Comments on: XTC: The Never-Ending Obituary

By: Christian

Christian — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 02:50:57 +0000

Thanks for the post. I only discovered XTC accidentally 2 years ago when a bandmate played Senses Working Overtime on acoustic. I thought that was wicked. I later found out that I have some of their stuffs all along, Skylarking and Apple Venus, but they were labeled Andy Partridge by my dad for some reason. I stayed away thinking it was some country, folk stuffs that I never really dig..
Do I feel sorry for a super-talented band for not being as huge as they were supposed to? Not really. I never really dig that whole Andy Partridge breakdown, refusing to tour because of stage-fright thing, blah blah blah. As a member of a band, I can be happy to have even just a pinch of Andy’s genius, and for him putting to waste those 350 unfinished songs is just so damn tragic. I really feel sorry for Coulin Molding and co. who obviously do not share Andy’s views. Do I want them to reform? Hell Yeah! It would be nice if they perform even for one last moment just to give closure to their bewildered fans.

By: JL

JL — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:56:32 +0000

Good, prescient points, Mat.

By: Mathew Lane

Mathew Lane — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:54:09 +0000

Great piece, bro. Lots of sharp references, my favorite (which you knew as you wrote it) being the buck-toothed record store dude. LOL!

The story of XTC highlights the timeless love-hate relationship between tyrnants and Bands (capital B). A tyrant needs the Band at first to pose, falsely, as a member rather than as the tyrant. And he needs the Band to go on the road and share the blame. At some point (like the Man Who Would Be King), the tyrant forsakes his Band, and wrests more and more control. Finally, he is alone and effectively dead. The hurtful irony seems to be that he, the tyrant, ultimately cared more for himself than for the illusion that made thousands (we wigh it was MILLIONS) of fans happy.

Luckily the best of the music remains to speak so well for itself, even as we followers believe there could have been so much more of it had it not been for X, Y or Z.

It’s hard to take the good with the bad in art, especially when you identify so closely with a work, and wish there was more. After I saw Immortal Beloved – a terrible movie telling a nonetheless important story, I lay awake that night wondering if Beethoven might never have written the 9th symphony if his father hadn’t beat him up. I guess the watered-down XTC version of that would be: if Andy had just stayed commercial in 1982 and not flipped out, would we never have been gifted the riches that so perfectly capped off the XTC collection?

By: JL

JL — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:48:03 +0000

Thank you, Rob!
And thanks for the link to the recent Andy interview – sort of sad to read, actually.

>>PM: Is Colin there? Do you run into each other at the grocery store?

Partridge: No, he lives about three or four miles out of town in a village outside the town. We just seem to send each other irate e-mails.

By: Mister Fusty

Mister Fusty — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:00:49 +0000

Great article John! I love XTC and it’s a shame they never quite made it bigger then they deserved. For a long time Skylarking was my favourite too but I recently gave Apple Venus Vol.1 a spin and I have to concede that’s (IMO) their best album.
I don’t know if you are aware Andy now has his own label Ape Records.
Here’s a recent interview with Andy
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_popmachine/2009/05/the-ever-melodic-adventurous-underappreciated-british-band-xtc-had-just-come-off-1984s-coolly-digital-low-selling-th.html

It’s not very encouraging for those who want more Partridge material..
“Well, I’m going to be truthful with you. I’ve written so many songs in the last handful of years that I just haven’t felt the need to finish them up. I just have literally about 350 parts of songs that I’m kind of thinking, well, what do I need to finish these up for? I’m wrestling with my attitude to music at the moment. I rather like being an enabler and running the Ape label and being the sleeve designer and the A&R man and all that kind of thing. But as far as my own music goes, I’m really wrestling with: Does anybody need any more songs from me? Do we need a lot of the music that’s out there? We don’t. But it’s that human desire to [dump] everywhere, isn’t it”