XTC-This world over

[@Elgrandes12t]

One of the most beautiful songs ever recorded...

[@blackmore4]

With one of the most Police-like backing tracks. Love the tune, hate the arrangement.

[@derekedmonds1670]

I personally dont mind the arrangement, but I can see your point completely. As a stripped back ballad it would work wonderfully.

[@kirpalani-griffin3706]

A wonderful, powerful, brilliant piece of music and song. One of history's greatest, I do declare!

[@peterg.bassist]

XTC is a fantastic group with beautiful rhythms and melodies and excellent bass guitar too.

[@Lovethemseventies]

Possibly my favourite ever XTC song, such powerful, yet beautiful lyrics. Have recommended this band to so many people and all of them have loved them.

[@rebjiii]

really ?.......this is far from one their best songs

[@Lovethemseventies]

@@rebjiii In your opinion. I was giving mine.

[@tinfoilhatter]

best track, best group-effort~

[@CoachAdamRuns]

Now more than ever. A timeless masterpiece WAY ahead of its time.

[@almadora]

i never get tired of this one. it starts off so understated, but ends so powerfully. they are genius.

[@pint6x]

what a great song - I love the chord changes - Andy Partridge is a genius.

[@stevewest2849]

The Big Express is an amazing record. Complex pop at some of its finest.

[@monsignorerasmus.6441]

#2 on my list.

[@JuhaOllila-oz8gg]

XTC is still one-of-the-most bands I like to listen again and again. Time cannot kill these masters

[@nancyl2]

We need this music in America. Badly. So glad a UK friend of mine introduced me to this wonderful group. Such talent WOW-ing my soul to the core. Such different genre-types that are all original. NO copy-cat stuff like many groups, their sound is so Heavenly. LOVE this about them. Never a boring tune. Just pure genius. Peace and Love!! So beautifully and truthfully stated my friend. :)

[@jhetta22]

Yet another sheer masterpiece from XTC

[@jams3kds]

Easily one of the best if not the best song ever written by this band...written during height of the cold war it is still timeless today.

[@davidrauh8118]

It's just nice to know that so many people feel the same way about this band as I do. Super.

[@コズミックオーシャン]

最初にはまった曲だったかも。曲展開が素晴らしすぎて。

[@j1thom]

Colin's bass is masterful.

[@vithorazdovsky]

Exactly! His bass playing and arrangement is witty and ingenious. I like his phrasing, articulation and unexpected jumps to the unknown water. Overall the same with XTC' music :-) Heavy inspiration for developing my own style.

[@brucehaymes5289]

Pop’s best bass player imho

[@stephenbennett1643]

​@@brucehaymes5289 Best all round bass player ive listened to. Brilliant.👌🎸

[@spookerz35]

I'm not much of a fan of "The Big Express" but this is perhaps the best song on it. "Wake Up" probably second. The drumming reminds me of something Stewart Copeland would do.

[@MrMarco33333]

It has a lot of Police elements. I find the vocals reminiscent of Sting.

[@michaelakkerman407]

Wow...never seen the video to this. Beautiful.

[@ktwoa]

This song is special. It should still be played often today.

[@ytubeanon]

Andy Partridge: "And if you want to know a sick little secret here, when I was looking for songs for The Big Express, I had my guitar in open-E tuning, and I played those two chords (as Complicated Game), and I came up with "This World Over"! [laughs] They're the same chords, just a different tuning!"

[@kevingootrad6217]

Andy .. I’m the kid that booked you and the Police at U of Arizona the school said it wouldn’t sell 1980 later that year you never toured and the Police were the biggest band on the planet I proved the Elites wrong !! Best show

[@MrNaKillshots]

This album is one of my favourites now.

[@suededogs9670]

😭😭😭 such a beautiful song. And now seems appropriate.

[@Drumjug68]

The first time i heard this song i cried, I still do after all these years

[@davidellis5141]

🇺🇸 MTV. never played this. 2018 1st view. Andy.. Healthy..

[@vhxtc1]

first time i heard this, when it came out it scared the living daylights out of me due to the time of its relice. And now when i listen to it to day i still have that sence of doubt about our future as a human race and if there ever was going to be a last record played on the radio, then this would be it. How ironic is this song when it can be played in any decade and still touch a nerve. Great song though.

[@lelabotoxique]

A flawless song.

[@echospaw899]

I never tire of this band... from back in my heyday.

[@RH1812]

Welcome young people to those of us around when this came out. There is hope…maybe

[@HERNANPARAVICART]

The Composer of Composers!!!

[@gizmogearloose3391]

One of my favorite XTC tunes...and as of this comment...VERY relative to the moment.

[@rebjiii]

really ?.....this is far from one of their best songs

[@cliffprice7860]

This song should be 6 hours long, superb.

[@GIBunz]

Had a different idea of this guy's face in my head, just realized after a year of listening to his albums, I've never even seen his face!

[@bigbadbillb]

I read somewhere that Andy Partridge broke down in tears while writing this song.

[@psychosulk]

ugh. UGH. this song brings tears to my eyes.

[@kevinandrewmoore]

Interesting vid...our drummer, Pete Phipps is the drummer on the album, and this song, but it's someone else miming his drum parts in the vid!! What a liberty! Great track, and great drumming Pete!

[@colinelderfield6964]

A very strong message by a very strong band.

[@oogie11]

this song reminds me of The Police it does, especially the drumming, very stewart copeland-esque if i may say....melancholic song this surely is

[@gergsar]

It may, or may not be about a particular time, but it is a statement about all time, thus far. There is hope, but not much.

[@JeffMiletich]

It certainly fits the USA since 11-8-16...

[@rjjcms1]

Reference to Reagan and the Cold War nuclear arms race and causing the destruction of the world in the name of religion,all as topical as you could get in 1984.

[@DanDan-nl6db]

This is about Regan the usa nukes deployed to Europe during the 80's. We are the far off mythical land with a leader with the famous face (Regan was in b rate movies)

[@andrewrosen6508]

Beautiful

[@rd8110]

Late Fall Of 2021 is it!👍

[@ericsahrmann]

Here due to covid-19 worries. Still love this song even though the cold war ended (but the nukes remain).

[@ericsahrmann]

And here I am again, a year later, with Ukraine being attack by Russia. =(

[@ericsahrmann]

@douglas quaid Exactly. Two years ago I thought we were still living in a somewhat sane world as far as the nuclear threat was concerned. I was of course, wrong =(

[@colinelderfield6964]

Brilliant.

[@tracybuck4829]

Everyone's talking WW3 now, not so happy to say it but this song is timeless

[@lefkytheshin]

Fantastic band. I've always felt that had The Beatles happened in the eighties, they'd have sounded not unlike XTC.

[@mjedelman]

What killed XTC's commercial success was Andy's anxiety and stage fright. Back in the 80s, if you didn't tour, you didn't sell music. There was only one band prior to then that got away with staying ion the studio. If they'd toured and promoted their albums they'd all be wealthy men.

[@TheIanoTube]

Who was that band?

[@nathanmiller9785]

The Beatles

[@Fififogone]

I dunno. Pet Shop Boys waited four years after ‘West End Girls’ hit the charts to tour - and six years to tour the US. They were still hugely successful in the eighties.

[@lhair02]

@@TheIanoTube alan parsons project didn't tour until 1990s but made major success across the 70s/80s with constant releases that included a single that did decent on each release

[@scottlahti1252]

Jonathan Schell, author of The Fate of the Earth (1983), on "life" after nuclear war, *Requiescat in pace*.

[@yaggy9]

love this song. have it on vinyl -- 'the big express' sorry the beginning and end got chopped! first time i saw this video, i think. wow. after all these years.

[@NordicMother]

I was starting to wonder when responding to comments on KZbin would be something of a regret. So, thank you for that. Eh, if you do enough digging around, you'll find that it wasn't "Andy's anxiety & stage fright" as the catalyst for why they went on STRIKE against virgin records due to them being exploited for ages, yielding little to no money to XTC, and burning them out entirely in marathon touring. That's all I meant to say. Have a nice life. :)

[@monkeytrousers]

@lokrume04 It was from a BBC programme called 'Saturday Superstore', and was hosted by Keith Chegwin with another portion hosted by Mike Read. Colin and Andy were also featured elsewhere in the show reading trivia questions and reviewing videos with other folks (such as Strawberry Switchblade). XTC also mimed along to "All You Pretty Girls" as well. And it was from October 1984. (Yes I have the VHS somewhere).

[@jordancooperlalala]

Andy said it was Pete actually drumming on this song, not the Linn Drum. He made a remark about using real drums for the quieter songs and the Linn for the louder ones.

[@nancyl2]

@ktwoa Yep this American did. ;-) These beings were shared though by a UK Angel. Since then one of my fave's. A band before its time; NOW people are becoming aware of truths + the words can NOW be understood. Sad but I agree these beings should be global. Just a fantastical share from a being from across the 'Pond' as we say. THANKS to each of the band members and vocals too. Love when you can understand the Lyrics. Such a treat. ;-))) I also agree come from the hiding place + bring us music.

[@101Volts]

Colin hasn't entirely quit music, He contributed vocals to an album recently and before that I think he contributed a bass part to another album. The Chalkhills fan site might have more info.

[@cbenjames]

the comforts of soft focus

[@2comicsonabench]

It Begins It Begins.

[@tinfoilhatter]

slam-dunk!! hard-hitting, and in-your-face!!

[@colinelderfield6964]

A strong message behind the lyrics.

[@mjedelman]

On the other hand, if you read the two XTC books and interviews with Partridge, you'll discover that their lack of income long predates their strike against Virgin, and goes back to Andy's attack of stage freight on the 1982 tour. WIthout tours to promote their albums, sales went down. Additionally, concert tours were a major source of income for Colin and Dave; Andy got a lot more from the album sales as he got the publishing, since the albums were 80% his compositions.

[@AudinSylvie]

WOUAH !!! intemporel

[@turntapzap]

The Beatles wish they could invent a melody like this.

[@CrimsonCom]

@AldofromBordeaux Bands reuniting for reunion gigs and tours is one of the big profitable trends of the depressed live music scene. The Stone Roses did one good album and just made £12.3m off 3 reunion gigs. XTC released classic after (neglected ) classic and if they got some good promoters behind them, who would begrudge them a pension payday? What about a set of gigs in Swindon? I always pined to see them live.

[@SirHatchporch]

@AldofromBordeaux Yes, Andy has said that without Colin, there is no XTC. I completely agree with him. Andy and Dave have patched things up in recent years, and while that would be an interesting collaboration, it's not XTC.

[@mensamoo]

love it. was this a single???

[@Svatopluk]

Just a shade of … 'young teacher, the subject, of schoolgirl fantasy'.

[@massimospera74]

Masterwork.. Massimo, Roma.

[@lokrume04]

@mensamoo Yes, 84-10-29 on Virgin VS 721.

[@gergsar]

1984....2004...2007...this world over....

[@lokrume04]

Interesting, yes. Pete Phipps is the drummer on many songs on the album but not on this one. It's the LinnDrum drum-machine programmed by Andy Partridge. The miming guy is Dave Gregory's brother Ian, also known as E.I.E.I Owen, drummer in Dukes of Stratosphear. Don't know the name of the grand piano/violin player. Stuart Gordon played the violin on the record.

[@tinfoilhatter]

i bet it was gregory on the piano-bit! nice! epic trackage! one-for-the-books! possibly the hardest-hitting-pop-song-of-all-time, man! 1984 forevah, man~

[@gfolkerth]

Cool trivia - I really like the original drummer - Terry?

[@wangdangdoodie]

Yes, Terry's last full album with the band.

[@NordicMother]

Oh, wait... I remember now what I objected to...it's only that you wrote, "What killed XTC's commercial success was Andy's anxiety and stage fright". I know it was an issue but it was only part of a multitude of problems they were having. Not really fair to blame Andy, that's all. Or... I'm slightly mental or misinformed. Doesn't really matter, though, we have SO much of XTC to enjoy for many years. Anyway, don't want to make more of a fuss. Have you listened to "Fuzzy Warbles"? Fantastic stuff.

[@juanitacarrollyoung2979]

Was just thinking much the same thing. I think AP mentioned in an interview that the band was so mismanaged at one point that lots and lots of touring brought them to poverty. Also, his wife tossed out his longtime medication and forced him to go cold turkey. I feel for him; when I went off my anti-anxiety med I researched the best possible weaning schedule, which was very slow and took months.

[@gergsar]

true enough, but it is a true today as then....

[@shortyktfc]

bit of a harsh topic for a morning kids programme dont ya think? Still an awesome song and has jerked a few tears from me I can tell ya!

[@Lyktwz]

I agree, but... may I add Paul Mc Cartney and Peter Gabriel?

[@drbeatdrums]

Any chance these later XTC videos will be released on DVD? All we see here in the states are the Look Look ones...

[@terenceprice8860]

These lyrics are now more relevant than ever?

[@paulsmartialarts]

I dunno, I think it's more commercial than Go 2, White Music and Mummer. 'Wake Up' was an odd choice for a single, but this and 'All You Pretty Girls' should have been massive hits.

[@colinelderfield6964]

The way the Middle East is going at the moment any nuclear conflict could start soon or with Russia.😢

[@AldofromBordeaux]

@ravinella the problem in this case seems to be Colin's desire to avoid anything related with Music since the last 3 or 4 years...as Andy Partrige stated ...But to my humble opinion, if XTC should reunite again...that would be with Dave Gregory...

[@mjedelman]

What a brilliant, incisive refutation! Are you, perchance, a logician? ;-)

[@hilarydavidneidhart1001]

This has clipped the first line off , so best look for another upload of this song.

[@user-ft6rg7zy5z]

The tv programme itself cut off the first line, as 'seagulls' faded into this song on the album version.

[@hans6266]

see today...........

[@freekitten00]

This reminds me of the Police.

[@emilychurch5985]

freekitten-o00o Probably because the drums sound very Stuart Copeland!

[@NordicMother]

sorry, I read your post and now I'm unsure about what it is, exactly, that we don't agree on. You're right, as far as I know. They didn't make any money for ages. In March (I think) of 1982 they stopped touring b/c Andy had collapsed onstage "slightly off to one side". At that point, he had newly-developed anxiety attacks due to going off of Valium cold-turkey & complete exhaustion from touring something like 5 yrs nearly non-stop (thanks to Virgin Records & a corrupt manager [Liarbird])

[@puntagordy]

I wish this band would stop jerking my heartstrings!

[@martinredfern8154]

push once

[@c4dtuterials]

C C C Crippin'

[@juanitacarrollyoung2979]

Ooh goodness, that was an abrupt end. Oops!

[@ktwoa]

Any chance anyone will listen to the words?

[@duffbaker9554]

Post English Settlement was patchy at best. Then along came the great Skylarking, Oranges and Lemons and NonSuch, etc.

[@incognito7479]

Duff Baker Nonsuch struck home for me.

[@PlanetoftheDeaf]

A great track, but Saturday morning children's TV isn't ideal for promoting such a solemn song...

[@tonylowry980]

This World Over?? May (BUGS) Me And Her GOVT. NEVER A TORY, Personally. Me Equals LABOUR. Thatchers Cider? It's Not A Spirit Of Maggie Contained Within The Flavourings?? It's Got A Strong Aroma. 6% Thatchers. Poll (ution) Tax Next?? Bed (Bug) Tax?? Vermin Tax Next?? Fox And Hounds, Etc.?? SUPERB SONG. LEGENDARY BAND.

[@malibustacy3606]

Great track here but no more Terry Chambers.

[@haleohualil]

@pazzensutra hear hear mate there are non better

[@blackmore4]

Haha. Partridge looks just a munch away from give-me-pie mode Brian Wilson.

[@infinitemind8974]

Today a young woman was killed inside the US capital building. Thinking of all the events leading up to this as well as those yet to come made me think of this song. Rest in peace young patriot. Hopefully you did not die in vain. Time will tell. January 6, 2021.

[@CONSIDERABLYMORE1]

Beautiful song. Beautiful and very timely sentiment. Beware of the cult of Obama!

[@arynowyrth9581]

***** This song is more a condemnation of the cult of Reagan.

[@arynowyrth9581]

Yes, you are welcome to THINK whatever you want about Reagan.

[@NordicMother]

Simply not true.

[@rebjiii]

very lame video for a weak single from one go their weakest albums

[@TheErogenousZone]

@ravinella Colin Moulding quit music. Andy still does music on his own. He released an album in 2010.