XTC OP10

all you pretty girls
garden of earthly delights
beating of hearts
i bought myself a liarbird
are you receiving me?
fly on the wall
mayor of simpleton
melt the guns
sgt rock
senses working overtime

one from all the albums i have:

roads girdle the globe (drums and wires)
generals and majors (black sea)
english roundabout (english settlement)
ladybird (mummer)
the everyday story of a small town (the big express)
ballet for a rainy day (skylarking)
the major of simpleton (oranges and lemons)
i can't own her (apple venus)
happy families (jules verne's sketchbook)

we did this thread a while back. My answers haven't changed much over... 12 years?? Damn I've been on this board too long

Nowadays I'd put "Helicopter" much lower and "Scissor Man" to replace it

Andy himself also picked his personal favs from each album in his reddit AMA. Guess that kind of fits the thread:

Into the Atom Age; Life is Good in the Greenhouse; Roads Girdle the Globe; Paper and Iron; Jason and the Argonauts; Ladybird; Train Running Low; What in the World?; Season's Cycle; Collideascope; Garden of Earthly Delights; Rook; Easter Theatre; Wheel and the Maypole.

ah, no wonder i couldn't find it with the search! sorry for the repeat, would've bumped that one if i could find it...

Andy OTM regarding 'Train Running Low On Soul Coal', 'Easter Theatre' and 'The Wheel and The Maypole' ... Disagree with him on the rest. Eye noticed he chose no Colin songs, either!

Well, aside from 'What In The World?'... a Dukes track!

Heartily agree with Ladybird

Science Friction
This Is Pop
Are You Receiving Me?
Mekkanik Dancing
Making Plans for Nigel
Senses Working Overtime
In Loving Memory of a Name
All You Pretty Girls
Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her
Another Satellite

probably forgetting stuff but off the top of my head i thought of:

outside world
respectable street
burning with optimism's flames
english roundabout
ballet for a rainy day
another satellite
vanishing girl (dukes count for this, right?)
poor skeleton steps out
across this antheap
rook

It's impossible 4 me 2 narrow the whole catalogue down 2 just 10.

You'd have better luck changing this thread to OP10 B-sides.

life begins at the hop
respectable street
all you pretty girls
i bought myself a liarbird
making plans for nigel
love on a farmboy's wages
beating of hearts
great fire
the loving
seagulls screaming kiss her, kiss her

we can just post in this thread every day

^^ dis

Statue of Liberty
Real by Reel
Life Begins At The Hop
Towers of London
Travels in Nihilon
Jason and the Argonauts
English Roundabout
All You Pretty Girls
Another Satellite
Wrapped in Grey

What I'm getting from this thread is that I haven't missed much by not listening to any XTC after 1992 tbh.

Senses Working Overtime
Love on a Farmboy's Wages
Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins)
Vanishing Girl
Jason and the Argonauts
Life Begins at the Hop
Chalkhills and Children
Mermaid Smiled
Sacrificial Bonfire
Respectable Street

Mayor of Simpleton
Another Satellite
Life Begins at the Hop
Tissue Tigers
Greenman
Yacht Dance
Generals and Majors
What in the World?
Chalkhills and Children
Easter Theatre

well..on to listen to every XTC album again

So tricky...

Red Brick Dream
One Of The Millions
Complicated Game
Jason & The Argonauts
Beating Of Hearts
Helicopter
Rook
Summer's Cauldron
English Roundabout
Ten Feet Tall

i thought 'ladybird' was your alltime fave...

Red Brick Dream actually might be LJ. But yes, Ladybird is all time, so i'll swop it out with Helicopter, knew I'd most likely forget something. :)

oh heli

Rocket From A Bottle
Looking For Footprints
Tissue Tigers
Millions
Another Satellite
Travels In Nihilon
Runaways

It's near impossible...

The top ten from my XTC ballot, two years ago:

Senses Working Overtime
Complicated Game
Travels In Nihilon
English Roundabout
No Language In Our Lungs
The Wheel And The Maypole
Ballet For A Rainy Day
Life Is Good In The Greenhouse
The Smartest Monkeys
Battery Brides (Andy Paints Brian)

Your adhesion to The Smartest Monkeys always makes me smile.

I'm sure if my Ten in there it's probably quite different.

Oh No Language too, bollocks, I was actually in an XTC covers band for a short while and playing the middle section in NLIOL was totally ecstatic.

Rocket From A Bottle

Was waiting patiently for this to show up.

The first XTC deep cut that I ever heard, on the Janice Long show in maybe 86?

People were calling her up with Halloween themed requests, that was the start of my love for the band.

I don't think my top ten has changed much since then. Maybe No Language In Our Lungs should be lower, or subbed out for...idk. 1000 Umbrellas was my number 11, but Leisure was my number 12 and that'd be far funnier. But I couldn't swap it for No Language now really, could I?

It strikes me as interesting that XTC are being relatively obsessed-over on ILX right now. What about their music is placing them in the discourse? Are we living through another Cuba?

they're the Beatles you don't want to fuck off

yeah I guess

oh fuck how could i forget Red Brick Dream?

Red Brick Dream
Are You Receiving Me?
Life Begins at the Hop
All You Pretty Girls
I Bought Myself a Liarbird
Mayor of Simpleton
Beating of Hearts
Great Fire
Born Out of Your Mouth
Melt the Guns
Love on a Farmboy's Wages

hah if you're including Warbles stuff in there, this is just impossible

"Everything" might make my list - clearly unfinished but the arrangement works so well

Is 'Pearl' on the Warbles collections, I don't recall, beautiful song

i prefer this straight acoustic version of Red Brick Dream to the echo-affixed studio version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yoj9eIeolWI

also does anyone know if this semi-live tv performance of Senses Working Overtime was shot before or after they quit touring?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvOgX5ip738

Is 'Pearl' on the Warbles collections, I don't recall, beautiful song

mysteriously, it is not! Maybe I will ask him about this on twitter. The Cleaners from Venus version is great.

so I did and he says

https://twitter.com/xtcfans/status/725039478470004736

Eye'm glad 2 c someone mentioned 'Happy Families', always thought that was a massively underrated XTC song - particularly the early version, which dates from the Mummer period eye think? Loads more jangly guitar. 'Extrovert' also a big favourite 'o' mine, if we r talking about B-sides.

just had an epiphany with that senses working overtime video of the resemblance between billy corgan and andy partridge. same kind of hulking-guy-with-a- cheeky,-cherubic-face

some interesting parallels career/personality-wise there too

Like what?

leaving Dear God off of Skylarking / leaving Let Me Give the World to You off of Adore

Aside from being precious about the way his "art", and stubbornly wanting to see his vision thru on his records, eye'd say there was no other parallel. Even with that in mind, Partridge always seemed 2 value the others in the band, and he certainly wasn't anywhere near as much of a dick 2 Moulding, Gregory, Chambers etc. compared 2 Corgan with Iha, D'Arcy and Chamberlin. Partridge may have been somewhat of a stickler in the studio, but he did have Corgan's ego, and nor was he a control freak 2 Corgan's level either. Partridge also has far more 'o' sense of humour than baldy ever will.

-the way

yeah big difference is that Partridge has a sense of humor

DIDN'T have Corgan's ego, that should read. Partridge had belief in his songs and the music he was making, but Corgan could come across as arrogantly big-headed about his songwriting, his recordings and his playing, as if the future 'o' human civilisation depended on the world being gifted Pumpkins records.

both prolific and obsessed with their own output

both have a large body of demo material, unfinished/fulfilled projects that fans pore over

both lost a drummer after making a double album at the height of their fame

both followed this by with an a more low-key, low-selling acoustic/electronic album

both ultra-gregarious-almost-to-a-fault in interviews and in regards to their music

both ended up estranged from the other songwriter in the band

both tried to bring back elements of the music of early youth but in modern day clothes (partridge: 60s garage rock, beatlesisms. corgan: 70s hard rock and album-statement pomp and ambition)

both have that kind of uh, bullied-at-school personality (for lack of a better way of putting it) where they seem to bristle with anything they deem as more popular or "cool" than them and make a point of their "un-cool-ness"

both unpopular with the press

both renounced/secret shredders

but yeah, just as many differences - sense of humour like you say being paramount there.

both ended up estranged from the other songwriter in the band

is this in reference to Iha? Did he even get any songs on Pumpkins records? Hardly a Colin Moulding figure there.

I don't think Partridge is really much of a "shredder" either

Corgan absolutely has a sense of humor - just not about himself. Partridge does.

xp yeah Iha was 'the other songwriter' in name only. he only wrote like half a dozen songs for the Pumpkins (all of which except one were b-sides) - compared to Corgan's 300 or so.

but BC certainly alienated him... and much quicker than Partridge alienated Moulding and Gregory... I think that analogy only works for Iha really, because Jimmy and D'arcy either quit or were fired from the band at various points because of their drug problems. Chamberlin is back with the Pumpkins now, and D'arcy is open to coming back. Corgan fired her because she couldn't remember her parts.

haha well this is hardly an exact science... just mainly an idea bought on my that video and the multiple xtc and sp threads on the front page.

there was that long my history with the guitar type interview with AP that made it sound like he'd spent his early 20s reaching some sort guitar solo mild virtuoso level which he ended up finding an unsatisfying peak to be at. there are some examples of pretty amazing lead playing in xtc but I'm never sure if it's him or dave gregory

and yeah, iha as the other SP songwriter. obviously he didn't have anything like the talent or amount of record-time as colin moulding though (who I really really love). similar kind if relationship there as the two-original -members-who-stuck-together though which is maybe more of what I'm getting at.

many xposts:

Eye'll concede that they're both prolific songwriters that care about the music they make, and that they have a lot of unreleased material, but they're not the only artists 2 fall in this bracket (c also: Prince)

Corgan fired Jimmy Chamberlin, whereas Terry Chambers left and it's fair 2 say that Partridge was sad 2 c him leave. Different circumstances.

There r no electronics on Mummer, and nor does it go on 4 over 70 minutes. Corgan's version 'o' low key was anything but, even when he made his "acoustic" record, he couldn't stop being excessive. Mummer is also a far warmer LP than Adore.

Partridge was also far more charitable 2wards Moulding's songs than Corgan ever was of Iha's. Iha was never seen as an equal songwriter 2 Corgan in the Pumpkins - completely different story with Moulding.

XTC have also had far more critical kudos than the Pumpkins and what the hell is secret about Corgan's shredding!? U heard Siamese Dream recently?

ah i see, yeah totally... the only reason BC broke up the Pumpkins in 2000 was because Iha was bored with it, and he felt it would be a betrayal to go on under the same name without him. And then Iha leaves without saying goodbye to BC or Jimmy after the "final" Metro show, 4 hours on stage, 12 years of playing together, and then he just peaces. That's why I understand how vicious BC has been toward James in the press and how happy he was to have him back onstage last month - he blew up his band and his career out of loyalty to someone that didn't care in the first place. What a headfuck.

12 years 'o' being dragged around the world on a bus being driven by an egocentric baldy who wanted a monopoly on pretty much everything to 2 with the band will do that 2 a person, eye imagine.

Most 'o' the seriously technical playing 'o' XTC records is Gregory. Gregory's style was more studied, whereas Partridge's was more idiosyncratic. U can tell the difference between the way both play by listening 2 the solos at the end 'o' 'Books Are Burning' ...

And therein lies a big difference between Corgan and Partridge. Partridge allowed the rest of the band to put their own stamp on things... Gregory even doing some 'o' the string arrangements. Partridge would also praise the other band members contributions, whereas Corgan would play everything on the record apart from drums and be all like "that's me on guitar, not Iha... that great playing U hear? Yeah, that's me. Not Iha."

And Iha was meant 2 be grateful 2 Corgan 4 this? No wonder he fucked off at the end without saying goodbye.

Iha was far more loyal 2 Corgan than Corgan was 2 Iha.

tbf Iha knew the terms of the band going in - he chose that life.

Did he, now? Were U there at the band's formation? How were these "terms" dictated?

Corgan told him this is my band, I call the shots! Everyone has attested to this...

wow i think your apparent hatred of billy corgan is maybe splashing around this little thought pond more than it deserves

but yeah, i think corgan probably would've been more open for collaboration if he had different personnel in the band. for instance, he certainly let flood have a lot of say over where the music went and what songs to use and respected his opinion.

but unfortunately he didn't have colin moulding and dave gregory figures with him. james iha is a fairly bog-standard guitar player that wrote mainly fairly middling fluffy country-ish songs (well, from what i've heard one album and his SP contributions) and d'arcy... well, she played 90s alt-rock root-note bass. jimmy chamberlin he seems to revere as a player really (HE'S BEST ROCK DRUMMER IN THE WORLD FOR ALL TIME etc.)?

So if Iha was nothing more than a paid employee and was treated as such, then Corgan shouldn't piss and moan that Iha may have just been fed up with his job and didn't like the company 'o' his boss anymore. U can't be a band ran under a dictatorship and expect the cameraderie of a democracy, but full marks 2 Corgan 4 trying 2 have it both ways.

Another key difference between XTC and The Smashing Pumpkins: XTC were always a unit, even when slimmed down 2 a trio, then a duo.

Eye don't hate Billy Corgan. Eye have never met Billy Corgan. As a matter 'o' fact, eye rate a lot 'o' his music. However, eye would gladly spend a week in Partridge's company, whereas with Corgan eye think eye would last about five minutes be4 he began 2 annoy the shit out 'o' me.

yeah I would love to hang out with Andy and play his homemade board games or geek out about oddball psych records or whatever. Corgan seems like he would be such an uptight domineering jerk.

well I agree with you both there :)

young cleopatra, another great ne (along with red rocking hire) from jules vernes' sketchbook

Don't really go along with the idea that Andy Partridge is some great guy tbh.

There r no electronics on Mummer

What's this then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-XjEB3dvOg

analog synthesizers

(is my guess, not sure what the gear specifically is tbh)

Okay, so they used a Mellotron and a Prophet 5 2 add some colour. Hardly 'Pug' or 'Appels + Oranjes' is it?

Don't forget *consults Wikipedia* Steve Nye - mini-korg on "Wonderland".

Don't really go along with the idea that Andy Partridge is some great guy tbh.

― (Henry) Green container bin with face (Tom D.), Wednesday, April 27, 2016 7:18 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me neither. he comes off like a stubborn git

Yeah, 'Wonderland' has a lot 'o' keyboards on it, but use 'o' drum machines and synths is far, far more prominent on Adore.

Last time eye heard Adore eye was struck by how lacking in warmth it is. Even the portions 'o' the record that r acoustic guitar-led or piano-led sound quite cold. If Corgan was trying 2 make a warm and intimate record, he failed miserably.

Uptight and domineering will do fine for me. (xp)

As Shakey says, eye can imagine an evening with Partridge 2 be quite a fun one... geeking out on psych records or checking out his homemade board games. Eye reckon U wouldn't even need 2 really talk about XTC. Whereas Corgan, eye expect he'd want U 2 kiss his arse 4 the duration and would get upset if U didn't.

Noted Corgan defender Flappy Bird branding Partridge a "stubborn git" is priceless whichever way U slice it.

they're both stubborn gits

snowman
all you pretty girls
i bought myself a liarbird
science friction
radios in motion
red brick dream
beating of hearts
that's really super, supergirl
are you receiving me?
making plans for nigel

Easter Theater
The Meeting Place
Summer’s Cauldron
Harvest Festival
Wrapped in Grey
The Wheel and the Maypole
Chalkhills and Children
Vanishing Girl
Brainiac’s Daughter
Making Plans for Nigel

Chalkhills and Children
Dear God
I Bought Myself A Liarbird
Life Begins At The Hop
Mermaid Smiled
Wrapped in Grey
Easter Theatre
No Language In Our Lungs
Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her
Ballet For A Rainy Day

The Wheel and the Maypole
Easter Theatre
Mayor of Simpleton
Sacrificial Bonfire
Earn Enough For Us
Train Running Low on Soul Coal
Love on a Farmboy's Wages
No Language In Our Lungs
Extrovert
Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her

OP10 B-sides:

Don't Lose Your Temper
Chain Of Command
Gold
Jump
Desert Island
Toys
Red Brick Dream
Extrovert
Terrorism (demo)
Ella Guru

Radios In-Motion
Tissue Tigers
Runaways
Towers of London
Don't Lose Your Temper
Reign of Blows
Respectable Street
That is the Way
The Rhythm
English Roundabout