Chalkhills Digest Volume 5, Issue 277
Date: Thursday, 7 October 1999
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 5, Number 277
Thursday, 7 October 1999
Today's Topics:
Sting steals the sixth sick sheep... oh, forget it.
stuff
I'm leaving. Thanks for the welcome.
wow, I have a tendency to babble when avoiding work
shirts
Beat It
Tuning Problems
Re: attitude
Various replies
Homespun Sparring !
"dancing about architecture"
Question & Answer!
}---:)
French XTC interviews I could translate
The Police
Observations of a limey
Homespinning
Bless his rounded little head
"The" Uffington White Horse
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message-Id: <199910061606.MAA27080@gilgamesh.nh.ultra.net>
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 12:06:32 -0400
Subject: Sting steals the sixth sick sheep... oh, forget it.
From: "Duncan Watt" <kanuba@nh.ultranet.com>
So I've got a sister, see, and she's like Sting's Big Fan around these
parts. Basically, she buys What He's Selling, hint hint, nudge nudge, and
I'm over there looking at one of her old History Of Sting books(Andy
Numnuts is one funny guy), and there's an early-and-often promo pic of them
and the World's Greatest Drummer Stewart Copeland is wearing... right! A
big-ass XTC tshirt. Proving once and for all that everything Sting ever did
that was good he ripped off from AP. And Bob Marley.
So how about Sting's best work, "The Soul Cages". The one time Mister I'm
Really Opening My Heart Here actually opens his heart, writes a whole
record about his dead father(and I don't mean the crappy single with the
"murder of crows" line, either), albeit clum-silly, gets some decent
reviews, a little-noticed Grammy for a song no one heard("The Soul Cages",
a ham-handed but effective and beautifully produced ocean-y Devil-y
lots-of-crustaceans-y Little Boy Kills The Bad Guy Who Was Really His Dad
song), and is now forced to DENOUNCE HIS OWN WORK AS "my worst record"
because it didn't SELL. Or because he wasn't actually very good at telling
the real truth. Or because he doesn't feel 'cool' on this, the Morning
After. But shit, the Northumbrian pipes really work, really hold the thing
together as an image-whiff of what he thinks of when he thinks of good 'ol
fucked-up ol' Pops who really tried, who meant well but just lost it in the
day to day shit....
...or it's a navel-gazing piece of feelin'-sorry-for-myself CRAPOLA!
Because I don't WANT to think about the REAL STUFF... I wanna ROCK! BUNCH
OF ART FAGS! (cue the new Stain single, yeah!) What is this, VH1's SISSY
MONTH? Get OVER it, man! Listen to Filter or something if you want to
'feel'...
-----
So what is it, then? Is Rock'n Rooool for partyin'? Or for real?
Duncan "nice shot, man" Watt
ps anyone here in the US see the promos for VH1's Music Month? At the end,
there's a cut of Our Favorite Skeleton leeeeering into the mic: "...ahhh,
it's SO Twentieth Century when a COMMERCIAL gets a round of applause..."
Like Orville Redenbacher sez, "Do one thing, and do it better than anyone
else"...
pps Little Richard could've been Bowie if he'd just SUCKED. Too bad...
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19991006161354.28040.rocketmail@web2105.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 09:13:54 -0700 (PDT) From: Tyler Hewitt <tahewitt@yahoo.com> Subject: stuff RE: I check on the websites of several other musicians, and none of them is as clear and informative as Chalkhills. (I wish the Dave Gregory website would take some cues from this--I've tried to access the site three times. The first time I was informed that I needed a newer browser. The second and third times it just kept loading, and loading, and never getting anywhere...) _______ I haven't been on Dave's website for exactly the same reason. Granted, I have a very temperamental older version of Netscape, but I generally refuse to spend time on websites that REQUIRE the absolute latest software to view them (this includes my dear graduate school's departmental web page as well-a shame). It seems silly and pointless to me to spend all that time and energy to design a site that large numbers of people can't look at. You can't assume that everyone has the latest and best. Some of us are poor slobs and starving artists. ______ RE: Bowie Yes, Little Richard was theatrical (as was Liberace) but I would still give Bowie credit for being the first to play the rock star as charecter to be changed and/or discarded at will. Alice Cooper may have tried it about the same time, but never really pulled it off. It was more a stage act for him, not a persona. Bowie's Ziggy Stardust had more of a postmodern ring to it, making it much more interesting. THink U2 'Acthung Baby' period for something similar, although it was a pretty empty gesture for them, Bowie having done the same thing a decade earlier. Someone mentioned Sgt. Pepper-not even close. That's closer to a concept album (Whatever happened to them?) than an attempt to create a charecter (here's a fun question: what's your favorite concept album ? Mine would be The Who Sell Out). _______ RE: Why buy Homespun? 1..I want a good clean copy of the demos (And I'm not even that much of a completist). I have a tape of them, but a cd would be nice. I listen to my cd's more often than my tapes. 2. I've seen some bootleg cdr's of the demos around (Some offered by people on this list), but they're priced between $16 and $25 American. Homespun is costing me about 12 bucks, including shipping. 3. If I'm going to part with my cash for the demos, I would rather Andy and Colin get some of it (and record sales make them look good to their label) as opposed to someone OVERCHARGING me for a cdr (blank cdr's only cost $2-3, cheaper than tapes). When I see what people are charging for the demos on cdr, I don't know whether to laugh or be pissed off. Yes, I would have liked to have had some of the unreleased songs on Homespun as well, but I',m assuming (and hoping) that they'll turn up as part of Fuzzy Warbles (does anyone have updated info on that? It's still in the works, right?) Back to work now, Tyler
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19991006162609.72520.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "Charlie Buck" <dontwantany@hotmail.com> Subject: I'm leaving. Thanks for the welcome. Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 12:26:09 EDT I had the misconception that XTC fans would be somewhat intellectuals. Not the "i'm smarter then you" intellectuals that this list turned out to be, but helpful, intelligent, intellectuals who like to communicate with other people who share similar interests. After mixing up the words "Seen" and Saw" and sharing a few emails with a few people, 2 of whom called me an "ignorant nigger" after finding out that I was black. One made the comment that I should stay out of the list because he did not want it becoming "Nearly Africa." I see the kind of fans XTC has and its unfortunate. I have been a fan for over 15 years and never thought that I would receive this kind of treatment from fans of this group. Well, look for my albums on Ebay because I really think I missed the point of their music. I thought "White Music" or "Its Nearly Africa" had a different meaning than what it seams to mean to the fans. Some of you have been ok, but most of you seem so damn preoccupied with my message (which might I add, I wrote that complaint about the list before some of you helped me figure out what the albums were!). Thanks for being so welcoming and letting a fan just be a fan and find out info they didn't know about a group. Good luck with the list. Oh, I made sure to spell check everything!
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19991006195147.4047.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "Megan Heller" <hellerm@hotmail.com> Subject: wow, I have a tendency to babble when avoiding work Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 12:51:40 PDT John Relph-- hope you had a good vacation. May mentioned-- > "'Here in the late nineties, with all its multiplicity >of choice, it's easy to forget how truly alternative those early >programmes were.'" > >This statement made me feel grateful to have experienced this. I >always >tuned into our local Sunday night music show eagerly awaiting >songs that >would throw me into a world that was truly alternative. >Music that made >my parents queasy but didn't compel them to throw me >into therapy or >positive reinforcement sessions that included the >whole family. I mentioned Teletunes on KBDI in Denver recently-- that show was such an important staple of my life when we lived there. It wasn't always the most wholesome music-- it was the first place I actually saw an Alien Sex Fiend video-- but my parents never objected past a snide comment about the music. Actually, my parents were very supportive about the whole goth thing, even took me to see the Cure in 1989, and Peter Murphy in 1990, and never embarrassed me. I was always really grateful for that-- withmy goth friends, if they actually had problems, it was often just that their parents *treated* them like they had problems because of the music they listened to. A lot of self-fulfilling prophecies. But anyway... Martin (Wuellig@aol.com) shared-- >Hi ! >I'm 18, French, and I've become a big XTC fan at the beginning of >this >summer. welcome! sounds like you have a good variety in your musical tastes (which I appreciate) nross defended-- >>>Do you know that VH1's Behind The Music gave Sting an HOUR AND A >HALF to >>>tell his story? An hour and a half? Does he really deserve >all this >>>time?<< > >Biased here, I LOVE The Police. (I know, boos and hisses from the lot >of ya'... well, go romp with a friggin telletubbie then) I hadn't >watched the whole deal, I didn't realize it was an hour and a half. I >was more appalled that the show was based upon Sting, and not The >Police that's how I felt. I love the Police-- I probably never would have gotten into XTC when I was twelve if I hadn't listened to the Police when I was ten. I still think they were an excellent, unusual band, and underrated as a whole band when you compare it to all the attention Sting gets on his own-- I really don't like his solo stuff, either (a couple of songs, but not as an artist). Dan Duncan quoted-- >charlie wrote: > >Another thing, it would be a nice gestrue for XTC to maybe tell me > >what possible albums it could have been. hell, I think it would be a nice gesture for XTC to tell me hello, but I don't think they're on the list. (how did I miss that post?! I'm sorry, but it sounds like a laugh riot.) well, back to studying for the GRE...damn.... megan.
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19991006212536.95890.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "garret harkawik" <funktaisia@hotmail.com> Subject: shirts Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 17:25:36 EDT I've been searching for a long time for xtc shirts or things like that but I can't find any. Does anyone know where I could find stuff like that?
------------------------------
From: "Mark Strijbos" <mmello@knoware.nl>
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 00:49:45 +0200
Subject: Beat It
Message-Id: <19991006224918.7CBE3A6CE4@mail.knoware.nl>
Dear Chalkers,
Just back from Swindon but i'll fill you all in later.
lets tackle this first:
> <<Figured out the mysterious albums. 1 of them were the Dub album
> which had the song "Beat the Bible." Thanks for no help. Real nice
> list that no one wants to help other fans. >>
>
> Like almost everyone here, I read your original request but was unable
> to offer any help because you didn't give enough to go on...if I
> recall, SEVERAL folks asked for more details to try and help you -
> your complaint is very unjustified imo.
And to make matter worse, this is what actually happened:
> Easy!
> The song in question must have been "Beat The Bible", one of the dub
> tracks on Go +, the 12" remix companion to Go 2. My guess is that you
> also saw Mr. Partridge's "Take Away/The Lure Of Salvage", another OOP
> album. Both have been compiled on the wonderful Explode Together cd.
( my posting from Chalkhills Digest 5-269, 21 September 1999)
And i was not the only one: in that issue at least two other people
gave the same answer to Charlie's question. So perhaps he
shouldn't complain about _our_ attitude but read his mail more
carefully.
yours in xtc,
Mark Strijbos at The Little Lighthouse
http://www.knoware.nl/users/mmello/
or http://come.to/xtc
------------------------------ From: "Mark Strijbos" <mmello@knoware.nl> Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 01:01:47 +0200 Subject: Tuning Problems Message-Id: <19991006230102.E4869A6CF5@mail.knoware.nl> Dear Chalkers, Regarding the problems with accessing Guitargonauts: > Please don't give up keep trying! It is totally worth it, Mark and Debbie > and Dave have done an incredible job and you will soon eat your words. thanks, Mole! At the moment i'm putting the last bits of a special 'lo-fi' version of the site together. this will offer exactly the same content but without any new-fangled trickery and will be compatible with _any_ browser. It will be online in a couple of days - be patient. Mark Strijbos webmaster@guitargonauts.com
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19991006223123.70146.qmail@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: attitude From: "Charlie Buck" <dontwantany@hotmail.com> Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 18:31:23 EDT 1. I guess my last post was kept out of the list so no one read my comments. Good to show censorship to me, but let spammers get through. Thanks to all the great fans who send me hate male and 2 the two people who keep sending me letters calling me "nig*er" after finding out I was black. Also, in regards to the post below: >>it would be a nice gestrue for XTC to maybe tell me what >>possible albums it could have been. I would buy them and they would get > >>paid some well deserved royalties! > >Um, neither Andy or Colin read this, so XTC couldn't answer your question >Charlie because they didn't see it. Oh, my grammer was wrong again. I meant, it would be a nice gesture for XTC, if you, the fans, would tell me what albums, blah blah blah. See, I guess I am a dumb "ni**er" for not adding good punctuiation. Sorry, I will leave the list now.
------------------------------
Message-Id: <199910062345.TAA20892@metheny.brainiac.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 19:45:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: Joe Hartley <jh@brainiac.com>
Subject: Various replies
Ben Gott wrote:
> What do you all think: would the boys be in it for the
> money? (Not that it would matter, of course: the Student Activities
> Committee picked Salt 'n' Peppa over They Might Be Giants for our fall
> concert, so even if XTC *was* touring, they'd probably be outvoted!)
Sherman, set the Way Way Back machine for 1982. I'd passed up a chance to
see the boys play Providence, Rhode Island because I had tickets to see
them the next weekend at Carnegie-Mellon University's spring weekend - 2nd
row center - and fundage was short. Unfortunately, in between Providence
and Pittsburgh, Andy wigged out, and the show was cancelled. Never had the
chance to see them again :( No, I don't thing they'll do a show.
> I was in my neighborhood Border's the other day, and
> listened to a bit of the remixes at a listening booth.
> Eleanor Rigby was absolutely breathtaking...
I bought a DVD player over the weekend, and picked up Yellow Sub as
one of my first disks. Even though I don't have the full 5.1 Dolby
surround sound setup, this sequence just stunned me. It's even better
than when I heard/saw it *mumble* years ago. They've done a brilliant
job with the stereo mix.
I heard someone on NPC do a commentary a week or two back about how they
*liked* the old stereo "mix" with the instruments on one channel and the
vocals on the other. Shudder...
> "Harrison "Tolkien 'bout my generation" Sherwood"
I need to remember not to read and drink coffee at the same time. Damn near
ruined a keyboard over this one!
Re: Velvet Goldmine
I saw this movie and was terribly disappointed because it just wasn't
very good. I could deal with the Bowie/not Bowie aspect of the lead
character, but the mechanism of the reporter who happened to have been
on the fringes of the "scene" being sent on a "what ever happened to" story
was terribly contrived, the fact that no one recognized the preacher/rockstar
incarnation was totally unbelieveable, but I simply could not deal with one
of the five best guitar solos ever recorded (Fripp's wallpaper-shredding
work on Brian Eno's "Baby's On Fire) being the centerpiece of this drunken
band's stage show.
And finally, some XTC content - I won't be purchasing Homespun. I'm just
not that much of a completist. I don't own Waxworks or Transistor Blast
either, though I have just about everything else. I'm reminded of the
unlistenable first disk of the Velvet Underground boxed set Peel Slowly
and See, which has a number of almost exactly similar takes of John Cale
practicing Venus In Furs. While I'm sure Homespun's not that bad, I don't
need to hear these songs as a work in progress.
======================================================================
Joe Hartley - UNIX/network Consultant - jh@brainiac.com
Without deviation from the norm, "progress" is not possible. - FZappa
------------------------------ Message-ID: <37FBED66.1911@Virgin.net> Date: Thu, 07 Oct 1999 01:46:32 +0100 From: Peter Wright <Peter.Wright2@Virgin.net> Subject: Homespun Sparring ! Hi All, From Jay G : >Some people like the demos, they like to hear the rough cut of a song, much like some people like to see rough sketches of paintings< Jay - you seem to have missed my whole point here. Yes , demos can be really interesting to hear. But the XTC demos are 99% exactly the same as the final CD versions. They are not 'like sketches' - they are fully formed in the 'shed' and just buffed up a little in the studio. >This is a look at AV1 in gestation, how it came to be.< But surely an important part of the 'gestation' was the songs that were left out. They were part of the original project and would be good to have as a document of the evolution of AV1 >I'm wondering if Peter is not interested in this album because he doesn't like the demos, < On the contrary - I loved the demos. I was , however, a little disappointed when I heard AV1 and discovered the final studio mixes were no more than better produced versions of the demos with no new ideas at all. And I still love AV1 , BTW. >From: "Martin & Jamie Monkman" <monkman@coastnet.com>< >First, the demos aren't identical to the AV1 versions, < Sorry , Martin - totally disagree with you. Obviously there are MINOR additions but to all intents and purposes they are the same. >Second, the packaging, with Andy and Colin's notes on each song, is a real treat. Third, Andy and Colin get some more loot, and we get more XTC bumpf for our collection.< Yes the liner notes will be nice but do you really buy an album just for the sleeve ?!! Andy and Colin will have more dosh . Good for them but is this a charity CD all of a sudden ? You said it all , Martin - 'more bumpf for our collection '. As I said originally - one for the completists. >From: Warren Butson <Warren.Butson@getty-images.com>< >we are expected to buy virtually the same album 5 months later. I have to be honest, I'm not a subscriber to the "hey you guys lets fill their pockets" brigade just because we feel sorry they haven't earned much money from the music biz.< Well said Warren. The truth is , AP is so laid back hes almost comatose !! No touring , no videos , no compromise. I'm afraid Andy has been the cause of his own (and Col and Daves) lack of earnings over the years.
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199910070155.SAA20055@hawk.prod.itd.earthlink.net> Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 13:15:01 -0700 Subject: "dancing about architecture" From: "David Schneider" <dnschneider@earthlink.net> > The New York Times of 9/19/99 printed a letter (Section 2 pg.4) from a > John Hynes that quotes without credit, "Writing about music is like > dancing about architecture". As this has been of some interest to > Chalkhillians as of late it was remarkable to read it in the newspaper of > record (no pun intended). I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure the quote in question comes from none other than Steve Martin.
------------------------------ From: WESnLES@aol.com Message-ID: <0.852785eb.252d5979@aol.com> Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 22:03:37 EDT Subject: Question & Answer! This is a forum for discussion....and there are often some great questions posed by my fellow Chalkgeeks....but all too often there are questions asked that could be easily answered simply by poking around the Chalkhills site a bit. Why do I continually get the feeling that the post I'm reading has been written by someone who has never even seen the Chalkhills site? wesLONG
------------------------------
Message-ID: <19991007031707.15029.qmail@ww182.netaddress.usa.net>
Date: 6 Oct 99 20:17:07 PDT
From: vee tube <veetube@netscape.net>
Subject: }---:)
OK! THIS HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH!
Mrs. Winky Fish is in PAIN!
It seems no one read...
...Volume 5 No.266
12 Sept.'99
RE: THE BALLAD OF MR.WINKY FISH!
SHAME ON YOU!
}---;)
' Who Weeps?
'
------------------------------ From: Wuellig@aol.com Message-ID: <0.116c4f89.252db6a6@aol.com> Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 04:41:10 EDT Subject: French XTC interviews I could translate Hi to all, and thanks to those who wrote me about their own relationships with XTC ! I found 2 XTC interviews in a French magazine, "Rock'n'Folk" : in the first one (short), Andy jokes about drummers (among other things) and in the second one (long), Andy and Colin take a closer look at the whole of their career. If some of you are interested I could translate them and send them to the Chalkhills. Bye Martin
------------------------------ Message-Id: <l03130302b4223611888d@[208.13.202.1]> Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 07:48:22 -0400 From: "Christopher R. Coolidge" <cauldron@together.net> Subject: The Police >Subject: STING, BITE ME! >From: "Diamond" <arnos@nantucket.net> > >>>Do you know that VH1's Behind The Music gave Sting an HOUR AND A HALF >to tell his story? An hour and a half? Does he really deserve all this >time?<< > >Biased here, I LOVE The Police. (I know, boos and hisses from the lot >of ya'... well, go romp with a friggin telletubbie then) I hadn't >watched the whole deal, I didn't realize it was an hour and a half. I >was more appalled that the show was based upon Sting, and not The >Police... I mean, without The Police, I'd doubt Sting would have become >so darn popular. Of course, without Sting, The Police may have been as >annoying as a siren, who knows. > >But, really, admit it folks, you liked them once, and now ya'll jus dis >em cause its cool to steponthetantricbee... I liked The Police as a band. most of my favorite songs of theirs were by Stewart and Andy. Even Sting's egotistical excesses were reigned in by two other guys who had the power to reject some of them. I find Sting's solo career to mostly be a crashing bore because he's calling all the shots and the talented jazz-based musicians he hired for his first solo album just shut up and play their hearts out. It's musically interesting, and occasionally a good song stands out, but mostly it's "Hi, I'm Sting. This is my ego." I've actually followed Stewart and Andy's post-Police career with some interest. Andy Summers's main problem as a songwriter is his limited voice(listen to his solo album XYZ for proof, he has about as much vocal range as I do), as for Stewart, though I enjoyed some of his work with Animal Logic(he and Stanley Clarke made for a surprisingly interesting pop rhythm section), I actually miss his songwriting. I don't get why he gave it up. "On Any Other Day" and "Landlord," among others, were among the highlights of the early Police material for me. I hear his solo project Klark Kent had some interesting songs, but I've never heard it. Christopher R. Coolidge Homepage at http://homepages.together.net/~cauldron/homepage.html "A Great law protects me from the government. The Bill of rights has 10 GREAT laws. A Good law protects me from you. Laws against murder, theft, assault and the like are good laws. A Poor law attempts to protect me from myself." - Unknown
------------------------------ Message-ID: <41BC73C88FDBD2119D2908002BB32B3928A01E@lonexchg02.getty-images.com> From: Warren Butson <Warren.Butson@getty-images.com> Subject: Observations of a limey Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 13:46:12 +0100 Having been a fan of xtc since generals and majors I've found it very interesting to see the divisions between older fans and newer ones. as expected the older fans prefer black sea and english settlement period whilst the newer ones (particularly the usa) prefer skylarking and oranges and lemons. And the jury is out on Nonsuch! English settlement i suppose to people like myself was the sgt pepper for xtc but I can understand why newer fans don't get it. This album at the time (nearly 20 years ago remember) was cutting edge stuff and even to a fan like myself was so different to black sea it took about two months before I got it and fell in love with it. However today I'm sure it doesn't have the same effect. what was adventurous then seems timid i suppose now. What (I believe) separates us from the new breed of fan is Terry Chambers. What I loved about xtc was the fact that it was typically english, eccentric humourous and had brilliant melodies, but was all underpinned by the incredible power and bite of our Terry. Removing him from the equation I think took away the binding ingredient that allowed andy to go off on a tangent because the drumming held it together. This is not to say the band hasn't got better, composition-wise I think they have (harvest festival being one of my all time favourites) I just think they miss the one area of the band that wasn't subtle very much like ringo for the beatles in the later part of their career, not very clever but a backbone of simplicity in a sea of frantic experimentation. Having said all this I admire the Yanks for digging xtc at all, we tend to get the idea here that you either like bonjovi or nirvana or rap or country and anything else is weird. Is it weird to like xtc in usa? also what does the USA think our stereotypical musical tastes are. awaiting a roasting wazza.
------------------------------ Message-Id: <l03130302b4224674cebc@[63.25.69.126]> Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 09:15:42 -0400 From: MinerWerks <dminer@gte.net> Subject: Homespinning In Digest #5-275, Peter Wright wrote: "So 'Homespun' is a CD of the AV1 demos. Purely out of curiousity I ask : Why ?" I just purchased the "Homespun" CD yesterday, and I realized why this project seemed so interesting to me. I'm a packrat, and I tend to accumulate a lot of material on subjects I'm interested in - like XTC. Part of this tendency is a desire to present the collected material in a new format. A couple years back, some people might remember I presented a collected list of 1989 Radio Tour dates. That started because I had heard a few tapes of these appearances and wanted to fill in the gaps in the sparse information that I found at Chalkhills and in published sources. Because of this tendency, one should find it no surprise that one of my favorite books is the Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn. I also collect Beatles "import" CDs... So when I've got a collection that includes every take of the backing track for "Help!", a release like "Homespun" fits firmly in there. But what I really like about this new disc is the willingness for Andy and Collin to document their creative process. The normally discarded sketches are presented for perusal and study - not to replace or compete with the finished product, but to complement it. The booklet for "Homespun" presents a concise background for each track and a copy of the handwritten lyrics. This is the kind of stuff that the "collecting" fan such as myself treasures. Peter's got a couple good points, though. They could very well have filled the extra space with demos that didn't make the cut. The only answer I can suggest for this is that Andy and Collin didn't know which demos would be returned to at a later date or perhaps there's another project planned for those (like this "Fuzzy Warbles" set long in the planning). Second, he says "Only completists could possibly want 'Homespun.'" And I suggest -that's the point! The fact that a record company is actually willing to release it is definitely unusual, but welcome in my book. = Derek = P.S. To Harrison - It wasn't that bad of a screwup. I knew you were talking about the White Album. "Magical Mystery Tour" wasn't originally an album anyway. But I'd also suggest that everything the Beatles undertook in the year of 1967 was of the same theme, an idea furthered by Capitol's forced album created of everything *not* on Sgt. Pepper that the Beatles released that year.
------------------------------ Message-ID: <D9E6CEC7734AD111BCF70090273C5D674B666C@user8.chemonics.net> From: Todd Bernhardt <TBernhardt@Chemonics.net> Subject: Bless his rounded little head Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 10:36:02 -0400 Hidee ho! Catching up... In #274, "Simon" says: >October 4th...is indeed an auspicious day as it is also the birthday of my daughter, Jade, who celebrated her first birthday today. To think that she shares it with the likes of _Oliver_ Cromwell (incidentally "Todd", I think he "became" Lord Protector in 1653, not 1658) < Good Lord, you're right! I shouldn't have been so Cavalier in my approach. That'll teach me to trust the Internet. But a belated happy birthday to Jade! Sir John, glad to hear you're alright (and all right). Your vacation was well-deserved ... fuck the filters, man, what you do here is great already, esp. considering all the other lists you're involved in. Your father and I just get so worried when we don't hear from you ... *sniff* As far as the Upsy Daisy order goes, I've only heard from one with a similar out-of-order order. So I guess I should tell Denise that it's a rare and valuable copy after all, eh? Jefferson Ogata pointed out another mistake on UD: >It appears that the text was fixed after someone noticed (thankfully) an error: the title "LOVE ON A FARMBOY". I've often thought that's a rather charming title, but not for an XTC song. The Dukes could do it, perhaps.< That reminds me of something I just received -- possibly a 'net myth (perhaps someone here can confirm or deny), but funny nonetheless: >The first episode of "Joanie Loves Chachi" was the highest rated American program in the history of Korean television. "Chachi" is Korean for penis.< Ahem. Their expectations may have been disappointed, but that doesn't mean the title is necessarily wrong, duzzit? And finally, to Dunks: I'll leave the bulk of this battle up to you and my furry-footed friend, but for this: >And as for Bowie's influence ... well, it's only taken the Yanks about 25 years to really digest the whole Bowie thing and come up with their own version - the delighfully silly Marilyn Manson. Nice try.< Hmmm, who was talking about the pitfalls of generalizations? Nicer try: Velvet Underground. Iggy Pop. New York Dolls. Do I need to continue? And really finally: Last call for DChalkhills Gathering Mark II. This Saturday night, October 9, in bucholic Wheaton, Maryland. Be there or, um, don't. Contact me at the address above or at toddjenn@erols.com for details. --Todd
------------------------------
From: JEFFREY.THOMAS.JT@bayer-ag.de
Subject: "The" Uffington White Horse
Message-Id: <0006800015768257000002L072*@MHS>
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 16:47:58 +0200
Hi "Kreideberger"
Speaking of pictures in the chalk in those hills, Stephanie "Simpsons"
Takeshita wrote:
>"Another Canadian production that is worth the watch is
>"Map of the Human Heart" a love story between a Yupik
>Eskimo and a Cree Indian set in WWII London. Romantic,
>great music, twisted story and one of the best love scenes
>atop a ballon that floats over the White Horse earth
>sculpture."
>Now, I haven't seen this movie, so don't kvetch to me if you
>rent this and see, oh, another Iron Age earthwork of a horse,
>O.K.? I only hope the lovers were safe in a gondola, rather
>than perched precariously atop a hot-air balloon ("The Last
>Balloon," indeed!).
Re. "atop a balloon", I can only say, ditto her comments! As for the horse
earth sculpture, to my knowledge, the Uffington White Horse is the only
*really old* (prehistoric) horse amongst all of the white horses in
Somerset/Wiltshire/etc., the others are all comparatively modern. Thus,
assuming Uffington is the only one that could be called "the" sculpture
(the other ones just being "a" sculpture), it would have to be Uffington.
The other famous prehistoric earth sculptures/paintings in England are the
giants at Cerne Abbas and Wilmington (I think), both of which are quite
impressive, although the Cerne Abbas one is constantly vandalized. (The
giant has an erection, which, after each vandalization, appears to
ejaculate...hilarious, those vandals. The henge at Avebury was also
vandalized this year by anti-genetic technology people. One of the really
huge stones was turned into a giant strawberry. Or maybe it was a tomato.
It boggles the imagination. Perhaps I just don't get the joke.)
Auf Wiedersehen!
- Jeff
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #5-277 *******************************
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