Calendar

(1)

Hey
Don't you want
To be caught
Unbrainwash
Today 
Hey
Don't you want
To be caught

October gives way to Christmas
January... 
Calendar
What gets in the way
It was a very good month last week
What gets in the way
Your mirrors are dissolving today (2)

The last  
Three weeks 
were the greatest month
Of February  (3)
Calendar
What gets in the way 

Calendar

Unbrainwash
October
Calendar

1. A song co-written with Damon Gough, otherwise known as "Badly Drawn Boy," who plays guitar on the version of the track on the "Masquerade" single. The song began its life as an instrumental by the latter called "Tumbleweed." Martin has found the following information on the web page of Badly Drawn Boy's booking agent:

"After releasing two EPs, Gough's future was graced with a series of fortuitous moments. The first of these came in December 1997 when Mark E Smith mistakenly took Gough's car for a taxi outside a Manchester bar. Smith demanded a lift home and Gough obliged, but only after they agreed that the Fall would record a Badly Drawn Boy song called 'Tumbleweed.'"

Legend has it that when Smith lurched out of the back seat he left his false teeth behind. 

It has been suggested that the lyrics are a complaint directed at the record company; hard to say. Harley recalls an interview "around the time of Calendar complaining about months passing by while record companies get their act together to release a completed record - and that's the first thing that came to mind when I heard the song. I've never tracked down the interview, but he was still making the same point in 2011: Back inside and with fresh drinks, I ask whether they had to turn around the album quickly to meet his self-imposed Christmas deadline? 'No, it was quite a long process, for me, really. Started about April, so about three or four months. The main thing was to get it out before Christmas. Which is sacrilege in the music business because you can’t bring out things then because there’s a Christmas rush. "Best Hits of Robbie Williams" or whatever, so the factories are all clogged up with crap...People just look at you: "We need six months to do it. We  need six weeks to develop the marketing." All this shit. "We need six weeks to do the marketing, six weeks to do the interneting." Can’t you just get the fucking thing out?'"

^

2. From Country Folk at the Fall online forum: "I always assumed the 'mirrors are dissolving' line was to do with the the popular A&R past-time of snorting lines of coke from a mirror."  "Mister Rode" from 2013's The Remainderer contains the line "My mirror dissolves every day." 

^

3. Zack: "Calendar" was recorded in January 1998 as per The Big Midweek and released on the "Masquerade" CD single on February 9 as per the Fall Gigography.

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Calendar: Fall Tracks A-Z