Easter Theatre

Last updated
"Easter Theatre"
Easter Theatre XTC.jpg
Single by XTC
from the album Apple Venus Volume 1
Released2 April 1999 (1999-04-02)
Recorded1998
Genre Chamber pop
Length4:37
Label Cooking Vinyl
Songwriter(s) Andy Partridge
Producer(s)
XTC singles chronology
"The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead"
(1992)
"Easter Theatre"
(1999)
"I'd Like That"
(1999)
Audio sample

"Easter Theatre" is a song written by Andy Partridge of the English rock band XTC, released as the lead single from their 1999 album Apple Venus Volume 1 . According to Partridge, the lyrics were an attempt to match a "muddy" ascending chord progression. "There's the little melodic figure at the beginning, which I thought sounded medieval and earthy, combined with placid, droning high keyboard chords, which sound like you're floating—so it suggested floating over a land." [1] He further elaborated in an interview with Guitar Player magazine: "The ascending figure sounds like something pushing up and growing out - like springtime. The whole meaning of the song came out of the onomatopoeia of these ascending chords." [2]

Contents

Partridge called "Easter Theatre" one of the few "perfect songs" of his career in a 2010 interview for the XTC fansite Chalkhills, feeling that he had "exorcized a lot of those kind of Lennon-and-McCartney, Bacharach-and-David, Brian Wilson type ghosts out of my system" with the song. [3] He jokingly apologized for "the fake Brian May guitar solo ... I thought it was really incongruous, but everyone thought I should leave it." [2] Demo and instrumental versions of the song appear on Homespun (1999) and Instruvenus (2002), respectively.

Personnel

XTC

Additional performers

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References

  1. Rooksby, Rikky (2006). Lyrics: Writing Better Words for Your Songs. Backbeat Books. p. 86. ISBN   978-1-4768-5344-4.
  2. 1 2 Swenson, Kyle (April 1999). "Orchestral XTC". Guitar Player .
  3. Bernhardt, Todd (27 June 2010). "Andy answers fans' questions about guitar playing and players -- Part I". Chalkhills.