My Top 1000 Songs #656: Mayor Of Simpleton

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.] 

There were a few XTC songs I truly loved back in high school & college--I've already talked about "Generals & Majors" and "Senses Working Overtime" and "Earn Enough For Us"--but I was much more enamored of the jubilant, somewhat tongue-in-cheek retro-psychedelia they issued under their Dukes of Stratosphear side project. So I was really excited by 1989's Oranges & Lemons LP, which sounded closer to the Dukes than to much of XTC's body of work. And "Mayor Of Simpleton" instantly became one of those insanely catchy pop songs I found myself throwing on every mixtape for the next few years.

I don't pull out Oranges very often these days--maybe it was too of the moment (or just has some negative law school associations)--but I'll never tire of the guileless, charming "Mayor."

It's a bummer XTC gave up touring early in their career... but fortunately there are a number of XTC tribute bands out there. Here are the Nigels With Attitude:

Oh, hey, wow, check out this Joe Jackson cover!