Chalkhills Digest, Volume 13, Number 25

                  Thursday, 7 June 2007

Topics:

                         Not rock
               FOW's "This Better Be Good"
       Paul McCartney and XTC and Becki DiGregorio
                   Jason Falkner Record
                     Quantum Farmboy
                 XTC SoCal Gathering III

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They make each other hungry.

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Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:23:05 -0500
From: Richard <rjpa1@tx.rr.com>
Subject: Not rock
Message-ID: <4664BAF9.6080103@tx.rr.com>

Well it does not actually qualify for the "Top Ten Names You Don't Want
To Have In The Rock Era" but my next-door neighbor, Earl, USED to be a
fan of The Dixie Chicks.

Cheers,
Richard

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Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 10:46:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Steven LeBeau <stevenlebeau@yahoo.com>
Subject: FOW's "This Better Be Good"
Message-ID: <410668.93634.qm@web50308.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

Has anybody else noticed the striking similarity between Fountain of
Wayne's "This Better Be Good" and XTC's "The Loving", right down to
the Dave Gregory-esque guitar solo?

Steven LeBeau
Powerpop Songwriter
http://www.stevenlebeau.com

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 12:39:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ryan Anthony <hamsterranch@yahoo.com>
Subject: Paul McCartney and XTC and Becki DiGregorio
Message-ID: <260214.55828.qm@web51105.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

A paragraph from Michael Azerrad's review of Paul
McCartney's *Memory Almost Full* at eMusic.com:

"Opener 'Dance Tonight' is a folksy stomp, an
invitation to a party delivered in prototypical
dance-music terms ('Everybody gonna dance tonight /
Everybody gonna feel all right'), and yet it comes off
wistful, almost melancholic, and it's not just because
of the mandolins  it's actually a bit of
foreshadowing, and later on we'll learn the
implications of partying at Paul's place. It's really
'Ever Present Past' that sets the theme: In search of
lost time. 'I hope it isn't too late/ searching for
the time that has gone so fast/ The time that I
thought would last,' McCartney sings. The synthetic
hurdy-gurdy feeling of the track reminds of XTC's 1989
Oranges and Lemons while the keening one-note guitar
lick recalls Guided by Voices; then again, both of
those bands can sound an awful lot like- Paul
McCartney."

The lede to this review is great in that it compels
the reader to dive in and read the whole thing ...

"Thanks to a song he wrote when he was a teenager,
there must have been no human being in history as
self-conscious about turning 64 as Paul McCartney."

... but I have a question. I thought "When I'm
Sixty-Four," released in 1967, was the product of a
man (nominally two men) in his mid-20s, but Beatles
freaks on this 'Hill will know: Did Paul actually
sketch out that song years before *Pepper*?

One more item from Azerrad's review:

"McCartney has dodged the question, but 'memory almost
full' happens to be an anagram for 'for my soulmate
LLM,' or Linda Louise McCartney, an almost unbearably
poignant fact."

We who live in Tucson, Arizona, remember it was Linda
who brought Paul here to live for at least part of the
year each year for a quarter of a century.

Not XTC-related, but Chalkhills-related: Check out the
cover of *Memory Almost Full*. Does it remind anyone
of our own Becki DiGregorio's *God's Empty Chair*?

Ryan Anthony
An independent Internet content provider

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 23:06:12 -0400
From: "Bill and Bram" <bramnbill@rcn.com>
Subject: Jason Falkner Record
Message-ID: <008601c7a7e7$a41e6d90$020fa8c0@TheOne>

>From Pastula Aaron: Switching gears, does anyone know when the new Jason
Falkner album will be available in the US?  Should I hold my breath, or just
order the Japanese edition?  Anyone?  Anyone??

I bit the bullet and bought the import.  I don't know what I paid and don't
want to know.  It was worth it though.  The chums I ordered from are located
at this website:

http://www.badnews.co.jp/main/ja/public/cgi-bin/index.cgi

It came with a free disk of Falkner's "essential" tracks.  Some of these
were remakes of better takes, but oh well.  It also came with two nifty
little pins to adorn yourself with.  I was quite satisfied.

Enjoy!  Bill

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 01:37:10 +0000
From: <homefrontradio@hotmail.com>
Subject: Quantum Farmboy
Message-ID: <BAY128-W21500D4C20B42B30E8D3F8D0250@phx.gbl>

Paul Rodgers wrote:

>This Cocker track bugged me for a while, but now I'm>convinced it is Love
On's slowed down nephew.

I'm still relatively new at music theory myself, so not sure if I can
explain this clearly or entirely correctly, but I'll try.  If i've got it
wrong, feel free to correct me.

On one hand your musical instinct is good in that you've recognised that the
songs are both in E Major, but there's one main difference that stops the
songs from being similar.

Most songs harmonics are based on the relationship between the I, IV and V
chords of the song key.  (In E, that would be E, A and B Major).  'Farmboy'
fits this standard scheme.

Occassionally I'll hear songs that replace the V chord with one that uses
the Dominant 7th of the I chord as the root of it's triad.  Unfortunately, I
don't now how to notate this numerically.  For argument's sake I'll call it
a (VIIb)?  Can anyone fill me in here?  Mr. Sherwood?

In E, this would be D, so the three chords that are important now become the
I IV and (VIIb), or E A and D Major.  'Quantum Theory' fits this scheme.
(Two songs offhand that fit this scheme are the majority of Talking Heads'
"And She Was" or John Mellancamp's "ROCK in the USA").

It's rare that I've noticed that songs that are based on this latter
progression and stay within the original key throughout end up featuring the
V, due to the harmonic clash between a dominant and major seventh, so no,
this difference is far too important for the two songs in question to be
truly similar.  Basically, 'Farmboy's' probably doesn't feature a D
anywhere, (and if it does, it's in the murky 'soon my darling' sections),
'Quantum' probably doesn't feature a D# anywhere.

Still, there are popular exceptions.  The Goffin / King song "I'm Into
Something Good", (originally by Earl-Jean but made popular by Herman's
Hermits, and I advise you seek out the former for although it is far more
low-key a rendition, the playful sexiness factor is through the roof),
really drives the hook home by evading the V with (VIIb)'s up until the
'something tells me i'm into something good' line where i think finally
sounding the V gives a intense feeling of harmonic satisfaction to the
listener.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 18:55:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kathleen Davis <msdavis_svs@yahoo.com>
Subject: XTC SoCal Gathering III
Message-ID: <170407.28104.qm@web60411.mail.yahoo.com>

Micro Mini SoCal XTC Gathering III
July 21, 2007
Somewhere around Los Angeles
Official location and time TBA

It will probably be something simple like dinner and drinks somewhere...
Please let us know if you are interested in attending.
For more information, please email Kate at:
mskathleendavis@gmail.com or call 323-683-6098. 

Feel free to invite more fans!

Thanks and hope to see you there,
Kate and Drea

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End of Chalkhills Digest #13-25
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