The XTC Lyric That Takes a Dim View of a Reckless Superheroine

Right from the time they were first dreamed up, superheroes have always been utilized as metaphors for some aspect of human life. Why not use one to allude to the kind of poor treatment one might receive in a failed relationship? Andy Partridge of XTC did just that on the 1986 song “That’s Really Super, Supergirl”. The Woman of Steel appears in the song as a manifestation of the narrator’s history of bad romance.

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“Super” Effort

XTC entered the making of their 1986 album Skylarking facing scrutiny from their record companies (Virgin in the UK, Geffen in the US). Their critical acclaim and exalted status among college radio fans didn’t exactly make them commercial wonders, either in terms of album sales or radio play.

Their labels asked the band to choose a producer that they thought could help them in that regard. XTC went with Todd Rundgren. Rundgren not only possessed the track record of an extremely successful artist, but he also had done expert production work over the years as well.

At the time the album was made, Rundgren battled with Andy Partridge, XTC’s chief songwriter. Years down the road, Partridge would begrudgingly accept that Rundgren helped the band deliver their best album to date, although the standout songs delivered by Partridge and Colin Moulding had a lot to do with it as well.

Rundgren added the synthesizer textures on “That’s Really Super, Supergirl”. He also provided a snare drum sample that came from an album done by his band Utopia. Partridge, meanwhile, used some of his expertise as a comic book fan to write the lyrics. He admitted after the fact that Supergirl was standing in for girls in his past who had used lame excuses for breaking up with him.

Examining the Lyrics of “That’s Really Super, Supergirl”

Throughout the song, Partridge finds clever ways of including bits of Supergirl (and Superman) lore. But he never loses sight of his main point, which is that the heroine in the song looked out for herself first and foremost, instead of the poor sap she left behind.

Among the parts of the myth that he works into the song: the Fortress of Solitude, X-ray eyes, Kryptonite, and even the ability to change the world’s weather. How can this mere mortal narrator expect to stick around in the presence of her abilities? “I can’t hold you down,” he sings. “If you want to fly.”

That’s about the last bit of earnest emotion that he offers her. The rest of the song lays on the sarcasm pretty thick. He’s onto her schemes: “Now that I’ve found out just what you’re doing / With your secret identities.”

He understands that hanging on won’t do him any good. “I won’t call again,” he promises. “Even in a jam/Now I realize you could be on a mission / Saving some other man.” Notice how he compares himself to “dirt under your cape.” And he just can’t help remembering when things were different. “Well, I might be an ape,” he explains. “But I used to feel super, Supergirl.”

Skylarking did indeed bring XTC the radio support that their overseers were hoping to see. But that mostly came from “Dear God”, the controversial track that wasn’t even on the album to start. “That’s Really Super, Supergirl” nonetheless stands out as a breakup lament with a metahuman twist.

Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns