When I'm recounting XTC albums, I usually end up forgetting about The Big Express (their seventh album from 1984). It's a pretty good record which was unfortunately sandwiched between two great ones (Mummer and Skylarking), so it's easy to forget about.
When I bought The Big Express after it came out, it didn't do much for me, and it took a few years for me to appreciate. One KFJC dj (with the nom du radio Holden Caulfield) used to start his 6am Monday morning show with "Wake Up" (the first track on the album), so I have a lot of memories of waking up to that song. My two favorite songs on The Big Express are both by Colin Moulding ("Wake Up" and "I Remember The Sun").
That same DJ was a big XTC supporter who was responsible for turning me from a casual fan to a fanatic. He did a couple of three hour XTC specials where he played a bunch of their B, C, and D sides, which were really hard to find in the days before the internet or bonus trax, or even Rag & Bone Buffet. This song ("Take This Town") was one of the obscurities I remember being really taken with from Holden's KFJC specials.
"Take This Town" was the b-side to the single "Wake Up", but was actually an earlier song from 1980, originally on the soundtrack to the movie Times Square
2 comments:
It also contains what has been reported to be Andy Partridge's favorite song: Seagull Screaming...
wow... small world.
I AM that Holden Caulfield. (I had never thought to search the web for old KFJC references, but then someone sent me an old Winston Q link... and that lead to...)
Great blog! I certainly remember starting out my Mondays with one of my favorites songs of the time... Glad to see you were as on board as I was...
Cheers!
-John Mavroudis
(aka "Holden Caulfield" on KFJC)
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