XTC: "Towers of London"

16 October 1980

"Andy Partridge must be one the few rock songwriters who could get away with a single dedicated to Victorian city-building."

— Steve Taylor

What I previously said:

UK music critics at the time were crazy about Swindon's XTC — just as North American hacks were similarly gaga for them by the end of the eighties — as this second proto-SOTF in just six week indicates (perhaps it was also to make amends for spurning "Making Plans for Nigel" a year earlier). Spinning a yarn over London's growth and the poor, wretched individuals who built it, the song clangs of hammered iron, which hints at what they'd eventually do on their patchy '84 album The Big Express. Clearly XTC were on course to become a preeminent eighties band. What could possibly go wrong?

So, what exactly did go wrong?

Hints of troubles on the horizon were there as early as 1980. Fourth album Black Sea had only just been released to encouraging reviews. Ian Cranna considered it to be "magnificent", looked on in wonder at how they managed "to be so dazzlingly clever and thoroughly likeable at the same time" and concluded by proclaiming it to be a "compulsory purchase". And he's absolutely correct: if you catch me on the right day, it's my favourite XTC album (I have trouble choosing between it, Skylarking and Apple Venus). "Generals and Majors" had just returned them to the Top 40, albeit just barely. But cracks were already beginning to show.

The same issue of Smash Hits in which Cranna instructs all readers to immediately buy themselves a copy of Black Sea forthwith also includes a feature about XTC in the midst of a swank five year anniversary party for record label Virgin and the filming of a BBC2 special about the band. The fact that they were guests of honour at a such a do indicates the high hopes record company suits had for them. Yet the Swindon foursome are out of sorts in this caviar and champagne environment. Andy Partridge admits to still living in a small flat above in his hometown with his wife's connections allowing them to live rent free. The group was still in debt to Virgin and this is a situation that would remain for over a decade until they finally broke from the label. They were becoming a popular live attraction but their leader was already beginning to chafe at the stress of life on the road and this would come to a head a year and a half later when he permanently quit touring.

A lot would end up being squandered but what exactly were XTC going to lose by gradually alienating themselves from their record company and giving up the road? What didn't change was Partridge's muse which was never going to make a long-term impression on the masses. Black Sea is indeed as "commercial" as Cranna reckons but their leader's subject matter could steer towards the obscure at times. Closing track "Travels in Nihilon" is extraordinary but it would have baffled newcomers, "Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins)" is hectoring and "Towers of London" is about architects and the never-never navvies who built the centre of the British Empire.

Youngsters may not have been rushing to the high street Boots to pick up a copy but enough people bought "Towers of London" to give XTC their second Top 40 hit on the bounce, ending Partridge's dubious streak of chart failures (notably, from this point on, he would pen all four of their remaining hits as Colin Moulding ended up running dry). It wasn't a major success but it was a respectable performance. The misunderstood "Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)" took them back to the Top 20 so there was some momentum that they would promptly piss away. Nevertheless, "Towers of London" is a superlative single that builds into a singalong in spite of the lyrical content. They say that people like Marvin Gaye could sing the phone book but only Partridge could write a songbook based on the Farmer's Almanac. The commercial potential may have been limited but it was so worth having someone there to do so

A note on my quote from above. While I still agree with myself that "Towers of London" anticipates the Industrial Revolution rock of The Big Express, there is the difference of locale. Partridge putting his stamp on the British capital indicates that he still had an interest in worldly matters but this had vanished four years later when his perspective had narrowed all the way down to Swindon. Instead of mythologizing La-la-Londinium, he was happy to explore the Small Town he came from. And that's his call and good for him but, again, what exactly went wrong here?

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Yellow Magic Orchestra: "Nice Age"

Definitely this fortnight's runner up for best single. Yellow Magic Orchestra had an uncanny ability to nick from all over the place and still make themselves sound like no one else. Yeah, as Steve Taylor says, there's some Bowie and Sparks in there but this is too playful for Dame David and the Maels would have had to hammer home some irony. Again, not especially commercial which is a shame considering how irresistibly catchy it is. All hail groups like XTC and the Yellow Magic Orchestra because they were so far away from the tediousness of The Cars.

Madness: "One Step Beyond"

1 November 1979

"Now, let's see...which is the A-side?"

— Steve Bush

Good to be careful, isn't it? Wouldn't want to risk having to once again be dealing with some irate readers, would ya? Steve Bush gave Madness plenty of praise for their debut single but all that seems to be remembered is that fact that he mixed up the A and B sides — which, if you think about it, only tells you how good these Camden lads were, that they were able to put something so good on the flip that it could easily be mistaken for a flagship release (though I suppose the inverse of that is that the intended single was so underwhelming as to be assumed to be just filler for the second side).

As if regretting the decision to relegate "Madness" to the other side of "The Prince", Madness chose a Prince Buster cover for their follow up single. Covering the same artist twice on the bounce straight out of the gate seems risky: for one thing, they were sending out the message that they didn't have a great deal of faith in their own material and, second, and more worryingly, it appeared that they were piggybacking on someone else's work and identity. A good thing, then, that their interpretation of "One Step Beyond" bears only a passing resemblance to the original.

Released in 1964 as the B-side to single "Al Capone" (from which The Specials borrowed liberally for their outstanding hit single "Gangsters"), "One Step Beyond" is a slow moving, methodical number. The sax part is so relaxed that it could have been played by the breathy, swoonsome tenor master Ben Webster. Indeed, the horn solos give it a nice jazzy feel that you won't find on its much more famous cover. (Though I would defend Lee "the guy from Madness" Thompson as a sax player in a pop group, he doesn't come close to what Dennis "Ska" Campbell is able to get out of his woodwind) Wisely figuring that there was no way they'd be able to ape the source material, Madness' version injects plenty of hot ska revival energy which just about makes up for the group's limitations. While there is plenty to like about Prince Buster's recording, there's no question which one gets stuck in my head easier and is "really hard to keep still to".

Producer Alan Winstanley, of the famed Langer and Winstanley production team that worked with The Teardrop Explodes, Dexys Midnight Runners and Elvis Costello & The Attractions in addition to their lengthy association with Madness, has said that "One Step Beyond" was recorded short, with just a minute and ten seconds of running time which they then looped in order to flesh it out to appropriate single length. This is not an unprecedented act of studio trickery. Phil Spector lengthened the George Harrison track "I Me Mine" from its similarly brief original studio take for release on Let It Be (he also added an uncharacteristically subtle string section making it the only Beatles' song he failed to cock up). 12" mixes are all about extending pop songs beyond standard radio play length and the vast majority are bases around stretching out the hooks. Bush listens to "One Step Beyond" and wants more (it "ends about five minutes too soon" he reckons) but it's the sort of wish that was better off not coming true. Yes, there is a desire to keep the party going but the repetitiveness would have become exposed had it gone on for much longer.

"One Step Beyond" gave Madness their first of fourteen Top 10 hits. I suggested in my write up on Bush's review of "Madness" that their debut may have been a tiny disappointment when held up against efforts from The Specials, The Selecter and The Beat from the same year. Their early records weren't there simply to prompt kids into the shops but also to encourage them seek these acts out on tours. You like our single? Just wait till you see our show. (The Specials went so far as to record follow up single "Nite Klub" so as to sound live and then released a live EP at the start of 1980, the chart topping Too Much Too Young) Madness proved up to the challenge with "One Step Beyond" and it quickly became one of their hallmark numbers. Though rocksteady and ska would never quite leave their sound, their days as a full-on 2 Tone act were numbered (they'd already left the label after "The Prince" and were now signed to Stiff, home of spiritual cousins Ian Dury & The Blockheads) and it was time to spread out. Luckily, they already had a track called "My Girl" that just needed some dusting off. They're away.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Yellow Magic Orchestra: "La femme chinoise"

Forget (assuming you were ever aware of) all that hooey about them being the original cyber punks, Yellow Magic Orchestra were (and still are) way too much of an original one-off to be so carelessly described. If I was to make a sweeping characterization of them I'd say they were a forerunner to both the fantastic nineties scene of futuristic Japanese retro pop known as Shibuya-kei and a whole generation of French electro-pop boffins like Air, Daft Punk and Etienne de Crecy but even that smacks of the sort of lazy musicology wherein female singers are cited only as an influence on other female singers. Transcending the novelty synth of its day, "La femme chinoise" is masterful with tricks aplenty and something seemingly brand new to discover with every listen. And I figured I'd be sick of it by now.