Senses Working Poll-vertime: The XTC Poll Nominations and Discussions thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ips-W3p7I

Partridge has said that, back when they were touring, he enjoyed playing Colin's songs because he could play more creative things when he wasn't worried about singing lead too.

This poll has made me realize I have no love whatsoever for The Big Express, and I'm not too high on Mummer either (aside from Procession Towards Learning Land, which I love for some inexplicable reason). Someone above was saying the mid-tempo rockers from XTC are their least favorite-personally I adore the Earn Enough for Us-types, and I think that's my problem with those records.

Also, it's tough to listen to the original Making Plans For Nigel after hearing the Transistor Blast version.

A friend of mine used to assist in their demo studio in Swindon, back in the day.

When the original original version of "Nigel" was issued (it's on "Coat of Many Colours"), I rang him up and said "Hey you can tell people "Hey, you hear that version of that? I rewound that!" "

(he laughed and said that that was about right)

xpost "Procession" wasn't even on the original album!

sorry if I missed this, but is Fuzzy Warbles stuff eligible for this?

yes

2 more ballots in over the weekend

Sent, stopped myself at 40, still nearly had an embolism doing it tho'

how do you guys rate Partridge as guitarist vs Gregory? It's hard to distinguish their lines.

Disagree. I think Partidge is a good guitarist, but only in frame of "for a guy who really isn't a lead guitarist". He's like John Lennon with more chops, but still doesn't play like a lead guitarist to my ears (despite that he does play lead lines, esp on later XTC songs). Gregory on the other hand is much more fluid with lead lines and solos -- he's coming from a more technical place, as I recall is huge John McLaughlin fan, etc. Not to mention, Gregory is a lot more informed about music theory, notation -- he plays a lot more "learned" than Partridge.

will send in ballot today!

You know more about the band than I, so this is clarifying. My assumption with singers is their instrumental skills are limited, at least at the beginning.

yeah, I don't know if I would classify it like that exactly -- but I would say one generalization could be that "composers" aren't usually also instrumental (or vocal) virtuosos. As I view it, you can't spend all your time and talent on both creating the entire vision for a song, and also being the best soloist for it. There are exceptions of course, but it seems like it usually skews to one or the other. An example is one of Partidge's heroes, Charlie Parker. He obviously wrote lots of tunes, but imo is primarily known as a genius for his playing, and the way it influenced countless jazz musicians afterwards.

I had assumed that difference as well/read about it I'm sure - but when I listened to Fuzzy Warbles I was kind of struck by how much some of those guitar parts were already fully formed on the demos. But maybe Gregory was playing them there as well, I dunno. Gregory does, in all other respects, appear to have functioned as the stylist/arranger/crafstman of the band in contrast to the two songwriters

Well, it's not out of the question Partridge (or Moulding) would come up with melody lines for Gregory to play -- I'm thinking more along the lines of improvised solos (or at least solos where Gregory was given space to fill, and he came up with whatever ended up on the record). For example, to me it's fairly easy to hear the differences in their playing at the end of "Books Are Burning". Andy tries his hand at a couple of choruses, but Gregory takes the song out during the fade, and it's clear to me which of these guys is a lead guitarist -- who likely spends hours just playing over old records, or practicing scales/licks/solos -- and who is the guy who wrote the song and fancies taking a solo every once and a while. And full disclosure, Partridge's rather dismissive attitude about letting Gregory go has always bugged me, as if even he didn't appreciate what DG brought to XTC.

(All this got me thinking about actual guitar virtuosos who also happen to be really good songwriters/composers, and I thought about Brian May, Eddie Van Halen. Even someone like Jimi Hendrix, I think will go down with more influence as a player than a songwriter. Conversely, I think Frank Zappa will go down more as a composer, though he certainly liked playing solos. haha thank goodness for ILM music nerdery!)

For example, to me it's fairly easy to hear the differences in their playing at the end of "Books Are Burning".

I love how people always trot this out as the go to XTC guitar solo song because I can't even get to the end of this song to hear the solo it's so fucking terrible

yeah, it's definitely one of the most heavy handed XTC songs, but it's also one of the only ones with a long guitar solo section. A better song that features DG's style is "That Wave". In a way, it's kind of a generic "guitar solo" type of playing -- but even that is out of range for someone who isn't practicing all the time.

haha and my opinion of that song is also upthread

btw I would just like to reiterate my request for assistance with images for the results, if anybody's able and willing. I don't have anywhere to host a bunch of images, which is the main problem...

haha and that I saw Turrican pretty much said everything I said already. Pshaw upthread. But ugly chords??? Chords can be ugly!!

All this got me thinking about actual guitar virtuosos who also happen to be really good songwriters/composers,

Richard Thompson and Kristen Hersh too.

*Kristin

Bmaj13(#11)

yeah that's an ugly chord

xxp

I'm sure synesthetic Andy would appreciate the visceral reaction that certain sounds can elicit, the chords in the verse That Wave sound nausea-inducing to me

It's great! I love that song because of the harmony, and would go as far as to say Partridge's sense of harmony is what distinguishes him among, say, the McCartneys and B.Wilsons of the world. He's pretty unique in that regard -- and you could also argue that his weird way with notes is a big part of what keeps his music from being super popular. If he'd made that chord just Bmaj7, it'd be about 75% less weird sounding, even though it keeps the basic idea of the chord itself intact.

^this

if I do a ballot, That Wave will be quite high on it

you may dissuade me at yr leisure

Quick! Call the Guinness Book of Records!

:(

couldn't resist

gonna register 19 socks and get a wasp star deep cut into the top 5

*has permanent morgasm*

btw I don't usually go with consensus but Senses Working Overtime is every single bit as astonishing a song as ppl say it is

& & &

I REALLY like Partridge's 'ugly' songs - That Wave is in a continuum that contains Leisure, Life Is Good In The Greenhouse and notable other perversions of melody (including my undisputed number 1)

A lot of his songs from the first couple are pretty ugly, Red is a total racket for instance, be very surprised if that appears on anybody's ballot.

Can I vote for Ballet For A Rainy Day and 1000 Umbrellas as the same song?

coz, like, they are

no they are not, they are different songs

just because they are cross-faded together doesn't make them the same track

:( fine

but they're stronger togetherrrr

haha on a thematically cohesive album they're second to summer's cauldron/grass in the interwoven stakes

Can I vote for the ecstatic high note that connects summers cauldron to grass?

Can I vote for the snare sound on "Earn Enough For Us"?

fwiw it doesn't matter what you vote for, all votes are being counted towards the Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead

aaaaaany kind of vote is aaaaalriiiiiight

IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER WHERE YOU PUT YOUR VOTE
COS SOMEONE ELSE (OUTIS) WILL COME ALONG AND MOVE IT

xp that is a hella awesome snare sound

fwiw if no one wants to help me with graphics prepare for results plus youtubez

when the poll is over, that is. not right now

just find an appropriate GIS result

unless 'my love explodes' makes it

Conversely, I think Frank Zappa will go down more as a composer, though he certainly liked playing solos.

He referred to his soloing as "instant composition," so I think you're on the same page he was on there.