It was the spring of 1984. The author had been diagnosed with a lifelong illness. But then things got better. A lot better. Through a combination of luck, perseverance, and XTC fanaticism, Mr. Stafford was able to sit in on a series of recording sessions for XTC, one of the best, most clever, most unique, and most interesting bands in the world. The book recounts how he was there during a couple months while they were recording their album The Big Express. There are some tangents in the writing, mostly interesting though, and his memory is fuzzy about some things. He fully admits it though. [continued]
The Book I Read: Complicated Game – Inside The Songs Of XTC By Andy Partridge And Todd Bernhardt
So many great songs. Andy wrote most of XTC’s songs and they are one of the best bands ever. This book takes about 30 of his XTC songs ands discusses them at length. In doing so, it provides a wealth of insight into his creative songwriting process.
“I like accidents. I like to put myself in the way of musical harm. I like being at the wheel of that musical car, and aiming it at the wall, just to see what shape the car’s going to come out. It might come out an interesting shape that would have taken me forever to decide on otherwise. – Andy Partridge”
And don’t just believe me, here’s what Amazon has to say:
Terrific Tunes For Tuesday – Take 67
One of my favorite bands is XTC, as some of you know. They did a couple side projects back in the day, masquerading as the psychedelic band “The Dukes Of Stratosphear”. The alter-ego band was comprised of Sir John Johns, The Red Curtain, Lord Cornelious Plum, and E.I.E.I. Owen…
Here’s what Andy Partridge, leader of XTC, had to say about this tune, a sort-of homage to The Beatles “I Am The Walrus”:
We dressed up in the gear, and we had a dummy piano painted in psychedelic swirls, and just made every pop promotional film from 1967 all together in one film. Including this cod Pathe News voiceover at the start which said (plummy newsreel voice) “Here we see Chittingfold House, home of the Frobisher-Harrises since 1667. Some three hundred years later, the English pop group The Dukes of Stratosphear have decided to perform their latest pop recording, ‘The Mole From The Ministry’.” And then it went into this piece of cod. And we were so happy with it, cause it was the only video to that date where we’d had total input and we’d been listed to instead of, oh no, we’re gonna do it my way instead. Cause that always happened on our videos, we just had to shut up and do as we were told. But that one came out great. And then Virgin Records said no, we’re not going to spend any money on it. We said, look, it already exists! You just pay two thousand pounds to the BBC and you can buy it from them! And they wouldn’t do it. So there is a video in existence — it’s quite long, it’s about five minutes long. . .
Get the music: Dukes Of Stratosphear | XTC | Andy Partridge
