Blindness
Lyrics
Fall Heads Roll
The flat is evil
Welcome: living leg-end (2)
I was walking down the street
I saw the poster at the top
I was all on one leg (3)
The streets were flagged (4)
And the poster at the top of street said:
“Do you work hard?” (5)
I was only on one leg
The road hadn't been fixed
I had to be in for half six
I was only on one leg
My blue eyelids were not active
There was a curfew at half nine
For my kids
There was a poster at the top of the street
Encapsulated in plastic
It had a blind man
So I said: “Blind man, have mercy on me.”
I said: “Blind man, have mercy on me.”
The flat is evil and full of Cavalry and calvary (6)
And Calvary and cavalry.
“Do you work hard?”
It said, “I am from Hebden Bridge. (7)
Somebody said to me: I can't understand a word you said."
Said: “99% of non smokers die” (8)
“Do you work hard?”
“Do you work hard?”
I was walking down the street
And saw a picture of a blind man
The flat is evil
Of core(?) cavalry and calvary
Of core(?)
Blind man, have mercy on me
Said, blind man, have mercy on me
I am looking at my feet
My blues eyes get ID'd
My curfew was due half eight
Now its half past six
My curfew is at 9:30
I said. “Do you?”
Blind man! Have mercy on me
Blind man! Have mercy on me
Blind man! Have mercy on me
I’m on one leg
My eyes can’t get fixed
And my kids
Can’t blue eyes get fixed?
Blind man! Have mercy on me
Blind man! Have mercy on me
Peel Version
And all humans
Cavalry or calvary (9)
And not a drop of water (10)
Or paper
Or paper
J.W. said "walking bass, walking bass" (11)
Don't forget, don't forget
You expected Aristotle Onassis
But instead you got Mr James Fennings from Prestwick, in Cumbria (12)
Do you...
The flat is evil
Full of cavalry and calvary
His first appearance was on Moscow Road (13)
The poster came first
At first I thought it was just a poster
I was talking to Jane Seymour (14)
Eyes wide open
The neck was slightly dislocated
But then I walked up the street
There was a repellent plastic
Said poster with a picture:
"Do you work?"
I was on one leg
At the top of the street
There was a poster
A plastic front
From Moscow Road it came
From Deansgate it came
From Narnack Records it came (15)
I was on one leg
I had to be in by 9:30
I said walking bass
Paper times 2
Paper times 2
Paper everywhere and not a drop of water to be seen
I said
I was by the ocean
I saw a poster
I am [?]
I am [?]
Everywhere I look I see a blind man
I see a blind man
Everywhere I look
I see a...
I can't get my eyes checked
My blues eyes can't get checked
I'm only on one leg
I said to poster, "When's curfew over?
I said, "Blind man, have mercy on me."
I said, "Blind man, have mercy on me."
Blind man have mercy on me
Oh Great One I am a mere receptacle
The egg tester for your sandlewood and other assorted woods
In dark green
Blind man have mercy on me!
I got a metal leg - truth
Flat is the evil of calvary and cavalry
Blind Man (Demo) (17)
Is it in Cavalry?
And J. Wilson said,
"I can't stand, I can't stand"
The first one on the walking bass, it's...
Paper times two
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-paper times two
Everywhere
And not a scrap,
A drop of water
Don't forget
The sea
Don't forget
Or the ICS
Don't forget it
They think they've got
Aristotle Onassis
But in fact they've got James Fennings
Of Prestwick, in Cumbria, and Lancs.
Do you... work hard?
Do you?
Work hard in Malmaison? (18)
Uncovered in time
Getting down
Getting down
Getting get on down
Get on down
Hurricane
The flat is evil
It is full of cavalry
And calvary
J. Wilson, he couldn't stand
Don't forget the cassette
On ICS
Do you...
Midnight dump is overtime
Double time
Is precious time
Chair is on the… gilded
The first disappearance
Was talking about contentment
And Anne
The first king of Moscow Road
The first king of Moscow Road
He was talking to Jane Seymour
With eyes open wide
Of course there was no chair
First she disappeared
Notes
1. In a 1991 New Musical Express "Portrait of the Artist as a Consumer" (a weekly feature in which the NME asked various musicians to list their favorite cultural artifacts such as music, books, movies, etc.) MES lists the Panther Burns as one of the bands he is interested in. The Panther Burns, also known as Tav Falco's Panther Burns, were formed by Falco and Alex Chilton in Memphis in the late '70s, and in 1981 they were the Fall's labelmates at Rough Trade. Their mission was to bring roots music--particularly, but by no means limited to, rockabilly and blues--together with punk and avant-garde sensibilities. The Panther Burns recorded a song called "Blind Man" on their debut album, Behind the Magnolia Curtain; "Blind Man" had earlier been recorded by Muddy Waters, although I am not sure of the ultimate source (the song is not the same as "Blind Man Blues," which Muddy also recorded). The song has the repeated refrain "Lord, have mercy on me." The Panther Burns also covered Leadbelly's "Bourgeois Blues" on the same album, which the Fall were to record for 2003's Are You Are Missing Winner, and the Fall did "Funnel of Love" (originally popularized by Wanda Jackson), which the Panther Burns recorded in 1995 for Shadow Dancer, on Your Future Our Clutter in 2010.
According to Jim Watts on the Fall Online Forum:
And in the car on the way back we heard witness by Roots Manuva and Spencer got very excited. We were inspired by the groove and I think Spencer started the beat, then Steve came up with the bass and me and Ben came in with our guitar parts.
Then it was put forward to Mark as a demo and he went in to do his vocal sessions and he made it a Fall song. I remember the sessions were pretty much -day one band recording - day two vocals - day three mixing. Or something close to that, wasnt a long recording.
I dont even know how it is credited as by that point I had lost the will to battle over credits. But the above is exactly as I remember it."
The candidate in a Masonic initiation, on the other hand, is not genuinely blind, but is blindfolded and helpless. According to R. Totale on the Fall online forum:
Whether or not Totale is on the money about MES's source of inspiration, it is an attractive interpretation (although, like the Blunkett element, it leaves much unaccounted for). As Totale suggests, juxtaposed images of power and powerlessness abound in this song, even as they continually reverse polarity: in the Peel version James Fennings of Prestwick is substituted for Aristotle Onassis (see note 10 below), and somehow the geographical reference to Cumbria seems to me to be a mundane detail that underscores the modesty of an ordinary man as compared to a Greek billionaire. At the same time, we could see "James Fennings" as a synechdoche for the Fall as pure advent: a pre-show DJ for the band in the early 2000s, Fennings' tracks heralded the arrival of the group onstage, so the line boastingly suggests the hubris of a rock event, with "Fennings" indicating the moment of adumbration in which the event is all potential, a synesthetic thought-image of angry superheroes looming over the venue. Onassis is the money shot, which is vulgarly redundant at the point of its arrival.
Blunkett's blind eyes look down on the city from what is presumably a campaign poster. Although he cannot see, his power lies in being seen; his image functions as a symbol of an all-seeing power introjecting itself into the psyche of the population. One such poster, created by the opposition, alludes to the '60s tv show The Prisoner: dubbing Blunkett The Imprisoner, it warns that "Compulsory ID cards will mean you are presumed guilty, until proven innocent." Blunkett's sightless glare conveys the threat of a curfew ("I had to be in by 9:30") backed by the threat of government violence in the name of preventing terrorism, the violence of the powerless. Such violence is most brutally effective when it is not being exercised, wagering in its desperation that the power of fear can overcome the fear of power. Calvary, the place of Christ's passion and thus a symbol for the power of undergoing rather than performing violence, is paired with "cavalry," as the passive violence of religion is both in opposition to and supplemented by the active violence of the State. In another reversal, this same juxtaposition reappears as religious terrorism, which further blurs the distinction between active and passive, or actual and potential, power (the State is powerful enough to preach non-violence and religious tolerance, while the terrorist impotently trumpets violence in the name of religion, and in the name of resistance to the violence of the State). MES himself, finally, is a supplicant "on one leg," as opposed to the so-called "walking bass," which is, as it so happens, the actual protagonist of the song; on the Peel version, the litany "From Moscow Road it came, from Deansgate it came, from Narnack Records it came" seems to be about nothing so much as the relentless bass line, which is not in fact a "walking bass" in the usual sense, but it certainly marches.
See More Information below for more on the Blunkett connection.
See comment 48 below for more.
Prestwick is in Scotland, close to Glasgow and not very close to Cumbria, although it is possible that Cumbria is also a street or neighborhood in Prestwick.
Prestwich is in Bury, in Greater Manchester, and is where MES hangs his hat. Cumbria is about 90 miles to the north of Prestwich, and around 130 miles northwest of Prestwick.
Fennings is from Prestwich, and MES seems to be playing on Prestwich/Prestwick.
Either way, as Adrian points out in the comments, this is probably a pun--"see more"--as it's followed by "eyes wide open." Rob suggests that the lyric is a gibe about plastic surgery...
"Brain box" is sometimes used in England to denote someone who is intellectual or intelligent. It's not clear why Aristotle Onassis is a "brain box" but MES could be thinking of the older, even more famous, Aristotle. Neither the ancient Aristotle nor Onassis were ever blind, as far as we know, but there was a blind puppet on Sesame Street named "Aristotle."
More Information
An Account of Why "Blindness" is About Freemasonry can be found here
From albtwo, more on the David Blunkett connection:
David Blunkett was Home Secretary until late 2004 and his period in office did indeed coincide with a marked downwards pressure on civil liberties in the UK. To some degree this was consistent with a trend in "Western" nations in general, post 9/11; to some degree it was specific to local UK politics - the Blair Labour government put great store in emphasizing/promoting the defence of the nation at this time to maintain the support of traditionally right-wing media, in particular the Sun, arguably as a tactic to help create space to pursue a Left-of-centre agenda in other policy areas. Blunkett and his approach to civil liberties were central to this. One of the major features of domestic security legislation at the time was the introduction of "control orders" for those suspected of terrorist activity but who had previously been detained without charge owing to insufficient evidence. Control orders were introduced as part of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 which, although it became law post-Blunkett's term as Home Secretary, was very much developed on his watch. Voted through Parliament in March 2005, control orders gave sweeping powers of oversight of the ability of terror suspects to move and associate freely and I think it highly likely that the repeated references to curfews in the various versions of Blindness are informed by this. Blunkett soon resurfaced (albeit briefly) in mid-2005 as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions where he maintained his right of centre approach - although the chronology doesn't quite add up, it is tempting to suggest that the "Do you work hard?" idea suggests a poster from this period. Against this argument, there is an interesting aside in the Last Night at the Palais version of "Blindness" where MES sings "I was going to a camp... in the Lake District." This dates to 2007 and surely works on two levels - first, the camps for dysfunctional kids and fathers claimed by MES above; second, a well-reported trip to a "training camp" in the Lake District by a number of individuals who were subsequently convicted of planning failed bombings in London on 21 July, 2005. This story rumbled on in the UK from 2005 through to their conviction in 2007- i.e., contemporary with the period of "Blindness"'s recording and subsequent live performance, and I think this is consistent, particularly in light of the Palais line, with themes of both indoctrination, masonic or otherwise, and the Blunkett-led crackdown on civil liberties linked to/reflecting heightened terrorist activity in this period.
Comments (71)

- 1. | 26/04/2013

- 2. | 26/04/2013
It's all very disorientating.

- 3. | 15/12/2013
MES likes Tav Falco's Panther Burns (see: Portrait of the Artist as a Consumer: i.e. http://www.culturewars.org.uk/images/mesconsumer.jpg)
On the Panther Burns' first album, "Behind the Magnolia Curtain" is a track entitled "Blind Man".
http://youtu.be/ICiFKKg6jsk
One of the lyrics of which is:
"Lord have mercy on me"
And of course another track on that album is a cover of "Bourgeois Blues".

- 4. | 03/05/2015
Hebden Bridge is indeed that village - but in the 1980s it had been largely abandoned, and (for what reason I know not) bought up by whole swathes of media and 'alternative' people from London. It very swiftly became an enclave of Southern middle-class (bohemian?) life in a desolate Northern emptied countryside. As such - especially re the accents - a perfect target for the wrath of MES.

- 5. | 21/10/2015
I would imagine the show got a lot of interest in Manchester.
For pure fun, listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkcHgI_TIYQ
and pay especial attention to the segue between the original 1963 version and it's remixed 1966 version. The changeover sounds like its own pre-cog of typical Fall mixing, not least of the splicing in 'Blindness' (of, more markedly in 'Bury'). Food for thought.

- 6. | 23/11/2015

- 7. | 04/12/2015

- 8. | 04/12/2015
From first hearing Blindess, what immediately stood out for me was the Freudian, surrealist motif of the blind man and blindness. In his 1919 essay Das Unheimliche, translated as The Uncanny, Freud links the motif of blinding in Hoffmann's story 'The Sandman' to the threat and act of castration. The essay is long and moves ultimately towards his theory of the uncanny as a post-sacred recognition of mortality. The importance for our song here is the overwhelming dread and uncanny power that becomes associated with Blindness. When I hear 'Blind man, have mercy on me', that's my immediate connection. I'd be surprised if MES wasn't aware of this when writing it though I guess we'll never know that. Freud underpins surrealism and a host of surrealist art plays on the impact and meanings of blinding. Anyone familiar with Buñuel and Dalí's Un chien andalou and L'Âge d'or, for example, will know what I'm talking about. The first scene of the eye slashing in Un Chien andalou is both a threat and challenge to the viewer and a forerunner to the Oedipal scenario that follows. In L'Âge d'or, the character M. X kicks over the blind man, who is a reference to the extreme right wing forces of Patriot League.
It goes without saying that there is a surrealist quality to Smith's writing but the Blind man along with being 'on one leg' and the mention of the (prosthetic?) metal leg in the Peel version - classically surrealist/Freudian images of castration - both point to this dimension to me. Within this context it's perfectly understandable why the voice in the song might entreat the blind man to 'have mercy'. There's no explanation of the whole song in this connection, of course, but there might be more to it and the above is as far as I've got!

- 9. | 06/12/2015

- 10. | 06/12/2015

- 11. | 12/01/2016

- 12. | 16/01/2016
Nothing else would really make sense with the rest of the lyrics anyway

- 13. | 19/01/2016

- 14. | 19/01/2016

- 15. | 24/05/2016

- 16. | 24/06/2016

- 17. | 06/12/2016
Jim Watts is credited with playing both guitar and bass on Peel Session #24. When I asked him which song(s) featured his bass playing (see link above), Jim said he "probably" played bass on "Clasp Hands."

- 18. | 27/12/2016

- 19. | 01/03/2017

- 20. | 26/04/2017
5. russell richardson | 21/10/2015
There is no mention of this 'up there', but sn't 'Blindness' bass-line the same as the Dr. Who theme?
The similarity of Blindness to the Doctor Who theme is attributable to the similarity of Roots Manuva's "Witness (1 Hope)" to the Doctor Who theme:
See this 2013 interview with Roots Manuva: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jan/24/roots-manuva-whole-career-massive-mistake
Is it true the beat on Witness (1 Hope) came about because you were trying to recreate the Doctor Who theme tune?
Yeah, how did you know that?
I've been doing my research.
Good on you, man. Most journalists are just rubbish. I've got a different quality of journo here. I would never have thought.
This is The Guardian, you know.
But you're all supposed to be resting on your laurels. You've all become designer socialists, wearing Clarks and going to Bestival every year.
Amazing. How close do you come to recreating the Doctor Who theme?
That's the glory of my production-making and my musicality. I'm really rubbish at recreating things so I always go miles off the mark, but I ended up sticking with it.

- 21. | 13/05/2017

- 22. | 13/05/2017

- 23. | 13/05/2017

- 24. | 13/05/2017

- 25. | 11/08/2017

- 26. | 30/10/2017

- 27. | 31/10/2017
‘I’m glad to get rid of you lot, drinking whisky all the time. Bastards, The Fall. Ignorant north Mancunians. I’m going on tour with Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry: a nice tour.’
Of course, it turns out to not to be plain sailing. MES saw the tour in Manchester:
This is just after I’d fucked my leg up in Newcastle. The funny thing was I went to see it with Shaun Bainey, our manager at the time, and a mate of mine, James Fennings, who DJs for us. Both of them were freaking out – they couldn’t handle it. I loved it.

- 28. | 08/11/2017

- 29. | 11/11/2017
At the same time, Fennings is a synechdoche for the Fall as pure advent: a pre-show DJ for the band in the early 2000s, Fennings' tracks heralded the arrival of the group onstage, so the line boastingly suggests the hubris of a rock event, with "Fennings" indicating the moment of adumbration in which the band is all potential, a synesthetic thought-image of angry superheroes looming over the venue. Onassis is the money shot, vulgarly redundant at the point of its arrival.
That is hilarious to me.

- 30. | 11/11/2017

- 31. | 02/12/2017

- 32. | 02/12/2017

- 33. | 02/12/2017

- 34. | 26/01/2018

- 35. | 04/02/2018

- 36. | 20/02/2018

- 37. | 24/02/2018

- 38. | 22/03/2018

- 39. | 20/06/2018
- It comes from Chicago Now, where it references networking bands who want overnight acclaim and to be American rather than British - Blair was often accused of his dream job being Mick Jagger.
- To New Labour, this talk is supposed to be aspirational but for those at the bottom it could be likened to the Home Office's use of fascist iconography, and the 'Work Makes You Free' nazi slogan (which was almost directly quoted by Iain Duncan Smith as Home Secretary)
- It references the fact that asylum seekers are often seen as unemployed when they are usually banned from working indefinitely upon arrival or under detention.
- It's just a general view New Labour had of the working classes being slovenly. New Labour, down to the name, was built on the idea that a lot of meetings and policy papers amounted to hard work. This led to the hostility to any passing interests of the working classes they were supposed to represent (alcohol, cigarettes, tradesmen and the self employed, drugs, family values, people on benefits anything of any fun). While the middle classes all decided that marketing was a viable career path rather than white noise, the working classes were looked down upon and any questioning they had of Europe, Asylum Seekers, Minorities was treated as 'I'm not racist but...' language. Blair created 'Generation 'i have black friends y'know''

- 40. | 27/06/2018
I enjoy the anti-New Labour stuff, but just to correct a couple of points: Iain Duncan Smith was Tory, not Labour. And he was never Home Secretary - though he was Secretary of State for Work & Pensions. I think you're thinking of David Blunkett, who was Labour Home Secretary around the time of the first release of the song. Blunkett is I think one of the intended subjects.
"Chicago Now" doesn't reference networking bands etc at all - there's nothing in the text to support that interpretation, although you're free to make that interpretation. Furthermore, whatever Blair was later accused of, in 1990, when "Chicago Now" was debuted, Blair was not even leader of the Labour Party yet, let alone Prime Minister.

- 41. | 12/07/2018

- 42. | 15/07/2018

- 43. | 18/07/2018
Documented here: https://web.archive.org/web/20180718194250/http://garysoapbox.blogspot.com/2015/10/did-ian-duncan-smith-say-work-makes-you.html

- 44. | 18/08/2018
The streets were flagged
This could means decorated with flags, which in the context of giant posters of politicians seems plausible but perhaps more straightforwardly it could refer to flagstones. Or it could be a pin on both.

- 45. | 25/08/2018

- 46. | 25/08/2018
With "blue eyelids," I'm not sure, but it's a good speculation to have here, and to let percolate for a little while...

- 47. | 04/10/2018
As yet unmentioned is the connection to Oedipus. The name 'Oedipus' means 'Lame Foot'. In an attempt to prevent the fulfillment of the property whereby their son. would kill their father and marry his mother, when Jocasta indeed bore a son, Laius had his ankles pierced and tethered together so that he could not crawl; Jocasta then gave the boy to a servant to expose on the nearby mountain. He was rescued by a kind-hearted shepherd and by a strange twist of fate ended up fulfilling the prophecy. When his investigations revealed the truth Oedipus blinded himself.
Hysterically, "I was only on one leg".
Many years later, angry that his son did not love him enough to take care of him, Oedipus curses his son Eteocles and his brother, condemning them both to kill each other in battle.
Thus, as the curse is delivered, Eteocles: "Blind man, have mercy on me".

- 48. | 04/10/2018
In old age Oedipus interprets a thunderstorm as a sign from Zeus of his impending death. Filled with strength, the blind Oedipus stands and walks, calling for his children to follow him. His death has many resemblances to the crucifixion at Calvary, the sub sequent ascension, and the empty tomb..
[/i]When the messenger turned back to look at the spot where Oedipus last stood, he says that "We couldn't see the man- he was gone- nowhere! And King Theseus, alone, shielding his eyes, both hands spread out against his face as if some terrible wonder flashed before his eyes and he, he could not bear to look." Antigone and Ismene mourn their father. Antigone longs to see her father's tomb, even to be buried there with him rather than live without him. The girls beg Theseus to take them, but he reminds them that the place is a secret, and that no one may go there.

- 49. | 13/10/2018

- 50. | 24/02/2019

- 51. | 13/04/2019

- 52. | 16/04/2019
This is him: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/james-fennings-stern-27a95749
He did some DJing for the group live from time to time.
MES wrote in Renegade: "a mate of mine, James Fennings, who DJs for us"
I don't know where he's from.

- 53. | 18/04/2019

- 54. | 02/01/2021
Anyone--what is ICS?

- 55. | 02/01/2021
This would explain it perfectly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcGmeW3hAQk&ab_channel=jazzstandar
but as far as I can tell it was unreleased until 2015.
Otherwise, who is J Wilson?

- 56. | 02/01/2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCFaC0E8i5w&ab_channel=DavidHannah

- 57. | 02/01/2021

- 58. | 02/01/2021
I encountered a problem here I find a lot, my writing in 2013 or so was really overwrought at times, but at the same time it expresses a lot economically so I'm loathe to change it...anyway that's neither here nor there

- 59. | 02/01/2021
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICS

- 60. | 07/01/2021
Prestwick is a town in South Ayrshire in Scotland, 33 miles south of Glasgow and more than 80 miles from the English border at Gretna. It is best known for being the home of Glasgow Prestwick International Airport.
MES's pronunciation of 'Prestwich' as 'Prestwick' sounds like another of his private jokes.


- 62. | 01/03/2021
https://puritansguidetofallsongsguide.podbean.com/e/27-blindness/
One for the additional information!
p.s. "leg end" definitely not English slang for dick!

- 63. | 20/11/2021
Start about 3

Blind man, have mercy on me
I said blind man, have mercy on me
You got [two something legs]
You live in 11 Downing Street
You're a fucking blind bastard
In the Labour Party, so-called
11 Downing Street has traditionally (since 1828) been the official residence of the British Chancellor of the Exchequer. Blunkett was never that, but he was Home Secretary, and apparently it was originally intended for that position! Whether or not MES knew that, I cannot say.
Tony Blair lived in the no.11 flat, because he had kids and it's bigger than the flat above no.10. David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson have also occupied no.11.
Anyway, so while the reference in this live lyric must surely be to Blunkett, it's simultaneously confused or confusing. Unless MES is actually calling Blair metaphorically blind (Blair was Prime Minister until 2007).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11_Downing_Street
https://www.gov.uk/government/history/11-downing-street

- 64. | 20/11/2021

- 65. | 20/11/2021

- 66. | 20/11/2021
Brown is blind in his left eye as a result of a teenage rugby injury.
Perhaps the song concerned Blunkett at first, but could also be put to service against Brown.

- 67. | 08/05/2022
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wilson_(House)

- 68. | 08/05/2022

- 69. | 19/05/2022
The reference cannot possibly be to HOUSE MD, for the simple reason that HOUSE MD first aired on 16 November 2004, and Blindness, mentioning "J Wilson", was first released on Interim on 1 November 2004.

- 70. | 02/08/2022
http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/blindman/2/

- 71. | 20/02/2023
eg:
Rudy von Hacklheber heaves a big sigh. "So. You win," he says. "Where is the cavalry?"
"Cavalry, or calvary?" Waterhouse jokes.
Rudy smiles tolerantly. "I know where Calvary is. Not far from Golgotha."
"Why do you think the cavalry is coming?"
(p.883 of the Arrow paperback)
Calvary is an old cinder code. It started as a fissure from which ash and scoria were ejected, one fragment of a time, for thousands of years....
<snip>
Ninomiya centers his transit on this signal and takes down more figures. In combination with various other data from maps, aerial photos and the like, this should enable him to make an estimate of the main shaft's latitude and longitude.
"I don't know how accurate this will be," he frets, as they trudge down the mountain. "I have the peak exactly - what did you call it? Cavalry?"
"Close enough."
"This means soldiers on horseback, correct?"
"Yes."
p.636 & 637.
No particular reason to think there's a connection to the song, I just thought it was interesting.
Prestwick is in Scotland. Surely Prestwich?