Age of Chang
Lyrics
Into the flower duct
Into the lowlands
The flower drum awaits
As I, clever Dick, change (1)
And sets the hawks
Somewhere down the line
Change, no bed of roses
Somewhere down the line
We'll find our wants
And put paid and galvanise
Our reminiscences
And put p--
Time for change!
T for change!
Time for change!
T for change!
No time for reminisces
Consign them
To your insect mind
No time for reminiscent
This is time for change
Change the socks
To the rats, change!
Time for change!
T for change!
Time for Chang!
Time for change!
T for change!
Contractual land
And laptop survey
A dam of vast proportions
Slops film of dyke in Thailand
Time for change!
Of the all the change
Get cash for change
Card for change
Time for change!
Time for change
T for change!
Tears for change
Time for change
Reminiscing
T for change!
Sop for change!
Time for change!
T for change!
Space games for change
Time for change!
To challenge
T for change!
To change
A dam of vast proportions will break over Hawksmoor... (2)
Notes
1. The flower drum is a Chinese folk dance employing a small hand drum called a "flower drum," and the phrase also refers to the songs that accompany the dance. "Flower" is an adjective denoting something gay or festive, but also carries the implication that such festivity may be a bit morally shady or dissolute. So the phrase refers to a gay, festive, or dissolute dance or song that is usually accompanied by a drum. Furthermore, The Flower Drum is a 1957 novel by C.Y. Lee about refugees from Mao's China living in San Francisco. It was made into a popular musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. The word "change" in the lyrics becomes "Chang" in the title, which is a word that has a Chinese sound to it, and Thailand pops up in the lyrics, so the song has at least a vague Eastern theme. According to MES Sage: "Take out the CD from the case. There is a picture of a big bright fiery full moon. The Chinese moon goddess is Chang'e."
Billy "Brilliant" Chang was a nightclub owner and notorious cocaine dealer in London's Chinatown (in Limehouse, see note 2 below); in the era immediately between the World Wars, the London press was wont to fulminate about the "Yellow Peril" in Limehouse, telling lurid tales of drug dealing and the moral corruption of young white females. Chang was arrested for drug dealing after the death by overdose of one such young woman led to repeated police raids on his property, which finally resulted in them discovering a stash of cocaine in his flat. Chang had made himself infamous with the press and the police by sleeping with a string of women who were young, white, and coked to the gills; one raid reportedly found him in bed with two chorus girls. After his arrest, a search of the premises uncovered a stack of identical letters, all inscribed with the same words, which I shall now reveal for the benefit of the students of human nature among my readers (I trust none of you will make ill use of this information):
Dear Unknown – Please do not regard this as a liberty that I write to you, as i am really unable to resist the temptation after having seen you so many times. I should extremely like to know you better, and should be glad if you would do me the honour of meeting me one evening where we could have a little dinner and a quiet chat together. I do hope you will consent to this, as it will give me great pleasure, and in any case do not be cross with me for having written to you.
Yours hopefully, Chang.
P.S. – If you reply, please address it to me at the Shanghai Restaurant, Limehouse-Causeway, E14.
"Clever Dick" is apparently British slang for someone who thinks they are clever or always tries to have a witticism ready but is really more of an annoying bore.
Nairng comments "I just wondered if there should be a mention of the beer Chang here, who were the sponsors of Everton FC at the time of writing & recording this song. I gather MES was keen on both association football and alcoholic beverages."
The Blue Orchids, a band formed in 1979 by ex-Fall members Martin Bramah and Una Baines, had a song and an EP in 1982 titled "Agents of Change." Danny asks whether this is a coincidence in the comment section below; I think it's pretty unlikely that it is, given the similarity of the name and the Fall connection, and there is indeed somewhat of a similarity in the chord changes (changs?).
2. There is no town or municipal unit of any kind called Hawksmoor in Britain, as far as I can discover. Hawksmoor was the surname of an English architect, Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661-1736); one of his buildings, St. Mary Woolnoth, is an Anglican church in London that appears in T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land":
Comments (25)
"A dam of vast proportions will break over [ ]"
It's very clear up to the [ ], but I think the [ ] bit is "hawk-" something or other: it is very indistinct.
Kind of, but I think you make it sound harsher than it is. It's something you could say to a colleague without getting thumped: "alright then, clever dick, tell me..."
"comitted"
Nock-ten was a 2011 storm that flooded parts of Thailand etc. Its name is Laotian for bird. A hawk is quite an aggressive bird. There may be an area in the region that would translate to Hawksmoor?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Thailand_floods
I don't seem to have any live versions, unfortunately.
The idea that Hawksmoor might be a translation of a Thai place name is interesting, given the meaning of "nok"/"nock" but strikes me as an unusually crossword-puzzle type move for MES.
The song was originally "Change" on setlists, so other than the reference to Thailand in the recorded lyrics I don't think the song is really about Everton's sponsorship deals.
But I could imagine MES reading a newspaper headline about the longstanding connection, and thinking, "I'll have that".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27an
Might be worth a closer look.
Two-fold meaning here; the growing global power of China (before this; "I've seen them come!")
Also; the rebirth of the full moon (and it's magical properties) after the midpoint, the cropped by night unease of Monocard = (darc moon - shouldn't it then be Monokard? - but see also happi, kurious, nkroachment etc)
Before the moon falls, now it rises again, chaos magic, a new scheme, one to see him through to the end.
But that's not a serious question-- nobody would ever think or say it was--or at least, nobody whose opinion on the matter we should take seriously. The question would rather be whether this was a factor in the retitling, a tone ringing in the title.
https://www.discogs.com/The-Fall-Ersatz-GB/release/3337182
"Kurious Orang".
It's a wonder The Fall don't have a song titled "Free Rang".
Dan
I notice Ray above (point 7) thinks it's Oxenholme, but I suggest Oxenhope as A. it's only 5 miles from Kieron's studio at Colne and B. It has 2 reservoirs nearby either of which could fail and flood the village. It's hard to be sure of course because Mark is laughing and it distorts the word.