Venice With The Girls

(1) 

Mocking mad seniors
Fed up and tedious
Long nights in Britland 

Oldernessnessness
His skin was in default
too beautiful to talk
he's been waiting

Spazz hands! (2)

Lonesome, lonely

She's off to Venice with the girls, he's been waiting so long (3)
She's off to Venice with the girls, he's been waiting so long

In Britland, oldernessness
His skin, whose is it?
Too beautiful
The best thing for you to do is hide

He's been waiting so long
Yeah he's been waiting so long
For the right month to go
He's been waiting all night long

Spazz hands!
Spazz hands!
Long nights in Britland
Underness, his skin, whose is it
Too beautiful, best thing, best thing for to do is hide (4)

She's off to Venice with the girls
Se's off to Venice with the girls
He's been waiting so long
Lonesome lonely, lonesome lonely
Lonesome lonely, lonesome lonely


He's been waiting so long, he's been waiting so long
He's been waiting so long, he's been waiting so long
He's been waiting so long, he's been waiting so long
Lonesome lonely, lonesome lonely

She's off to Venice with the girls, he's been waiting so long
She's off to Venice with the girls, he's been waiting so long 
She's off to Venice with the girls, lonesome lonely
She's off to Venice with the girls, lonesome lonely
 

Spazz hands! 
Spazz hands!

1. This was originally titled "Gone to Venice." The Fall played in the general vicinity of Venice a couple of months before this debuted in late 2014, which may have had something to do with the genesis of the song. 

The song is also apparently inspired by a television advertisement for Staysure travel insurance. A woman (an "over-fifty") is packing for a trip, and talking to the camera about travel insurance.  Suddenly, a horn honks, and she leans out the window and bids her husband goodbye, saying "I hope you get a hole in one!" Turning back to the camera, she explains: "Me?! [a bit conspiratorially:] I'm off to Venice with the girls! Why should I be a 'golf widow'? Not when Staysure have covered!"

From a recent feature in Q magazine:

There are some song titles on Sub-Ligual Tablet of reassuring excellence [some praise for "Stout Man"]...Venice with the Girls, inspired by Smith seeing a TV advert for travel insurance--he acts it out, swirling [sic] his bottle over his shoulder: "He's away on his golf holiday. Me? I'm off to Venice with the girls!" 

Stranger and Dan on the Fall online forum point out that according to Simon Wolstencroft in You Can Drum But You Can't Hide, in 1996 MES went to Venice with Lucy Rimmer, Wolstencroft, and Sue Williams. In around 2011, MES ran into Wolstencroft and asked him to go for drinks, but Wolstencroft demurred, being too busy, which MES pretended not to hear. It was suggested that these events might possibly have something to do with the theme, or at least the title, of this song...

According to Hexen Blumenthal:

For Daphne du Maurier, "Venetian" was her private word for lesbian, and "going to Venice" was her private code for having a lesbian sexual adventure. It is thought that the movie "Don't Look Back" is set in Venice as a nod to this. Perhaps one as widely read as MES knew this or perhaps the people who made the ad did. Or both.

^

2. Bazhdaddy suggests this lyric is in mockery of middle aged women on vacation, dancing and doing "jazz hands." 

^

3. Two points of reference have been suggested for this line: Cream's 1967 song "Sunshine of Your Love," and David Bowie's "Look Back in Anger," from 1979. The delivery is a little more like the refrain of the Bowie song, but Cream's song is probably burned on everyone's psyche (at least everyone in a certain, fairly wide, age range) so may have been somewhere in the back of MES's head even if it isn't consciously intended. So despite the greater similarity with Bowie, I would wager that it's either 1. an allusion to Cream, or 2. an allusion to Bowie and, secondarily, to Cream (indeed the Bowie song may be alluding to Cream to begin with, so there's just too many ways for Cream to weasel into it to ignore). 

^

4. MES appeared on the British comedy/variety show The Adam and Joe Show in a recurring segment called "Vinyl Justice." The premise is that Adam and Joe are policemen who raid celebrities' "homes" (often actually a set, as appears to be the case with MES) and check the subject's record collection for anything embarrassing or amusing. In MES's segment, he plays a song called "Little Diesel Driving Devil,"  by Don Bowman:

He's the fastest thing alive
When he puts that truck in overdrive
The safest thing for you to do is hide

MES seems to have a love for truck driving songs (which are usually Country & Western kitsch, although many classic songs belong to the genre--some of which are classics but also kitsch). These appear on countless compilations, often sold at truck stops (and sometimes nowhere else) and sometimes featuring exclusive material. He seems to have gotten "White Line Fever" from a rendition by Bud Brewer which was featured on a trucking compilation (the song was of course written, and definitively performed, by Merle Haggard).

^

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Venice WIth The Girls: Fall Tracks A-Z