Things Fall To Bits

(Andrews)

Coat of Many Cupboards

Recordings Art Lyrics Chords and Tablature

Recordings

1. Go 2 out-take.
   Recorded at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London, in August 1978, during sessions for Go 2.
   Produced and engineered by John Leckie.
   Released on 25 March 2002 on Coat of Many Cupboards in the U.K.
   Andy Partridge - Guitar and Vocals
   Colin Moulding - Bass and Vocals
   Barry Andrews - Keyboards and Vocals
   Terry Chambers - Drums, Backing Vocals, football rattle

   Barry: “When Andy first asked if they could include these two out-takes from Go 2 on this compilation I must say my feeling was rather as if the Sunday Times had offered to serialise my 1973-75 Secret Wank Diaries. However, eventually a more detached sense of indulgence to the folly of youth asserted itself and, in a spirit of openness towards the Work in Progress that is life, I agreed.

   “As to the power struggles surrounding these tunes [and the other two that made the album] those who may think it worth the trouble can find a full account of my side of things at Shriekback.com [under ‘propaganda’, strangely enough]. Suffice to say the short version is that with the innocent megalomania of 22 years I had decided it would best serve the general good if XTC became a Platform for my Thought and Vehicle-for-my-Unique-Personality. Not unreasonably, Andy was reluctant to take up this opportunity and battle [or rather both of us plotting and bitching] commenced. Democracy, man - good for the people - musicians just aren't ready for it.

   “A reference [of course] to the line in the W.B. Yeats poem: ‘things fall apart the centre cannot hold’ which I'm sure everybody grokked on at the time. A perky little meditation on worldly impermanence remarkable mainly for its reference to ‘Smitty’, the 70's perfume that no one seems to feel nostalgia for - or even remember - and the racket in the middle that sounds like a thousand rainsticks - deployed for no apparent reason [unless of course it is actually something falling to bits].”

   Andy: “Not so much of an out-take, more of a supressed track from Go 2. I was the little bastard who went to Virgin and said ‘Look he's written all these songs and is insisting we record them. It's going to take the XTC sound down a different road too quickly. Can't we just limit him to two songs?’ What a frightened bunny I was. Here was my childhood dream of being in a pop group, driven by me, just taking off, and now the new boy in the band wanted to grab the controls and fly it to a different place. I admit, I was a selfish shit, especially as the songs Barry had written were actually very good. I didn't want my winter palace stormed thank you.

   “This is a great little tune, with lyrics that still make me smile... ‘I like to sniff your Smitty as you stalk the bar’. Seeing as Virgin and myself condemned this track to the cupboard, I thought I'd nab back my cheap Hong Kong guitar motif and write my own tune around it later [see Drums And Wires.] Thankfully my wayward son was having nothing of my control freak tantrums and left the group to pursue his own unfettered dream. We're good friends now.

   “ps. Oh yes, this is the only time that Terry Chambers could be coaxed into doing a backing vocal, several pints later. That's also him [ahem] playing... the football rattle.”

[Thanks to R. Stevie Moore]

Art

[THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK]

Lyrics

You are my favourite lover (you are, you are)
I love to sniff your Smitty as you stalk the bar
I like the way you glisten and how clean you are
I'd like to drive you around the city in a car, it's such a pity that…

(Things) Things fall to bits (fall to bits)
And the shops won't take them back because they're useless
(Things) Things fall to bits (fall to bits)
And the shops won't take them back because they're U.S.

I like the cheap sensations (they're fine, they're fine)
Some slick Italian music and dis-gusting wine
I really go for people who know who I am
Who aren’t aware I’ve come in as a ham, I’m only slumming, look at…

Things fall to bits (fall to bits)
And the shops won't take them back because they're useless
(Things) Things fall to bits (fall to bits)
And the shops won't take them back because they're U.S.

(Guitar solo)

We are creative people (look around, around)
We wriggle and manoeuvre as we get put to ground
I think we could buy most things if we save and save
If you think that (?) are soaring, do it twice, it soon gets boring, look at…

Things fall to bits (fall to bits)
And the shops won't take them back because they're useless
(Things) Things fall to bits (fall to bits)
And the shops won't take 'em back because they're…

Things fall to bits,
Fall to bits
Fall to bits
They fall to...

They fall to bits and bits and bits and bits and bits (bits and bits and bits and bits and bits)
Bits and bits and bits and bits and bits (bits and bits and bits and bits and bits)
Bits and bits and bits and bits and bits (bits and bits and bits and bits and bits)
What do you think about me? What do you think about me? (bits and bits and bits and bits and bits)
Fall to bits (fall to bits, fall to bits, fall to bits)
(Spoken: Did you get that one?)

[Transcribed by Paul Tornbohm]

Chords and Tablature

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