Barmy
Lyrics
Out of England, I dream of its creamery (2)
When I'm there I dwell on Saxony. (3)
In Turkey, not been due to World War I
Istanbul is the place 'cos of my birthday. (4)
I am barmy
Bleedin' barmy
I got everything
I got everything I want except for hungry (5)
I got everything I want except for money.
I've got the best round set aside for parties
They'll have one when I've gone
In fact, they said so, great one!
I am barmy
Bleedin' barmy
Friends disintegrate within circles of hash
Residue after years of fab genius
Is a pension for the jews (6)
And a medal from the company which I wiped my butt on (7)
And hung on a laburnum tree. (8)
I am barmy
Bleedin' barmy
I am barmy
Bleedin' barmy
Just call me the first
Just call me the first
One May, 1803
On the slopes on Gascony (9)
I am barmy, bleedin' barmy
A dramatic verse
A dramatic verse
A dramatic verse
The programs lot
We break into tune
Take and bring a word
Ring a buzzer
Take and bring a word (10)
A dramatic verse
Notes
1. From Reformation:
The riff is based on "Valleri" by the Monkees. If you listen to Valleri you can see a sort of connection with a horn riff which appears half way through the song. This was confirmed by an interview MES had with Edwin Pouncey in Sounds (28 September 1985): "I pinched it from Valleri...It came out well, that song, better than I thought. What we did was, we used all the 70s effects. Wah-Wah and all that. Wah-Wah pedals are great, when I play the guitar with them it sounds great, whatever you play...I typed out Barmy like it was a big deal; there are a lot more lines than I actually used, a lot more choruses. When we recorded it I was really sick, dead ill, I was on antibiotics. I had a really bad chest infection from smoking and not eating properly and it looked like I was going to go into hospital. When we did 'Barmy' you could hear it in my voice, this rattle of phlegm. But it sounds good, it sounds better than if I'd done it straight."
Dan:
I think there's a clue to be found in the first world war soldier's song which has the refrain, "I or we] must have been bloody well barmy!"
There are lots of variations to be found. Here's a typical example:
"Why did we join the army boys?
Why did we join the army?
Why did we come to France to fight?
We must have been bloody well barmy!"
2. This may be an instance of MES substituting a word for another with a similar sound (or "clanging"), as we would expect to hear "greenery" here. However, the lyric as it stands is not incoherent; "cream" is often used both to denote excellence, as cream is what rises to the top, and a kind of rich and luxuriant goodness.
3. Saxony is a state of Germany, and contains Dresden and Leipzig. It is named after its early inhabitants the Saxons, a group of German tribes that merged with the Angles, another Germanic people, and conquered the land that is now Great Britain, founding the Kingdom of England in the 10th century.
4. MES was born on March 5th, 1957. It's not clear, of course, that the narrator is meant to be MES, or to have the same birthday. I have not found any particular significance for this date with relation to Istanbul. There is a movie called Istanbul that was released in 1957 (on January 23rd). Of course, it could be the other way round, and Istabul could be significant with relation to the narrator's birthday...
5. Or maybe "Hungary," but it doesn't sound like it. There are good arguments either way (see the comments below), and we may never know which word is correct.
6. "A pension for the jews" may refer to the many survivors of the Shoah who were granted life-long pensions from the Germans by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany after World War II, which was established in 1951 by members of the World Jewish Congress at the behest of the Israeli government.
Dan points out that "pension" can also mean a guest house, and also submits the following:
Alfred C. Mierzejewski, Alfred C. (2017). Taking from the Weak, Giving to the Strong: The Jews and the German Statutory Pension System, 1933−1945, in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Vol. 31 (2), Fall 2017, pp.193–214. https://doi.org/10.1093/hgs/dcx040:
Nazi pension policy toward the Jews developed in three phases, conforming roughly to the overall evolution of Nazi anti-Jewish discrimination. First, until the end of 1934 the authorities took no action against Jews’ statutory pensions. Second, beginning in early 1935 those Jews who left Germany effectively lost their pension rights as a result of foreign exchange regulations dating to the Weimar Republic. Finally, beginning in 1941 Jews who were deported suffered con?scation of their pension assets. Remarkably, Jews who continued to live lawfully in Germany received bene?ts right up to the collapse of the Third
Reich; the government, however, used various legal devices to whittle away even at these.
7. Dan points out that "company" can mean a military unit, or a business organisation, or the CIA. It might mean something like the East India Company.
"The Company" is a nickname for the CIA which is sometimes used by its agents, although they more commonly employ the metonym "Langley," but it's just the sort of faux-insiderish jargon that might be used in a song like this one, which hints mysteriously at historical situations in a somewhat humorous manner. The nickname "The Company" may itself be derived from the East India Company as the CIA was a sort of successor to the former as an organization that has its hand in all sorts of international affairs in a clandestine or semi-clandestine manner.
This may be a clue that the narrative voice of the song is not to be too closely identified with Mark E. Smith, although such determinations are usually fluid in any Fall song. The British Empire (along with the Allies or Entente Powers) fought against the armies of the Ottoman Empire (who were aligned with the Central Powers) on Turkish soil in World War I; the Allies were victorious, although Turkey gained independence in 1923. Mark E. Smith was born on March 5, 1957, a date which has, and the components of which have, no particular significance in relation to Istanbul, although the movie Istanbul, which starred Errol Flynn as a diamond smuggler, was released in 1957. Here and in general, it is important to remind ourselves that the narrator has declared himself barmy, although when avoidalble it mustn't be used as a cop-out.
8. According to Harley, "Laburnum trees are also known as 'golden chain' trees, have lots of hanging yellow flowers, and would be good places to hide medals." Laburnum trees are deciduous trees, native to continental Europe, with poisonous pods.
9. Thanks to commenters Fit and Working Again and Portsmouth Bubblejet for deciphering this lyric. Gascony is a region in France known for white wine. According to Dan, "In May 1803 Napoleon was planning for war with Britain. On 1st May 1803, he was at Château de Saint-Cloud (there's a letter from Bonaparte to Talleyrand dated this day)."
From Portsmouth Bubblejet:
The Gascony reference also ties in with the fact that May 1803 is the formal start of the Napoleonic Wars. Britain ended the Treaty of Amiens and declared war on France on 18 May 1803 due to concerns about Napoléon's expansionist policies, particularly as regards Switzerland. This fits in with the mindset of the narrator in the first verse of "Barmy": "I got everything I want except for Hungary" (see note 5 above).
10. 'Take' and 'bring' are words with opposite meanings, and are often confused with one another by beginning speakers of English. The song at this point seems to have succumbed to barminess, and the narrator is perhaps in a sense regressing in his ability to make sense in his native language.
More Information
Comments (96)

- 1. | 07/05/2013

- 2. | 13/07/2013
A creamery is where butter is made.

- 3. | 06/05/2014

- 4. | 13/05/2014

- 5. | 25/05/2014

- 6. | 23/08/2014
Hungary? That's what I'm thinking.
Dan

- 7. | 09/04/2015
This birthday I think means a spiritual fact, that MES can not know, so I am not sure why he would choose to put that line in. Istanbul refers to the conception of the historical Reformation, because that is where Erasmus from Rotterdam would get his Bible from, that was later than translated by William Tyndale, and inspired queen Elisabeth of Tudor, as later Bibles would create Oliver Cromwell. But this may be off topic, because the British Army referred to in this song is the Commonwealth army, that has secret alliances to the whore of Revelation, the romanist antichrist.
This may get to complicated for you British...
At any case, the song may look like British Army in the 20th century, but the words "Bleedin' Barmy" refers to the red coats, the way that Barmy was dressed during the American civil war. Saxony refers to very old British heritage, so again, the spiritual meaning of the lyric is so wide and well understood by MES, that I see an army of Angels whispering song texts in his pen.
However, my estimation is, that he deliberately hides the real meaning of Barmy, in order to write a strong lyric, using a little historical reality, than puts codes on key's to the story.
An innocent rape.
He can't get away with this when I read it though!
I've made poems that way myself, hiding the reality that is the skeleton for factual connection in the consciousness of the beholder, while the song itself becomes a creature itself. The trick was merely a help, like a mold for concrete pouring, but not the end product.
The meaning is not literal by the way.
The text is the text as it is.
But is made that way I suppose as I said, and opens reality that MES himself does not know. Red Coats are not Ironsides, and Ironsides is NOT what is described here, while "Barmy" may just as well mean British manhood in general in a certain interpretation around consciousness of a population.
MES may want to read my comment here, because Ironsides is what we want from Reformation and the New Puritan, while Red Coats must be dismantled.
The latter is not easy.
Yes, I am serious.

- 8. | 10/04/2017
Istanbul is the place 'cos of my birthday."
The feel here is that the narrative of the song is set in a time quite close to World War 1. Istanbul only became widely used outside of Turkey after about 1928.
Researching possible historical candidates, one name I've come across is Richard Meinertzhagen (revealed as a confabulator). There are certain echoes, but nothing specific enough yet to pin him down as a favourite. So it's on to the next one.
However, we shouldn't exclude the possibility that MES is the narrator - he might have visited Turkey due to his (family-related) interest in the war.

- 9. | 10/04/2017

- 10. | 06/05/2017

- 11. | 06/05/2017

- 12. | 06/05/2017
The chain-flowered redbud (Cercis racemosa) from western China is unusual in the genus in having its flowers in pendulous 10 cm (4 in) racemes, as in a Laburnum, rather than short clusters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cercis
At best, this could suggest that Laburnum is sometimes mistaken for a Judas tree, and even in this case for one of the Judas-by-extension trees...

- 13. | 06/05/2017
I went back to the book where I read it, or thought I had, and clearly I completely misunderstood what it was telling me!
Doh!

- 14. | 07/05/2017

- 15. | 25/07/2017
and a medal from the company
Just to pick at this a bit. "Company" could mean a military unit, or a business organisation, or the CIA. It might mean something like the East India Company.

- 16. | 25/07/2017
The last name on that list is Paul Nash. Well, there could be other Paul Nashes, but a significant one is the artist Paul Nash (1889-1946) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Nash_(artist), who served during the first world war and painted some remarkable images of battlefields.
One of his paintings is entitled Mansions of the Dead, which makes me wonder about the instrumental first track on the album: Mansion.
Now, I wouldn't say there are any obvious correspondences between the life of Nash and this song, beyond the first world war theme. But the acknowledgements in the credits does make me wonder if there is something of Nash in this song.

- 17. | 29/07/2017

- 18. | 29/07/2017

- 19. | 29/07/2017
I'm not sure I did the right thing with "Hungary."

- 20. | 18/01/2018

- 21. | 28/01/2018

- 22. | 29/01/2018
"The signs of lupine [a related tree] poisoning can develop within an hour or may take as long as a day. The signs are related to the nervous system and resemble the signs seen with excessive consumption of nicotine (tobacco): twitching, nervousness, depression, difficulty in moving and breathing, and loss of muscular control. If large quantities were consumed, convulsions, coma, and death by respiratory paralysis may occur. [..] There is no antidote"
Other sources say the reputation is not deserved. But it nevertheless has this reputation.
Likely a coincidence, but, in line with the military references in the song, the government in WWI attempted to use its chemical simarity to nicotine to create synthetic nicotine for the troops.

- 23. | 29/01/2018
I have always heard "just comic verse", to match "dramatic verse", but maybe "call me the first is right.

- 24. | 31/01/2018
He just chooses to use the word 'hungry' instead of 'hunger'. I think it's funny. In both lyrics he's bemoaning the absence of hunger and money, both of which might contribute to him being barmy. MES has never desired the ownership of Hungary, which the current lyric is suggesting. It's just another of his speed references.

- 25. | 01/02/2018
Comment #23: Could be. But the line is
I got everything I want except for Hungary
I got everything I want except for money
Now, either "except for Hungary" means he hasn't got "Hungary/Hungry" or it means he has got it, but doesn't want it. There's a geopolitical theme in the song, which is why I like reading it as referring to the country.
Comment #24: what makes us think that the "I" in the song is MES? It could be, and I've tried over the years to find those connections, but it's not at all clear.

- 26. | 05/02/2018
I reckon the lyrics in question, when taken on their own, describe all too well features of Smith himself and which impact on the fortunes of The Fall. It is him who is barmy, at least in the context of that particular verse. It's entirely self-referential, and gives overt connections you have no need to look beyond. Even if he's describing a hundred other things, he's still describing his own character and image (being barmy, relatively skint and hungry), and one of the causes of each (amphetamine abuse removing his appetite and leading to extreme behaviour, resulting in his difficult reputation in the eyes of the music industry and the subsequent lack of money this entails).

- 27. | 06/02/2018
But then, any song can be interpreted any number of ways, including literally. But the thing about interpretation is - so what? Curiosity is not extinguished. We still have a text, and the text is worth reading to see what's there.
We're interested in different things.
Once you've told somebody what a text is - in the mind of the author - "about", that does not constrain meanings others may derive from it), and nor does it tell you anything about how that text was constructed. That's what I'm interested in - where do all these words come from? What associations do they have? How do they speak to us?
You can call that "over-analysis" if you like - I don't care. To me, it's just analysis. You're going to have to put up with it.

- 28. | 06/02/2018
Closing arguments from me. In My New House from the same album, is he going on about his own recent move or that of someone else? I'm going with the former, as I've read somewhere that him and Brix did move during the time of TNSG. Is Paintwork then a development of that song in terms of Smith's own reality, or that of another character? Again I opt for the former, as there's a concrete sequence from moving house and then tinkering with the decoration, and one Smith could make come to life in a pair of original songs focusing on the mundane.
That's what some of TNSG is for me - a celebration of the mundane, and Smith's place in life at that time. In Barmy, he looks at his ordinary existence, and finds plenty in it to write about, but it need not be what the entire song addresses. That's where I draw the line, but I wouldn't dismiss other interpretations or the gathering of details which support or overturn my understating of it. I just won't be the person that goes as far as some do.

- 29. | 06/02/2018
Definitive ArticleYour being curious isn't a criticism as far as I'm concerned, but I do find your degree of analysis borderline neurotic.
Imagine how it is for me.

- 30. | 10/02/2018

- 31. | 10/02/2018
It all sounds enough like "a dramatic" that I don't feel confident enough to change it to "automatic"...

- 32. | 10/02/2018

- 33. | 10/02/2018
Bzfgt: Yeah it never occurred to me but it could mean "Except for [I'm] hungry." And the idea that he's not hungry due to speed also never occurred to me, that's an intriguing possibility. If you do that, you will not be hungry at all, ever (except upon coming down).
On the other hand:
Dan: "There's a geopolitical theme in the song, which is why I like reading it as referring to the country."
Bzfgt: I have always thought this and used to think I was a lone voice because we didn't have anything. So something that confirms what I always suspected will of course seem likely to me. As of now I still lean "Hungary" but to the extent "hungry" is made sense of, it becomes more appealing, and the maddening thing is there's probably no chance we'll ever know for sure.

- 34. | 10/02/2018

- 35. | 10/02/2018

- 36. | 10/02/2018

- 37. | 10/02/2018
This is entirely reasonable. And your statement that "it need not be what the entire song addresses" is on the money. A song could be inspired by his moving house, for instance, and wind up doing a lot more. And there's no law that says you can't be satisfied to stop with the former.

- 38. | 10/02/2018
All the notes are at least in order, now.

- 39. | 11/02/2018
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul_(film)

- 40. | 06/05/2018
"I've got the best land set aside for parties" - (I think the LP version is "best ground")
"Funds disintegrate within circles of glass residue" (LP - friends as above but both glass and cash on the double tracked vocal)
And on the LP I hear "I lay waiting hopefully" as "on May 18 oh 3"

- 41. | 06/05/2018

- 42. | 13/05/2018

- 43. | 04/07/2018

- 44. | 04/07/2018

- 45. | 05/07/2018
"In Turkey, I've not been due to World War One"
"I've got the best land set aside for parties
And I'll have one when I'm gone
In fact, they said so, Great One.

- 46. | 08/07/2018

- 47. | 11/07/2018
Newcastle Riverside, 12 June 1986 - sounds like "Great One" there too.

- 48. | 11/07/2018
And are we completely sure it's "creamery"? Because I've started hearing "Queen Marie", unhelpfully.

- 49. | 11/07/2018


- 51. | 11/07/2018
Slopes of Gascony = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%B4tes_de_Gascogne
Also the novel Seven Men of Gascony by Ronald Delderfield (1975), set in the Napoleonic wars.

- 52. | 11/07/2018
Now sounds to me like
"I've got the best wines set aside for parties"

- 53. | 11/07/2018
Residue after years of fab genius
Is a pension for the jews
and a medal from the company which I wiped my butt on
and hung on a laburnum tree."
On the TNSG omnibus edition, it sounds like "and a model for the company.." on the standard version.
But on the "Rough Mix", I hear some further differences.
Doesn't sound like "friends" disintegrate, it sounds like "funds" do. Sounds like it's "circles of glass". Sounds like a "medal for the company." The more obvious difference is "ass" instead of butt.

- 54. | 11/07/2018

- 55. | 11/07/2018

- 56. | 12/07/2018

- 57. | 13/07/2018
Given Smith's interest in Napoléon ('I love you all, but I cannot embrace you all' etc.), might this be a partial explanation for some elements of the song?

- 58. | 13/07/2018

- 59. | 22/07/2018
Sounds more like "round" to me still, definitely not "wines"
I've/they've almost impossible to tell the difference
He very much seems to be saying "hungry," not Hungary

- 60. | 22/07/2018

- 61. | 22/07/2018

- 62. | 22/07/2018
I'm pretty certain now it's "circles of hash" but I see I'm the only one who's suggested it which makes me nervous. Changing it at least for now though.

- 63. | 22/07/2018

- 64. | 22/07/2018

- 65. | 22/07/2018

- 66. | 22/07/2018

- 67. | 22/07/2018

- 68. | 26/07/2018
Sorry if we were here before, but isn't it...?
I've got the best rants set aside for parties

- 69. | 29/07/2018

- 70. | 01/08/2018

- 71. | 06/08/2018

- 72. | 22/03/2019
And he's barmy for carrying on due to it's diminishing returns...despite this he carries on because...he's British Army.

- 73. | 23/03/2019

- 74. | 26/07/2019
Residue and failures of fab genius
Is a pension for the jews
And a medal from the company
Which I wipe my arse on and hang it on a tree
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN86qnnlA_Y

- 75. | 16/08/2019

- 76. | 16/08/2019

- 77. | 16/08/2019
I always liked "good one," like "ha-ha good joke" only sarcastic...I'm checking the studio version again

- 78. | 16/08/2019

- 79. | 16/08/2019

- 80. | 16/08/2019

- 81. | 16/02/2020
This could refer to retirement benefits, or to a guest house (see my comment 56). If retirement benefits, then note 6 on post-war reparative pensions is relevant.
But just on that point, I thought it was interesting to look into Nazi-era policy towards Jewish pensions.
Alfred C. Mierzejewski, Alfred C. (2017). Taking from the Weak, Giving to the Strong: The Jews and the German Statutory Pension System, 1933−1945, in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Vol. 31 (2), Fall 2017, pp.193–214. https://doi.org/10.1093/hgs/dcx040:
Nazi pension policy toward the Jews developed in three phases, conforming roughly to the overall evolution of Nazi anti-Jewish discrimination. First, until the end of 1934 the authorities took no action against Jews’ statutory pensions. Second, beginning in early 1935 those Jews who left Germany effectively lost their pension rights as a result of foreign exchange regulations dating to the Weimar Republic. Finally, beginning in 1941 Jews who were deported suffered confiscation of their pension assets. Remarkably, Jews who continued to live lawfully in Germany received benefits right up to the collapse of the Third
Reich; the government, however, used various legal devices to whittle away even at these.

- 82. | 14/03/2020

- 83. | 28/05/2020
as in green and pleasant land and merrie england

- 84. | 16/10/2020
45:30 - MES on army discipline.
'He often said to me, 'we're B(ritish) Army us.'

- 85. | 17/10/2020

- 86. | 26/01/2021
(most of this quoted above in note #1, but I just thought the full thing needed to be here for the record)
MES, p.6-7:
Did you get the riff? I pinched it from 'Valleri' by The Monkees. It came out well, that song, better than I thought. What we did was, we used all the '70s effects, Wah-Wah and all that. Wah-Wah pedals are great, when I play guitar with them it sounds great, whatever you play. You can see how all these people got away with it in the '60s and '70s.
I typed out 'Barmy' like it was a big deal, there are a lot more lines than I actually used, a lot more choruses. When we recorded it I was really sick, dead ill, I was on antibiotics. I had a really bad chest from smoking and not eating properly and it looked like I was going to have to go into hospital. When we did 'Barmy' you could hear it in my voice, this rattle of phlegm.
But it sounds good, it sounds better than if I'd done it straight.

- 87. | 06/02/2021

- 88. | 06/02/2021

- 89. | 28/05/2022
I don't think it's "hash" either. The hacienda version sounds like cash or gash (something with a sharp sound at the start). The rough mix is almost certainly "funds disintegrate within circles of glass" (drinking away all of your money perhaps?). And the album version sounds like a double track of both, sounding almost like "glash".
And more than likely nothing but along with the Napoleonic musings above - “If the world was only a single state, Istanbul would the capital.” (Napoleon Bonaparte) "Istanbul is the place..."

- 90. | 10/07/2022

- 91. | 31/10/2022
See that and other significant revisions suggested by the 29 November 2022 Omega Auctions Lot 411 lyric sheets:


Of course we have to be cautious, because what is written down may not be what is sung on record.
However, here we have "creamery" and "hungry" (if not a typo), "rants set aside for parties", "penchant for the juice", and so on.

- 92. | 31/10/2022

- 93. | 03/11/2022

- 94. | 01/12/2022

- 95. | 04/12/2022

- 96. | 05/03/2023
I got the best rants set aside for parties
An I'll have one when I'm done on Febday 6 0 3 1
Friends disintergrate within circles of cash
The residue after years of fad genius
Is a penchant for the juice
And a medal from the company
Which I wiped my butt on and hung on a laburnum tree
During the 'a dramtic verse' chant you can also hear parts of what is typed on the side of the lyric sheet:
A dramatic verse
The French
pronounce that
with great difficulty
they are tamed in the word
and real poison to the weird (sounds like word)
..and no - I dont know what it means!
Looks like it was originally drafted as part of the 'friends disintegrate with the cycles of money verse.
The french y'see have a great difficulty/ the french pronounce that with great difficulty
I'm presuming the word in question is 'Money', but didnt fit in the verse as he changed the word to cash.
Another scribbled version:
Friends disintergrate within cycles of Mon-ai
I cant even pronounce that
Due to French difficulty
There are lots of variations to be found. Here's a typical example:
"Why did we join the army boys?
Why did we join the army?
Why did we come to France to fight?
We must have been bloody well barmy!"