Anecdotes+Antidotes in B#

Lyrics

(1)

And if chewing gum is chewed
The truant is pursued
And the smoker is bestewed
In the Plaza hotel with an army of 
Aristo-men

Antidotes
And those that vote
Shouting
Anecdotes
And those that vote
It was those that vote
I saw an evil laugh in the Plaza, yes
And the chair in the mirror
Comes over and over

And I met an evil laugh
And what the fuck is on the continents of
Australia and America and Arabia?
Ah...

Antidotes
Antidotes
Antidotes
Have you got

And I’m moving down the train over and over and over again
And the cost of tobacco is chewed
The truant is pursued

I’m walking round the street again and again and again
And you’re sat in your chair pleased
In the mirrors looking at you
From
Antidotes and Antidotes
And those who wrote
Antidotes
And those that vote
Antidotes
And cooking anecdotes

Antidotes

And the chewing gum is chewed
The truant is pursued
And smoking is forbidden again and again and again

And the better knew that God is meek

Notes

1. B# is a strictly notional key (in practice it is identical to C natural). For more information on the lyrics, see the entry for "(Jung Nev's) Antidotes."

Dan:

 

From this song, Knitting Factory, LA, 14 November 2001:
 


And if liberty is screwed, the sports teacher rules. The sports teacher rules. And so secondary modern British Carry-On film, 'Carry On, Sir', 'Carry On, Sir'. No more inner city for you, Jimmy.

^

More Information

(Jung Nev's) Antidotes: The Annotated Fall

Comments (31)

dannyno
  • 1. dannyno | 03/04/2013
"Plaza Hotel". Could it be: http://www.cpmanchester.com/location.html?
tom_regazzi
  • 2. tom_regazzi | 19/06/2013
The opening line paraphrases a quote from the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup: "If chewing gum is chewed The chewer is pursued."
bzfgt
  • 3. bzfgt | 19/06/2013
That's all accounted for here:

http://annotatedfall.doomby.com/pages/the-annotated-lyrics/jung-nev-s-antidotes.html
dannyno
  • 4. dannyno | 18/09/2013
"The truant is pursued
And the smoker is bestewed"

I'm hearing:

"The chewer is pursued
And the smoker is pursued"
dannyno
  • 5. dannyno | 14/10/2013
Definitely chewer not truant, throughout.

I'm also hearing "and dozy doats" after some of the "antidotes" - nowhere to be seen above....
russell richardson
  • 6. russell richardson | 08/05/2015
Sorry to be pedantic but B# is indeed a key ( ask someone from Chets) and it sounds like a good exhortation: Be sharp!

'dozy doats' ( I can't tell cos I dot have this record!) could be from the formerly famous nonsense song .... followed by' a kiddly-divey too, wouldn't you?' from the 1940s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mairzy_Doats
bzfgt
  • 7. bzfgt | 26/06/2015
I don't know who Chet is but B# would be C natural--there is no incidental between B and C.

I have the "doazy doats" stuff on the "Jung Nev" page, which I lazily linked to rather than pasting the notes here.
russell richardson
  • 8. russell richardson | 15/07/2015
more B-sharp crap:
it's a key only in theory, but that's sometimes necessary for musicologists and composers (like the sq root of -1 is for mathematicians)

The key of B# major is extremely complex and quite unnecessary because it sounds like C major. And that by using two sharps and five double sharps. But it exists: in the field of philosophy. The following quotation from the book »Ketzereien« (heresies) of Günther Anders is a nice example of the use of musical terms in communication. Using B# major as a paraphrase for complex speaking is answered with B# minor as a paraphrase for discretion.

but yeah, it's the same sound as C major, instead of having no accidentals, it has three sharps and five double sharps. yes indeed.
bzfgt
  • 9. bzfgt | 17/07/2015
This is all interesting stuff, I revised my note. It's 5 i the morning so I didn't get in deep or for long, but it looks like it's basically an exercise in writing music (no one would use a score in B# because it would be taking the easiest key to read and making it the hardest). So in that case there is a key of "E# too of course. I always assumed that the proper doctrine was that B and E sharp don't exist, but I can see someone revising this (a purely nominal move) for the sake of making the system more strictly formal--you don't need to consult content, you just follow a rule and everything comes out right, it's kind of like logic.
nairng
  • 10. nairng | 22/07/2015
"I met an evil laugh" seems like a mishearing of "I led an evil life", first line of Race With The Devil by Gene Vincent, covered by the Fall elsewhere.
bzfgt
  • 11. bzfgt | 24/07/2015
Yeah, maybe, although elsewhere it's "I saw an evil (?)" and maybe "laugh" is wrong but "life" wouldn't fit perfectly there either. "Lad"? I dunno, the lyric is a legacy from Lyrics Parade and ot attested elsewhere, this will have to be closely considered...
dannyno
  • 12. dannyno | 04/03/2017
From this song, Knitting Factory, LA, 14 November 2001:


And if liberty is screwed, the sports teacher rules. The sports teacher rules. And so secondary modern British Carry-On film, 'Carry On, Sir', 'Carry On, Sir'. No more inner city for you, Jimmy.


https://sites.google.com/site/reformationposttpm/pithy-smithyisms/in-the-2000s
Paul Go
  • 13. Paul Go | 28/11/2018
As pointed out, the quote is from 'Duck Soup', so 'the chewer is pursued' is correct.

The repetition is an essential part of the line's poetic quality. MES would not arbitrarily change and ruin it.. Chewing Chewed Chewer reflects the literal act of impulsive chewing. Who'd have thought Groucho was so clever with word play?

This sense of an impulsive act is mirrored with the repetition of 'Pursued'. You know, pursued, pursued, relentlessly pursued. These poetic devices don't need any 'Grammarly' suggestions.
dannyno
  • 14. dannyno | 28/11/2018
I think ruining poetic qualities is exactly what MES would do, or might do, and does do elsewhere.

He also regularly often what would otherwise be straight quotations. This means you can't just assume the accurate quotation is the lyric.

However, I still agree it's "chewer" not "truant" throughout.
dannyno
  • 15. dannyno | 28/11/2018
typo in comment #14: "He also regularly often what would otherwise" = "He also often distorts what would otherwise".
Paul Go
  • 16. Paul Go | 29/11/2018
...can't think of any other quotations off hand, but I'll take your word for it.

...and it seems the original lyrics are credited to 'Bert Kalmar', still a great line that depends on the repetition...blah blah blah... I realise there's no rules to these things, but even some crazy decision-flow-chart system for deciding these things would be better than a highly prompted collective ear.
Paul Go
  • 17. Paul Go | 29/11/2018
Far too polite of me, threw me off with that agreement.

You're saying ~MES has ruined the poetic qualities of quotations~ Bold claim. Care to say it to his f... I mean, demonstrate?
dannyno
  • 18. dannyno | 30/11/2018
No, my comment about ruining poetic qualities was a more general comment. I don't think he considered what he did was - generally - writing poetry anyway.

And there are 5-year old comments from me above saying it's not "truant". I wasn't alone either.

Distorting quotations, examples thereof - just see this list: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/thefall/mes-lyrical-magpie-list-in-first-posts-t42183.html
Paul Go
  • 19. Paul Go | 30/11/2018
I haven't read any of these forums yet, but half way into that list 90% were exact, the others were for the sake of brevity if anything, certainly not changing the meaning, and certainly not sneakily altering one word to another similar sounding word and changing or adding to the meaning. This is another case of someone 'creatively' listening without any mind for the context. All self evident without the fact it obscures people's ability to appreciate the song.
Paul Go
  • 20. Paul Go | 30/11/2018
"Poetry" is way too bourgeois a term for MES, although rather sweetly refering to football chants as poems in Sparta. In my defense, MES dismissing such middle class praise reminds me of a Herring line "I'm *not* saying I'm Jesus Christ, ...that's for other people to say"
dannyno
  • 21. dannyno | 01/12/2018
Comment #19. I said "distorted" and "regularly". You asked for proof. I provided proof. The rest of your comment is entirely irrelevant.

Comment #20. In what sense is "poetry" a bourgeois term or "middle class praise"? Is "bourgeois" a bourgeois term? What on earth are you on about?
Paul Go
  • 22. Paul Go | 02/12/2018
I was only saying I couldn't find another example like the issue here, which is probably what I should have said.

Maybe bourgeois is a bourgeois term now! I thought it was republican or anti-establishment term for the middle class, middle class is more of an academic term. Bourgeois being the edgier.

I think I was trying saying although he may not call himself a poet - everyone thinks of posh people poncing around in frilly shirts and tights - but he might secretly like to be called a poet, even though it is the kind of thing an effeminate middle class person like me would say.

He's pretty down on the whole middle class thing you know.
dannyno
  • 23. dannyno | 02/12/2018
"Effeminate middle class"? What?

I don't think MES had much of a political, let alone Marxist, understanding of class. I'm not sure you do, despite your "edgy" pose.
Paul Go
  • 24. Paul Go | 03/12/2018
This'll teach me for trying to be funny... I dunno Danny, I've lived up north, I know how I'm perceived.
'Middle-class revolt' is a good one, 'Bourgeois Town' too.
Paul Go
  • 25. Paul Go | 03/12/2018
And why should being down on the English middle-class automatically make them a Marxist?
Paul Go
  • 26. Paul Go | 03/12/2018
"Edgy poser", amazingly the closest thing to healthy aggression I've got so far. You are all much too nice for your own good. 'with good word, for everybody'.
Paul Go
  • 27. Paul Go | 05/12/2018
This is going way off-topic, but the idea that the man who penned 'Prole Art Threat' doesn't have a political understanding of class is totally absurd. What the hell is class without a 'political understanding' anyway? Table manners? Wearing the correct tie?
Paul Go
  • 28. Paul Go | 06/12/2018
Bare bones argument, how many other examples are there of MES changing a quote in a similarly sneaky and/or subtle way? Compared to, how many examples of quotes are there of him keeping the wording, or at least words, of a quote intact? I make it 0 to 100. If you are right with 'truant', that would be 1 to 99.

If only to err on the side of caution, something there's normally too much of here.
Bunging 'truant' in there suggests it's about kids, why would he change it to that?
There's nothing that can be said about 'bestewed', just gibberish.
Paul Go
  • 29. Paul Go | 06/12/2018
This one's a bit of a mess, next problem is:

"...again and again and again
And the cost of tobacco is dutied/duties (can't remember which one now)
The chewer is pursued"

the again and again re-enforcing the need for 'chewer' again, and again.
duties/dutied... any smokers in the rich west? Too much price... enough to make you wanna light up more.
Paul
  • 30. Paul | 14/12/2018
had a listen, on the positive, you got half the words right.

"saw an evil laugh" - needs to be more closely considered
"And those that vote" - Pretty sure this is said maybe once. Danny was on to something with 'dozy'
"And what the fuck is" - I could say the same
similarly with "an army of Aristo-men" - which is?
and "the chair in the mirror Comes over" - whowha?
"Arabia" - more likely 'Anglia'
'Have you got' - seems a bit weak, I thought 2 words anyway
'sat' - what else would he be doing in a chair? 'set',
"Antidotes and Antidotes" - I smell a cop out here, clearly the second word.words rhymes with 'chew'
"And the better knew that God is meek" - creative... wildly wrong, and it's the clearest line in the song, except for the last two words.

plus the already mentioned truant, bestewed tobacco cost chewed truant
Paul
  • 31. Paul | 14/12/2018
Again, trying to be positive, there are 8 lines, not including 'antidote', that are 100% correct.

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