Chalkhills Digest Volume 5, Issue 209
Date: Monday, 17 May 1999
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 5, Number 209
Monday, 17 May 1999
Today's Topics:
Re: Bad Reunions
Wishful Thinking
Partridge HELLO CD EP at E-bay
Populate Your Unconcious Grotesque
"Recommended" Archive
Bitchy rows boys
Reissues and an Unsubscribers Rant
New Chalkhills member/Genesis
once again . . .
Re: Genesis
Re: Tribute List
Re: XTC on the Comedy Channel
The Phantom Bridegroom & Julian's birthday card
Re: Dave and Andy's Guitar Solos
re: pagan babies
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And what a year when the exams and crops all failed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ArtThief2@aol.com Message-ID: <cf0a21fd.246e55ca@aol.com> Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 00:44:58 EDT Subject: Re: Bad Reunions alot of band reunions would have to occur to make my dream tribute album come true: 1. wonderland - beck 2. reign of blows - tom waits 3. frivolous tonight - randy newman 4. no language in our lungs - virgin prunes 5. human alchemy - dead can dance 6. fruit nut - paul burch & the wpa ballclub 7. don't lose your temper - stiff little fingers 8. living through another cuba - public enemy 9. senses working overtime - jon boy langford and the pine valley cosmonauts 10. wrapped in grey - patti smith 11. ball & chain - new model army 12. i remember the sun - kate bush whew! i don't know if i was gonna have an orgasm or an aneurism trying to come up with that list! an orgeurism? -artthief (i'm not andy partridge)
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19990515085141.19676.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "Duncan Kimball" <dunks58@hotmail.com> Subject: Wishful Thinking Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 01:51:40 PDT Squirrelgirl suspects me of being Andy?? Egad, but I'm flattered!! Regrettably I can assure you I'm not, although I take that as a mighty big compliment. (Not to mention being rather chuffed to be included in such an august company of suspects). My wife reckons I look vaguely like him though. Does Andy lurk here? I doubt it. I suspect he may pass messages on to people from time to time to be placed in an appropriate spot, but that's about it. I had my suspicions about that post from a few weeks back, but if memory serves it was a hoax. I can't remember who did it - something makes me recall it was Dom, or Todd, but I could be wrong. * * * So Partsy loves 'Casino Royale' too huh? I always found that piece irresistable. The bit in the middle where the trumpet hits that incredible high note always knocks me out. (Am I mental or do I remember reading that it was Herb Albert?) It's one of those pieces, like "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times", that always elicts from me what my old friend calls FIF - Funny Inner Feeling. The whole arrangement sparkles in a way that could never be reproduced now - it's a perfect distillation of everything that Bacharach could do musically. The interplay between the horns and the strings is so fantastic. It's hip, groovy, fluffy, cheeky, bouncy, cool and sophisticated, with a great latin swing to it. The horn playing is pretty close to being perfect IMO. And listen to the melody line - it's very 'classical', very vertical, quite complex and convoluted, yet as catchy as the Ebola Virus. How does he do it? Production-wise it's also a great illustration of what Brian Wilson talks about re: the blending of different instruments in the studio to create a new sound. Dunks
------------------------------
Message-ID: <000201be9eeb$888e8fa0$d189cfa9@dfranson.execpc.com>
From: "Dave Franson" <dfranson@execpc.com>
Subject: Partridge HELLO CD EP at E-bay
Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 10:56:38 -0500
Hi,
I have the following extremely rare item up for auction at e-bay.
*RARE* XTC Andy Partridge HELLO CD EP *SIGNED*
Great songs, unavailable anywhere else, a must-have for the XTC fan.
Wow! Autographed and doodled upon by Partridge in Chicago, IL, on
2/25/99. Cardboard sleeve is in Excellent condition... the bottom edge was
trimmed to fit in a CD jewel case. Disc in Mint condition. From private
collection. Buyer pays shipping. Cashiers check or money order only.
Andy Partridge: A Hello Selection Prince of Orange (2'55); It's Snowing
Angels (3'20); Candymine (2'29); Some Lovely (My Brown Guitar) (3'58). solo
single, released only to Hello Recording Club subscribers. CD-5, Hello USA,
HEL-411, November 1994.
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=101905506
Check it out!
Thanks,
Dave
------------------------------ Message-ID: <000701be9d9c$0eb5b140$d1e7abc3@vucqprlj> From: "David Seddon" <D.Seddon@btinternet.com> Subject: Populate Your Unconcious Grotesque Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 00:54:20 +0100 All this talk of getting an ideal list of people to cover XTC songs has got me thinking. The weirdest thing would be for dead stars to sing things in your imagination. It's a totally stupid and vacuous idea and one that wasted 15 minutes to think up, but what the hell, it's Saturday and I've just spent ages marking bloody mock SAT tests! I could do with a celestial choir, so...how about these suggestions? Bob Marley...Knuckle Down Jimmi Hendrix...Another Satellite (I can just hear the Star Spangled Banner style solo in there somewhere) Buddy Holly...Life Begins At the Hop Nick Drake...Rook Tim Buckley...All you Pretty Girls (in his jazz/rock, Greetings from LA period) Jeff Buckley...Garden of Earthly Delights (in several octaves) John Lennon...The Ugly Underneath (he could do his rocking, psychedelic and ballad styles on this!) Freddie Mercury...Respectable Street (camped up like Death on Two Legs) Frank Sinatra... I Can't Own Her (swung with Nelson Riddle Strings) John Denver...Love on a Farmboy's Wages (hammed up) Phil Lynott...Making Plans for Nigel John Coltrane/Miles Davis...The Last Balloon I'm sure there's loads more that can be done with that list, but that'll do for now. What would Elvis sing? Cheers David
------------------------------ From: music@telisphere.com Message-ID: <373DB907.1E84@telisphere.com> Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 11:12:24 -0700 Subject: "Recommended" Archive Charles asked: " Is there any archive of bands/artists that people in this newsgroup have recommended? Great idea!
------------------------------ Message-ID: <373DC49E.98BCB851@which.net> Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 20:01:51 +0100 From: B Blanchard <b.blanchard@which.net> Subject: Bitchy rows boys Evening officer. WHAT lights!? Just caught up on a week of Chalkhills and really enjoyed the Dom/Dunks row about metal, well it READ like a row and it was good n bitchy. Loved it.. And - as I was listening to Diamondhead followed by Kiss, Vardis and then Thin Lizzy as I read - I'll let you decide who's side I was on. (Thin Lizzy? Metal? Yep.) Sorry they made up with each other really. It was a neat fun harmless row. The Todd / Gene whoever else row about Andy's motives and character and all that stuff is as dull as shit. It would be fine if I was learning something or even being entertained but I'm not. Maybe everyone else is! Who cares! I'll defend anyone's right to say what they want on the list. Go ahead and bitch away! Sun's shining! Tank is gassed up (or "contains a full tank of petroleum spirit" as us Brits might say). And yesterday I survived another birthday 20 years after they thought and I assumed I would die! Hooray!!!!!! Oh, and welcome to the list one very cool girl LYNNE WILKERSON SCHAPPERT resident in California who I met at the Manchester conventions in 1990 or whenever. She is now on line and I told her about this usually cool list. Altogether now - WELCOME LYNNE! Delurk away and tell us some dirt! Love BELINDA
------------------------------ Message-ID: <373E012D.521F1D7A@earthlink.net> Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 16:20:15 -0700 From: Herne <herne@earthlink.net> Subject: Reissues and an Unsubscribers Rant Regarding the b-sdes/extra tracks on the reissues. My problem was that since my first exposure to most of the early non-lp tracks was from BEESWAX, it was odd to hear things out of order from that album pop up everywhere...oh well I'll go CD by CD WHITE MUSIC---Science Friction ep plus extras. Was thrilled at the time that Traffic Light Rock popped up here since I only had it on Guillotine. The order of the others follows the Beeswax order...though Science Friction itself was on Waxworks. GO2---My first copy of this was the import so ARE YOU RECEIVING ME was always on it. Not a problem. DRUMS AND WIRES---This thing has been F***ed up so many ways by different companies. Who knows what the actual order is? I Know it's probably in the archives but anyway. My first version was the US Epic reissue. It had the Life Begins at the Hop(edit) on it but No Making Plans for Nigel and No Day In Day Out. Then I found the single with Limelight/Day In Day Out and Chain of Command on it. I recorded it at the end of the Drums And Wires Tape I made...a tape which I had recorded the album in reverse. Side two and then side one. I think at the time I preferred Roads Girdle the Globe over Complicated Game. Come to think of it, I really didn't like Complicated Game. That of course changed. Later I bought the Canada version because it had the then unfindable lyrics for the first three albums and b-sides etc. That version had Nigel at the beginning. As for the cd's...well. I have two of them. One is the "picture" disc from the three disc box set. I bought that because it was actually cheaper to buy that then the imports seperately. Of course after I had spent all the extra money, the damn things came out in the US like the next week! The cd order is a total cock-up to me because every version of this one is different. It all just gives me a headache really. BLACK SEA---The problem isn't where the songs lay. It's that Smokeless Zone, Temper and Sonambulist don't sound like they belong here at all. I thought Smokeless Zone and Temper were from an earlier time and sound. And Sonambulist, which I didn't get into until like 1991, would do better on Rag and Bone Buffet. It just seems like a stand alone oddity. MUMMER---Well I hated MUMMER from the word go. In fact I f***ing hated it. I despised it. Coming after the greatest album of my life(ES) with this "Alan Parsons Project sounding tripe"(Now remember this was near the EYE IN THE SKY time and it isn't that far a leap...and I like some AP Project so don't flame me) was something I think I took personally at the time. It's like it hurt my feelings or something and I've never been able to quite forgive it. Though later my opinion of the album slowly began to change when I started to become a bitter youth while at USC film school. Me and The Wind took on a new meaning there. Then the b-sides I got when I bought the singles improved things. I liked Desert Island and Gold a lot. So when all of them were finally thrown together on cd, I finally came to some sort of peace with it. Though there's part of me that wants to smash every known copy of this one. It's an all too vivid memory of a very unhappy time. So I don't give a shit what order this one's in. Cause no matter what order it's in, Wonderland is still on it. Geez...what was I talking about? Oh yeah the reissues. Skylarking---while not a real reissue...I've never gotten used to the version with Dear God. I prefer the original import which was the way I heard it first. Though Mermaid Smiled is one of my least favorites and no great loss, I'd rather have it there than Dear God cause it just doesn't sound right. Rag and Bone Buffet---Again the Beeswax problem. The fact that Blame/ Tissue Tigers/Punch/Broken Glass aren't in the Beeswax order, or that the album is in no order to speak of, annoys me to this day. I guess I can live with things the way they are. It would of course be better if they re-did the whole catalog a la the Costello re-issues with bonus tracks at the end. Or have seperate CD's in order a la the Beatles Anthology series...and just have demos at the end of the originals. Any suggestions people? And when the f**k are the Meeting Place demos(Find the Fox etc.) going to be on disc? Boy I'm starting to get pissed. Talking about Mummer gets me into a lather. Better go before I go off about people who de-list....TOO LATE! What is it with people leaving the list? Paraphrasing: "I'm unsubscribing because I joined this list to hear about XTC and not about blah, blah, blah,..."or it's "this list is too mean spirited." Come on people. PLEASE! The debate is indeed "spirited" but disagreements are mostly farcical and derived from "passionate" viewpoints. For what it's worth, some people on another list described this list as "boring". I couldn't believe that. I love this place. It's informative and the laughs are many. Dom's posts alone are worth it. If you truly ARE a fan, why would you not follow this list? Chalkhills has several people in DIRECT contact with band members. I don't know if some people truly comprehend the significance of this fact. The fact that we have any idea what's up with the boys at all is AMAZING. AND this list, despite it's alleged obscurity, is known by band members, record companies and journalists. TVT and Cooking Vinyl monitor us and use us for marketing research. Remember the trial balloon to guage interest in a Special Edition of Apple Venus I? I certainly do. I wonder what happened to that idea. I mean what more do you want? Andy's home phone number so you can call him every damn day and ask him what's up with the new album and his love life and whatever? Such a thing does not and will not exist. This is as close as you're going to get. It's one thing if you're busy and you don't have time to read e-mail. I often get behind and end up posting on threads that died weeks earlier. That's one thing. But to leave because you don't think Chalkhills is not informative enough? You're (Virgins cover your eyes!) FUCKED in the head! Sorry no asterisks for deserters. And if you get upset because of the flaming? SCROLL FUCKING DOWN! Hell we've all been singed here. I think you get flamed on every third post you put up. There are a lot of passionate people here with stong opinions diluted by the limits of language and letter writing skills. Posts are often composed in the wee hours or under the influence of something. Or during periods of intense self-reflection or melancholy. I recall one listmember whose shall remain nameless seemingly crying out in the night wondering if anyone read her posts or noticed she was here at all. Incidentally..to that person...yes I read your posts and I do notice you're here. I almost wrote you personally to say so but for some reason I didn't. I only tend to skip posts about time signatures cause I don't understand them...YET. The point is that on the internet there are REAL people with REAL emotions unleashed by the safety of relative anonymity. So there's bound to be some heat. And if you can't stand the heat...fine. Be gone. You'll be back though. Especially if the record companies or the band finally cough up a Chalkhills only disc of rarities a la Jules Verne's Sketchbook or something of that ilk. There. I'm done with my rant. Apologies to those offended by language. But one more post whining about what Chalkhills IS, ISN'T or SHOULD BE and I am going to scream. Just wait till your boat goes down. That's when you'll need us most. KL who wonders, "Where 4 art thou, David Oh?".
------------------------------ Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19990515181438.007e08d0@students.wisc.edu> Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 18:14:38 -0500 From: "David R. Bauman" <drbauman@students.wisc.edu> Subject: New Chalkhills member/Genesis Hello, everyone-- I am a very new member of Chalkhills...Actually, I am a pretty recent devotee of XTC itself; though I was familiar with Nonsuch from my college days, the first album I bought was Apple Venus. Since then, I have purchased Nonsuch, Skylarking, Oranges and Lemons, Mummer, and English Settlement, each of which has a very distinct charm. I suppose that I enjoy Apple Venus the most, and so far have yet to really get into Mummer and English Settlement. About me personally...I will be a 3rd year law student at the University of Wisconsin (Madison), happily living in this beautiful city, and happily just finished with exams. Unfortunately, school takes up most of my time, so I rarely have time to do anything other than lurk on mailing lists and keep up on news, with the occasional, rare contribution. Still, I'm happy to be here, and I hope to learn a lot more about XTC. In terms of my musical interests, I enjoy everything from Tori Amos to Frank Zappa, but my main interests are XTC, Genesis, Marillion, the Police, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Ben Folds Five, Elvis Costello, King Crimson, and the Dave Matthews Band. Fortunately for me, most of them are still active, if not prolific. For my first contribution (I suppose everyone here already is aware of this, but...), for how many albums have XTC drawn the title from a phrase in the previous album? For example, "Apple Venus" comes from the first line of "Then She Appeared" on Nonsuch, "Nonsuch" comes from "Chalkhills and Children" on Oranges and Lemons, "Oranges and Lemons" comes from "Ballet for a Rainy Day" on Skylarking... does this continue on previous albums? Having more than a passing interest in the music of Genesis (one of the few bands I enjoy more than XTC), I couldn't help notice and respond to the following post: CCooli9575@aol.com wrote: >OK, OK, stop your fuming. I must rephrase here, and I hope I can make it >brief. Steve Hackett is a very talented guitarist, one of the best out >there. I wholeheartedly agree, and his most recent album (Darktown, released about three weeks ago, does nothing but bolster my belief). It's nice to hear a guitarist who isn't necessarily about flashy playing, but rather atmosphere and a unique sound. >What I was trying to say that I feel he and Genesis just weren't a >match, more on a personal and spiritual level than anything else. Musically >it was like there were Genesis' ideas and Steve's ideas, they sometimes >seemed to be pushing against each other. This is, to a large extent, true -- there were probably too many competing ideas in the band for each to get equal attention. Especially after the departure of Gabriel, when the band really wanted to prove that they were more than the background accompaniment to Peter's unique vision. And it is true that the band lost something when Steve left. > I've read in interviews with him that he was never particularly happy in >Genesis, that at best they were a job and a paycheck and a chance to >express himself creatively. Well, this is a new one to me, and I've heard, read, or seen a fair percentage of the interviews with the members of the band. While it is true that Steve was a bit of an outsider to the "inner circle" of the band, I've seen nothing to indicate that he viewed the band as merely a "job". Indeed, his release of "Genesis Revisited", an album of his reworkings of Genesis's songs, seems to me to show how much he enjoyed the music produced by Genesis, as for example when he comments of _Firth of Fifth_, "one of Tony's finest, in my humble opinion." He also refers to his time with the band as "special." Still, it is true that Steve was rarely entirely happy within the band as an entity. >When Peter Gabriel left, Hackett, who had never gotten along with Tony >Banks particularly to begin with, began accusing Tony of stealing his >songwriting credits. He left after Wind And Wuthering because he believed >he was more responsible for the band's music than he was given credit >for. He may have had a case, for all I know; the rest of the band, being >friends since school aside from Phil, pulled ranks and backed Tony on the >dispute. Not quite accurate. Steve never accused Tony of stealing songwriting credits. Rather, within the band's fairly strict procedure of voting on what songs would go on each album, the band didn't like many of Steve's musical ideas enough to put them on an album, which led to a sense of confinement, that his input wasn't being valued properly. That, in a nutshell is why he left. He wasn't being given credit in a lot of instances because he didn't get the chance to contribute to certain pieces. >If you've ever wondered why Steve never plays at Genesis reunions, that's >why. He and Tony refuse to appear onstage with each other. Well, Genesis have only really had one reunion, back in 1982 to help out Peter Gabriel's newly founded, but financially strapped WOMAD festival. Steve did perform, but only for the encore. The "dispute" between Tony and Steve really is blown out of proportion most of the time, as has recently been a topic on the Genesis mailing list. >After Gabriel, songs were credited to individual songwriters for the first >time, which caused the dispute over credits to come to a head. As I >recall, Steve's only writing credits(I could be wrong)on A Trick Of The >Tail and Wind And Wuthering were Los Endos and Wot Gorilla? Both >instumentals. Actually, on ToTT, Steve is credited for "Dance on a Volcano", "Los Endos", and "Entangled" (one of the more beautiful pieces in the Genesis canon, by the way). About the same credited contribution as Phil Collins at that point. On W and W, Steve is credited for "Eleventh Earl of Mar", "Blood on the Rooftops", "Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers" and "In that Quiet Earth". All in all, a fair amount, but Tony Banks definitely had a larger input at that point. > Sorry to bore anybody with no interest in Genesis. Hey, at least this >isn't about Air Supply or heavy metal. Back to our regularly scheduled >program. > >Chris Yes indeed -- this is after all an XTC list, and I take a share of blame for contributing to an unrelated thread. However, both bands certainly produce(d) excellent music, and I'm just trying to help set the record straight a bit. Hoping for some enlightening conversations, Yours, David R. Bauman
------------------------------ Message-Id: <v03007800b363cbff27ed@[165.247.2.10]> Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 20:15:45 -0500 From: Mitch Friedman <mitchf@mindspring.com> Subject: once again . . . Hi, I thought I should post the only likely tracks for AV2 since there seems to be some confusion about it. Here goes . . . You and the Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful Church of Women Some Lovely Playground The Wheel and The Maypole We're All Light Wounded Horse Stupidly Happy I'm the Man Who Murdered Love Boarded Up (CM) Standing In For Joe (CM) In Another Life (CM) That's it I'm afraid. Mitch
------------------------------ Message-ID: <000e01be9fae$40bce640$61b52299@default> From: "Joe Funk" <jomama68@email.msn.com> Subject: Re: Genesis Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 10:10:35 -0500 Afew minor clarifications: Chris stated: >As I recall, Steve's only writing credits(I could be >wrong)on A Trick Of The Tail and Wind And Wuthering were Los Endos and Wot >Gorilla? Both instumentals. when actually Steve Hackett co-wrote: "Entangled" with none other than Tony Banks, along with "Dance on a Volcano" with Banks, Rutherford and Collins from "Trick"; " In that Quiet Earth" with Mike Rutherford, Banks and Collins, "Blood on the Rooftops" with Collins, "Unquiet Slumber for Sleepers" with Rutherford and "Eleventh Earl of Mar" with Banks and Rutherford on Wind & Wuthering. By the way, "Wot Gorrilla" is a Banks/Collins composition. XTC content: Last week I was listening to the morning radio show on KUT 90.5 fm here in Austin. They call it "Ecclecticos", because it usually features a wide variety of ecclectic music. Well the theme that morning was flowers! So I called in and requested ROO, and wouldn't Ya' know it was the next song they played!!! I was exstatic!! Hearing ROO on the radio was a mindblower; not only because I truly believed I would never here that song on the radio, but that the other listeners who had not heard AV1 or even heard of XTC might give them a second thought!! I don't know about ya'll, but I am ready for AV2!!!! ....Me and Crusoe are sharing the same fate..... Jomama
------------------------------ Message-ID: <373D9D8A.80110918@earthlink.net> Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 09:15:06 -0700 From: Yoshiko Yeto <beaudrillard@earthlink.net> Subject: Re: Tribute List Greetings Chalkhillians! Molly's idea for a tribute list is simply brilliant! Bravo! Here is my contribution... 1. Your Dictionary-Elliot Smith 2. Helicopter-Brian Eno 3. Roads Girdle the Globe-Thee Headcoatees 4. English Roundabout-Elvis Costello and the Attractions (circa "This Year's Model") 5. Chain of Command-Devo 6. Have You Seen Jackie-Terry and the Love Men with Leonard Nimoy narrating (and no, I am not a Trekkie) 7. 1000 Umbrellas-Belle and Sebastian 8. Frivolous Tonight-The Magnetic Fields 9. When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty-Ian Dury and the Blockheads 10. Deliver Us From the Elements-Wire 11. Paper and Iron-The Raincoats 12. Yacht Dance-Arthur Lee and Love (with Brian McLean on vocals) 13. All of a Sudden (It's Too Late)-Jimmy Scott 14. The Last Balloon-Nick Drake I imagine that Elvis Costello would prefer the Burt Bachrach/Beach Boys influenced "Wrapped in Grey" so that he can histrionically belt out this lovely tune. You can bet that I will wrestle it away from his little greedy hands! Oh by the way, the tribute album would be entitled "Across the Hymnbooks". Decisively yours, Malady Nelson
------------------------------ From: mollyfa@juno.com Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 03:58:11 -0400 Subject: Re: XTC on the Comedy Channel Message-ID: <19990516.035811.2926.0.MollyFa@juno.com> Patrick wrote: <<I had the Comedy Channel on in the background while checking some baseball statistics and much to my surprise, an advertisement for XTC's Apple Venus Vol. 1 appeared!>> Is this The Comedy Network (Canada) or Comedy Centrall (US), or is there another Comedy network in a different country? I've never seen any AV1 ads on TV here, maybe I'm not paying close attention or my cable system hates XTC. Molly http://www.angelfire.com/mn/mollyfa99/index.html Non XTC song lyric, but I like it: "Happiness is Easy" (Mark Hollis, Talk Talk)
------------------------------ Message-Id: <s73ea357.082@plextek.co.uk> Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 10:51:53 +0100 From: Philip Lawes <PJL@plextek.co.uk> Subject: The Phantom Bridegroom & Julian's birthday card Greg wrote in #207 >One boy and one girl walk >together to the front of the hall to participate in the ritual. Andy looks >across at girl sitting on the other side of the aisle and daydreams that it >is the two of them walking down the aisle on their wedding day, girl gives >him a "longing look." Years pass, Andy finds out that the girl has gotten >married to someone also, just like he has. "You TOO got married and I wish >you well." I don't see where this other character comes in as in "You TWO >got married...." Who is this guy? Why is Andy singing to him? Maybe he's >Graham's younger brother? I don't think he exists. Hi Greg. I've always assumed that the bridegroom was the boy at the beginning of the song - the narrator's long term rival, but your interpretation seems equally valid. I've listened to it a couple of times and it sort of flips in my head either way - both scenarios provoke a sense of loss that's nicely expressed in the song. Maybe Andy didn't put the lyric sheet in to keep the conversation on Chalkhills going a bit longer. >Although I've been on the list and enjoying the Digest since 12-12-95, this >is my first post. Is that a record? Anyone been lurking longer than that? Anyone de-lurking now is going to lose the record. "I'm the record holder because I've been on the list twelve years and I've never posted... oh bugger". ...and since you mentioned the Beatles may I recommend that any 'hillers on London get over to the new British Library in St. Pancras if you have an hour or so to spare. The permanent exhibition 'Treasures from the British Library' is absolutely gobsmacking. First off it's in quite a small, intimate room, so the sheer *weight* of history in there is almost palpable as you step through the door. I stood in the middle and turned round and saw the Lindisfarne gospels, the Magna Carta, a couple of Mozart autograph scores, a Gutenberg bible, Captain Scott's diary, the original handwritten illustrated manuscript of Alice in Wonderland, Wellington's Waterloo despatch and loads of other stuff. XTC lyric enthusiasts might like to go and see handwritten letters from Nelson to Lady Hamilton and Victoria to Albert (nothing from Hector or Helen of Troy though - try the British Museum). The whole thing is a real jaw-dropper. Anyway, if you step up to the Magna-Carta (you know, the start of British, and by extension Western, democracy - signed by King John in 1215), turn around and walk three paces forward you'll see the Beatles display. This has a number of their original lyric sheets in all their scruffy glory, including 'A Hard Day's Night'. This is probably the tattiest and most illegible of the lot having been scribbled in ballpoint on the back of what looks like a child's birthday card (happy smiling boy riding toy train -Julian?). Really bring's the story of John Lennon knocking off the song overnight to life. I doubt that McCartney or Lennon ever thought that their backs of envelopes, ripped out notebook sheets and doodles were ever going to be reverently displayed in a glass case next to a Mozart score and the Magna Carta! Phil
------------------------------ Message-ID: <373EDD86.8281652E@umich.edu> Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 11:00:22 -0400 From: Rob Hill <rhill@umich.edu> Subject: Re: Dave and Andy's Guitar Solos Wes Wilson (WWi8064839@aol.com) sez: >Honestly, I could never tell Dave and Andy's guitar solos apart unless it >was specifically written somewhere. Andy's quite a soloist and can create >some clever doodles on the fretboard. Check out the solos on "We'll Build a >House" from Martin Newell's "Greatest Living Englishman" and "Books are >Burning" (in which he and Dave trade solos). Oh, I think they're distinctly different. Dave is smooth, fluid, well-practised, and frankly more conventional. Andy is jarring, inspired, adventurous, and altogether completely insane. I can hear the rogue jazz fiend in him longing to get out. Though Dave is certainly a more dependable guitarist, I find Andy to be genuinely exciting. Listen to the Church of Women solo, or I Remember the Sun, or Heatwave, or his jazzy scribblings in the XTC At the Manor. Dave is more studied but a bit more faceless than Andy (sorry, Dave). Listen to the 1980 Radio One concert. Andy on the right, Dave on the left. At the end of This is Pop (I believe) Dave gets a few bars to twiddle and you realise what he would sound like without Andy's Andyness keeping him on his toes. That said, I didn't realise how much I was going to miss Dave until I rewatched the MTV acoustic performance of Scarecrow People. All those little melodic nuances are gone, folks. If XTC decide to do another acoustic tour or similar, Andy's going to be far too busy singing and keeping his meal down to add much to the instrumentation. And as for Tom Waits, yep, this new one's a doozy. I think it actually ranks above Bone Machine. Filipino Box Spring Hog, Take It With Me, Picture in a Frame, Cold Water etc are as good as anything he's ever done. What's He Building is genuinely nightmare-ish. Only downer is Georgia Lee, which for me is his Books are Burning. Someone commented to the effect "there are no malls in Wait's world." Apt, I'd say. Great album. Rob
------------------------------ From: STakesh@aol.com Message-ID: <fe30ec5e.2470528a@aol.com> Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 12:55:38 EDT Subject: re: pagan babies Hi, everybody, Bob Estus recently deadpanned: >>It was rumored that in the last weeks of the drive a pagan baby was traded for a rather choice bagged lunch.>> I nearly bagged it myself, as I happened to be chowing down at the time, and could've choked for laughing. One should never mix eating and horselaughs... There's nothing like the inanities of organized religion to crank out atheists, is there? (I'm speaking for myself, of course.) It reminds me of when I had to attend Sunday school as a kid... Once, around 1980, my church featured a guest lecturer, who ostensibly was there to warn us of the moral perils of rock 'n roll in general, and of sexual, drug, and satanic references in the same. This lecture actually lasted for two consecutive Sunday classes, and the second one was packed, standing room only. This guy used tapes, slides and his own record collection to produce his multimedia show. With our rapt attention, he covered all the bases: the satanic imagery in album art (i.e., Blue Oyster Cult's "Agent of Fortune," if memory serves), heavy metal nihilism (Judas Priest), punk violence, anarchy, and cover art nudity (Wendy O. Williams), back- wards satanic lyrics, etc. Needless to say, this lecture series had largely unintended results for me. I learned tons about the music world that was beyond the pale of anything I was familiar with previously, and I rather admired the targeted artists for their clever, daring and sometimes allegedly subtextual or even subliminal artistic statements. Who knew? Sunday school gave me a crash course in the baroque complexity of symbolic art, subversive subtexts, multitracking, production tricks, and punk anarchy in general. And to this day, I have a soft spot for B.O.C. and for any band that at least attempts something interesting on their album covers. (The "miniature portrait" size of CDs was the final nail in the coffin on the golden age of album art, IMO.) And my appreciation for studio wankery in general also dates back to those lectures. In that sense, my "Sgt. Pepper" was the Beatles and Led Zep played backwards. [tenuous XTC content]: I wonder if churches still attempt these kinds of classes, and whether XTC has enjoyed a boost from their exposure in them (for "Dear God," especially). Are there any Chalkies who can comment on this? And are there any amongst us whose first exposure to XTC was, oddly, church-related? "I'll inherit the earth I'm told...," Stephanie Takeshita
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #5-209 *******************************
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