The Wheel and the MayPOLL: The XTC Poll Results Thread

This poll also helped me deal with ambivalences about the band, mostly by listening the shit out of the music.

Young Cleopatra highest ranking song with only 1 vote. Voter come out & explain yourself please.

Ladybird lowest ranking song with a no.1 vote.

President Kill was my no. 100, although if I'd remembered the Dukes or ever listened to the Warbles it would have been gone, gone from the list....

Stats:

Single most associated with XTC: "Making Plans for Nigel"
Biggest early eighties college hit: "Senses Working Overtime."
Exposure hit: "Dear God"
Biggest US hit: "The Mayor of Simpleton"

there is no language in our stats

Didn't vote as there's way too much I haven't heard or only heard once. But had I voted "Runaways" and "Greenman" would both be higher, and no longer tied. Also very surprised that "Love at First Sight" was so low.

Should have voted for Ladybird myself; it's absolutely lovely but not one of the songs I grew up with & hasn't *completely* clicked into place yet - it's definitely one of those I considered though. I know exactly who made it their #1, I think, although I notice it had an extremely high average placement - maybe the highest here for a song with multiple voters

Here's my list, bolded didn't poll. I think my surprise was how unloved the 90s releases are in general, and also, I expected White Music/Go2/Drums and Wires to have a bigger showing, given how often they are cited as icons of the new wave era. I like Mummer more than I thought, and hell, even The Big Express has Liarbird. Still no love for the Dukes records though.

1 The Mayor of Simpleton
2 Respectable Street
3 Making Plans for Nigel
4 No Thugs in Our House
5 The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead
6 Towers of London
7 Runaways
8 My Bird Performs Nonsuch
9 Your Dictionary Apple Venus
10 Earn Enough for Us
11 The Disappointed
12 Life Begins at the Hop
13 Ball and Chain
14 This Is Pop
15 Senses Working Overtime
16 Stupidly Happy Wasp Star
17 Then She Appeared
18 King for a Day
19 Crocodile Nonsuch
20 I Bought Myself a Liarbird The Big Express
21 Garden of Earthly Delights Oranges & Lemons
22 That's Really Super, Supergirl
23 Merely a Man Oranges & Lemons
24 I'd Like That
25 Dear Madam Barnum
26 Dear God
27 Generals and Majors
28 Scarecrow People Oranges & Lemons
29 Science Friction White Music
30 Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)
31 Grass
32 Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins) Black Sea
33 River of Orchids
34 Beating of Hearts
35 Are You Receiving Me?
36 Great Fire
37 When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty
38 Funk Pop A Roll Mummer
39 Living Through Another Cuba Black Sea
40 One of the Millions Oranges & Lemons

The big scandal of this poll is the poor showing for 25 O'Clock. I mean, what in the world??

68. What In The World??...
78. Bike Ride to the Moon
91. The Mole from the Ministry
92. Your Gold Dress
101. 25 O'Clock
107. My Love Explodes

i tried!

So did I! 4 out of 6 25 O'Clock songs made my ballot!

My top 50:

1. Beating of Hearts
2. Generals and Majors
3. It's Nearly Africa
4. Earn Enough for Us
5. Wrapped in Grey
6. Sacrificial Bonfire
7. Yacht Dance
8. 25 O'Clock
9. Wake Up
10. Green Man
11. Love on a Farmboy's Wages
12. Chain of Command
13. Senses Working Overtime
14. Vanishing Girl
15. Red
16. Life Begins at the Hop
17. Are You Receiving Me
18. Pulsing Pulsing
19. Another Satellite
20. Towers of London
21. King for a Day
22. Travels in Nihilon
23. Blame the Weather
24. Garden of Earthly Delights
25. Science Friction
26. Melt the Guns
27. Man Who Sailed Around His Soul, The
28. What in the World
29. Terrorism [Home Demo]
30. Mayor of Simpleton, The
31. Scarecrow People
32. Fly on the Wall
33. Crocodile
34. In Loving Memory of a Name
35. My Love Explodes
36. Little Lighthouse
37. Radios in Motion
38. Ballet for a Rainy Day
39. Rocket from a Bottle
40. Jump
41. Merely a Man
42. I Bought Myself a Liarbird
43. Pale and Precious
44. Roads Girdle the Globe
45. In Another Life
46. Bike Ride to the Moon
47. Poor Skeleton Steps Out
48. Helicopter
49. Dear Madam Barnum
50. Shake You Donkey Up

#51 to 75, unranked:
Chalkhills and Children
Collideascope
Complicated Game
Cross Wires
English Roundabout
Everyday Story of Smalltown, The
Funk Pop a Roll
I'd Like That
Instant Tunes
Jason and the Argonauts
Ladybird
Making Plans for Nigel
Meeting Place
My Bird Performs
No Thugs in Our House
Playground
Punch and Judy
Red Brick Dream
Reel by Real
Respectable Street
River of Orchids
Statue of Liberty
Summer's Cauldron
Take This Town
Washaway

#76 to 100, unranked:
Ball and Chain
Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead, The
Down in the Cockpit
Extrovert
Fruit Nut
Happy Families
Harvest Festival
Heaven Is Paved with Broken Glass
Knights in Shining Karma
Miniature Sun
My Brown Guitar
Neon Shuffle
No Language in Our Lungs
Pink Thing
Rhythm, The
Runaways
Season Cycle
Smartest Monkeys, The
Smokeless Zone
Thanks for Christmas
This Is Pop
This World Over
Wheel and the Maypole, The
World Is Full of Angry Young Men, The
You're the Wish You Are I Had

Incredible that 'You're The Wish You Are I Had' made the Top 60 and 'Train Running Low On Soul Coal' didn't. 'The Wheel and The Maypole' was my #1.

XTC fandom is so personal and particular that it wouldn't surprise me if we all have at least one song in our top 10 that barely received any other votes.

143. Young Cleopatra (96 points, 1 votes)
TIE 144. Dance Band (93 points, 1 votes)
TIE 144. Life Is Good In The Greenhouse (93 points, 1 votes)
145. All along the watchtower (91 points, 1 votes)

^^^top tens with unique votes

i was one of these

I was too.

Great poll, thanks Οὖτις for running it, and thanks Hideous for really delightful artwork -- it caught the spirit of the band perfectly imo.

With about 2 days left to vote and almost no new listening achieved, I wound up just ranking Waxworks, Beeswax and "Respectable St." "Senses" ended up higher on my ballot than I initially thought it would.

1. Life Begins at the Hop
2. Making Plans for Nigel
3. Science Friction
4. This Is Pop?
5. She’s So Square
6. Are You Receiving Me?
7. Towers of London
8. Dance Band
9. Pulsing Pulsing
10. Generals and Majors
11. Wait Till Your Boat Goes Down
12. Respectable Street
13. Senses Working Overtime
14. Ball and Chain
15. She’s So Square
16. Heatwave
17. Instant Tunes
18. Statue of Liberty
19. Smokeless Zone
20. Don’t Lose Your Temper
21. The Somnambulist
22. Blame the Weather
23. Tissue Tigers
24. Heaven Is Paved With Broken Glass
25. Sgt. Rock Is Going to Help Me
26. Punch and Judy
27. Hang On to the Night

listening to some White Music deep cuts...they're really good, shit!

Points per album:

Skylarking (12,224)
Black Sea (10,574)
English Settlement (10,084)
Non-LP (6,924)
Drums & Wires (6,842)
Oranges & Lemons (6,735)
Nonsuch (6,713)
Apple Venus (5,734)
The Big Express (5,562)
Mummer (4,275)
Psonic Psunspot (3,671)
White Music (2,551)
Wasp Star (2,541)
25 O'Clock (1,970)
Go 2 (1,675)
Fuzzy Warbles (1,003)

(Oops, some of my math is wrong there, but probably not enough to change the ranking.)

Keep in mind that the Non-LP category includes "Life Begins at the Hop" [1,688 pt.] and "Are You Receiving Me" [743 pt.]. Without those, the rest of the Non-LP cuts total 4,493 pt., still more than Mummer got.

Conclusion: XTC has one of the best catalog of B-sides ever.

I take it "Take Away/The lure of Salvage" got no votes?

CORRECTED Points Per Album:

(Non-LP moves down 3 slots)

Skylarking (12,224)
Black Sea (10,574)
English Settlement (10,084)
Drums & Wires (6,842)
Oranges & Lemons (6,807)
Nonsuch (6,713)
Non-LP (6,675)
Apple Venus (5,734)
The Big Express (5,562)
Mummer (4,275)
Psonic Psunspot (3,848)
White Music (2,551)
Wasp Star (2,541)
25 O'Clock (1,970)
Go 2 (1,675)
Fuzzy Warbles (1,003)

x-post

"New Broom" was the only dub track--1 vote, 71 points

Statistics nerdery continues.

Songs Receiving No Votes (all non-LP tracks except *):

A Dictionary of Modern Marriage
Always Winter Never Christmas
Beat the Bible
Black Jewelled Serpent of Sound
Blue Overall
Bushman President
Cairo
Cherry in Your Tree
Clap Clap Clap
Commerciality
Countdown to Christmas Party Time
*Crowded Room
Dance with Me, Germany
Didn't Hurt a Bit
*Do What You Do
Down a Peg
Egyptian Solution
Ella Guru
Find the Fox
Fireball XL-5/Fireball Dub
*Frivolous Tonight
*Fruit Nut
Happy Families
Homo Safari
*Human Alchemy
*I Am the Audience
I Need Protection
I Sit in the Snow
*I'm Bugged
*Jumping in Gomorrah
Let's Have Fun
Let's Make a Den
Limelight
Living in a Haunted Heart
Madhattan
Mantis on Parole
*Millions
*My Brown Guitar
My Paint Heroes
*My Weapon
Nicely Nicely Jane
Officer Blue
*Omnibus
Open a Can of Human Beans
Over Rusty Water
Procession Towards Learning Land
Say It
Skeletons
*Spinning Top
*Standing in for Joe
Steam Fist Futurist
Strange Tales, Strange Tails
Susan Revolving
The Day They Pulled the North Pole Down
The Forgotten Language of Light
The Good Things
The Rotary
The Troubles
Things Fall to Bits
Tin Toy Clockwork Train
Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen
Toys
Traffic Light Rock
Us Being Us
*War Dance
Washaway
We Kill the Beast
Where Did All the Ordinary People Go
Work Away Tokyo Day
*Wounded Horse

No-one voted for my weapon?

Wow great top 60
Feel pretty bummed for Wonderland, but great to see Earn Enough for Us so high - not just my top XTC track, but one of my all time faves
Fantastic job, thanks for running this!
& Superb work on the pics, perfect.

I'm only a dilettante when it comes to XTC, so here are mine. Sad Poor Skeleton didn't make the cut. Really love the groove on that one. Wrapped In Grey has recently revealed itself as my favourite XTC. Wheel & the Maypole is also a recent discovery. And why didn't Great Fire make it? Such a strange song of violence.

Wrapped In Grey
Poor Skeleton Steps Out
Great Fire
Dear God
The Wheel & the Maypole
The Disappointed
Generals & Majors
The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead
The Loving
Making Plans For Nigel
Wonderland
Statue Of Liberty
Sgt Rock Is Going To Help Me

oh it did make it, my bad.

Great work, thanks Οὖτις and Lump.

1.Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins)
2. Vanishing Girl
3. Ten Feet Tall
4. Respectable Street
5. Easter Theatre
6. No Language in Our Lungs
7. Life Begins at the Hop
8. Wrapped in Grey
9. That's Really Super, Supergirl
10. Making Plans for Nigel
11. Chalkhills and Children
12. Sacrificial Bonfire
13. You're the Wish You Are I Had
14. Shiny Cage
15. When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty
16. Summer's Couldron
17. The Meeting Place
18. Towers of London
19. I Remember the Sun
20. Knuckle Down
21. The Everyday Story of Smalltown
22. Mermaid Smiled
23. Season Cycle
24. Burning With Optimism's Flames
25. Helicopter
26. Another Satellite
27. Grass
28. What in the World?
29. Ballet for a Rainy Day
30. Statue of Liberty

I should maybe have had 'Vanishing Girl' at #1, it's been stuck in my head for the last 24hrs. I think I need to spend some more time with English Settlement and Mummer. Not as keen on the post-Skylarking albums but perhaps I should revisit them too.

My ballot (and final poll position)

I Remember The Sun (66)
Great Fire (39)
King For A Day (30)
Wonderland (70)
Earn Enough For Us (3)
Red Brick Dream (93)
Senses Working Overtime (1)
Snowman (23)
The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead (52)
Easter Theatre (9)
Respectable Street (2)
Generals And Majors (6)
Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me) (48)
Making Plans For Nigel (5)
Yacht Dance (35)
Rook (75)
Then She Appeared (29)
The Mayor Of Simpleton (8)
1000 Umbrellas (38)
Greenman (51)
I Can't Own Her (82)
Wake Up (42)
No Thugs In Our House (13)
Grass (11)
The Meeting Place (23)
I'm The Man Who Murdered Love (137)
Dear God (58)

I should have spent a bit more time with the order but I'm happy with the top 3 and the overall selection.

thanks to this thread i discovered Wrapped In Grey so thanks thread!

Oh, here's my ballot. No regrets! Although I'm the only one who'd rather be a plant than a Mickey Mouse...

Senses Working Overtime
Complicated Game
Travels In Nihilon
English Roundabout
No Language In Our Lungs
The Wheel And The Maypole
Ballet For A Rainy Day
Life Is Good In The Greenhouse
The Smartest Monkeys
Battery Brides (Andy Paints Brian)
1000 Umbrellas
Leisure
What In The World??...
Real By Reel
Jason And the Argonauts
That Wave
Harvest Festival
Snowman
Another Satellite
The Mole From The Ministry
Helicopter
Smokeless Zone
Greenman
Generals And Majors
Easter Theatre
No Thugs In Our House
Roads Girdle The Globe
Living Through Another Cuba
Then She Appeared
Playground
Ball And Chain
Wrapped In Grey
Your Gold Dress
Beatown
Stupidly Happy

Okay here is mine.

1. Ladybird
2. Red Brick Dream
3. Rook
4. Rocket From A Bottle
5. Yacht Dance
6. Season Cycle
7. Complicated Game
8. No Language In Our Lungs
9. Summer's Cauldron
10. Tissue Tigers
11. Me And The Wind
12. Earn Enough For Us
13. Ten Feet Tall
14. Battery Brides
15. Deliver Us From The Elements
16. Runaways
17. Beating Of Hearts
18. You're The Wish You Are I Had
19. The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul
20. Scissor Man
21. 1000 Umbrellas
22. Harvest Festival
23. Travels In Nihilon
24. One Of The Millions
25. Wrapped In Grey
26. Sleepyheads/Looking For Footprints
27. Jason & The Argonauts
28. Heatwave
29. Little Lighthouse
30. Across This Antheap
31. Ball & Chain
32. Science Friction
33. Knights In Shining Karma
34. Reign Of Blows
35. In Loving Memory Of A Name
36. Seagulls Screaming…..
37. Another Satellite
38. What In The World
39. Pulsing Pulsing
40. Millions

Who voted for Desert Island? Gotta know.

there's a lot in your list that I need to listen to properly, obv. still regretting leaving Ladybird off - I listened to it a couple of times yesterday and yeah I mean

Who voted Tissue Tigers #1? It was in my top 10, was considering making it my #1 myself. I love that song so much.

frogbs post your ballot!

I decided to just do 20, 50 seemed like way too much but in retrospect I had more than enough songs to put up there.

#1 I felt was an obvious choice. Everything about that song is perfect. That description from Andy as to how the bass parts bounce off the chords makes total sense and likely was the reason I love the song so much. I felt bad about ranking "Senses Working Overtime" so low but I docked it points because I find the chorus gets lodged in my head for so long that I almost dread thinking about it.

1. Mayor of Simpleton
2. Yacht Dance
3. Greenman
4. Another Satellite
5. Generals and Majors
6. No Thugs in our House
7. What in the World?
8. Tissue Tigers
9. Snowman
10. Little Lighthouse
11. Your Gold Dress
12. Life Begins at the Hop
13. Neon Shuffle
14. Senses Working Overtime
15. My Bird Performs
16. River of Orchids
17. English Roundabout
18. Burning With Optimism's Flames
19. Life Begins at the Hop
20. Chalkhills and Children

I played in an XTC tribute band for a short time and Mayor is such a bugger to play, just the last bar of the loop joining onto the first bar, so tricky.

LJ, was I your Ladybird suspect?

Yeah the second time I heard Simpleton yesterday it suddenly leapt into giddy focus. The baseline is genuinely extraordinary

Course you were MN!

baseline? This phone!

Who voted Tissue Tigers #1? It was in my top 10, was considering making it my #1 myself. I love that song so much.

Yeah this, I take my hat off sir/madam.

iirc correctly Partridge wrote the line too.

TB: Back to the song -- let's talk about the bass line.

AP: Yeah! I'm going to be immodest, because this is part of my drive toward immodesty this year...

TB: Well, the line is yours, after all! It's obvious -- it's there on the demo.

AP: *chuckles* People do these survey things, and say, "Let's vote for Colin's best bass line" or something, and they don't realize that the two bass lines they vote for -- "Vanishing Girl" and "Mayor of Simpleton" -- it's me playing bass on "Vanishing Girl"...

TB: Oh, I didn't know that.

AP: Yeah. Or "What in the World?" -- that's me playing bass as well.

TB: Get out of here!

AP: That's me on bass -- Colin's on rhythm guitar.

TB: And you came up with that bass line?

AP: Yeah.

TB: That's funny -- I've always thought that was him channeling McCartney.

AP: No, we had to cut it live. He obviously couldn't play the bass and the rhythm guitar, and I didn't know how the chords went, so instead of him teaching me the chords, I said, "Look, you play the chords, I'll play the bass, and we'll get this thing done before lunchtime!"

But the one they mention is "Mayor," and Colin had to work very hard to get that bass line. It's very precise. It took me a long time to work it out, because I wanted to get into the J.S. Bach mode of each note being the perfect counterpoint to where the chords are and where the melody is. The bass is the third part in the puzzle.

TB: You do that a lot in your songs.

AP: Yeah, it's a compulsion. On many of the songs I don't tell him which exact notes to play, but with this one, I said, "You have to play this bass line, because it's taken me weeks to work this out." I went through and worked it out a note at a time, to go with where the vocal note was at, where the implied guitar chords were, where the actual notes of the guitar being twanged to make that implied chord were. It was built scientifically, it was [laughs] precision-engineered so that every note is in the perfect place. And I think Colin liked the bass line, because we talked about it sounding like a collegiate peal of bells.

TB: Why did you feel you needed that kind of driving bass line in there?

AP: To keep the song moving, moving, moving. I wanted it to have a fleetness of foot, a joyousness to it. I used to love running as a kid -- in fact, I still dream of running. If I ran now, I'd die of a heart attack in about 30 steps [laughs], but I used to love running, and got really high on it as a kid. I wanted this track to have a sense of fleet forward movement, so the bass had to be very propulsive. The guitars are doing that kind of [sings guitar pattern] -- they almost sound sequenced, but they're not. They're played. I wanted the bass to move against that continuous arpeggio. And of course the drums locked into that as well, with the bass drum really hammering along.

So yeah, it was tough for Colin to get, but he did get it, because we played it live during the radio tour we did, where he would play that line on the acoustic guitar.

*something about synaesthesia* ;)

Great snippet. He seems quite generous with his self-insight; I should read more of his sayings

Yeah, this is a great rabbit-hole (incase you didn't know already)

http://chalkhills.org/articles/XTCFans.html

Is Mayor of Simpleton supposed to be a tribute to Wonderful World?

Whoa ty MN! Awesome

Great poll, thanks for organizing Οὖτις! Also great art!

1. 1000 Umbrellas
2. Chalkhills and Children
3. Harvest Festival
4. No Language In Our Lungs
5. Ballet for A Rainy Day
6. Easter Theatre
7. Snowman
8. Humble Daisy
9. Wonder Annual
10. Ladybird
11. Grass
12. I'd Like That
13. Love On A Farmboy's Wages
14. That's Really Super, Supergirl
15. I Bought Myself a Liarbird
16. Respectable Street
17. Summer's Cauldron
18. Wake Up
19. That Wave
20. The Wheel and the Maypole
21. Minature Sun
22. You're the Wish You Are I Had
23. Ship Trapped in Ice
24. This Is Pop
25. Towers of London
26. Me & the Wind
27. Brainiac's Daughter
28. I'm Unbecome
29. Pale and Precious
30. I Remember the Sun

Great poll, Οὖτις! And great images, Hideous Lump! Thanks for doing this!

my ballot:

1. Earn Enough For Us
2. Respectable Street
3. Senses Working Overtime
4. Making Plans For Nigel
5. Grass
6. Are You Receiving Me?
7. The Meeting Place
8. Summer's Cauldron
9. Ball and Chain
10. The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul
11. Travels in Nihilon
12. What In The World??...
13. Life Begins At The Hop
14. My Love Explodes
15. Wake Up
16. Bike Ride To The Moon
17. When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty
18. (The Everyday Story of) Smalltown
19. Snowman
20. Complicated Game

"Earn" was the first XTC I heard, on the radio. They had me at "[first snare hit]."

But 25 O'Clock was actually the first XTC I heard, only I didn't know it was XTC until maybe a year after I'd heard it. I'd heard about this psychedelic parody record, saw it in a record store, and thought the liner notes were hilarious.

Is Mayor of Simpleton supposed to be a tribute to Wonderful World?

― Shepard Toney Album (dog latin)

baseline? This phone!

― Ƹ༑Ʒ (imago)

frogbs: little lighthouse REPRESENT!