Chalkhills Digest Volume 1, Issue 72
Date: Monday, 1 January 1990
Chalkhills, Number 72
Monday, 1 January 1990
Today's Topics:
Slavery
Misc.
interview in new B-side
Random Notes
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Date: Mon, 11 Dec 1989 21:53:59 PST
From: John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Slavery
I was struck by the similarity of this passage to "Human Alchemy":
Slavery, that was a kind of alchemy for White folk, or so
they reckoned. They calculated a way of turning each bead
of a Black man's sweat into gold and each moan of despair
from a Black woman's throat into the sweet clear sound of
a silver coin ringing on the money-changer's table. There
was buying and selling of souls in that place. Yet there
was nary a one of them who understood the whole price they
were paying for owning other folk.
[from _Prentice Alvin_, by Orson Scott Card]
An alchemy, human alchemy
We stole them from their freedom to be sold
To turn their skins of black into the skins
Of brightest gold
An alchemy, human alchemy
We stoked the fires of trade with human coals
And made our purses from the flailed skins of
Purest souls
An alchemy, human alchemy
Other lands became a larder full of all the good things
All we had to do was go and take
Blood the colour rain that grew our wicked harvest
Black the colour icing on our cake
An alchemy, human alchemy
We stole their babes and mothers, chiefs and braves
Although we held the whip, you knew we were
The real slaves
To alchemy, human alchemy
Alchemy, human alchemy
["Human Alchemy", from _Mummer_, XTC]
Yeah.
-- John
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Date: Mon, 18 Dec 89 20:00:19 EST
From: Mark Hessman <ST601287@brownvm.brown.edu>
Subject: Misc.
Greetings! I've been away from here a while... been very busy...
but I've recently been able to catch up. My thoughts on a few rele-
vant items :
*Go 2* : I picked this up a few days ago, and, while it's not
as good as *White Music*, I really liked it. "Crowded Room," with
its power chords, is a great song to dance to; I'll have to cue it
up at my house's next party. =) And the rest of Side 1 is quite
good... though "Are You Receiving Me?" is not on my copy. =(
*English Settlement* : Is this out domestically on CD? I have
a feeling that no pre-*Skylarking* releases are, yet I'm almost
positive I've seen it in a 12" box. At any rate, is there anywhere
I can get the 'full length version' short of buying an import?
What tracks are on the full length version, anyway? I found an LP
copy recently that had 16 tracks; is that the 1-LP or 2-LP version?
(Couldn't tell directly, since the copy wasn't open).
*Mummer* : Well, there is a CD copy available here (Providence,
RI) for about $19 plus tax, so I had a listen (this store has the
nice feature of letting one listen to any open CD before buying it).
I like the overall feel of the album very much, the quiet folky
introspective tone... but the more ominous, darker songs filled
with chants and such aren't among the better tracks, in my opinion.
I thought the six extra tracks were good overall (espeically the song
"Jump"), but that they, except for the instrumental with "Frost" in
the title, didn't fit well thematically. So I bought *The Compact
XTC* import ($20), which has my three favorite *Mummer* tracks
("Wonderland," "Love on a Farmboy's Wages," and "Great Fire" --
doesn't have "Beating of Hearts" or "Ladybird," though. =( ) anyway.
Plus, it has "This World Over," "Wake Up," and "All You Pretty
Girls" -- which I haven't heard, but which you folks have been
praising for the past few months... =)
*Beeswax* : Where can I find it? I've never seen a copy in my life.
Is it any good? B-side compilations tend to be of variable quality.
*Oranges and Lemons* : You know, I don't hate this one as much as
all that. I was a bit put off on first listen by the lack of much
thematic or conceptual unity (likely, every song was intended to
sound completely different from the others)... but the album
grew on me. Now, I like most of it. My favorite tracks are "Scare-
crow People," "Poor Skeleton Steps Out," and "Cynical Days."
Several of the songs do suffer from extensive overdubs, most
notably "Across This Antheap," but overall it's not a bad record,
if a bit fragmented.
Still looking for *Drums & Wires*, *Black Sea*, *English Settlement*,
*Big Express*...
-- Mark
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] From: sco!stewarte@ucscc.ucsc.edu Subject: interview in new B-side Date: Mon Dec 18 16:32:11 1989 The latest (Dec/Jan) issue of B-side magazine has an interview with our boys. About 2/3 with Andy, 1/3 with Colin. This issue has the B-52's on the cover. $2.50 at yer local record store. I may transcribe it eventually, but I'd rather encourage people to support the rag... -- Stewart
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Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1990 16:03:23 PST
From: John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Random Notes
Some random thoughts for the New Year...
Lyrics from "The Everyday Story of Smalltown" have been going through my
mind for the last month or so:
If it's all the same to you
Mrs Progress
Think I'll drink my Oxo up
And get away
It's not that you're repulsive to see
In your brand new catalogue nylon nightie
You're too fast for little old me
Next you'll be telling me it's 1990
-------
This appeared in _Trouser Press_, October 1983, "The Case of the Missing
Andy Boy", by Harry George.
A cassette of XTC's projected next album, _Mummer_, was
a firm favorite of mine before my meeting with Partridge
in his native Swindon. The zest and invention of English
pastoral classics like the Small Faces' _Ogden's Nut Gone
Flake_ and the Kinks' _Village Green Preservation Society_
typifies the 10 songs: Partridge has finally equalled his
heroes on their own ground. Yet he seems doubtful the
public will hear the LP in its original form.
"There's so many things against it even being
released," Partridge says...
"We didn't get on well with the producer [Steve Nye]
and went on to another [Bob Sargeant]. Virgin [XTC's
British label] said, `There's no singles on it, go away
and write some more,' so I came up with `Great Fire.' The
put it out and the BBC ignored it; consequently it it
never sold a light and Virgin got very pessimistic about
the chances of the the whole album."
Does anybody actually know what this pre-release _Mummer_ had on it?
The article mentions that "Beating of Hearts" opened, and "In Loving
Memory of a Name", "Love on a Farmboy's Wages", "Ladybird", and "Funk
Pop a Roll" all appeared on it. But if "Great Fire" didn't appear on
it, as implied above, then what was the original song list and running
order?
-------
It took the beginning of a new decade for me to finally figure out the
lyrics to "My Paint Heroes". What's odd is that the lyrics I couldn't
decipher were those dealing with one of *my* favorite paint heroes,
Salvador Dali:
In Port Lligat, liked his Gala
Waxed antenna, brushes up a storm
Port Lligat is a small fishing village near Dali's home in Spain, Gala
is Dali's wife, and the antenna refers to Dali's extraordinary
moustache.
Here are the lyrics in full:
All of Paris giggles with flags
Laughing lions leap up from the page
My the world looks good from where you are
My the world looks good from where you paint from
Barcelona, nuclear festive, wire women
Wriggle from life's cage
My the world looks good from where you are
My the world looks good from where you paint from
My the world looks good from where you are
My the world looks like it's all a party
Packed with my paint heroes
Like it's all a party
Packed with Rousseau
Miro, Miro, on my wall
I love you the most of all
In Port Lligat, liked his Gala
Waxed antenna, brushes up a storm
My the world looks good from where you are
My the world looks good from where you paint from
Catalonia's atom caveman
Cracks his whipline tipped in purest form
My the world looks good from where you are
My the world looks good from where you paint from
My the world looks good from where you are
My the world looks like it's all a party
Packed with my paint heroes
Like it's all a party
Packed with Dali
Miro, Miro, on my wall
I love you the most of all
-------
Way back on 18 December 1989, Mark Hessman <ST601287@brownvm.brown.edu>
had this to say:
> *English Settlement* : Is this out domestically on CD? I have
>a feeling that no pre-*Skylarking* releases are
Yes, in fact the US _English Settlement_ CD (on Geffen) is so far the
only CD with the full complement of 15 songs. The UK CD is missing two
tracks, "Leisure" and "Down in the Cockpit".
Also available from Geffen is _The Big Express_, with the three bonus
tracks, "Red Brick Dream", "Washaway", and "Blue Overall".
>*Beeswax* : Where can I find it? I've never seen a copy in my life.
>Is it any good?
Keep looking in used record stores. It's good. Most of the tracks on
it are on various UK CDs (_White Music_, _Black Sea_, and the CD-3 of
_Senses Working Overtime_), but not all.
>Still looking for *Drums & Wires*, *Black Sea*, *English Settlement*,
>*Big Express*...
All are available on CD. Buy or die.
-------
Those of you in the USA interested in finding XTC videos, try writing to
these people:
The Lovejoy's
215 N. Randolph St.
Princeton, IL 61356-1664
Tell 'em Chalkhills sent you. They have at least four compilation
videos available, which include _Look Look_, _XTC Play at Home_
(produced by XTC), _XTC at the Manor_, lots of live stuff, and much much
more. I still haven't watched all the footage on those four videos.
They also have some audio tapes available.
-------
That's all for now. Happy New Year!
-- John
--
"You'll find my corpse in the Colour Supplement"
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