Was thinking of posting some more Partridge songs since (twelve are not enough) they're in my head and then friend Greyhoos just sent an email with three requests and thoughts so: the top and bottom are from me, the three below and the words in blue are from him:
Probably my favorite cover tune by any band, ever. (Or at least in the top 3.)
I've been revisiting XTC a lot these past few years, after many years of giving them little thought or time. Giving the occasion to drag out the old records, hunt down all the others I'd never bothered with. At some point just realized that Partridge was perhaps one of the best, most unique & peculiar songwriters of his era. Also, one of the most unlikely r&r frontmen, in many traditional respects. As well as -- in the band's early days -- the most delightfully eccentric vocalizers.
What I said about vocalizations. Total linguistic breakdown -- full-on Dada sound poetry a la Schwitters's "Ursonate."
Simon Reynolds has a long-standing gripe about bands from his home country, that they historically/often tend to frontload things at the expense of the rhythm section, the latter of which are usually weak and underdeveloped (in comparison to their American peers). Be that as it may, I'm thinking the early years of XTC when Terry Chambers was behind the kit would have to count as a major exception.
I've also taken an interest in how fond Partridge was of recording. Check the tracking and mixing for "Living Through Another Cuba." Wonderfully, dizzyingly batshit, it is.
I love the early stuff, I love the middle stuff, I love the late stuff, but of late I find myself listening most to Nonesuch, my if I can only have one album in that sillyass game.
