Chalkhills, Number 41

                  Thursday, 13 July 1989
Today's Topics:
                   Re:  Chalkhills #40
                        The Loving
                     Studio vs. Live

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Date: Wed, 12 Jul 89 22:04:15 EDT
From: glickman%hustat@harvard.harvard.edu (Mark Glickman)
Subject: Re:  Chalkhills #40

jsd@umass writes:

> I would also like to tell off Karl MacRae for being a befuddled person.
> Any child can tell you that hearing Andy's voice cracking horribly while
> he attempts to "bluesy"-up a song, to the accompaniment of a mere three
> acoustic guitars has to be one of the worst tortures on the planet.

And I, in turn, would like to tell you off.  To me, it sounds like you are
listening only for mistakes in XTC's live performances.  Why should it be so
painful to listen to Andy to sing falsetto?

> Maybe if you're tone deaf you might like
> the other performances better, but I apparently am cursed with relative
> pitch (which means a lifetime of putting up with badly calibrated cassette
> decks among other things) and it is physically painful for me to hear
> bum notes.

I, too, have perfect pitch (and experience the same awkwardness of listening
to music played in different keys), but hearing a live performance of
XTC on MTV doesn't bother me as it does you.  It seems that you are listening
to their performances at a very localized level.  You are listening for
note mistakes.  I was very impressed with the adaptation of the "Scarecrow
People" for acoustic guitars.  The arrangement of the song for a live
performance was very impressive.  The execution of the song was fine if
you aren't so attached to individual notes or moments.  Live music is
understood to be more spontaneous than that, and more prone to mistakes.

> You people should stop ragging on "studio" productions.

I agree with this, however.  The studio versions of songs are the
foundations from which live performances evolve.  They can be imitated,
as XTC seems to do with their live performances, or not, as Joe Jackson
often does.  I personally would have hoped for XTC to play different
arrangements of their songs when they had been performing live.
Probably too much effort to do so, and considering that they do not
have a very large audience in the U.S., they would confuse an awful
lot of folks by playing their big hits (?!) in a different arrangement.

           - Mark

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From: toby <toby@hce.computer-science.manchester.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 89 16:36:44 BST
Subject: The Loving

I had a go at the basic changes for `The Loving'. Any comments?  Does
anyone have `Funk-pop-a-roll'? Or `Love on a farmboy's wages?'

Intro: C   Em    Ebdim    Bb A

Verse: D              F#m          Bm            A             G    A
       All around the world, every boy and every girl need the Loving

Bridge 1: C                   Em
	  This thing that we need most of

	  Bb                   G
	  That stuff we should try before we die

	  C                   Em
	  Everyone is begging to be loved

	  Ebdim              G
	  With a free gift a working heart inside

Bridge 2: A7                  G
	  The Loving's coming

Toby

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From: sco!stewarte@ucscc.ucsc.edu
Subject: Studio vs. Live
Date: Thu Jul 13 12:26:25 1989

Jon Drukman sez:

>Anyway, I digress.  You people should stop ragging on "studio" productions.
>Can you imagine "Mayor Of Simpleton" without that wonderful digital delay
>lock-on on the word "act"?  Git outta here!

This must be intended facetiously, right?  That ridiculous piece of
throwaway production ("hey, this song isn't produced enough yet...
let's do something to it" I imagine Mr. Fox saying) is the single mar
on an otherwise flawless pop single.

As for the live version of "Scarecrow People", I can't comment, because
I mis-programmed my brother's VCR, with the result that it stopped about
30 seconds into the clip during Andy's last night of "Post-Modern MTV".
(I wonder if the hosts have any control over what gets played?  Someone
was exhibiting some great taste...Robyn Hitchock and Elvis back-to-back...
but I, too digress).  I also missed the first two nights through not hearing
about it in time.  If anyone has the week's PostMod on tape (VHS; but
that's assumed these days, isn't it?), I'd love to get a copy...

-- Stewart (uunet!sco!stewarte or stewarte@sco.com)

	[ Chalkhills would also like to get a copy, if only for the
	  soundtrack, to be included in the Radio Shows tape.  If anyone
	  has this, please let me know.		-- John]

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