to use musical dissonance (sp?) where other groups would fear
to tread.  Minature Sun, Train Running Low on Soul Coal, Mermaid Smile
are a few examples.  These somgs all contain musicial elements which are
displeasing to the ear.  That is not to say the songs are displeasing,
on the contrary.  XTC manages to combine these piculiarities to produce
a masterpiece.  These songs often require many listenings to gain some
sense of their quality.

They dare to make the music instrumentation fit the mood of the song.
The Man who Sailed Around His Soul is a perfect example of a song that
uses instrumentation to create a mood.  The instruments used are far
>from the mainstream sound of some of the other songs on the album
(Skylarking).  Eventhough this song is completely out of character for
the rest of the album, I find myself looking forward to it as the album
plays.  Human Alcomy, Scarecrow People and Skelitons are more examples
of unusually instrumented songs.

Finally, They dare to DARE.  Only XTC would dare to release albums with
such a wide mix of musicaly styles.  The best part of it is that they
get away with it, to our advantage.  They manage to release music under
The Dukes of Stratosphere without even attaching their names to the
material in any way.

When an XTC album comes out, I can always be assurred that I am in for a
listening experience.  Something that I can spend some time getting to
know.

These are my reasons for considering XTC DIFFERENT.
I don't want to mislead you though, most importantly, I listen to them
because they sound good!

----------
Brian A. Martin
"Sounds like a good idea to me!"

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Date: Tue, 25 Apr 89 11:32:44 PDT
From: batman@ebay.sun.com (Karl MacRae - The Surreal World of Customer Service)
Subject: Re: who sings lead ...

' Mike Godfrey' asks:

>who sings lead on "All Along The Watchtower" (
>off "White Music" if you don't know).

	Andy, of course! Who else could bark like that?

		He also plays that AWESOME hamonica. He's the only
	person I've ever heard play thrash harmonica.....

>I just got WM and love the punky feel.

	Ain't it great? Listen more; that album is much more
sophisticated than it feels....

	-Karl

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Karl MacRae	UUCP: sun!batman	ARPA: batman@sun.COM
Sun Microsystems, Milpitas, Ca. (The armpit of Silicon Valley)
"There's a message up in China-
			That they're gettin' in Japan!"
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Date: Tue, 25 Apr 89 10:26:08 PDT
From: alexs@retix.retix.com (Alex Stein)
Subject: Some random memories

Let me first add my thanks to John Relph for setting up this list!

As to the "we loved your earlier, harsher records best"
controversy: I've always felt that there was a strong connection
between English Punk Rock of the late 1970s and mainstream pop of
the 60s.  I always sensed that XTC felt the connection as well.
I love White Music & Go2.  I hear strong echoes of them in
Oranges & Lemons, which I also love.

The first XTC song I ever heard was "Making Plans for Nigel,"
while driving on the Mass. Turnpike.  It was raining.  I stopped
underneath an overpass to consult the road map.  I went out and
bought Drums & Wires shortly thereafter.

I remember being frustrated by the Radio Drought of the early 80s
(inexplicable given all the great music coming out) and not
being able to conceive of a world where "Respectable Street,"
"Towers of London," or "Generals and Majors" weren't BIG HIT
SINGLES.

When English Settlement came out as a single album in the US, the
owner of a record store near where I lived, a complete and total
XTC fanatic, hiked the price of the domestic album and dropped
the price of the import so that there was only a 40-cent
difference between them.  Then, in case people missed the point,
he displayed them side by side with huge signs saying "1 record (boo!)"
and "2 records (hurray!)."

My friend Ed and I were going to go see XTC in 1982, but didn't
because the club where they were playing was 5 miles away, we
didn't know anyone with a car, and we figured we could always go
see them next year, right?  (I guess I could always go down to
the corner Video Shoppe and rent "Urgh! A Music War.")

I remember hunting down the "Thanks for Christmas" single at
Tower Records in New York City.

"25 O'clock" was the only record I bought in the first half of
1985 (severe cash flow problems).

This week, I've been listening to Mummer, Oranges & Lemons,
English Settlement, the Dukes CD, and THE MEETING PLACE EP.

I'm hard pressed to think of a more beautiful song than "In
Loving Memory of a Name" or a more catchy one than "Fly Upon the
Wall."  "Let's Make a Den" from THE MEETING PLACE is a fabulous
song about being a kid (hmm, it would have fit nicely on Oranges
& Lemons).  "Making Plans for Nigel" still sends chills down my
spine.

My friend Sue says "Mayor of Simpleton" is the best pop song written
in the 1980s.  She may be right.  I love the "Barry the Car" and
"Terry the Fish" titles in the video.

Alex Stein
alexs@retix.com

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Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1989 11:47:53 PDT
From: John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Re: Some random memories

>Let me first add my thanks to John Relph for setting up this list!

You're welcome, thanks for keeping it happening.

>  "Let's Make a Den" from THE MEETING PLACE is a fabulous
>song about being a kid (hmm, it would have fit nicely on Oranges
>& Lemons).

Gee, I didn't really think it was about being a kid.  I thought it was
a metaphoric tale of modern family life, but then again, maybe I
should listen to it more closely.

Does anyone have the lyrics to "Let's Make a Din" transcribed?  Please
send them in, so we can get all the lyrics sent in to the Lyrics
Server.

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