DESCRIPTION:
XTC Homespun
The Apple Venus Volume One Home Demos



"I tried and tried NOT to write a divorce song, I really did, you have to believe me. The last thing I wanted was to come over as a grieved cattle bum crying into his beer in the bar of heartbreak motel. Or even worse, as Phil Collins. I mean, divorce is so. . . middle-aged and crap.

"Trouble was, the internal stale steam kept building, the pus kept expanding inside my head. I needed a safety valve, maybe if I just put all the hurt in one song. Not even that XTC should record this song mind you. Just let me release this cak out of my head, then I can move on.

"Boy did this thing come together quickly, and do you know what?, I felt better, clearer about things the second I finished the demo. In fact, I felt so different, I became very reluctant about going back to the state of mind I was in when I wrote it. This would only make a difficulty if the band ever recorded it, and of course we wouldn't choose to pick it for the album. It sounding so petulant and snide. Nobody would want to record 'Dictionary'. So, no problem. This dog doesn't need to return to his vomit. I feel different from that now.

"Oh dear! Everyone in the band loves it, our new record companies love it, the producer loves it and the few friends who've heard it, love it. I was to be hoist by my own petard. Protesting meekly would do no good. If everyone else likes it so much, I must be in the wrong. Perhaps it was my embarrassment at penning such a childish tantrum of a song. Very reluctantly I agreed to record it, hoping secretly that it would fall at the last hurdle. But no, it came out fine, and I was left feeling annoyed for writing such a self exposing shanty.

"This demo recording is close to the finished thing. I guess I knew how it ought to go all along."

Andy Partridge