Andy Partridge – River of Orchids

XTC’s resident genius, Andy Partridge, retreated from the live performance arena after suffering a nervous breakdown in Paris in the early ‘80s due to anxiety triggered by stage fright. He settled into creating several brilliant studio albums to communicate his musical vision and came up with a surfeit of inventive and profitable releases. Notwithstanding his creating a mature masterwork in Nonsuch in 1992, he suffered the stifling effect of falling into dispute with his record label, Virgin. The resulting Mexican stand off between the band and the label led to no new material being released for 7 years. Eventually Virgin released them from the deal and XTC recorded the material they had written in the interim and delivered their masterpiece, Apple Venus Volume 1.

River of Orchids is the opening track on that album, and quite simply one of the most stunning pieces of song construction and production in many a year……..

You can read more about this song and 32 more! This is an excerpt from Michael J Roberts’ excellent eBook “33 Great Songs 33 Great Songwriters”

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