XTC

Primary members: Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding
Band Biography
Albums of focus: The Big Express (1984)
Songs for study:

 

"This World Over" - from The Big Express (1984)

Note: "This World Over" was first recorded for the BBC on 11 October 1984, roughly two and a half weeks after the film Threads aired on British public TV on 23 September 1984. To see the original EP sleeve art for "This World Over," click here.

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.

 

"War Dance" (1982; 1991)

"The words were originally prompted by the Falklands War in 1982. But it was too much on one piece of history. Then along came the Persian Gulf War and I put the revised lyrics to a new piece of music. It was time to bring war out of the closet again."
- Colin Moulding

There's an epidemic
Stirring passions in young hearts
Even the old campaigners
Have got it really bad

Well we ain't seen nothing like it
Since coronation day
But when the street parties sound
I'm going underground
To keep the rabid hounds at bay

Oh my my -- this war dance

A patriotic romance
No we ain't seen nothing like it
Since coronation day
But when the tickatape flies
And blood is on the rise
You know it's got you in its sway

You got yourself a war dance
There's a cheap sensation
Keeping Fleet Street wide awake
Everyone wants a slice of
The jingoistic cake

And they're resurrecting Churchill
And bringing national service back
Fueling power and glory fever
Makes for a sicker Union Jack

Yes I'm talking about this war dance
A patriotic romance
And I know all you poets
Have seen it all before
About the stirring of those young hearts
Back in the first world war
Oh my my this war dance...