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

I don't remember who posted about Martin first, but I did learn about him reading this thread.
Interesting! - I'm checking out which album I should buy to have a taste of it in my collection.

 

I'll admit I didn't get the Paul McCartney influqotence when I first heard it. There were a lot of those vaguely silly singer/pianist setups back in the day...

 

Actually, it’s from an English nursery rhyme that dates back to the 18th century and nothing to do with The Kinks.

 

"Braniac's Daughter" is right on the nose in capturing classic McCartney mannerisms, and I get a pretty big kick out of that alone. I do think the production is not quite period enough to be totally convincing, and that the song runs out of ideas sooner than one would like. But still:

Right? 4/5

 

John was in such a new space as 1966 rolled into view. A tough year I don't think he knew was coming. John was just barely keeping a grip on reality by the end of '66,
and his songs showed that. I don't even connect "I'm Only Sleeping" to Revolver. American audiences got the butchered version, making "Yesterday"... and Today the
equally great album. That's how I see it, and how I grew up with it.

"Shiny Cage" reminds me of "I'm Only Sleeping", but there are so many other Beatles references there hanging on the line. The tag reminds me of "Rain". Any Hollies
similarities are vague. Maybe a bit in the vocal delivery. Both The Beatles and The Hollies had strong two and three part vocals, though George was left more out of the
mix after the touring stopped. Other than "Taxman" he seemed to be already on his way to going solo. And like Colin, his songs were being rejected left and right by
John and Paul, "Oh, we can save those for the Yellow Submarine deal." He comes off important on the American Revolver 'cause they had to have something to release.
By the next album he's back to one track, and he only had one on "Yesterday"... and Today. Surprised and disappointed "Shiny Cage" is not getting higher marks. I've
listened to it a few more times today. I'm sticking with my 5/5.

And let me add, I think that's Dave on the very George-like guitar. I know you didn't say it, pocketcalculator did, but I'm sticking it here instead doing a separate post.
Dave was important to their sound, and Andy and Colin didn't function as well without him - before or after he left.

The Big Express already had a song with the same feel, "I Remember the Sun", as someone mentioned. We are all noticing the same facts. I believe though, "Shiny Cage"
would have also worked among the Oranges & Lemons. Either before or after "Garden of Earthly Delights", my choice would have been to open that album with it. Then
leave "Here Comes President Kill Again" for the b-sides heap. Colin did an excellent job on all of his tracks on Psonic Psunspot, even if one of them sounds like it doesn't
belong, and that's not "Shiny Cage". He should have gotten more of his songs on the albums, and not just tossed to flip sides. Which continued to happen in the world
according to Andy.

Reading that back to myself, looks like I went off on a series of complaints instead of all the love I have in my heart for who I'm writing about. rant over for now, but I've
still got another bone to pick when we get to the next album.

 

When I saw people complaining about the Lily Fraser bits, my first thought was ...

No Virginia, there is no Santa Claus.

 

Braniac's Daughter. Another perfectly fine but 2nd tier track. Will not be on my Best Of C90. 3/5.

 

Given this is an XTC thread, I would check out The Greatest Living Englishman, which was produced by Andy P. himself in his shed. I like Martin a lot, but he tends to mine a narrower seam than XTC, mostly sticking to various permutations of '60s pop.

 

good catch! I hear that, too. I'm in the pool with a 5/5.

 

I've played some of those tunes. And learned something else - didn't know Andy produced him. How did this get passed by me in my reading projects?
Corrected now.

 

So you know what you're getting into, understand that the majority of Martin's catalogue is lo-fidelity portastudio recordings, and there's a lot of him rewriting the same song over and over again, which is OK, because it's usually a good song. He uses a lot of passing chords, extended harmonics and puts thought into his melodic motifs, and how one phrase relates to the next, so he sounds very unfashionable, but it means each song usually has a strong hook.

For his original 80's Cleaners from Venus run, 'Living With Victoria Gray' or 'In The Golden Autumn'. Martin was always very kind with fan letters during this period and i have hand drawn guitar tabs he was kind enough to draw from this era. A particular quality of this work is the fact he never replaced his guitar strings, so there's always a thin, slightly out of tune sound to the guitar.

He did a brief stint as 'The Brotherhood of Lizards', and it's a very good album.

For Martin Solo, 'The Greatest Living Englishman is a safe bet, but its rough, sound wise, with some awful computer drums. The positive is the harmony arranging is stellar, to a level Martin never returns to. Despite the negatives, it's one of my favourite records. If you want to hear Martin produced to standard levels, try 'The Off-White Album', which has Dave Gregory on guitar. The following three albums have their moments, but aren't up to the quality of either. There was a fourth that I can't comment on, because I've never found a copy of it. ("A Summer Tamerind").

He reactivated the Cleaners from Venus at the start of the 10's, and, with that came the remastering of the original cassettes. He pops out a new album every year or two, once again, in a lo-fi manner, which can be bought from his bandcamp for a fiver. I though 'English Electric' from 2010 was particularly strong - I bought it on cassette at the time, and it sounded great in that format - as was 'Return to Bohemia' in 2014. The other albums since aren't bad - he's always reliable for a few truly great songs per release - but there's always a nagging sense that "I wish I could hear these properly developed and produced" so rather than just being good they might have been pushed into great territory with a little more care and thought into the arrangement. But he likes to knock things out and move on, which is fair enough.

I like knowing he's out there, and if the latest albums don't always connect with me to a lasting degree, well, maybe they're not meant to: perhaps they're just like receiving a Christmas Card each year with an update on how the family is doing. You might read it a couple of times for a few weeks, then you put it away until you hear from them with the latest news.

 

Thanks, Yeppers41. I will definitely look into his music in more detail. Have yet to hear the songs that sound the same.

Comment on you buying things on cassette: I was just thinking about them the other day. Got to start listening to them
again. I had a lot more fun making comps with a double cassette deck (NAD model 616) than I have making them with a
computer. The sonics turn out more the way I want them. I'm hearing many new digital mixes that are hit-and-miss in
the quality department the past couple of years. Going to see if I can tame them by recording to tape.

 

Yesterday I took a look back to an old Top Ten list from 25 February 2015 I posted at Smiley forum. It's still there. Called the xtc place.
I have one at EHF, as well, but it hasn't seen action for a long while.

Both of the Dukes records made the grade. For me, they first poked their heads out on "Wake Up", and preceded to entertain me.

# 10 - Mummer (August 1983, recorded 1982) - this album has grown on me more since 2015.
Sure it would jump if they could get it out in surround. Needs all those wonderful extra
songs from the period to make it as great as it could have been.

# 9 - Black Sea (September 1980) - not sure if this would still rate this high. I was listening to
it a lot more back around 2015. The surround mix is extraordinary!

# 8 - 25 O'Clock (1 April 1985) - The track "25 O'Clock" will track high on my xtc/Dukes Songs
list. Short, but extremely rich in character, it deserves this place among albums.

# 7 - English Settlement (12 February 1982) - a real leap forward for the whole group. I have
been a big supporter of Colin since the beginning. He was writing stronger material, and
Andy's songs lifted off the ground. I heard great improvements when Andy slowed down.

# 6 (tie) - Apple Venus Volume 1 (22 February 1999) -some of Andy and Colin's very best songs
can be found here. "Easter Theatre" and "River of Orchids" are in my Top 10 Andy
songs, and as hard as it is to pick just one, "Frivolous Tonight" is my favorite Colin
tune, a perfect song, performed perfectly. It was an incredible return, and that is
why this album places so high.

# 5 (tie) - THE BIG EXPRESS (October 1984) - for me, the true magic began in 1984. This one
and all of the albums that followed were complete masterpieces. They never wrote a
song I didn't like, ever again. "Wake Up" was my first notice of a big change. So was
"I Remember the Sun" - both would be right at home on a Dukes record. "You're The
Wish You Are I Had" covers the same ground that Andy would plough on Oranges &
Lemons. "Train Running Low On Soul Coal" works on all levels. You feel that train.
The backing track is fantastic. Those are the 5/5 songs, nothing scored lower than a
4/5. I grade this record a 4.5/5 Another that would benefit from a surround mix
and polishing up.

# 4 - Nonsvch (April 1992) - this is where it gets real difficult. I can list the Top 4 any way I want,
but it is usually according to which one I am listening to at the time.

# 3 - Oranges & Lemons (27 February 1989) - I'll wait to discuss the ones we haven't gotten to yet.

# 2 - Psonic Psunspot (August 1987) - yep, it's up here with the other greats. Never tire of listening
to it, but I'm having my mind changed. This is my first time doing an xtc song-by-song thread.
Intense examination changes things. I'm going to move this one back to #5, tonight, and find
a new place for Mummer. Remember, this list is seven years ago. Me and the friend who were
controlling the xtc thread at Smiley were both high on the Dukes smoke-a-rope. xtc is a whole
lot more popular here at Hoffman's. I've read the important xtc threads, even if I didn't make
comments.

#1 - Skylarking (October 1986) - it would be very hard to dislodge this from the top spot. Produced
by a very favorite artist, Todd Rundgren. Putting up a Favorite Songs list would make things
more clear.

 

Okay, that didn't post the way I put it together. Readable, tho.

 

Our votes for "Brainiac's Daughter"
1-0
2-3
3-8
4-9
5-13
Average: 3.697

 

Today's song is "The Affiliated", written by The Red Curtain and produced by John Leckie & The Dukes.

The Dukes of Stratosphear – The Affiliated Lyrics | Genius Lyrics
Background:
This was a new song by Colin; Dave and Andy wanted it left until the next XTC album, but Colin thought that by then, they would be bored with it, so they sixties it up. Song Stories says the song is about "a man escaping those workingmen's clubs that Colin was dragged to as a child...." The announcement at the beginning is from a BBC broadcast announcing Hitler's death; but that bit was left off at Dave's insistence.
Andy:

Line Up:
The Red Curtain: vocals, bass guitar
Sir John John: guitar, vocals
Lord Cornelius Plum: guitars, piano
E.I.E.I. Owen: drums

Home demo first released on Psonic Psunspot 2009 reissue; also released on the 2019 compilation Psurroundabout Ride, which also included stereo, 5.1 and instrumental remixes of "The Affiliated."

 

"The Affiliated"

This is one of my favourite Colin songs ever. I don't know how relevant to The Dukes it is, but as a track in its own right it does a wonderful job of portraying its story. The opening acoustic section captures the dowdiness of the working man's club - a place where the entertainment is probably bad stand-up comics telling bigoted jokes, and bad country & western bands. Our character is happy in his situation with his darts-playing friends and has no particular ambition beyond his next pint of bitter.

Then there is an abrupt change as a new character enters the fray. Colin doesn't say anything specific about her, but the music gives us suggestions. She sounds svelte and stylish - I'm seeing an airline stewardess for BOAC. This beguiling lady turns our character's head and offers him a glimpse into a new, modern world. His friends warn him that she will be bad for him and he will be better off staying where he is. But he goes anyway.

And it turns out that his new life is not the bed of roses he thought it would be, as he's drowning in debt and children. Life has gone on for his friends, who still hang around the same club waiting for his return. But is he better off for having tried to escape, rather than continuing to waste away in the club? That's for the listener to decide.

This is just a great little mini-suite, and I can't think of another XTC track which uses musical choices to embellish the storyline as much as this until "Harvest Festival" comes along. 5/5.

 

I love this, but it sure doesn't sound like The Dukes. I don't really think it sounds like The Kinks, and I don't really think the Kinks are all that psychedelic (other than a song or two.)

But it's a great song and I love the middle section.

5/5

 

The least DoS like song on either album, but still good. 4/5 from me.

 

"The Affiliated"

Great tune. Love the completely different direction the song goes into halfway. Lyrics are a bit naff. Still, possibly the best song on the album for me as I have always preferred XTC to DoS.

 

I only learned recently Snoopy vs the Red Baron is a relatively obscure song worldwide. It's a Christmas classic here in New Zealand, to the point where I don't really consider it the Xmas season until I've heard it blaring out randomly somewhere at least once.

 

I'm seeing the National Express stewardess in the Divine Comedy song.

Big fan of The Affiliated - workingman's clubs are a dying breed now in the UK but still around, if only in name. I remember going to a couple of works bars in the early 80s where certainly the main preoccupation was the bar stool (think Cliffy in Cheers). Not sure the Unit 4+2 bit quite comes off but it's all good fun. 4/5

 

Oh, that manner of thinking regarding that working men's club mentality is still around (see the sleeve note for The Fall "Totales Turns" album - That's old but still true)

Anyway, you know one of those times when you remember a favourite tune that doesn't hang around and quits when the tale is told?

5/5

 

"The Affiliated" - Interesting song. The first third is pretty undistinguished, then, out of nowhere, something sounding like an outtake from Forever Changes breaks out, then a reprise of the bland beginning. It's unremarkable, at best. 2/5

 

"The Affiliated" is my least favorite song on Psonic Psunspot. I kicked the 'mini-suite' concept enough during the Skylarking discussions. I can't help it... The first bit is nice enough, but the "Then came her/Then came she" bit is horrible. If this had been split into two songs, I would have liked one of them a lot. As it stands, 2.5/5.