Crowded Room

(Moulding)

Go 2	Recordings Art Lyrics Chords and Tablature

Recordings

1. Album version, 3'05.
   Released on Go 2.

2. Live version.
   Recorded by the Manor Mobile on 12 October 1980 at the Lyceum, London, England.
   Engineered by Chris Jenkins.
   Mixed by XTC.
   Released on 25 March 2002 on Coat of Many Cupboards in the U.K.
   Andy Partridge - Guitar, Keyboard and Vocals
   Colin Moulding - Bass and Vocals
   Dave Gregory - Guitar, Keyboards and Vocals
   Terry Chambers - Drums

   Colin: “By the time we reached the end of our live set, all composure and willingness to err on the side of the tasteful, usually gave way to something a bit more animal. ‘Crowded Room’ was retained in the encore position for quite a long time to serve a basic human need to reach for the power chord.

   “The song, I think, stems from the feeling of wanting to be somewhere else, other than where you are right now. I think, brought on by all the spitting all pogoing environments of our earlier gigs, not to mention the under-current of violence that summoned a lot of them. Munch's The Scream probably summed up my state of mind some nights, as we wrestled with an unruly crowd who just wanted to smash our faces in. It's a confusing song from a very confusing album where nobody knew quite what to do, so experimentation became the order of the day. Great if studio time is being paid for by a generous uncle, but this was Abbey Road and the experiments were too long and too fanciful for anybody, other than us, to pick up the tab. Hearing it this way, seems far more positive than the feeling I get on listening to its cousin on that difficult second album.”

   Andy: “Same show as the above [see ‘Paper and Iron’]. Easy tune to play live, all those big power chords. Note, we stray into ‘Millions’ half the way through in a Mandarin Ming mystery jam (see ‘Things Fall To Bits’). Otherwise, it's heads down, no nonsense going for partial deafness in our mid forties.”

[Thanks to R. Stevie Moore]

Art

[THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK]

Lyrics

Across a crowded room
I first set eyes on you
My vision was impaired
Obstructed out of view

By those - faces in a crowded room
them - bodies in a crowded room
their - breathing in a crowded room
and their - pushing me out
            down the fire escape

In the crowded room I won't touch too much
I felt the punch of a punch
The language was enough
To send me running etc.

© 1979 Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd.

Chords and Tablature

Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2018 19:40:32 -0400
From: Corin Ashley <corinashley (at) gmail dot com>
Subject: Crowded Room chords
Message-ID: <CAEck4oqrHyd=s3+yye1r2EQ1=cEf2GKNdK0s-fAcQrZwzVdWig (at) mail dot gmail dot com>

Intro C#11  D11 C#11  D11
G  Em  G  Em

G  Em   G   Em
Across a crowded room
I first set eyes on you
My vision was impaired
Obstructed out of view
F C G
By those - faces in a crowded room
them - bodies in a crowded room
their - breathing in a crowded room
and their - pushing me out
C#11  D11 C#11  D11
            down the fire escape

G  Em G Em
In the crowded room I won't touch too much
I felt the punch of a punch
The language was enough
To send me running etc.

Go back to XTC Reel by Real.