Senses Working Overtime: XTC and Dukes of Stratosphear Song-by-song

Gotta say, I agree with all of this.

 

"Bungalow" theatricality put me off for a long time. But it's so bonkers; I find some admiration now where there once was none. I don't listen to it much and it only adds to my impression of NONSUCH as a bit of a mess, but wow it's bold, leaving a big bungalow-shaped hole where it crashes through the "return to guitars" album.

The refrain that opens, with its maudlin diminished chords, sounds downright Pythonesque every time it comes around, and that's pretty frequently. There are moments of heartfelt emotion; inventive chords and melody that temporarily lift the jumble of Colin's critique of retirement dreams out of caricature. The "Luxury accommodation, traps the sun" section sounds very Bowie, but then that choir... It's daubing the whole thing with a cartoon color. Like a sad beige cartoon.

There's an ambitiousness to it all that's charming but, for me, it's only tolerable in small doses. 2.5/5

 

Can a song about a bungalow be top-tier when the bungalow doesn't have one?
Enjoyable nonsuchtheless 4/5.

 

"Bungalow"

I like the vocal effect, but the word "Bungalow" repeated over and over again, doesn't make for a good song lyric. I am now hearing some Bowie in certain sections, which helps me try to appreciate it more. I can hear a song like this on some of his later albums like Hours or Heathen. In my opinion, it's Colin's weakest song on this album, and nowhere near his best. I think the album should have ended with the last song. 2.5/5

 

BUNGALOW

a faintly parodic, lovingly observed and ultimately touching portrait of the futility of class mobility. Utterly unlike virtually anything else I listen to, and yet perfectly nestled into this wildly ambitious whirlwind of an album.

I'm with Andy. Possibly Colin's greatest achievement, right alongside the Meeting Place, Dying and Sacrificial Bonfire in utterly unique, touching musical observations.

5/5

 

Bungalow

Essential Song #10 for me!

Return from commercial break... cue announcer, "These are the days of our lives". The soap opera spins a tale of crisis - oh my, is that Brad with Jane?? Cheesy dramatic organ music swells as the camera zooms in...

Every time I hear the opening measures of "Bungalow" this is exactly where my mind goes. It is off the wall cheesy and silly and I really just love it! (Especially the outtro that adds the snare roll to create a circus "in the center ring" feel!)

I really like the resolve from the bungalow "chorus" into the verse section. The spare small band sound that slowly builds up. The baritone voices are absolutely perfect - I assumed they were from a synthesizer but I read her that it was a sample of real singers. Who's crazy idea was that? And listen to the chord changes...very nifty, great interplay with the vocal melody. All this stuff going on with a lyric about a bungalow by the sea and how great it would be to get away. How very...McCartney-esque.

I think this is one of Colin's best songs. It combines his (very) straightforward lyric with a provocative arrangement of his sometimes simple but then suddenly alluring ascending chord changes that lead back to the chorus. There is a dynamic that Colin creates with his "common man" lyrics that immediately connects to listeners (which is probably why his songs were the early hits), but here he enhances the musical side in a way that drives that connection home even more. Think for a moment - if someone casually mentioned the word "bungalow" to you, wouldn't you sing the word right back, Colin-style?

Hurray for this little off-the-wall masterpiece by Colin. A joy I always look forward to. Bun-ga-low!!

5/5

 

Bungalow: I used to always skip this one, but listening to it the other day, it's not that bad. Very unique track from Colin!
3/5

 

It wasn’t a double album so much as a single CD. Everyone was doing it at the time, and it often wasn’t pretty.

 

Yeah, I have to suppress laughter every time Colin sings "Bungalow". Not sure if he's taking the p*ss when he sings it.

Nonetheless, it is a unique song with some striking musical touches. 3.75/5

 

Terrible.

1/5

 

Not sure how this will be received, so I'm doing my review before reading comments tonight.

Colin takes his own stab at a Broadway/West End song. And I L-O-V-E It! My favorite Colin
song on Nonsvch, one of the best he ever wrote and performed. 5/5 is an understatement. So
beautiful, so unusual, so unexpected, so moving - I can feel the morning breeze and the wet sea
air coming off the water as he sings.

I grew up going to fishing camps with my parents most every weekend. "Bungalow" brings to
mind those sometimes-chilly mornings hanging around on the dock, or when heading out to go
fishing, or just taking the boat out to explore and experience nature.

My parents did get their dream. They bought a half-acre of land at their favorite place, on Lake
Bruin. Though my dad wasn't a carpenter by trade, he came from a family of carpenters. With
a little help from his three sons he built them a house. Two bedrooms upstairs, with a kitchen,
bath, and common room downstairs. The only thing he couldn't do was build the fireplace, so
he got help with that. Had glass doors and decks up and downstairs. They could retire there.
My favorite picture of me and my dad is standing in front right after he finished it. Mama took
the picture.

"Bungalow" - the lyrics are simple and lovely, "Silver shoreline in the gorse" paints a picture.
Management may be necessary; gorse often needs a regular burning... ready the bonfire!

 

I wish Bungalow was as good as your rating/review.

 

Am I the only person who immediately heard this word in Richie's voice? @Williamson I love the fact that Richie is your avatar...a good reminder of endless summers in the other hemisphere...

Also @Will Harris what a great story about your parents achieving their seaside bungalow...I love that you have that emotional connection to the song. Thanks for sharing your story.

 

Bungalow-I used to loathe this, Fruit Nut and Frivolous Tonight (another example of the progression from Nonesuch to Apple Venus maybe?). All overly sentimental-dare I say McCartneyesque-and definitely not what I was in to.

Flash forward 20-odd years (I didn't pick up Nonesuch until the early 2000's) and Bungalow is a lot more agreeable to me. Amazing how age changes your perspective. Saving it all up for you, indeed. We'll talk about Frivolous and Fruit presently. "Standing prime position for the town" is a very CM lyric-keenly observed. If you've ever spent any time looking in estate agent's windows in British resort towns the phrase will be familiar to you.

4/5.

 

I don't know, but Andy could tell you -- according to Colin, he's bought himself a house in Brighton. I would have loved to have seen Colin's face when he heard the news.

"Bungalow" is sad and funny and slightly terrifying; even though this is kind of a simple song, packing all that into 2:49 in a unified way is no simple feat. It's not a song I would reach for when I just want to hear some "XTC", because it is so unsettling. One of Colin's virtues as a songwriter is focusing on small pleasures or dreams or behaviors, particularly of middle class people, older people or people in small towns, that tend to not otherwise exist in the pop world, and writing about them with sympathy, but not ignoring the unvarnished realities (Ray Davies, of course, also wrote some great songs from and about this milieu.) So, while I don't love this song, I do love the effect the song has on me - I'm cringing and smiling and wondering if this is what I will become. 4/5

 

Our votes for "Bungalow"
1-5
2-2
3-9
4-11
5-8
Average: 3.3371

 

Today's song is "Books Are Burning" written by Andy Partridge, produced by Gus Dudgeon, engineered by Barry Hammond and mixed by Nick Davis.

XTC – Books are Burning Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

Background:
"Books Are Burning" had its genesis with Andy "dicking around" with the chords of The Beach Boys' "I Get Around", which this song sounds nothing like, and was lyrically inspired by the Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Originally, Andy planned to have a long, drawn out "Hey Jude" style ending, but Gus and DAve convinced him to do a dueling guitar battle with Dave.

Andy:

Line Up:
Andy Patridge: lead and backing vocals, electric guitars (first and thrird solo)
Dave Gregory: synthesizers, hammond organ, electric guitar (second and fourth solo), backing vocals
Colin Moulding: bass guitar, backing vocals
with
Dave Mattacks: drums, tambourine
Gus Dudgeon & Neville Farmer: backing vocals

A live version recorded for BBC's The Late Show in 1992 was released in 2002 on Coat Of Many Cupboards.

Stereo, 5.1, and instrumental remixes released on the 2013 CD/Blu-Ray release of Nonsvch.

 

Books Are Burning
So Nonsuch ends not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with a guitar battle? I remember many people on Chalkhills speaking of this as if it were beyond the pale, like it violated everything XTC ever stood for. I’m down for it, actually — I always enjoy a good solo, and in an album with so many retro callbacks, why not an Abbey Road-style closing guitar duel? (Ominous in retrospect, when you think about what was to come.) It gives you the best window onto these two guys’ contrasting styles, with Dave’s immaculate touch and tone perfectly counterpointing Andy’s deliberately jagged lines; those final, piercing notes in his second break are what keep me listening to the end. (Dave Gregory, in 1999: “I might have had the edge on [Andy] as a guitar player in those early days, but not anymore.”)

The song itself, alas, is a plodding dirge of the kind that seems to bring out Andy’s most obvious and overbearing lyrical conceits (the similar “Wounded Horse” is even worse), and neither the lyrics nor the tune are anything to write home about. I mean, I guess someone has to stand up and say censorship is bad, but the lyric hones in so tightly on the book-burning specifically (even telling us what it smells like!) that it just seems off, like the song is missing its own point. Am fully on board for the sentiment, but musically it doesn’t do much for me, and it’s not a good enough song to fittingly cap an hour-plus listen. 2.75/5 for the guitar solos.

 

I just want to say that I've never burnt a book, but I have burnt paper before, and it smells nothing like burning human hair, which I have burned before. Though not in any ritualistic way or anything, just singed my hair when it was long (and still plentiful.)

Burning books smell much better than burning hair, which smells terrible.

 

Books Are Burning: The kind of straightforward, sparse and slightly rootsy sound reminds me of a Dave Mattacks associate, Richard Thompson. But he would never let this soggy-bottomed dirge be associated with his name. Self-important is only the first name of this insufferable diatribe which reads like a reader’s letter or high-school essay. To compensate for the lack of musical or lyrical interest, the bombast level is turned up to unbearable levels by the end.
Worst XTC closing song ever? Not a rhetorical question, as the clear answer is YES. 2/5.

 

Books are burning is one of my favourite tracks on Nonsuch. I like the slow build up, the guitar battle and the elongated ending. 4/5

 

Yeah, lovely post

 

Yeah - 'prime position for the town' is one of several brilliant lines in Bungalow. The reference to gorse picked up by Will Harris is another.

Your post also reminded me of the reference to When I'm Sixty Four by The Beatles that someone made yesterday. When I first listened to Sgt Pepper that song used to baffle me. I couldn't understand why it was there, I may have even skipped it a few times. Fast forward 35 years and it's one of the songs I look forward to the most on the odd occasion I play that record. Is it because I'm now closer to sixty four myself and can identify with it? Or is it because I've grown to appreciate how well The Beatles could suddenly slip into another genre of music with such toe-tapping precision? I think it's the latter.

Some of the responses to Bungalow really surprised me yesterday. It's drenched in an English kind of irony yet simultaneously heartfelt. We glimpse another side of XTC and Colin seldom seen. I've always loved it.

 

"Books Are Burning"

It's OK. The lyrics are a bit preachy, but don't have too much conviction about them. Musically it kind of plods along in a none-too-exciting manner, but I like the idea of Dave and Andy trading solos like two old musos in a blues club. The middle "church of matches" section is the best part, with Colin's bassline standing out. In the annals of XTC album closers, it's certainly in the bottom half. 3/5.

 

"Books Are Burning"

It's fine, but nothing special. A bit too plodding for my taste and the solos at the end with the "lighter in the hand" fade out are borderline cringeworthy. Would have expected something better as an album closer.