One song from XTC's 1986 Skylarking LP has fingers that reach not only deep into the music of the 1960s, but back again to a trend-setting band that touched the '90s! Follow the thread!
Great article. For me, personally, the best XTC song by far is ‘Making Plans For Nigel’ from 1979, video is also very cool https://youtu.be/n-X3Wy-svIY
The Rundgren / Partridge / Utopia Sound photo is no ordinary knob-twiddlin’ - I think (not 100% certain) that’s a Mellotron, a pre-sampling age sampling keyboard, it worked using individual tape loops per key.So you could customise it by making your own tape loops. I think that’s what they’re doing, changing tape loops. Pretty advanced knob-twiddlin’!
I think you're right. I didn't think it looked big enough for a sound board, but I didn't spend much time trying to decipher beyond that! As an early fan of Genesis, Nic, I was introduced early to the mellotron, as the mellotron-heavy "Watcher of the Skies" in '72 was my first Genesis notes heard! Tony Banks got his mellotron from King Crimson, I hear.
With a Todd, though, it's fun to see who all he ended up producing. Some seemed to be "better" matches than others (which were maybe more of a "job"), but XTC seemed like an outfit he could really blend with, and both Andy and crew, and Todd seem to have enjoyed being creative together!
This is fantastic, Brad. The sonic tentacles that extend from the Beatles/Beach Boys through XTC to Jellyfish are fun to trace. There are very few songwriters who are even capable of paying homage to Lennon/McCartney and Brian Wilson with songs that are legitimately comparable in quality and sophistication. XTC and Jellyfish are certainly among them.
Thanks, Matt! And, mad props to the XTCs and J-fish of the world who (as you say, accurately) not only pay stellar musical homage to those who came before, but have no problem in verbalizing that fact....which helps listeners enjoy their music that much more! Many are the artists who defensively balk at such notions, caring not at all to dare disclose their influences!
Oh, where to start? I'm such an XTC fanboy, and Dukes of Stratosphear is as great as any of the XTC catalog. I might play 25 O'Clock more than any other song from them. What I love about them is that every album has its own distinct flavor. No two albums sound alike.
In terms of Brian Wilson love, Skylarking is when his influence came to the surface, musically, and though can be heard on Oranges and Lemons too, really took shape on Nonsuch (1992). I'm thinking in particular of the song "Rook," which I hear more in the arrangement every time I listen to it.
I love every single album XTC ever made, but as much as I adore Skylarking, it is the one I probably play the least. There's gotta be one! I try to be sure to give the album a season's cycle every year, though!
Thanks, Steve! This one (the album and band in particular) seemed to strike a lot of folks...gettin' a lot of buzz! I think your hounding for me to get on this helped me get it pulled together......so thanks for that! Readers, if you like this one, give Steve some love, mad props, and a sub, if you haven't, yet!
Personally, I was really only on "Dukes" and "Oranges and Lemons," as well as their first couple, as they came in on the "new wave" crest a decade earlier. I'm really only appreciating them fully 3 decades later (and their love, say, for Brian, and other influences)!
I enjoyed the few spins I gave the two I mentioned, but living permanently on my Buena Park turntable at the time didn't really happen. I think I was playing more of my classic rock "oldies" as my youth groupers came over to hang out and dig more Genesis, Tull, Todd, et al from their cool, new youth minister!
I really think you will like Nonsuch if you like less of their new-wavy angular pop early stuff and more of their orchestral sound. The Apple Venus albums also lean in that direction. It's too reductionist to say that Skylarking is when XTC flipped from being obsessed with the Beatles and moved to the Beach Boys, as both were always there in them from, say Drums and Wires onward, but I've read that Andy really became more and more of a Brian Wilson fanboy, studying his orchestral approach in particular, starting in the late 80s.
Thanks, Matt! Your "I never knew" is what keeps me going! Having been on HB since jr. hi, I inadvertently, as it turns out, was following Ted's career! I started reading about his ascension to A&R @ WB in my early-'70s high school days, by reading the bi-weekly promo-only Warner Bros. "Circular" in-house PR booklets Dad would bring home (with piles of new WB promo albums!), as well as all Ted's eventual WB artists albums he was producing!
Then, in '78, when I was in retail records, hearing about his taking WB prez, Mo Ostin, to the Starwood, for a band "he just had to hear," with Mo scribbling out contract terms on a napkin backstage, I'd tell fellow record store buddies that THAT guy who produced the Van Halen debut is THIS guy, pointing at a HB album from the "H" rack down the aisle!
The start of me realizing the positive side to not only being "old," but having a rather trap-like memory for names and the record-biz careers attached!
I'm back with another sharp turn tangent that has nothing to do specifically with the article. When I read Skylarking, it made me think of my first car- a 1981 Buick Skylark that I bought for $300 in 1995. That thing had a tape deck and I listened to so much good music driving around in that thing back in high school. Not any of the music mentioned in this article, but that only makes me wish Front Row & Backstage was around back then- if only I'd had your help, Brad, I could have listened to even more great music!
Wow, what a fabulous endorsement, Patrick! Thanks! Elbert Dubenion (Bills WR in the '60s) would be proud! I'm reading your baseball-name article, and you're making me miss my late bro, with whom we always shared baseball AND football funny names, with bubblegum cards as our endless source of content!
In fact, we used to wonder why Cookie Gilchrist ('60s Bills RB) wasn't available in snack-paks! As for "needing my help" in finding more great music, you might've joined just after I posted this article in Feb...about my late-'80s high school youth group over whom I was charged with being church youth minister.
Among so many other things this article's about (namely the opening act of an '89 Jethro Tull concert), it's about my attempts (which they loved) of me turning them into musically-literate "little Brads"! Here 'tis, if you missed it: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/audio-autopsy-1989-it-bites-eat-me
Dad was such a word-play-loving influence on me, I know you'll appreciate this, which he leveled on us in the '60s. Keep in mind, he was a jazz aficionado, and it helps to know the Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer song, "The Days of Wine and Roses," as made famous in the early-'60s by Andy Williams. The Phillies had a DP combo of Bobby Wine and Cookie Rojas, which would prompt him, of course, to occasionally sing, "The Days of Wine and Rojas"!
I do remember that article and I just re-read it for good measure. And I think I probably would have liked Sunday School a lot better if you had been my teacher. I definitely don't remember Jethro Tull coming up in any class I ever took!
Like Mike mentioned, the connections are fun. I imagine you with a wall of a link chart (those walls that TV detectives use to link people, places, often crime families together, and joined by strings, LOL).
Of course I've heard of some of the bands mentioned, but not all. Good post, Brad!
😂😂That's pretty funny! Thanks, Paul! Well, as much as you may have heard OF Harpers Bizarre, not many have heard them (or much beyond their hit), and I had a couple of their albums at the time (I was 13 in '68), and have been wholeheartedly on Jellyfish since their "Bellybutton"...even saw them live in San Juan Capistrano, CA in '91. They covered Player's "Baby Come Back" in that show! They've been known to do amazing (and unusual) live covers!
These are fun to do, and I'm glad they're gathering buzz! I've got another one brewing about an early song by some Bard College grads as covered by an unlikely songbird! Stay tuned! Meantime, I've gotta go pick up some more string!🧵
You should see me writing these, when I'M the one first discovering this stuff😱....I had a couple of those Harpers Bizarre albums at 12 and 13 (n '67 and '68), and was stunned when XTC added them to the (more obvious) Beach Boys influence reference, but figured not many people would know what HB sounded like.
And, likewise, not many would know that a key member of HB went on to become a well-respected, veteran A&R rep for Warner Bros.! The Jellyfish connection was a little more subversive, because I knew the band was influenced by XTC (having been on the 'fish from their "Bellybutton" debut--my Power Pop Triumvirate is Raspberries, Records, Rubinoos, Jellyfish----OK, Quadumvirate)!
Thanks, Mike.....glad you like! Enjoyed our chat......anytime, OK?
I remember you mentioned that you weren’t sure if this would be considered rock history but it absolutely is, not many people could’ve put this together! Glad we got to connect as well!
Thanks for the shoutout, Brad! This was a fun read. And I was going to say that you can call your triumvirate the Power Pop "R" Triumvirate. And make a separate "J" triumvirate.
Those'll fill in some total family info, including my upbringing in a show-biz-y family! Those are the two I recall....the one on "weird internet links" you'll have to give me more info on!
Great article. For me, personally, the best XTC song by far is ‘Making Plans For Nigel’ from 1979, video is also very cool https://youtu.be/n-X3Wy-svIY
The Rundgren / Partridge / Utopia Sound photo is no ordinary knob-twiddlin’ - I think (not 100% certain) that’s a Mellotron, a pre-sampling age sampling keyboard, it worked using individual tape loops per key.So you could customise it by making your own tape loops. I think that’s what they’re doing, changing tape loops. Pretty advanced knob-twiddlin’!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron
I think you're right. I didn't think it looked big enough for a sound board, but I didn't spend much time trying to decipher beyond that! As an early fan of Genesis, Nic, I was introduced early to the mellotron, as the mellotron-heavy "Watcher of the Skies" in '72 was my first Genesis notes heard! Tony Banks got his mellotron from King Crimson, I hear.
With a Todd, though, it's fun to see who all he ended up producing. Some seemed to be "better" matches than others (which were maybe more of a "job"), but XTC seemed like an outfit he could really blend with, and both Andy and crew, and Todd seem to have enjoyed being creative together!
This is fantastic, Brad. The sonic tentacles that extend from the Beatles/Beach Boys through XTC to Jellyfish are fun to trace. There are very few songwriters who are even capable of paying homage to Lennon/McCartney and Brian Wilson with songs that are legitimately comparable in quality and sophistication. XTC and Jellyfish are certainly among them.
Thanks, Matt! And, mad props to the XTCs and J-fish of the world who (as you say, accurately) not only pay stellar musical homage to those who came before, but have no problem in verbalizing that fact....which helps listeners enjoy their music that much more! Many are the artists who defensively balk at such notions, caring not at all to dare disclose their influences!
Oh, where to start? I'm such an XTC fanboy, and Dukes of Stratosphear is as great as any of the XTC catalog. I might play 25 O'Clock more than any other song from them. What I love about them is that every album has its own distinct flavor. No two albums sound alike.
In terms of Brian Wilson love, Skylarking is when his influence came to the surface, musically, and though can be heard on Oranges and Lemons too, really took shape on Nonsuch (1992). I'm thinking in particular of the song "Rook," which I hear more in the arrangement every time I listen to it.
I love every single album XTC ever made, but as much as I adore Skylarking, it is the one I probably play the least. There's gotta be one! I try to be sure to give the album a season's cycle every year, though!
Thanks, Steve! This one (the album and band in particular) seemed to strike a lot of folks...gettin' a lot of buzz! I think your hounding for me to get on this helped me get it pulled together......so thanks for that! Readers, if you like this one, give Steve some love, mad props, and a sub, if you haven't, yet!
Personally, I was really only on "Dukes" and "Oranges and Lemons," as well as their first couple, as they came in on the "new wave" crest a decade earlier. I'm really only appreciating them fully 3 decades later (and their love, say, for Brian, and other influences)!
I enjoyed the few spins I gave the two I mentioned, but living permanently on my Buena Park turntable at the time didn't really happen. I think I was playing more of my classic rock "oldies" as my youth groupers came over to hang out and dig more Genesis, Tull, Todd, et al from their cool, new youth minister!
I really think you will like Nonsuch if you like less of their new-wavy angular pop early stuff and more of their orchestral sound. The Apple Venus albums also lean in that direction. It's too reductionist to say that Skylarking is when XTC flipped from being obsessed with the Beatles and moved to the Beach Boys, as both were always there in them from, say Drums and Wires onward, but I've read that Andy really became more and more of a Brian Wilson fanboy, studying his orchestral approach in particular, starting in the late 80s.
Thanks for the tips! I may check 'em out!
Thanks for this, it's always a treat to read something new about one of my favorite bands.
Happy to do it, and it's great to have you aboard for the journey, Mark!
Great article - I never knew that Ted Templeman was involved with Harpers Bizarre!
Thanks, Matt! Your "I never knew" is what keeps me going! Having been on HB since jr. hi, I inadvertently, as it turns out, was following Ted's career! I started reading about his ascension to A&R @ WB in my early-'70s high school days, by reading the bi-weekly promo-only Warner Bros. "Circular" in-house PR booklets Dad would bring home (with piles of new WB promo albums!), as well as all Ted's eventual WB artists albums he was producing!
Then, in '78, when I was in retail records, hearing about his taking WB prez, Mo Ostin, to the Starwood, for a band "he just had to hear," with Mo scribbling out contract terms on a napkin backstage, I'd tell fellow record store buddies that THAT guy who produced the Van Halen debut is THIS guy, pointing at a HB album from the "H" rack down the aisle!
The start of me realizing the positive side to not only being "old," but having a rather trap-like memory for names and the record-biz careers attached!
Thanks for sharing all these unique details and connections, Brad!
Happy to do so for as long as I'm able, Matt! Thanks for coming along for the ride!😁👍
I'm back with another sharp turn tangent that has nothing to do specifically with the article. When I read Skylarking, it made me think of my first car- a 1981 Buick Skylark that I bought for $300 in 1995. That thing had a tape deck and I listened to so much good music driving around in that thing back in high school. Not any of the music mentioned in this article, but that only makes me wish Front Row & Backstage was around back then- if only I'd had your help, Brad, I could have listened to even more great music!
Wow, what a fabulous endorsement, Patrick! Thanks! Elbert Dubenion (Bills WR in the '60s) would be proud! I'm reading your baseball-name article, and you're making me miss my late bro, with whom we always shared baseball AND football funny names, with bubblegum cards as our endless source of content!
In fact, we used to wonder why Cookie Gilchrist ('60s Bills RB) wasn't available in snack-paks! As for "needing my help" in finding more great music, you might've joined just after I posted this article in Feb...about my late-'80s high school youth group over whom I was charged with being church youth minister.
Among so many other things this article's about (namely the opening act of an '89 Jethro Tull concert), it's about my attempts (which they loved) of me turning them into musically-literate "little Brads"! Here 'tis, if you missed it: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/audio-autopsy-1989-it-bites-eat-me
Dad was such a word-play-loving influence on me, I know you'll appreciate this, which he leveled on us in the '60s. Keep in mind, he was a jazz aficionado, and it helps to know the Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer song, "The Days of Wine and Roses," as made famous in the early-'60s by Andy Williams. The Phillies had a DP combo of Bobby Wine and Cookie Rojas, which would prompt him, of course, to occasionally sing, "The Days of Wine and Rojas"!
I'll drop more on your article page!
I do remember that article and I just re-read it for good measure. And I think I probably would have liked Sunday School a lot better if you had been my teacher. I definitely don't remember Jethro Tull coming up in any class I ever took!
Yeah, definitely no "Jethro begat so'n'so.........."!
Like Mike mentioned, the connections are fun. I imagine you with a wall of a link chart (those walls that TV detectives use to link people, places, often crime families together, and joined by strings, LOL).
Of course I've heard of some of the bands mentioned, but not all. Good post, Brad!
😂😂That's pretty funny! Thanks, Paul! Well, as much as you may have heard OF Harpers Bizarre, not many have heard them (or much beyond their hit), and I had a couple of their albums at the time (I was 13 in '68), and have been wholeheartedly on Jellyfish since their "Bellybutton"...even saw them live in San Juan Capistrano, CA in '91. They covered Player's "Baby Come Back" in that show! They've been known to do amazing (and unusual) live covers!
These are fun to do, and I'm glad they're gathering buzz! I've got another one brewing about an early song by some Bard College grads as covered by an unlikely songbird! Stay tuned! Meantime, I've gotta go pick up some more string!🧵
i had a theory about you using string...
Love how you connected all the threads, it’s truly a journey in itself!
You should see me writing these, when I'M the one first discovering this stuff😱....I had a couple of those Harpers Bizarre albums at 12 and 13 (n '67 and '68), and was stunned when XTC added them to the (more obvious) Beach Boys influence reference, but figured not many people would know what HB sounded like.
And, likewise, not many would know that a key member of HB went on to become a well-respected, veteran A&R rep for Warner Bros.! The Jellyfish connection was a little more subversive, because I knew the band was influenced by XTC (having been on the 'fish from their "Bellybutton" debut--my Power Pop Triumvirate is Raspberries, Records, Rubinoos, Jellyfish----OK, Quadumvirate)!
Thanks, Mike.....glad you like! Enjoyed our chat......anytime, OK?
I remember you mentioned that you weren’t sure if this would be considered rock history but it absolutely is, not many people could’ve put this together! Glad we got to connect as well!
I also wanted to check out the two stacks you mentioned one in music and one on weird internet links but they slipped my mind
Now, I'm with ya! Steve Goldberg's "Earworms and Song Loops": https://earworm.substack.com/ and Paul Macko's "Deplatformable Newsletter": https://pau1.substack.com/
Also, don't overlook the wonderful Andy, digging vinyl from London: https://vinylroom.substack.com/
Thanks for the shoutout, Brad! This was a fun read. And I was going to say that you can call your triumvirate the Power Pop "R" Triumvirate. And make a separate "J" triumvirate.
I know I mentioned my Lisa Hartman piece: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/video-to-vinyl-1976-lisa-hartman
and ZZ Top: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/venue-without-pier-zz-top-and-the
Those'll fill in some total family info, including my upbringing in a show-biz-y family! Those are the two I recall....the one on "weird internet links" you'll have to give me more info on!
Thanks, Mike! Working on a couple pieces with similar forensic anomalies!🔬Stay tuned!🎶