FEATURE: ‘What A Young Musician Hears When She Listens To XTC'
In my experience, it seems that every musician, no matter to what level or standard they play, has a few artists that they aspire to be like and that motivate them to try and get better at what they do. For me the most recent (and perhaps the most efficacious) addition to my own list of these artists is XTC. It’s their songs that are, of course, the most important thing. ‘Love On A Farmboy’s Wages’ was the first song by the band that I listened to (I was fascinated by the way the single sleeve was made to look like a wallet, so bought it on a whim from a local record shop) and it was unlike any ‘pop’ song I’d ever heard before in my life. It made me want to pick up an acoustic guitar and learn how to play. It made me want to find out more about the characters in this narrative that was slowly unravelling out of the speakers of my record player. It was XTC’s unique style of songwriting, as well as the range of genres they tackled (often within one song!) that really drew me to them to start with. Take ‘Mayor Of Simpleton’ for example. Very rarely do you hear a song like that- one that isn’t just a song, but a glorious wall of sound that never once falters in pace or effortlessness. Intertwining guitar melodies, luscious bass lines, sugar-sweet backing vocals...it’s got everything! And all that is simply setting the scene for some of the most conceptually brilliant and hopelessly charming lyrics ever written. And then there’s the performance side of the band. You think all there is to XTC is good songwriting? Think again. Even though the band stopped touring in 1982, from any of the live footage available (particularly from the early days), you can tell their gigs were something special. To me the energy just seems to pummel its way out of the screen like a chained animal desperately fighting to escape its shackles, and the band’s playing is just as tight as on the original records. I once read a review of a Clash gig from the late ‘70s where the reviewer commented that ‘Joe Strummer sang and played every note as if it was a matter of life or death’. Surely that must have been true of Andy Partridge’s performances as well; whether it was his natural stage persona, the drugs he was on or a combination of both, I don’t know, but watching his almost-violent dedication to any song he played and it is just completely infectious.
It’s not like I’m saying this from the point of view of someone who was there at the time either (no matter how hard I wish, that time machine never appears!). XTC formed more than two decades before I was born, but that doesn’t make it any more difficult for me to appreciate them. Their output (particularly from 1979 onwards) has a timelessness that a lot of music from that era does not; it seems that whatever mood I’m in, I can put any of their albums on and it will always be enjoyable to listen to.
And whilst playing the records, I also often find myself not only enjoying them as a fan, but also listening in utter awe as a musician. One day, I tell myself, I will write a song with as much ‘joie de vivre’ as ‘Life Begins At The Hop’. I’ll write words as deliciously melancholy as the lyrics of ‘Didn’t Hurt A Bit’. Something as thunderously quirky as ‘No Thugs In Our House’, as blunderingly honest as ‘When You’re Near Me I Have Difficulty’, as terrifyingly gorgeous as ‘Easter Theatre’, or ‘Vanishing Girl’, or ‘World Wrapped In Grey’, or even ‘Love On A Farmboy’s Wages’. The list goes on. And I know that as a music student in my second year of college, I still have a way to go before music, in whatever form, becomes something I can make a career out of. I may lose in interest in it completely and pursue something else. But the day I stop wanting to be a musician is also the day I stop listening to and appreciating the unique creativity, ability and, at times, unquenchable insanity of bands like XTC. And that certainly isn’t going to be happening any time soon.
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This piece was originally written for 'What Do You Call That Noise?', an exploration of the ongoing appeal of XTC's music edited by Mark Fisher. Cover artwork by Mark Thomas.
Copies of the book can be purchased from www.xtclimelight.com
