I’ve always loved this song. When I first heard it in my youth, it meant a lot to me as I felt the same. Seeing a child as Andy Partridge singing parts of the song, and then his grown self as well, was so relateable. I knew how I felt as a child too, and that it wasn’t some phase of rebellion that I would grow out out of, as I was told it was.
I like the Sarah MacLachlan version; it’s on all my playlists. Great song!
It was actually left off the original LP and was the b side to Grass. It got a lot of radio play in the US and resulted in a lot of death threats from the Christofacists. Andy Partridge said Sarah Mclachlan has done the best cover of it. I have that and it is verrry nice.
I did not know that - thank you! I must follow up on the Sarah McLachlan cover.
Yeah, this is a cracker of a song. You can feel how passionate Andy is about it.
I love Nonsuch as an XTC album - one of my favourites is Then She Appeared. So beautiful: