Chalkhills, Number 156

                  Wednesday, 8 May 1991
Today's Topics:
                  Jester & The Jesticles
                   Re:  Chalkhills #155
                   Re: Chalkhills #151
                   Re: Chalkhills #152
                   Re: Chalkhills #155
                      replies to 155
                   Re: Chalkhills #154
           oranges, lemons, & other misc fruits

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

From: mrp@polari (Mad Rabbit Productions)
Date: Fri, 3 May 91 14:16:04 PDT
Subject: Jester & The Jesticles

A few years back I heard a song on a comedy program (Dr. Demento in the US)
by "Jester & the Jesticles" (or something similar) about (as you might guess)
testicles.  It sounded an awful lot like Andy Partridge.  Does anyone have
any information on what it was and where I might get a copy?  Thanks.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Christopher Rimple             |  mrp@seattle.online.com
Owner, Mad Rabbit Productions  |  "One bad sector can ruin
(206) 783-2584  (voice)        |      your whole day."
-----------------------------------------------------------

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Date: Sat, 4 May 91 09:55:30 EDT
From: dabl2@nlm.nih.gov (Don A.B. Lindbergh)
Subject: Re:  Chalkhills #155

> BTW, how (or more importantly, why) did the band get involved with
> Todd?  I can't believe that AP and the rest were that enamored of
> Todd's production abilities.  Did the record company push them into it
> ("Boys, we need a hit! I got just the guy in mind to give it to ya!")?
>
Actually I read in an interview (somewhere?) that the band was given a list of
potential producers (from the record company) and that Dave Gregory spotted
Todd's name and said (paraphrase) "Well, that's it, there is no other choice"
Dave is the one who was really up on Todd doing the record and who, no
surprise, apparently never really felt any animosity towards, during the
sessions, or after.  BTW the band asked Todd to do the keyboards on "Supergirl"
which is why, hey! it sounds just like Todd!  Dave is playing Todd's psychedlic
Gibson SG (Eric Clapton's guitar from Cream) on the solo in "Supergirl".

I talked to Todd just before the
album was out and asked him "So what was it like to work with XTC?"  His reply
was "Ugh, thank god that's over".  I know, however, that he worked particularly
hard on the record, and was quite proud of it at the time (probably still).
Incidentally, the band almost didn't accept his final mixes, which shook him a
little, because he had worked really hard on them.  It was mastered at Sterling
in NY, and I was around at the time, talking to the engineer etc, which is why
I know all this stuff...

Don

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Date: 02 May 91 23:07:09 EDT
From: Jones Rutledge <76516.430@compuserve.com>
Subject: Re: Chalkhills #151

Re: Rundgren ruining Skylarking debacle:

>From interviews, I read at the time (remember that was a while back) I think
any displeasure the band felt about these sessions rested more on Todds working
methods than any thing else. When the band would be itching to record, Todd
would take a break to blow a doob, things of that nature.

Re: thumbs up on Big Express, Thumb down on Drums and Wires-

D & W was my first exposure to XTC when it was first released. I would think
more would choose GO 2 as a least favorite. D&W practically invented the
Police, Nigel= DA doo doo doo. Big Express was one of my first disappointments
for some reason although most songs are excellent, there were some that wore on
me more quickly than others, ie soul coal,this world over,smalltown reign of
blows. Previous to Big Express I enthusiastically liked everything from D&W
thru Settlement. Anybody who bought The Big Express to get "Senses Working
Overtime, bought the wrong album, though I can see how people could get the
cover artwork confused.

jones rutledge 76516.430@@compuserve.com

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Date: 02 May 91 23:06:28 EDT
From: Jones Rutledge <76516.430@compuserve.com>
Subject: Re: Chalkhills #152

To Jon Drukman Jondr@@sco.com

Re: absolute sounds comments on Skylarking.

I bought the vinyl first (those being the days when vinyl preceded CD release)
and was disappointed at the sound of the CD. The vinyl sounded better! Maybe
the Album was not mastered properly for CD.

Generally, I would take any comments printed in THE ABSOLUTE SOUND with several
grains of salt. Most of their better writers tend to leave the publication due
to the misinformation that the magazine spreads and  for other odd editorial
reasons (odd editor).

Jones Rutledge 76516.430@@compuserve.com

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

From: dhgpa!adkoning@hvlpb.att.com
Date: Mon, 6 May 91 10:39 MDT
Subject: Re: Chalkhills #155

>From: Dances With Voles <jondr@sco.com>
>
>Andre de Koning:
>>I guess Andy's problem is in the dynamics department: the album before
>>_Skylarking_ (_The Big Express_) sounds "extrovert" and _Skylarking_ sounds
>>"modest". It reminds me of Thomas Dolby's productions for Prefab Sprout (but
>>that's a band that wants to sound like that).
>
>Tangent time.  Are you saying Dolby's production for Prefab Sprout is
>MODEST?  Their latest album is practically drowning in production, but
>I like it that way...

No. I'm not saying that Dolby's production is modest. I was (obscured by the
fact that English is not my first language) trying to say that Prefab Sprout
sounds so MUCH produced that all sharp edges in the music are smoothed. That
their albums are indeed "drowning in production". Because of this, your
attention isn't drawn to the music (however interesting the music is).
That's what I ment with "modest", just as if it says "no offense please".

Oh well,

 Andre the Dutchman

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

From: Dances With Voles <jondr@sco.com>
Subject: replies to 155
Organization: Mangled Bloody Carcass Of Sound Productions
Date: Mon, 6 May 91 9:58:45 PDT

>From: Bailey@polisci.sscnet.ucla.edu
>
>Ooooooooo, y'all are so hard on [production techniques][the band][each
>other].  If you're ever bothered by such harsh words, you might try any or
>all of the following:  buy black disks; eschew cd players; dub recordings
>repeatedly; listen to XTC only on your $30.00 plus installation car tape deck
>at an extremely loud volume while on the freeway; drive 70+ mph with the
>windows open.

Was there a sequitur in here?

--------
From: cutter@silver.lcs.mit.edu (Skinny Puppy)

>I had an opportunity to chat with Dave Mattacks last night at a local
>pub after his band, Fairport Convention, had just played there.

Cool.  But you didn't ask him who was gonna end up producing the album
now did you?

--------
From: Larry W. Seals <seals@uncecs.edu>

>BTW, how (or more importantly, why) did the band get involved with
>Todd?  I can't believe that AP and the rest were that enamored of
>Todd's production abilities.  Did the record company push them into it
>("Boys, we need a hit! I got just the guy in mind to give it to ya!")?

The record company, displaying perfect record company logic, said "you
need an american hit record.  so pick an american hit record producer
>from this list."  The only person on the list they'd ever even heard
of was Todd, and Dave apparently quite liked some of Todd's music.
So, the rest is history.

>In #154, Jon Drukman and I continue our dialog on the evidences of
>Todd's hand on _Skylarking_  :-)  :-)   :

"Dialog."  I've never heard it called THAT before... :)

Again, the rather 'clanky' drum sound on Earn Enough For Us doesn't
immediately put me in mind of Rundgren as much as those synths on
Supergirl do.  They are straight out of Healing, or Ever Popular
Tortured Artist Effect, or anything really...

jon drukman                 jondr@sco.com       always note the sequencer:
sco docland wage slave      uunet!sco!jondr     this will never let us down

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Date: Mon, 6 May 91 18:51:31 PDT
From: John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Re: Chalkhills #154

Kevin Carhart <6600kevc%ucsbuxa@hub.ucsb.edu> asks:
>
>Completely seperately, there's another comic book reference (I think)
>in New Broom in the Lure of Salvage experiments... Andy keeps on saying
>"Mr. Ditko was right..."   Does this refer to Steve Ditko, creator of
>Spider-man with Stan Lee and co-founder of Marvel?  Or are they even
>saying Ditko?

I'll bet this is the case, as Andy is really a BIG comic book fan.  In
fact, he used to have a large collection of comic books, but he gave
them up for toy soldiers.

In an interview with SFX Magazine (see the Discography) Andy talks
about how he loved comic books and TV shows like _FireBall XL-5_, and
in fact Andy wrote a song about that show.

                                . . .

Mark.C.Kirk@physics.umass.edu asks:

>Also, Jon pointed out that Life Begins At The Hop is an A side.  I was under
>the impression that if it wasn't on the original lp that it was a B-side?

Technically, B-sides are only those songs which appeared on the
B-sides of singles (and didn't appear on the LP).  Thus "Life Begins
At The Hop" is not a B-side.  It is an A-side, but still a non-album
song.

                                . . .

Yuji `RUSHER' Chikahiro <ychikahi@cc.titech.ac.jp> says:

>  No  matter  when I hear "This World Over", I cannot help associating
>  its last chorus with Sting. Drum's pattern, chorus voicing, effected
>  chorus  voices  themselves  of the song are similar to some tunes by
>  The  Police.

Yes, I have also noticed this similarity, but I tend to ignore it.
What I concentrate on are the lyrics.  I especially like the ironic
quality of lines like:

    Will you smile like any mother
    As you bathe your brand new twins?
    Will you sing about the missiles
    As you dry odd numbered limbs?

Andy sings about a world where radiation and pollution causes
increasing numbers of multiple births and visible deformities.
And, since we (the people of the Earth) brought this calamity upon
ourselves, aren't we going to sing and be happy and proud of it?

	-- John

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

From: Bailey@polisci.sscnet.ucla.edu
Subject: oranges, lemons, & other misc fruits
Date: Wed, 08 May 91 13:17:00 PDT

Did ever a debate rage over the song "pink thing;" is it AP's baby or his
[policy, piece of pork, wife's best friend, dong; choose one]?  Or has it
gone the way of the nature/nurture debate--we shall never know?  Clarence
Darrow notwithstanding, I come down on the [choose one] side of the fence.
Any takers?

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Thanks to Ira Rosenblatt.

Chalkhills welcomes new subscribers Scott Gust and
Qin "Tom" Tongyang.

For all administrative issues, such as change of address,
withdrawal from the list, fan club addresses, discography
requests (last update 5 May), back issues, etc., send a
message to the following address:

	<chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org>

All views expressed in Chalkhills are those of the individual
contributors only.  Don't chainsaw your mother up.

---

Go back to Volume 1.

17 October 1997 / Feedback