Homo Safari, the first one.Otis Westinghouse wrote:What about b-sides? Who can name the b-side of LBATH withyout checking?
Your ten favorite.... XTC songs
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Who Shot Sam?
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Otis Westinghouse
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Who Shot Sam?
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AP did a series of these instrumental pieces (six I think), all called Homo Safari. I was just reading about it in that Song Stories book, otherwise I would not have known.
More XTC discography trivia here:
Andy Partridge explains the "Homo Safari" series, in a telephone interview
with Stewart Evans for a KFJC radio special, in the fall of 1987:
What happened was, we actually did the instrumental "Homo
Safari" [the B-side to the _Life Begins At The Hop_ UK
single], and it came out, and everyone said 'what a strange
little track, the instrumental on the other side', and we
were quite chuffed that people actually noticed it. For some
reason, there's a film in existence of us doing a playback to
this on Irish television. I don't know if there are any Irish
fans out there who happen to have a video recording of this,
but it's probably one of the most bizarre instances -- all of
us are set on a row of stools playing this inside-out
instrumental, "Homo Safari", to one half of the stereo
because the TV station botched up the taping thing and
there's just one half of the stereo! So we're miming to one
half of the stereo of a very strange B-side.
But what happened it, we put that out, and then we
actually wrote other instrumentals. . . maybe they were
intended to have lyrics on them later, maybe they were just
sketches of ideas that were going to be worked into something
different. So the "Homo Safari" series was put together as
this cupboard to contain tracks that we didn't know what to
do with. They were tracks that didn't seem to fit the feel of
XTC, or they were tracks that only myself was on, or me and
Colin, or just Colin and Dave or whatever. They were really
like lost kids. So the Homo Safari *series*, the word series
was added and then we just grabbed a number -- six -- you
know, it felt like a good number -- and it was like this box
to put these tracks into that -- we didn't want them go
astray and remain homeless and never come out. Kind of like
an artistic pebble-bin.
We actually made a mistake, and put out parts five and
six, and someone wrote a letter in and said `what happened to
part four, you've forgotten it?' And we all sat 'round and
slapped our foreheads and said `My goodness, we've forgotten
part four!' And it's true, we'd actually jumped and numbered
them five and six and we'd forgotten four. Actually four is
the weakest one, 'cause that was knocked up very quickly, and
that's one of my least favorite things that we've ever done.
There's very few things that I would disown of ours, but
funny enough part four of the "Homo Safari" series must be one
of the only things.
The "Homo Safari" series includes the songs "Homo Safari", "Bushman
President", "Egyptian Solution (Thebes in a Box)", "Mantis on Parole",
"Frost Circus", and "Procession Towards Learning Land", numbered from one to
six, respectively.
Jon Rosenberger adds:
The Homo Safari Series can only be heard its entirety on the
UK 5" CD Single for Dear God.
Different parts of the series appear as B-sides on various
old XTC singles of course, as such they can be found on these UK
singles.
1. Homo Safari - _Life Begins at The Hop_ 7"
2. Bushman President - _Making Plans For Nigel_ 7"
3. Egyptian Solution (Thebes in a Box) - _Senses Working
Overtime_ 12"
4. Mantis on Parole - _Wake Up_ 7" and 12"
5. Frost Circus - _Great Fire_ 12"
6. Procession Towards Learning Land - _Great Fire_ 12"
and #'s 5 and 6 can be found as extra tracks on the CD
Reissue of _Mummer_ as well.
More XTC discography trivia here:
Andy Partridge explains the "Homo Safari" series, in a telephone interview
with Stewart Evans for a KFJC radio special, in the fall of 1987:
What happened was, we actually did the instrumental "Homo
Safari" [the B-side to the _Life Begins At The Hop_ UK
single], and it came out, and everyone said 'what a strange
little track, the instrumental on the other side', and we
were quite chuffed that people actually noticed it. For some
reason, there's a film in existence of us doing a playback to
this on Irish television. I don't know if there are any Irish
fans out there who happen to have a video recording of this,
but it's probably one of the most bizarre instances -- all of
us are set on a row of stools playing this inside-out
instrumental, "Homo Safari", to one half of the stereo
because the TV station botched up the taping thing and
there's just one half of the stereo! So we're miming to one
half of the stereo of a very strange B-side.
But what happened it, we put that out, and then we
actually wrote other instrumentals. . . maybe they were
intended to have lyrics on them later, maybe they were just
sketches of ideas that were going to be worked into something
different. So the "Homo Safari" series was put together as
this cupboard to contain tracks that we didn't know what to
do with. They were tracks that didn't seem to fit the feel of
XTC, or they were tracks that only myself was on, or me and
Colin, or just Colin and Dave or whatever. They were really
like lost kids. So the Homo Safari *series*, the word series
was added and then we just grabbed a number -- six -- you
know, it felt like a good number -- and it was like this box
to put these tracks into that -- we didn't want them go
astray and remain homeless and never come out. Kind of like
an artistic pebble-bin.
We actually made a mistake, and put out parts five and
six, and someone wrote a letter in and said `what happened to
part four, you've forgotten it?' And we all sat 'round and
slapped our foreheads and said `My goodness, we've forgotten
part four!' And it's true, we'd actually jumped and numbered
them five and six and we'd forgotten four. Actually four is
the weakest one, 'cause that was knocked up very quickly, and
that's one of my least favorite things that we've ever done.
There's very few things that I would disown of ours, but
funny enough part four of the "Homo Safari" series must be one
of the only things.
The "Homo Safari" series includes the songs "Homo Safari", "Bushman
President", "Egyptian Solution (Thebes in a Box)", "Mantis on Parole",
"Frost Circus", and "Procession Towards Learning Land", numbered from one to
six, respectively.
Jon Rosenberger adds:
The Homo Safari Series can only be heard its entirety on the
UK 5" CD Single for Dear God.
Different parts of the series appear as B-sides on various
old XTC singles of course, as such they can be found on these UK
singles.
1. Homo Safari - _Life Begins at The Hop_ 7"
2. Bushman President - _Making Plans For Nigel_ 7"
3. Egyptian Solution (Thebes in a Box) - _Senses Working
Overtime_ 12"
4. Mantis on Parole - _Wake Up_ 7" and 12"
5. Frost Circus - _Great Fire_ 12"
6. Procession Towards Learning Land - _Great Fire_ 12"
and #'s 5 and 6 can be found as extra tracks on the CD
Reissue of _Mummer_ as well.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
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Otis Westinghouse
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Great research. What a nutso band! gonna have to play it tomorrow. I seem to remember liking the b-side of Love on a Farmboy's Wages. I love the sleeve, anyway. It's a wallet. V clever. I've also got Ten Feet Tall on single. Wonder what the b of that is...
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
I used to have that too, and the b-side is the wonderful "Wait Till Your Boat Goes Down".I've also got Ten Feet Tall on single. Wonder what the b of that is...
echos myron like a siren
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
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Otis Westinghouse
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- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
- Location: The theatre of dreams
Well mine came in the humble white paper sleeve with a hole in it, but yes, I remember seeing pics and reading about that "matchbox" sleeve.
echos myron like a siren
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
-
Who Shot Sam?
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- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
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