Wake Up (XTC song)

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"Wake Up"
Wake Up - XTC.png
Single by XTC
from the album The Big Express
Released28 January 1985 (1985-01-28)
Recorded1984
Length4:40
LabelVirgin
Songwriter(s)Colin Moulding
Producer(s)David Lord, XTC
XTC singles chronology
"This World Over"
(1984) 		"Wake Up"
(1985) 		"The Mole from the Ministry"
(1985)

"Wake Up" is a song written by Colin Moulding of the English rock band XTC, released as the opening track on their 1984 album The Big Express. It was the third and last single issued from the album, following "All You Pretty Girls" and "This World Over", and peaked at number 92 on the UK Singles Chart.

Overview[]

"Wake Up" opens the album with guitars and piano followed by a chorus lyric that proclaims "who cares, you might be dead".[1] Colin Moulding explained:

"You stayed in bed / you wrote the note" is about me writing notes to skive off work in the early days of my marriage. My missus wouldn't let me go to work for the first few years. We were always at it! "A morning face" is that face you see every morning, usually a girl on the bus. But the last verse is about this paranoia, this recurring dream I have about being the first on the scene of an accident. If it's the positive version of the dream I resuscitate the victim and save the day. If it's the negative one, I run away.[2]

To write the song, Moulding started with a three-note piano figure, which he then overdubbed with two guitar riffs. He said: "The track didn't really happen until [producer] David Lord got hold of it. A local girl came in and sang the 'choir', tracked up a load of times."[3] Guitarist Andy Partridge said of Lord's embellishments: "He blew it up like one of those hot air balloons in the shape of a palace."[2] Guitarist Dave Gregory commented: "We love confusing intros: records that start with a naked riff with no drum beat. And then when the drums come in, or the band comes in, it throws you completely."[3]

The song employs only a few different chords, a point that Gregory was dissatisfied with. He opined: "The coolest part of the song was the chopping guitars but Colin should have written a better song around that hook. It just went on forever doing nothing. It sounds a good way to start an album but it's not my idea of a musical experience."[2]

Personnel[]

XTC

Charts[]

Chart (1985) Peak
position
UK Singles (OCC)[4] 92

References[]

  1. ^ Jennings, Dave (18 October 2014). "XTC: The Big Express – A Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration – album reappraisal". Louder Than War. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Farmer, Neville (1998). XTC: Song Stories: The Exclusive Authorized Story Behind the Music. London: Helter Skelter Publishing. pp. 165–166. ISBN 190092403X.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Gregory, Dave; Moulding, Colin; Partridge, Andy (November 1984). "Recording The Big Express". One Two Testing (16).
  4. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 6 January 2018.

External links[]

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