Dear God

(Partridge)

#\#i#/#Dear God#\#/i#/# single front cover

Dear God single front cover

 Recordings
XTCfans interview with Andy Partridge
Art
Lyrics
Chords and Tablature
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Recordings

  1. Single version, 3'35.
    Recorded during sessions for Skylarking.
    Produced by Todd Rundgren for Alchemedia Productions.
    Released on 16 August 1986 as a B-side to the Grass 12" single in the U.K.
    Reached No. 15 on Billboard Rock Tracks chart.
    Jasmine Veillette - Child vocal
    John Tenney - violin
    Andy: “This was the B-side to ‘Grass’, but radio stations started to flip it over. The lyrics really got up some people's noses, and it became a big radio hit. Whoever first flipped it probably saved us.”
  2. Album version.
    Released on Skylarking.
  3. Promotional video, 2'42?.
    Directed by Nick Brandt.
    Released on The Best of MTV's 120 Minutes.
    Also released on the reissue of Skylarking on 14 October 2016 in the U.K.
    Received the Billboard Best Video award for 1987.
    Nominated for the 1987 MTV Best Director, Best Concept, and Best Innovation awards.
  4. Band demo version.
    Recorded in the front room of 16 Stanier Street, Swindon, in January 1986.
    Engineered by Dave Gregory.
    Mixed by Dave Gregory.
    Released on 25 March 2002 on Coat of Many Cupboards in the U.K.
    Also released on the reissue of Skylarking on 14 October 2016 in the U.K.
    Andy Partridge - Acoustic Guitar and Vocals
    Colin Moulding - Bass
    Dave Gregory - Guitar, Mellotron and Drum Programming

    Andy: “A lot has been written and wrangled over with this song, and, you know, it hasn't deserved it. I just tried to wrestle with the paradox of God and the last dying doubts of belief that had hung, bat like, in the dark corners of my head since childhood. I'll just say one more time this song failed to crystalize all my thoughts on the subject in under 4 minutes. Human belief is too big a beast to bring to the floor in such a short time.

    “This tune had a few incarnations. It started as a kind of skiffle rag with a much bluesier melody but after several blacksmith like bending and bashing sessions (oddly, in my kitchen) it gradually morphed into its well known shape.

    “On the run up to the Skylarking sessions with Todd Rundgren, we congregated at Dave's tiny terraced house, in Swindon's Stanier Street, to record a few band demos on his four track reel to reel. So, awash with much tea and ginger biscuits, we tackled this and ‘Summer's Cauldron’, trying to get something presentable for Todd. Dave found a very ‘House of the Rising Sun’ arpeggio guitar figure to ornament my rather pedestrian acoustic strumming, while Colin anchored away with the Linn drum pretending to be a future Prairie Prince. The Mellotron had been living at Dave's for a few months (where he would tend lovingly its Heath Robinsonesque guts) so we decided this would supply the strings, I'd asked for something a bit Gershwin in the middle, a pinch of ‘Summertime’, a soupçon of ‘It Ain't Necessarily So’. You know, ‘Dat Ol' Debbil Be A Coming Missy’, orchestral blues bend. I remember that Dave's front room floral wallpaper seemed to gaze down at us with almost temperance meeting scorn, as we stirred up our sinful sounds that afternoon.

    “Surely, for this tune, we will burn in Hull.”

  5. Skiffle Version.
    Released in September 2004 on Fuzzy Warbles Volume Five in the U.K.
    Also released on the reissue of Skylarking on 14 October 2016 in the U.K.
    Andy: “Found this a while back laying cowering in a corner of a cassette. It's pretty much me feeling-out the tune with blah blah type lyrics. Little did I know that this piece of brain blurt would be the tip of the iceberg to so much more acceptance for XTC in the U.S. Thank you God.”
  6. 2016 stereo mix.
    Mixed and produced by Steven Wilson from the original multi-track tapes.
    Released on the reissue of Skylarking on 14 October 2016 in the U.K.
  7. 2016 5.1 mix.
    Mixed and produced by Steven Wilson from the original multi-track tapes.
    Released on the reissue of Skylarking on 14 October 2016 in the U.K.
  8. 2016 instrumental mix.
    Mixed and produced by Steven Wilson from the original multi-track tapes.
    Released on the reissue of Skylarking on 14 October 2016 in the U.K.

[Thanks to R. Stevie Moore]

Art

the gatefold #\#i#/#Dear God#\#/i#/# CD single sleeve

the gatefold Dear God CD single sleeve

 “Dear God”, it's Andy Partridge also known as The Great Satan

“Dear God”, it's Andy Partridge also known as The Great Satan

 #\#i#/#Dear God#\#/i#/# USA promo 12" single

Dear God USA promo 12" single
#\#a href="http://youtu.be/hk41Gbjljfo" target="churl"#/#“Dear God” promotional video#\#/a#/#

“Dear God” promotional video

    

Lyrics

Dear God,
hope you got the letter, and...
I pray you can make it better down here.
I don't mean a big reduction in the price of beer
but all the people that you made in your image, see
them starving on their feet 'cause they don't get
enough to eat from God, I can't believe in you

Dear God, sorry to disturb you, but... I feel that I should be heard
loud and clear. We all need a big reduction in amount of tears
and all the people that you made in your image, see them fighting
in the street 'cause they can't make opinions meet about God,
I can't believe in you

Did you make disease, and the diamond blue? Did you make
mankind after we made you? And the devil too!

Dear God, don't know if you noticed, but... your name is on
a lot of quotes in this book, and us crazy humans wrote it, you
should take a look, and all the people that you made in your
image still believing that junk is true. Well I know it ain't, and
so do you, dear God, I can't believe in I don't believe in

I won't believe in heaven and hell. No saints, no sinners, no
devil as well. No pearly gates, no thorny crown. You're always
letting us humans down. The wars you bring, the babes you
drown. Those lost at sea and never found, and it's the same the
whole world 'round. The hurt I see helps to compound that
Father, Son and Holy Ghost is just somebody's unholy hoax,
and if you're up there you'd perceive that my heart's here upon
my sleeve. If there's one thing I don't believe in

it's you... Dear God.

© 1987 Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd.

Chords and Tablature

Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2017 14:33:31 +0200
From: Florian Decros <flodecros (at) gmail dot com>
Subject: Bass tabs of "Skylarking"
Message-ID: <CAPtZtiPs1nY1yeFCibNRa75qhzrX8U_JhcbCUurHrPpGN_p=XA (at) mail dot gmail dot com>

Hi !
As a big fan of the album "Skylarking" and an enthusiast bass player, I decided to transcribe all the songs from the record (except "1000 Umbrellas" because there's no bass, duh), including "Dear God". There's surely mistakes here and there, but I tried to do my best. Hope it will help some bass players across the word :)

Cheers,
Florian.

PS : Sorry if I made some grammatical mistakes, i'm french :)

Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:14:23 +0100
From: Paul Ferguson <tigerlight (at) ukf dot net>
Subject: TAB - supergirl, real by reel, dear god
Message-Id: <a8141aacfe2921a84a55c117c660d26a (at) ukf dot net>

Hi John, it's been many years since I posted on this site but I wanted
to share the fruits of a piece of software I downloaded called
Audacity, which allows one to do all sorts of effects such as slowing
down your favourite Dave Gregory solos to find out exactly how they are
played!

First up is the TAB for That's Really Super Supergirl. (I can just
about play this at half speed, no idea how Dave does it but then he is
superhuman!)

Then we have Real by Reel, which is only SLIGHTLY easier to play

And finally Dear God, which is arguably the easiest to play of the
three but to a ham fisted so and so like me the argument rages well on
into the night...

cheers

Paul Ferguson

Date: August 28, 2003
From: schnitzi (at) east dot isx dot com (Mark J. Schnitzius)
Subject: Dear God chords

By "Mark J. Schnitzius" <schnitzi (at) east dot isx dot com>
and: EricBe (at) microsoft dot com
with help from: Bill Gallagher <billga (at) isumataq dot eskimo dot com>


XTC
"Dear God"
From 'Skylarking'



Fmaj7   A7sus4/D     D2
  8      0 or 0      0
 10      3    3      3
  9      0    0      2
 10      0    2      0
  8      -    0      -
  -      -    2      -

A verse consists of three of the Am riff:

    Am       Am       Am       Am
----0--------0--------0--------0--
----1--------1--------1--------1--
----2--------2--------2--------2--
----2--------2--------2--------2--
-0--0--0-----0--0-----0--0-----0--
----------1--------3--------2-----
          ^Thumb   ^Pinky   ^Thumb

Then two the C riff:

     C       C/Ab  C/D     C/F#
-----0--------0-----0--------0--
-----1--------1-----1--------1--
-----0--------0-----0--------0--
-----2--------2--0--0--0-----0--
--3--3--3-----3-----------------
-----------4--------------2-----
           ^Pinky         ^Thumb

Then the falling D riff:

     D        D        Bb       E7
-----2--------2--------1--------0--
-----3--------3--------3--------3--
-----2--------2--------3--------1--
--0--0--0-----0--0-----3--0--2--2--
-----------3--------1--1-----------
-----------------------------------

with some changes as noted in the score below.

Dear God
---- ---
Dear God, hope you got the letter and...
I pray you can make it better down here
I don't mean a big reduction in the price of beer
But all the people that you made in your image
See them starving on their feet
'Cause they don't get enough to eat
>From God,
I can't believe in you

Dear God, sorry to disturb you but...
I feel that I should be heard loud and clear
We all need a big reduction in amount of tears
And all the people that you made in your image
See them fighting in the street
'Cause they can't make opinions meet
About God,
                   C   D
I can't believe in you

 Fmaj7                         C      G     C
Did you make disease, and the diamond blue?
Fmaj7                      D2 (or A7sus4/D)
Did you make mankind after we made you?
A/C#  C  C/E  E7
Am riff
And the devil, too?
                   C  D  (2nd time thru)

<bridge>  bypass Am thing and go to C riff

Dear God, don't know if you've noticed but...
Your name is on a lot of quotes in this book
And us crazy humans wrote it you should take a look
And all the people that you made in your image
Still believing that junk is true
Well I know it ain't, and so do you, dear God
I can't believe in
I don't believe in
  Am/F#
I won't believe in heaven and hell
  Bb
No saints, no sinners, no devil as well
  Dm
No pearly gates, no thorny crown
  Bb
You're always letting us humans down
  G
The wars you bring, the babes you drown
  Bb
Those lost at sea and never found
  Dm
And it's the same the whole world 'round
  Bb
The hurt I see helps to compound
  G
That Father, Son and Holy Ghost
  Bb
Is just somebody's unholy hoax
  Dm
And if you're up there you'd perceive
  Bb
That my heart's here upon my sleeve
  G                                     A
If there's one thing I don't believe in
     D2/  D  Bb  C  F  G  E  <-  D2 form, use these bass notes
          0   0  0  0  0  0
          3   3  3  3  3  3
          2   2  2  2  2  2
          0   -  -  -  -  -
          -   1  3  -  -  -
          -   -  -  1  3  0
It's you
Dear God
Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 18:17:34 EDT
From: Jairoglyph (at) aol dot com
Subject: i know the chords to dear god "a beautiful song might i add"
Message-ID: <65999066.2505977e (at) aol dot com>


just in caSE YOU WANT TO KNOW IN THIS letter, the chords are

Am             C                                        D           F

      Dear go hope you got the letter and       I pray I can make it better
down here
Am             C                                        D           F
                                               We dont need a big reduction
in the price of beer
                  D
          Bb
But all the people that you made in your image       see them starving on
their feet
              E7                                 Am     C     D     F
            Am   C  D  F
cuz they cant get enough to eat    from god            I cant believe in you
F                                            C       G     C    G
did you make disease, and the diamond blue?
F                                             D               A   C   E7
did you make mankind, after we made you?

and it continues until. . .

Am
I wont believe in heaven or hell
Bb
No saints, no sinners, no devil as well
Dm
(So on and so forth)
Bb
your always lettin us humans down
G
----------
Bb
those lost at sea and never found
Dm
----------
Bb
----------
G
the father son and holy ghost
Bb
is just somebody's unholy hoax
Dm
and i youir up there, you'll . . . .
Bb
----------
G                           A
If there's one i dont believe in. . .
D      Bb    F   E7                 D
It's you                     Dear God
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