My Top 1000 Songs #682: Vanishing Girl

[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.] 

As noted previously, I actually prefer XTC's brief stint as a faux retro-60-psyche-pop outfit called the Dukes of Stratosphear to much of XTC's proper work. There may be XTC songs I prefer--we've had a few of them on the list already--but, as a unified whole, the Dukes' 1985 EP & 1987 LP (combined on the truly essential 1987 Chips From The Chocolate Fireball collection, the first CD I remember buying) is hard to top.

Which doesn't meant the Dukes didn't have plenty of outstanding stand-alone tracks. "Vanishing Girl" is probably my favorite. It's more a straight baroque pop song than the balance of the Dukes' tunes, less obviously cribbing from the Beatles/Pink Floyd/Zombies/Beach Boys songbook, and thus sounding more like... well, like a great XTC song, albeit with a mild 60s psychedelic vibe. Which means it's ridiculously tuneful and catchy, yet still just offbeat enough to come across like a wonderful gem somehow displaced in time.

Fan video:

Here's a live cover from the Flat Five:

And a live cover from M.T. Foyer:

And XTC tribute band Nigels With Attitude: