Fly On The Wall
(Moulding)
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Recordings Art Lyrics Chords and Tablature |
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Album version, 3'11.
Recorded at The Manor Studios, Oxfordshire, in October 1981.
Produced and engineered by Hugh Padgham.
Released on English
Settlement.
colin-lead and backing vocals, fretless bass
andy-miniKorg
dave-electric and fuzz-boxed 12 string guitar
terry-drums
Colin: “Every time I hear this blast from the past, I seem to raise a smile. Although written with the sinister subject of Big Brother in mind, sinister it ain't. But in a way I'm rather thankful for it. Its buzzy keyboard and unusual vocal treatment give it a much lighter manner than I could have foreseen and I'm saved from being viewed as taking myself too seriously... phew!
“This song, for a while, had record company personnel banding its name about and hailing it as being a contender for a single. For great things were expected of English Settlement, everyone had tasted the blood of the charts from the prevous year and was baying for more. In the end, disappointment. One week, a single, the next, a travesty, or so they called it. My distorted vocal treatment did not sit well at Virgin and obviously even less so with the likes of DLT and all those at radio. (Had I created a Dave Lee Travesty?)
“Now when this song becomes a topic of discussion amongst band members, its fallen status from chart bound sound to... the ‘T word’ always raises a chuckle.”
Andy: “Move along now ladies and gentlemen, try to stay together. If you look to the left you'll see XTC, up to their Uffington horses, in the Manor Studios, making the English Settlement album. Virgin's Simon Draper was convinced this was a single and Colin was still the golden boy, everything he touched turned to Fablon in their eyes. I, on the other hand was the nutty, arty one, left to sweep up my brain droppings into the semblance of an album. Colin had the looks and the melodies, I had the glasses. For some reason Simon Draper changed his mind when he heard this finished version. Was it the fuzzy, out of focus, fly's eye vocal, or perhaps the stinging, insect wing keyboard? Who knows, but in his mind we were purposefully ‘spoiling’ what could have been a hit. Funny that, we thought it swung like a maggot's mutha.”
[Thanks to R. Stevie Moore]
“Fly Upon The Wall” video excerpt |
f l y o n t h e w a l l
II am the fly on the wall my prying eyes are looking through
II your bottom drawer I just came flying through your door
II you didn't notice that your number had been called. I see
II the mother who's beating the babe, I see the money, the
II pennies you save, stored on computers from birth to the
grave the fly on the wall he's seeing it all. I am the
fly upon the wall you're in the index of the files that stand
so tall although your health is rather poor we have a
place for those who cannot find a cure. I know your income
your daily crust I know your pleasures, your passion, your lust
I know when you're living and I know when you're dust the
fly on the wall he's seeing it all. one is born and one will
die, it's all understood the bit that's in the middle doesn't count
I am the fly on the wall my prying eyes are looking through
your bottom drawer I just came flying through your door
you didn't notice that your number had been called. I see
the mother who's beating the babe, I see the money, the
pennies you save, stored on computers from birth to the
grave the fly on the wall he's seeing it all. I am the fly
upon the wall you're in the index of the files that stand
so tall although your health is rather poor we have a
place for those who cannot find a cure. I know your income
your daily crust I know your pleasures, your passion, your lust
I know when you're living and I know when you're dust the
fly on the wall he's seeing it all.
colin - lead and backing vocals, fretless bass andy - miniKorg
dave - electric and fuzz-boxed 12 string guitar terry - drums
composed by c. moulding
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© 1982 Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd.
[Thanks to Gary Jedlicka]
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 17:09:52 +0100
From: Jordi Ibáñez Llauradó <lohagoporelmessenger (at) hotmail dot com>
Subject: xtc songs
Message-ID: <BAY113-F11D978375E7EAC7A754B66DA390 (at) phx dot gbl>
OK, my first posting. please be gentle. i just want to say that
that's been done with no keyboard or organ at hand, so i can't
be more precise about the chords. that's why here you'll only
find the basic chords: it's up to you, people that can write,
read and dissect chords, to finish this work. so here it goes,
all the songs in the XTC catalogue that hadn't been tabbed in
this great site, from "black sea" to "nonsuch". you won't find
anything from "mummer" because the whole album has already been
"chorded" in this site.
don't expect any riffs or arpeggios, BTW. that's as far as my
skills go...
maybe i should be ashamed to post something like this (so
incomplete, wrong and childish) but it's just for the sake of
people who just want to strum XTC songs and sing and don't care
much if this is a sus4, added or other bollocks chord (and i must
point that i am one of those who really care, so i'm willing to
read all kinds of comments and corrections). please, john relph,
erase every transcription of mine as soon as a proper tab of each
song made by any other XTC fan who's more trained on guitar than me
comes to your mail.
songs like "the somnambulist" or "seagulls..." were meant to be
played on keyboards and sound terrible on guitar. beware!
FLY ON THE WALL
verse: D-C-G
bridge: Am-C-C-D7
chorus: F-Em
middle 8: F-G-C-G-F-G-Em (D instead of Em second time)
--
hope that will be useful for somebody.
merry Xmas!
feedback welcome at jordiibanez (at) mixmail dot com
or lohagoporelmessenger (at) hotmail dot com| « Previous | Contents | Next » |
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