986 Generator

Lyrics

One 9-8-6 generator (1)
One 9-8-6 generator
One 9-8-6 generator
One 9-8-6 generator
And that's all he wrote
And that's all he wrote

He's living a dream
And he's got no hope
It's deja vu
It's clear to you but it's a stomp
Gotta move it
Job's gotta do
Stomp on it
One more job and gone through it, stomp on it
And one more line's gonna crack it

One more job's gonna do it
Generator too tight for me
Ol' Phil, he's got the grasp
But he's too tight for me
One more for the...
One more for the newsagent
Ran out of liquorice papers before he went in
Before he went in
He took two tabs and his brain went out
Don't wait up the photograph shop
Stomp on the doorstep
Of the wedding photo shop
He thought one last tab's gonna do it
One more cider's gonna do it
One last cigarette's gonna do it

1-9-8-6 generator, that's all he wrote
1-9-8-6 generator, that's all he wrote
He's living in a dream in a time machine
And he's got no hope
It's deja vu
One more for the road's gonna do it
One more of the job's gonna do it

He was encased in concern
About health so much
He strangled the Dutch shares stock
And he stomped back to the paper shop
He thought one more crack's gonna do it
One more job's gonna do it
One more tab's gonna do it


Notes

1. A slow blues with acoustic slide guitar, this sounds little like anything else from the Fall. It may be "1986" generator; numbers in Fall songs behave like they do in dreams, rarely remaining stable. The song seems to be about a time machine, maybe set for 1986. Many of the lyrics parody (or pay homage to, its hard to say) the Boz Scaggs song "Lido Shuffle," which contains the following lines:

He said one more job ought to get it
One last shot 'fore we quit it
One more for the road 

[...] 

Sayin' one more hit ought to do it
This joint ain't nothin to it
One more for the road

^

Comments (4)

dannyno
  • 1. dannyno | 12/10/2013
There's a gap after the last verse you have here, and then there are some more lyrics before the rain starts. They are really indistinct. But someone should have a go at them... or at least note they are there!
Zack
  • 2. Zack | 05/03/2017
"It's a stomp" - Much like Led Zeppelin's "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp", quarter notes stomped out on the bass drum provide most of the percussion on "986 Generator." Dave Spurr and Keiron Melling's previous band MotherJohn cited Led Zeppelin as their principle influence: http://www.purevolume.com/motherjohn
Benjamin Patrick Trogdon
  • 3. Benjamin Patrick Trogdon (link) | 01/12/2020
truly this is just subjective but I do find a huge chunk of the lyrics seem to be MES describing himself from the third person. specifically the opening stanza makes sense under this interpretation, as Mark's own metanarrative of himself as the "carry bag man" absolutely fits with the image of "1986 generator" being a single, hastily and anxiety written scribble on page. my take is that the author of the "1986 generator" note is MES himself, delusional and in poor health
bzfgt
  • 4. bzfgt (link) | 22/02/2021
Yeah totally could be thinking of himself

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