Connect the Dukes of Stratosphear Track To the Song It's Parodying

Album version, 4'24.
Performed by The Dukes of Stratosphear.
Released on Psonic Psunspot.

Andy: ``Little Lighthouse was a track that we started to record for Skylarking. Todd (Rungren, producer) got bored with it, so I thought The Dukes could do it. The Dukes made it sound like a lot of bands that imitated the Stones.''

Demo version.
Released in November 1987 in November 1987 on the Jules Verne's Sketchbook cassette.

Andy: ``This West Coast style blatz was written for SKYLARKING in 1985. It reminds me of bands like `Moby Grape' etc. `. . .Cross the black and fossil oceans vast, I see love and she doth brightly burn. . .''

Also available on Fuzzy Warbles Volume Three.

Andy: ``This was destined for the `Dukes' from the outset really. It was sent to Todd along with all the other Skylarking demos and even though we tried recording it in San Francisco (its spiritual home!), it was never going to fit with all of its pastoral playmates. A rotten quality demo, truly fuzzy, but having a punkadelic flair all its own.''

Matt and I just identified this song: "A Hole in my Shoe." The little girl says, "I climbed on the back of a giant albatross which flew through a [something] cloud to a place where happiness reigned all year around, and music played ever so loudly." Brilliant.

Awful? "Hole In My Shoe" is fuckin' great!!!!!!!!!!! Is "Albert Brown" not more of a Small Faces thang? On a different tack, I remember reading an interview with Partridge about the DOS albums where he mentioned "The Universal" by Small Faces - I don't know what song it was in connection with.

So!

XTC: Song Stories by Neville Farmer

More info on chalkhills.

http://chalkhills.org//images/press/SongStories.jpg

the bassline is straight outta "rain"...so it's like "rain" with "tomorrow never knows" tape fun on top.

Look, on its own terms, it's fantastic IMO, and surely that's the be-all and end-all?

what in the world?? - it's all too much (beatles) + tomorrow never knows + see emily play.

Shindig magazine recently ran a cover story about the Dukes of the Starosphear - cool to see they are still loved.

Don't think it ever was not so.

"Albert Brown"=Ringo Starr, innit?

And which one of those songs is it that starts with this young girl telling some weird children's tale again? It seems to me a lot like "Hole In My Shoe", at least in the beginning.

I'm still disgusted at how closely Col rips off I'm Only Sleeping for Shiny Cage.

Also she does that talky thing on like every third song.

talky things are betwen tracks, apart from "Have you seen jackie?"

Brainiac's Daughter is 67-68 McCartney (Hello Goodbye, banana fingers piano etc).
The long-lost, much-missed Strange Things Are Happening mag ran a piece on the Dukes back in 88-89, in which Andy & Colin went through both LPs commenting on their influences (maybe it's linked to somewhere here). We got most of 'em right.

Yes, both these LPs are better than most XTC LPs, and, as someone said upthread, better than many of the "originals". I still remember the first time I heard Moby Grape, thinking "This is nowhere near as good as Little Lighthouse"...

I've always assumed "Bike Ride to the Moon" = Syd-era Floyd's "Scream Thy Last Scream," give the chipmunk vocals.

giveN

Are we still doing this?

Aren't you record people sorry yet?

Go back to your cool New York dad and all of your money.

??

It was interesting to see in that Shindig article that Virgin swapped the LP sides on "Psonic Psunspot", so it should have started with "You're my drug". Somehow this doesn't sound right to me, 'cos "Pale and precious" is a perfect closer.

yeah, I saw/thought that.

Woah. Just last night I listened to the Dukes CD on repeat. Great fun.

"Pale and Precious" sounds to my two ears like Macca collab'ing with the Beach Boys, really.

i recently found a 2cd compilation set by Simon Dupree And The Big Sound.
there hidden in amongst their 60s pop excess were the two tracks by their side hustle - The Moles.

https://www.discogs.com/master/1391336-Simon-Dupree-And-The-Big-Sound-Part-Of-My-Past-The-Simon-Dupree-And-The-Big-Sound-Anthology

oh the moles single was one of my faves back in the day, one of the many groups rumored to secretly be the beatles though really i think of them as more being a forerunner to the residents (though maybe that's just because of _mark of the mole_). really underrated group, possibly best known these days because the shulman brothers went on to form gentle giant. associates project 39 lyon street did a great cover of their hit "kites". there are so many great buried gems on that comp, particularly if you're a big mellotron nerd like me. the original "kites" is great too, one of the great underrated '60s weirdo pop songs! "kites" is fun.

Yes indeed. The only problem is the Shulman brothers hated "Kites"!

and this is why i stan barthes

found Psonic Psunspot and grabbed it too, forgot how much I absolutely adore certain tunes on here. "You're My Drug" especially. something kinda funny I noticed is when talking about these guys I actually start out a bit defensive, like "oh no it's actually really good, they do it all justice", mainly because these sort of throwback/nostalgia projects are so extremely common right now. but back in the mid 80s they weren't! dare I say the idea of a band imitating 20 year old music was actually quite novel back then? like what would the equivilent of that be right now, "oh wow it sounds just like Franz Ferdinand"?

ha maybe. yeah, as much as i appreciate franz ferdinand, i hardly think that there was anything so particular or distinguishing in them as there was in some of the flourishes of haute psych stuff.

maybe it’s the dimming of my eyes with age i guess— nothing of ff seems so “other” to me now. and in 1985, 1965 psych felt totally silly and weird and funny and remarkable to me.

i know ff was just exemplar not actual

I don't think any of the actual psych-era records it's imitating sound as cool as this.

July, SF Sorrow, Piper.... all sounding pretty cool to me. No shade on Andy and Co who absolutely love and worship this music, but there is a demarcation line of cringe that while the Dukes avoid, many 80s-present 60s obsessives stop their beatle boots waayyyyy over. And it's a fine line before it's just cosplay.

*stomp

found Psonic Psunspot and grabbed it too, forgot how much I absolutely adore certain tunes on here. "You're My Drug" especially. something kinda funny I noticed is when talking about these guys I actually start out a bit defensive, like "oh no it's actually really good, they do it all justice", mainly because these sort of throwback/nostalgia projects are so extremely common right now. but back in the mid 80s they weren't! dare I say the idea of a band imitating 20 year old music was actually quite novel back then? like what would the equivilent of that be right now, "oh wow it sounds just like Franz Ferdinand"?

There was the Damned doing Naz Nomad & the Nightmares, which (just) predates Dukes of Stratosphear and I've always wondered if it didn't influence in some way. I've never heard the album though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naz_Nomad_and_the_Nightmares

Plus, around the same time, Julian Cope (inevitably) did the Rabbi Joseph Gordan single, so some kind of 60s psych/garage rock revival was definitely in the air.

There was a short psychedelic phase after punk which never really took off. Brian James had formed "Tanz Der Youth" and labelled it as such, but.

Cope kinda cites Nick Nicely's 'Hilly Fields 1892' single as some sort of spark, and that was 1982.

The Paisley Underground filtered over from the states in '84, Bucketful of Brains had already been going for a couple of years and people still had a lot of affection and curiosity for Syd Barret's work as well as the Nuggets era.

Psychedelia was also something that writers back then would attribute to bands like Echo & The Bunnymen and The Cure, it was still in the air I guess.

Let's not forget the Damned trying to get Syd to produce their second album... and ending up with Nick Mason instead!

Talking of the Damned, "The Black Album" is very psychedelic in places and that was 1980.

We should have a poll, who would have been the worst member of PF to produce The Damned.

By 1986 half the US underground bands had put out a record called psychedelic - Project MershZen Arcade ( and the “Eight Miles High” lead up), Meat Puppets, but even stuff like JFA and Die Kreutzen. Always wondered if XTC was even aware, or that was mostly a fanzine-level narrative.

Around that time I picked up that Naz Nomad from a remainder bin and listened to it twice. It was pretty weak. I should try again.

had no idea any of this stuff existed, gonna be busy today

Definitely check out Nick Nicely.

^^^

Will have to get one while they're not mega-expensive

My 83-4 had a lot of soft boys hitchcock and paisley underground vibes, it was def in the air— tho I didnt know naz nomad. going just on college stations and rekkid stores it was so so much harder then

Cope kinda cites Nick Nicely's 'Hilly Fields 1892' single as some sort of spark, and that was 1982.

"Partridge was feeling inspired by Nick Nicely's 1982 psychedelic single "Hilly Fields 1892", and devised a recording project to fill the newfound gap in his schedule. The rules were as follows: songs must follow the conventions of 1967 and 1968 psychedelia; no more than two takes allowed; use vintage equipment wherever possible."

Psychedelia def in the air in 82-83. Acid being dropped among the former punks and the post-punks, things like "A Kiss In The Dreamhouse", "Hyaena", The Glove and The Cure's post-Pornography music coming as a wonderful result.

Just want to point out that Hilly Fields is strong contender for greatest song of all time.

Something I rarely see mentioned in relation to the 'birth' of neo-psych (Soft Boys, Teardrop Explodes, Echo, Nick Nicely, Banshees, Glove, Cure) is the Jam's relevant stuff (half of Sound Affects, Dreams of Children). Somewhere in the very thin pit between would be obscurities like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFWvRQ41Vq8