Favorite XTC anti-war song!

[Coventina]

Poll question: Favorite XTC anti-war song!

[bonemachine]

1. Gotta love President Kill

So damn beatlesesque.

[ixion]

2. Dear God...

(Second choice would be Generals and Majors)

Dear God - XTC
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.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

5. Joint winner with Living Through Another Cuba and Generals/Majors

[CanuckAmok]

6. "Get the Bulldog to put his teeth back in...WOW!"

n/t

[Screaming Lord Byron]

8. Ah, a fellow XTC obscurist, I see.

Extraordinary Band.

[CanuckAmok]

11. "Xtraordinary", actually!

:toast:

[Screaming Lord Byron]

12. Damn, how did I miss that pun!

[CanuckAmok]

14. Don't worry...that's why I'm here. n/t

n/t

[Az]

10. During my days as an SOP for IRC Dalnet #atheism

The operators of the #atheism debate channel recorded vocal greetings for our website. Mine had Dear God playing in the background for my greeting. Great song. Great band.

[Unforgiven]

3. Kick!

Generals & Majors, Oh yea!

[oldleftguy]

4. Eve of Destruction

by Barry McGuire! I'm old as dirt. :hippie:

[CanuckAmok]

7. There is no contest. The answer is "This World Over"

From "The Big Express" (1984)

Ah well, that's this world over
Ah well, next one begins

Will you smile like any mother
As you bathe your brand new twins?
Will you sing about the missiles
As you dry odd-numbered limbs?

Ah well, that's this world over
Ah well, next one begins
Ah well, that's this world over
You sadly grin

Will you tell them about that far off and mythical land
About their leader with the famous face?
Will you tell them that the reason nothing ever grows
In the garden anymore
Because he wanted to win the craziest race
That's this world over

Will you smile like any father
With your children on a Sunday hike?
When you get to a sea of rubble
And they ask "What was London like?"

You tell them, "Ah well, that's the world over"

Will you tell them about that far off and mythical land
And how a child to the virgin came?
Will you tell them that the reason why we murdered
Everything upon the surface of the world
So we can stand right up and say we did it in his name?

That's this world over
Or so it seems
That's this world over
The end of dreams

That's this world over, over, over and out.



edit: Oh, man, I tear up just reading the lyrics. The melancholy music which accompanies it, particularly the piano, is too much to bear...

[tigerbeat]

17. yes, this world over....

....is another majestic pop gem that apparantly mr. partridge can write in his sleep.

[Westegg]

9. I gotta go with "Melt the Guns"...

...as it's all-around one of my fave XTC songs. But they concocted so many great anti-war songs. Indeed, I believe I will listen to them now.

What's up with XTC these days? This band helped me survive the '80s.

[CanuckAmok]

13. They're still in there pitchin'!

Two albums in the last few years:

"Apple Venus Vol. 1" (1999), and "Wasp Star: Apple Venus Vol. 2" (2000).

I enjoy the first volume, although it's very light pop, musically, but I don't like volume 2 at all.

I think it was Colin Moulding who described "I'd Like that", the single from Volume 1, as "...the theme song for the Paul McCartney Picnic Club". I might be paraphrasing there, but that was the gist.

Lyrically, though, they remain as ascerbic and clever as always:

H-A-T-E
Is that how you spell love in your dictionary
K-I-C-K
Pronounced as kind
F-U-C-K
Is that how you spell friend in your dictionary
Black on black
A guidebook for the blind

Well now that I can see my eyes won't weep
Now that I can hear your song sounds cheap
Now that I can talk all your corn I'll reap
I'm not so sure that Joey wed a Virgin Mary
There are no words for me inside your dictionary

S-L-A-P
Is that how you spell kiss in your dictionary
C-O-L-D
Pronounced as care
S-H-I-T
Is that how you spelt me in your dictionary
Four-eyed fool
You led 'round everywhere

Now that I can see it's the queens new clothes
Now that I can hear all your poison prose
Now that I can talk with my tongue unfroze
I'm not so sure of Santa or the buck-tooth fairy
There are no words for me inside your dictionary

Now your laughter has a hollow ring
But the hollow ring has no finger in
So let's close the book and let the day begin
And our marriage be undone

[Westegg]

15. Do they ever tour? In the States?

I seem to recall they were never big on live gigs. Partridge had a bit of a Brian-Wilson-neurotic thing going on, right?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

16. Yeah, last 'gigs' on this continent were a radio tour in '89, I think.

[tigerbeat]

18. they did a mini-tour for apple venus....

....i was working for an evil empire that shall remain nameless that ran a short-lived live internet studio....XTC came in and did an interview and a couple of acoustic versions of AV1 songs (i'd like that and something else i can't recall). i got to meet them, and i proceeded to make a drooling fanboy ass of myself. very nice gentlemen though. seemed genuinely pleased to meet a loony fan.

[geniph]

19. Melt the Guns is one of my all-time favorites

by one of my all-time favorite bands.

Programmes of violence,
As entertainment,
Brings the disease into your room.
We know the germ,
Which is man-made in metal,
Is really a key to your own tomb.

Prevention is better than cure,
Bad apples affecting the pure,
You’ll gather your senses I’m sure
Then agree to,

Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
And never more to fire them.

Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
And never more desire them.

Children will want them,
Mothers supply them,
As long as your killers are heroes.
And all the media
Will fiddle while rome burns,
Acting like modern-time neros.

Prevention is better than cure,
Bad apples affecting the pure,
You’ll gather your senses I’m sure
Then agree to,

Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
And never more to fire them.

Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
And never more desire them.

I’m speaking to the justice league of america.
The u s of a,
Hey you,
Yes you in particular!
When it comes to the judgement day and you’re standing at the gates with your weaponry,
You dead go down on one knee,
Clasp your hands in prayer and start quoting me,
’cos we say...
Our father we’ve managed to contain the epidemic in one place, now,
Let’s hope they shoot themselves instead of others,
Help to civilize the race now.
We’ve trapped the cause of the plague,
In the land of the free and the home of the brave.
If we listen quietly we can hear them shooting from grave to grave.
You ought to,

Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
And never more to fire them.

Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
And never more desire them.