Remember When Todd Rundgren and XTC’s Andy Partridge Clashed Making ‘Skylarking’

Not every successful sports team loves their coach, and not every great band loves their producer. Just like Bill Belichick won six Super Bowls with New England Patriots teams that largely didn’t enjoy playing for him, Todd Rundgren has produced numerous stellar albums, even when he alienated the musicians he was producing.

No Rundgren-produced album is more notorious for its bad feelings between producer and artist than XTC’s Skylarking. From the start, Rundgren and XTC frontman Andy Partridge butted heads, and the conflict extended beyond the album’s release. Despite the discord, Skylarking was instantly a favorite of critics and fans. While the process was ugly at times, Partridge and his bandmates went along with Rundgren’s directives, and the result was an album that holds up decades after its 1986 release.

Compromised from the Start

The seeds of the discontent between Rundgren and Partridge were sown by XTC’s label, Virgin Records, even before the band chose Rundgren to produce Skylarking. Virgin was frustrated by the declining sales of XTC’s albums—specifically the two immediate predecessors to Skylarking, Mummer and The Big Express. Those two albums languished in the bottom half of the Billboard 200. Virgin thought the key to cracking the U.S. market was to have XTC work with an American producer who would make them sound less “English.” Out of a list of producers provided by Virgin, Rundgren’s name stood out, particularly to keyboardist Dave Gregory. Having been a fan of Rundgren’s work as a musician and songwriter, Gregory convinced Partridge and bassist Colin Moulding to hire him.

The process of making Skylarking began with the band sending their demos to Rundgren. He determined, without the band’s input, which songs would go on the album. Rundgren also decided on the album’s sequencing based on the loose concept he chose for Skylarking’s theme. Rundgren saw a common thread throughout the songs of a cyclical progression of a day or of the seasons over a year’s time. He also had the band record the songs in the order in which they would appear on the album.

On Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Rundgren said, “Essentially, it was kind of preordained by me—what the record was going to be—which was something that they never had endured before.” From Partridge’s perspective, as he told Magnet magazine, “I was being told to shut up and do as I was told, and stop being quirky and English. So I went into this album feeling compromised.”

Partridge continued to bristle at Rundgren’s directions and derogatory comments. At one point, Rundgren suggested he could provide a guide vocal for Partridge after the singer botched one of his takes. In an interview for The Guardian, Partridge recalled a particularly tense moment. “There may have been an ax in the corner of the room, and I may have said, ‘If you carry on down that road, I’ll put that thing through your f—ing head.”

Differing Opinions About “Dear God”

The conflict between Partridge and Rundgren continued even after the album was recorded and mastered. Virgin wanted “Dear God”—a protest against books containing children’s letters to God—removed from the album, and Partridge sided with the label. Rundgren was adamant that the track remain on Skylarking, but initially, Virgin and Partridge got their way. However, “Dear God” got enough airplay in the U.S. as the B-side to the single for “Grass” that Gefffen Records (the album’s U.S. distributor) wound up reissuing Skylarking with “Dear God” included.

Rundgren saw this as validation for his instincts, and he was openly critical of Partridge for wanting “Dear God” removed. Partridge has asserted that Virgin thought the album was too long and convinced him that eliminating “Dear God” from the track sequence was the best way to pare it down. Rundgren has accused Partridge of being the catalyst for the song’s removal because he got cold feet about including a controversial song. Rundgren told Magnet, “There was input [from Virgin], which was to agree with Andy to take “Dear God” off the record. Andy didn’t want the song on because he thought it was provocative. He didn’t want to own up to it, in a way. Plus, he had another crappy song that he wanted.” Rundgren and Partridge continued to feud publicly about their differences regarding “Dear God” 30 years after the album’s release.

Skylarking‘s Legacy

The good news, at least for Virgin, is that Skylarking became XTC’s first album to chart higher in the U.S. than in the UK. However, in reaching No. 70 on the Billboard 200, it still didn’t chart as high as either Black Sea (No. 41) or English Settlement (No. 48). “Dear God” did provide the band with its first hit on the Mainstream Rock chart (No. 37), since “Senses Working Overtime,” and “Earn Enough for Us” received airplay on modern rock radio stations.

That exposure set the stage for XTC to have some of its greatest commercial success in the U.S. just over two years later. Their follow-up album, Oranges & Lemons, peaked at No. 44 on the Billboard 200, and it became their first album with two hit singles in the U.S. “The Mayor of Simpleton” topped the Alternative Airplay chart while reaching No. 15 on the Mainstream Rock chart. “King for a Day” followed, peaking at No. 11 and No. 38 on those charts, respectively.

Partridge and Rundgren may not like each other, but they each played a key role in making one of the best albums that either party has been involved with. Rundgren may not think of Partridge or XTC when performing “Can We Still Be Friends,” but he has acknowledged Partridge and Moulding’s songwriting abilities. He even admitted that he had a good time during some portions of the recording of Skylarking. Partridge has complemented Rundgren on his abilities as a producer and even once said “we were lucky to work with him.” Listeners have certainly been lucky to benefit from this fraught but productive collaboration.

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Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns