XTC - Grass/ Earn Enough for Us/Big Day

Summer didn't feel real until yesterday. Yesterday I played four sets of tennis without the specter of essay grading hanging over me, I read a book (of my choosing!) in sunny Dolores Park, and I sipped on a beer on the back patio of a neighborhood bar. It was the perfect summer day. So I thought to myself that I have to post about the perfect summer album. It took me all of .368 seconds to think of XTC's Skylarking.

XTC was never really that commercially successful, but they wrote Beatles-level pop songs. I'm posting my three favorite tracks from their amazing album Skylarking. They wrote such clever lyrics. "Grass" is about a guy trying to get fresh with a girl who doesn't seem to be too interested. "Earn Enough for Us" is about a poor young guy just trying to make enough money to survive, and feeling thankful that his girl even stays with him. "Big Day" is awesome cause the music is so cheery and lush (the guitars that come in at 2:14 just kill me), but the lyrics make it the most cynical song about marriage ever written. I really want to post "Another Satellite" too, cause the xylophones are so freaking beautiful, but I gotta draw the line at three youtubes.

Some of my favorite lyrical snippets:

Grass: If you fancy we can buy an ice-cream cone Your mate has gone She didn't want to be alone
I will pounce on you Just us and the Cuckoos
You are helpless now Over and over we flatten the clover

Earn Enough for Us: I can take humiliation And hurtful comments from the boss
I'm just praying by the weekend I can earn enough for us

Found a house that won't repair itself With it's windows cracking
And a roof held together with holes Just because we're at the bottom of the ladder
We shouldn't be sadder Than others like us
Who have goals for the betterment of life Glad that you want to be my wife, but honest

Big Day: So you want to tie the knot Tie it tight, don't let it rot, the memory of this day
Are you deafened by the bells Could be heaven, could be hell
In a cell for two Big day come and big day go
Life goes on after the show But will your love have the fire and glow
Like on the big day Statistics they don't say a lot
But can you keep what you have got forever together There's a lesson to be learnt
Many fingers have been burnt with the touch of gold

If I was a lyricist, I would aspire to write lyrics like this. Pop music that doesn't make you feel like an orangutan with special needs!