Chino

(1)

This was an actual account of the operational experience
When he thought at first he was going out
In fact, he was going in for it

When do I quit?
Where do I quit?
I need to know
I can't leave this bench alone
To be with my darling
When do I quit?

C.O. can you digress - self (2)
When it came like the wind
Chino
One note, a slide
Mister
When do I quit this hell?
When do I quit this hospital?
My darling
Darling is waiting

Chino

The warmth that is inside
Cannot be made
By your own scene's ink
She has lips like Fedde Le Grand (3)

The warmth that is sliding
Cannot be made
When do I quit?
Can I leave this trench alone? (4)

You alright there kid?

When can I leave this bed alone?
Where can I leave this theatre alone?
Chino
Chino in a suit
Chino

1. The original working title was "Chino Splashback," which suggests the title could have referred to Chino pants (a "splashback" being a urination-related mishap). The infelicities of the body, in any case, is certainly a theme here as elsewhere on Your Future Our Clutter, as these lyrics, and others on the album, seem to be at least partially rooted in a then-recent hospital stay undergone by MES. He may also be comparing the hospital to a prison, as there is a large correctional facility in Chino, California, which saw a major (possibly racially motivated) riot the year before the album's release. There is also a 1973 Charles Bronson vehicle named Chino, a Western filmed in Italy. The plot and theme music have little to do with the Fall song, but "Chino" does sound a bit like some of the Spaghetti Western music made famous by Ennio Morricone, as well as classic surf music. But the song starts as though it's going to be a weird-out tune--a fuzzy sliding bass and odd keyboard squonks lead in to Greenway's Western tremolo. By the middle of the song the bass starts picking rather than sliding, and the song coheres into a more conventional sound.  

From Dan: "Trenches, COs, etc? It's another first world war song, isn't it? Although at first I thought it was about MES's experiences in hospital. Maybe it's about both." And Dan and Harley both point out that chino is a twill fabric out of which military uniforms are made, so the song may be, on one level, about a military hospital (as Harley notes, words like "trench" and "theatre," as in "theatre of war," also feed into this impression).

^

2. C.O. usually stands for "correctional officer," further suggesting a hospital-prison parallel.  It can sometimes mean "chief officer." Dan points out that it also can stand for "conscientious objector,"

^

3. Fedde le Grande is a Dutch DJ and producer with, as far as I can tell, unremarkable lips.  

^

4. The song has been interpreted as MES speculating on the end of the Fall, although he has subsequently denied that he is seriously considering such a thing.  

^

Chino: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 2010