Woodwinds seem often made of brass, which is confusing, but don't include horns, except the english horn, which seems to be a form of clarinet. And, even more extraordinarily, that includes bagpipes and accordions, but don't panic, I'm not going there, at least not this week. So, choices, choices and I think I'm going for oboe, as it looks so darn difficult, like trying to blow a hard-boiled egg down a curtain rod. And because the list of greatest oboe player in rock is a short and exclusive list. To be fair most people falter after Andy Mackay
I'd like to show you and explain how Kate St. John has a better claim to that title. And, as I write this down, I find myself suddenly panicking, realising she is probably playing cor anglais, or some such, in the songs I use to apply my thesis. Luckily, hardly any reader will be capable of telling the difference; it seems it is all to do with available pitch, the cor anglais (or english horn, see above, who knew) having access to the lower notes.
So, that exquisite sound on Julian Cope's 'World Shut Your Mouth' album is oboe/cor anglais and is played by Kate St John. Originally classically trained, well, you'd have to be, she will be familiar to older readers as being a core member of those fey purveyors of winsome pop, The Dream Academy, who, for some strange reason I confuse with the nothing like them at all Dream Syndicate, who never knowingly branded woodwinds at all, in love or warfare. (OK, I lied.....). I like the video below as it actually shows off Ms St. John on active service, the Smith's cover version being the one from the film, 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'.
At this time she was married to Sid Griffin, the all americana leader of the Long Ryders, who actually were label mates of Dream Syndicate, adding to the confusion. The oboe never comes to mind often in country tinged music, but, hey, she gets there, not until his next band, the Coal Porters. (And it is cor anglais here, nitpickers!!) A Gram Parsons song, too, no less.
Later, in the 1990s, she worked with a lot withVan Morrison, often on saxophone but still managing to to get her chosen out for when Van needed to go his most transcendental. A lovely, evocative sound, it also transfers well into new age music. In the short lived band Channel Light Vessel, she hooked up with Roger, brother of Brian, Eno, Bill Nelson and Laraaji. I suspect I was one of the few who bought anything by them, with it being, it's true, seldom the record I need to hear too much of, but it has its moments.
Other contributions have included playing with the Waterboys on their 2011 'Appointment With Mr Yeats'; if she could do Donne with Van, she could certainly do Yeats with Scott!! Whether it all works is arguably up for grabs, but it has the song below is worth it for the burst of play that comes after Scott's doleful sing song recital.
In more art imitating life, she got also to tour with Morrissey, perhaps getting to play her oboe part for 'Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want' with one of the songwriters. Other folk who paid up for her live contributions have included Marianne Faithfull and Damon Albarn. And she has been credited to discs for those as varied as the Pet Shop Boys, XTC and Boyzone. However, by now married to Neil MacColl, son of Ewan and half-brother of Kirsty, she has found a niche as the musical director for a number of big production shows and projects. These have included Joe Boyd's Nick Drake tributes, some of the late Hal Willner works, like his Rogues Gallery Sea Chanteys project, and various collective performances of the Richard Thompson and extended family performances. Husband and wife have also worked together on a number of film and TV scores. Whilst this means she is now more often arranging and on keyboards, like the song below, it is too good not to include, her link with MacColl drawing her into folk networks and the songs of her late father-in-law, had he ever been alive to meet her.
Busy, busy woman, and, now you know, I dare say there is way more of her you have heard than earlier you ever knew.
Breaking up is evidently hard to do here at Star Maker Machine, so let me get us off to a somewhat late start with this one. Mankind may have invented pop music as a type of mating ritual, with a man or woman singing the praises of the object of their affection, or boasting of all the reasons to “pick me”. The breakup song may have followed soon after. Here was a form that could allow you to plead for sympathy from your next intended conquest by showing how you were suffering, or simply blow off steam by venting your anger at how you were treated so badly. I have no doubt that I could, with a little digging, find a seventeenth century madrigal that would fit our theme, but there are many fine examples with a more recent vintage.
Dear Madam Barnum is a fine example of a venting or brushoff song. If anything, this kind of song is a warning to others not to get involved with the woman who has hurt the narrator. This one is indeed about a woman, but there are just as many warnings in pop music about mistreating men, and I am sure we will get to some of those as well.. While I don’t know the background of this song in particular, it would not surprise me to learn that it was addressed to the same woman as XTC’s Mayor of Simpleton a few years earlier. The older song has a narrator rushing headlong into a new romance with his blinders fully on. But now, he is thoroughly disillusioned. Some of the anger in Dear Madam Barnum may well be self-directed, wondering how he got himself into this situation in the first place. The clown metaphor was established in pop classics like Cathy’s Clown and Tears of a Clown, but those songs are pleas for sympathy. This is the only song I know of that takes that concept as the basis for a brushoff song. It works very well indeed, so I would have to think there are other examples. Perhaps we will hear some of those before this theme is done.
In response to Darius' question about the theme, as the guy who suggested it back in February, it was originally "Incompetence," in "honor" of our then-new President. Who knew how bad it would get. Our current moderator, known in these pages as KKafa, although that’s not what his parents named him, felt that was too difficult, and added the related concept of “Can’t.” And so far, that’s where the posts in this theme have gone.
So, I’m going to try to steer it back to my original concept, although, as so often happens with XTC’s music, the lyrics are somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
Unlike our current President of Simpleton (or Dementia, or Narcissism, or Egoism, or Delusion, or whatever), who seems blissfully unaware of his shortcomings, the titular Mayor lists all of the things that he lacks competence in:
Learning
Weighing the Sun
Mathematics
Reading profound books
Writing a big hit song
Solving crossword puzzles
Unraveling riddles, problems and puns
Operating a home computer (note—this song came out in 1989, so having one was not common)
Converting pounds to tons
Winning Nobel Prizes (If this was an impediment to love, there’d be a lot of single people)
On the other side of the ledger, though:
He loves her
One would like to think that love should win out over mere brains (a concept which Cheersmined regularly, particularly in its early years), and I think that we are all rooting for the Mayor in this song, because of his self-awareness and clever and heartfelt professions of love. And, so, is he really incompetent?
Unfortunately, XTC never recorded a sequel, so we don’t know whether this plea led to “Sorry, Mayor of Simpleton, I’m Not Interested,” or “I Love You Too, Dummy.”
When I was informed of the "Harvest" theme that was to take place these couple of weeks on Star Maker Machine, XTC's "Harvest Festival" immediately sprung to mind. And there's good reason for that: "Harvest Festival" is one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands. It features a gorgeous melody that builds from a simple piano to a full-blown symphony of sounds, Beatlesque in the best sense of the word. Its beauty and honest grandeur never fail to move me. If you'll forgive me a bit of overemoting, consider this: if you're not an XTC fan already, this may be one of the most beautiful pop songs you've never heard. I strongly encourage you to listen to it, not just read about it -- stop reading this now if you must, but listen. In what I consider the Spring-to-Winter cycle of Apple Venus, the 1999 album it comes from, "Harvest Festival" lands, naturally, at the beginning of Fall. After the buildup to Summer ("Green Man"), the bursting forth of the fruit ("Fruit Nut"), and being brought back to earth after a summer romance ("I Can't Own Her"), we turn once again to the serious business of harvesting the crops, returning to studies, and preparing for the chill of winter. In some cases this means formalizing romantic bonds with weddings. As XTC's Andy Partridge has said about writing this song, he commingled the ideas of the harvest festivals of his childhood in England with marriage. (The harvest festival in Great Britain follows the summer holiday as children return to school, and is traditionally held on or near the Harvest Moon, the full moon occurring closest to the autumn equinox. Students bring in produce to display, and then distribute it to local people in need.) In a way, the song exists in two times at once: in Andy's childhood memories, and in the future, when he and his classmates have grown. As "Harvest Festival" begins, the festival is called to order with a few piano notes and the sound of chairs sliding back as people stand (in this commingled imagining, both for the festival and for a wedding). Partridge recalls the beauty and tradition surrounding the festivals, mixed with the effects of youthful hormones kicking in, then moves forward through the end of those school years, losing touch, and then reconnecting as old schoolmates marry. In all, it's a cycle of life in terms of not only the harvest, but of growing up as well.
See the flowers round the altar See the peaches in tins 'neath the headmaster's chair Harvest festival See the two who've been chosen See them walk hand in hand to the front of the hall Harvest festival Harvest festival What was best of all was the Longing look you gave me That longing look More than enough to keep me fed all year [...] And what a year when the exams and crops all failed Of course you passed and you were never seen again We all grew and we got screwed and cut and nailed Then out of nowhere invitation in gold pen See the flowers round the altar See that you two got married and I wish you well
If, as I did, you discovered Martin Newell and his song Goodbye Dreaming Fields after the fact, you might be tempted to dismiss it, musically, as an XTC knockoff. Indeed, Andy Partridge was the producer, played many of the instruments, and can even be heard on background vocals. But, the XTC albums that sound most like this, Oranges and Lemons and Nonesuch, came out after this one. So, it would be more correct to say that Martin Newell’s influence on XTC is clear. As for the lyrics, Newell is a very different kind of writer than Partridge. Newell is in no hurry, letting his words and images accumulate to great affect. Here, he presents a series of characters who are trying to come to grips with the departure of their youth. The characters have a distinctly English feel to them. Newell was not aiming for universality, but rather was describing what he knew best. The song has a jangly pop feel, paired with a bittersweet lyric to great effect.
I don’t like the label “post punk”, but if I have to tell you what it means, I point to the music of XTC. Over a strong rhythmic pulse, you find crunching guitars and highly politicized lyrics. But XTC’s leader, Andy Partridge, is also heavily influenced by the Beatles. So in 1986, Partridge got some help to expand XTC’s sonic pallet, in the form of producer Todd Rundgren. The resulting album was Skylarking. Here, one hears nature sounds, there is a string quartet on one song, and, in general, there is a great spirit of experimentation on the album. A few of these experiments miss, but one that does not is also the most surprising. Nothing that XTC had done before, and nothing I know of Todd Rundgren either, led me to expect the jazz of The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul. The band is augmented here by percussion, flute, and horns. The song has an amazing slippery groove. Colin Moulding’s deceptively simple bass line anchors the whole thing, and the song really swings.
XTC does not stand for anything. Say the letters out loud, and you get the word ecstasy. I don’t know if the name was intended as a drug reference, but I prefer the older meaning of the word, because the band’s music has always given me intense pleasure. The Disappointed is a sort of negative example of the power of vocal harmony. Almost half way through the song, all you have heard is Andy Partridge singing lead and some oohs, but never at the same time. Suddenly, Dave Gregory comes in with a low note on one word, “disappointed”. From there, the vocal arrangement becomes gradually more complex, and it helps the song build to a great climax. So, by leaving the vocal harmonies out of so much of the song, XTC gives a great demonstration of their power once they arrive.
In nature, crickets and birds do not chirp precisely on the beat. That they do here is most likely the fault of producer Todd Rundgren. This approach to music making perfectly fits this paean to the natural world. Elsewhere on the album Skylarking, Rundgren’s production gets a little heavy-handed for my taste. But here on the song that opens the album, everything works just right.
Andy Partridge is second only to Ray Davies for his ability to turn the details of ordinary British life into beautiful song. In "Harvest Festival" (from the last great XTC album, Apple Venus Volume 1), the narrator takes comfort in gaze: "The longing look you gave me / That longing look / More than enough to keep me fed all year". He doesn't get the girl in the end, but somehow that's OK.
What would Jesus do? It’s a valid question. But here, XTC asked, what would we do to Jesus? Andy Partridge and Co had expressed their doubts about religion elsewhere. But here, they stated their case against the hypocrisy of the modern-day political and religious establishment. To do so, Andy Partridge created the character of Peter Pumpkinhead as a Jesus figure whose appearance threatens both governments and churches in today’s world. Peter seems more like a hippie than a minister. When the powers that be find that they cannot discredit Peter, he suffers the same fate as his predecessor.
I don’t know where Partridge got the idea for or the name of this character. But, I wonder if Peter might be related to the character Jack Pumpkinhead from The Land of Oz. Jack, as a character from a beloved series of children’s books, represents the innocence of childhood, and, as a magical creation, the belief that anything is possible. These ideas, Partridge would be saying, cannot endure in the face of the evils of the modern world. I find that this explanation for Peter’s surname adds resonance to the song for me. However, if anyone knows what Partridge was really thinking, please let me know in the comments.
Here is a character who believes that he is stupid, probably because he has heard it said of and to him so many times. But the listener realizes something that the character does not. He is wise where it matters most: in the knowing of his own heart. A cliche, perhaps, but also typical of XTC’s championing of the underdog.
Simon and Garfunkle are known for some wonderful songs, with poetic titles like The Sounds of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Waters. But look at the track listings of the original albums, and you quickly realize one thing: it was the sixties, man. The title of this selection is a perfect example.
XTC disappeared for seven years, before regrouping and releasing Apple Venus Volume 1 in 1999. After a second volume in 2000, the band broke up for good. Green Man shows that the breakup was not about any lack of musical inspiration.
The sixties saw an outpouring of fine British blues musicians. The emergence of Ian Siegal in recent years shows that the Britain continues to produce fine blues musicians to this day. They just aren’t as fashionable as they once were.
1989 saw the release of Oranges and Lemons by XTC. The obvious choices here would have been Mayor of Simpleton or King for a Day. But the album is a gold mine of great choices that never received proper attention. Poor Skeleton Steps Out is one of these.
Oranges and Lemons found XTC at a turning point creatively. They were a punk band for all of one album, and then the began to find their voice. The band developed a muscular and highly rhythmic sound, as exemplified by the song Senses Working Overtime. But, in 1989, they began to expand their sound. The Garden of Earthly Delights, which opens Oranges and Lemons, begins XTC’s exploration of psychadelic music. The band experiments with more complex arrangements, using instruments that had never been part of their sound before. And an explosion of creativity gives them so many songs to go with that Oranges and Lemons was originally released on vinyl as a two-record set.
Poor Skeleton Steps Out has the rhythmic signature that marked an XTC song up to that point. But the arrangement includes xylophone in addition to the usual instrumentation. The lyrics talk about human beings having a “muscle mask”, meaning our consciousness of our image and appearance, and imagines that a human skeleton would feel imprisoned by this. How would a skeleton feel if it could be free of the “muscle mask”? The song is Andy Partridge’s answer to that question.
For some people, XTC may invoke the punk/new wave sound they had in the 80s. Ten years later, (the time this track dates from), they became known for songs like "King for a Day" and "Mayor of Simpleton". Those songs are both from the album Oranges and Lemons. As you will hear or just heard, they also developed a more adventurous side musically, but it was only to be found in album tracks, as opposed to singles. That's why I would never want a greatest hits collection from XTC; too many great songs nobody ever got to hear would be left out.
Last week was John Hiatt's first visit to Star Maker Machine. This week , he brought friends. And what friends they are! Here are Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner. The album was a one-shot, collaborative project, but this track has always sounded like pure Hiatt to me, albeit with a dream list of sidemen.
Am I to be first again? Then while the rest of the boys scour their collections, let's start this week up with a dance to the king of all leisure craft: the Yacht.
we will dance like tiny boats with cotton sails upon the tops of the seas, That would pull us down to the depths and crush us flat if given half a chance.
Andy Partridge and co. take an imaginative summery jaunt through the imagery of the dangerously carefree self-in-love-as-boat. The lyrics speak in celebratory tones of the yacht as "real love," and heap scorn upon the ocean of those who never see its light, but it's tempting to dive deeper. Is the undertone of condemnation for those who might embrace such oblivious, disconnected lifestyle really there? Or has the idea of "yacht" only recently picked up the negative connotations of wealth to excess?
Perhaps it is all, or neither; Partridge is unusually oblique here. Regardless: the sound is percussive and crisp, bouncy and sparse, with more than a hint of the hornpipe; light enough on the surface, but the sirens call from the murky harmonies. One of my favorite XTC deep cuts, from the absolutely incredible 1982 doubledisk release English Settlement.
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