The Living Rockumentary

Aww, geez. Now I'm paranoid. Did something unfortunate happen to the XTC box set while in my possession? The booklet was loose as far as I know but maybe something happened to it in transport to my house, or to work, which is where I listened to most of it. I didn't look closely to see if it should have been attached or not. A couple of box sets that I have in that shape (Randy Newman, Byrds, Beach Boys) all have loose booklets so I didn't think anything of it. Actually, I was more concerned about the CDs since they didn't seem to sit very deep in their trays and seemed likely to pop out in transit. So when you say "things not right," were there other problems with the set as well, perhaps regarding the CDs? See, the problem is, last time I borrowed a box set (Monkees) from Brian, one of the discs was stolen along with my car CD player when I lived in Haverhill so I have not had a good history with borrowing box sets from Brian. If I am to blame, I'd replace it for you, Bri. And don't let me borrow your box sets no mo'! I sound like one of these baseball team owners- please stop me from spending all my money on outrageous contracts to you ballplayers. Maybe if the GM of the richest baseball team wasn't named Brian CASHMAN...

Don't worry about Ken's mastery of bass. He's also a fearsome guitarist and unbelievable songwriter and as we know can play any song ever written on demand. If he had the gumption someday, he could destroy us all. He's a musical ninja.

I had a diehard hardcore punk friend at UMass and he never would've considered XTC punk- he also had little use for Husker Du, probably because they wrote songs with melodies. And maybe because they looked like auto mechanics. All us punk nonconformists look alike, all our bands sound alike.