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The Annotated Lyrics
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- Home /
- The Annotated Lyrics /
- Clasp Hands
Clasp Hands
Lyrics
Fall Heads Roll: (1)
We're going down on N-ineteen
At 4:30 a.m.
And we grasped the hands
In N.Y.C.
It was Steve's song (2)
Clasp hands
Well perhaps it's so familiar
In a blue bus
It was a pleasure
The lads were wolverines (3)
A cuckoo was talking
So we clasped hands
We grasped hands
We're going down N.Y.C.
Steve's song
A whirlpool was talking to me
And we all clasped hands
It was clockwork tears
And we all clasped hands
It was one of the best shows ever seen
Ludicrous, majestic and exhilarating
Priscilla Chaos is a lustrous jewel
And we all clasped hands
In N.Y.C.
Peel:
We're going down to Skagastrond
NYC
And God put it here (4)
Clasp hands
Well, I went out the night before last
I saw a queue outside
Clasp hands
And they did
I was empowered
And the empowerment made me gentle
in my baldness
I was so glad
It was part of the job club (5)
Fulfilled, I was
Over the death march
of the one thousand
I looked across
I was well reflected
I knew we had to clasp hands
To clasp hands
Well, all the heads
Looked right to me
Well, the English men
with hands all clasped (hands)
Put it here
Clasp
Grasp
Hup!
Now eight is eight
and in French it's...
I didn't get past the six
In German it is sieben - the one after that
And ah, NYC
Well I'm going down to Skagastrond
And God put it there
And God put it there
There was a queue before me
And they all clasped hands
They all grasped hands
They all clasped hands
Interim:
We're going down in NYC
And God put it in
All clasped hands
Clasp hands
Well the image was all blurred to me
And all the heads were crumbling around
I didn't know what to do
Except to clasp hands
Clasp hands
And a cuckoo was talking to me
From the mantle place
It was clockwork, Swiss
In NYC
It was Steve's song in NYC
And we all clasped hands
And we all clasped hands
And we all clasped hands
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Notes
1. Zack has some very plausible ideas, and good information, about the song:
"Clasp Hands" was first performed live in NYC in May of 2004 with Dave Milner on drums. Later in the year it would become one of the key songs by the Fall Heads Roll lineup. The album version was (likely) recorded in New York and The Fall had the support of Narnack Records, a Brooklyn-based label. The Fall spent a lot of time in NYC in 2004, playing no less than seven shows on three separate hops across the pond. My general impression of the song is that it is (atypically) about a sense of goodwill and esprit de corps in The Fall in 2004: "We all clasped hands in NYC". MES spoke highly of this lineup in interviews at the time, and I (rather foolishly, it turns out) believed that this was the final and definitive version of The Fall.
2. Bass player Steve Trafford, who wrote the music. According to Jim Watts on the Fall Online Forum, this is "Steves track that Mark married with a song of Ed's" [Ed Blaney, who plays on the Peel version]. Interestingly, he adds in regard to this session (Peel Session #24): "Me and the rest of the band were playing at our best but Mark is the one who pushed those recordings to perfection. I can't remember a single thing happening that Mark didnt either instigate or oversee."
3. Wolverines also appear in "Cary Grant's Wedding," "Service," "Arid Al's Dream," "Session Musician" and "Bury 1+3."
4. Skagastrond is in Iceland, unless God temporarily put it in NYC. The Fall played in Reykjavik on November 17th and 18th of 2004; I'm not sure if they went to Skagastrond at this time, but it's 250 miles away.
The Peel version has a part that repeats the riff from "Elves," aka the riff from "I Wanna Be Your Dog." The interpolation has generally been credited to Ed Blaney, who played guitar on the session.
5. Job clubs are groups of people who meet and compare insights about job hunting.
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Comments (15)
My general impression of the song is that it is (atypically) about a sense of goodwill and esprit de corps in The Fall in 2004: "We all clasped hands in NYC". MES spoke highly of this lineup in interviews at the time, and I (rather foolishly, it turns out) believed that this was the final and definitive version of The Fall.
I think it's "A cuckoo was talking - fits with the tense of the rest of the lyric.
But I wonder if that line references this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo_(song)
We're going down in NYC
And God put it in
All clasped hands
Clasp hands
Well the image was all blurred to me
And all the heads were crumbling around
I didn't know what to do
Except to clasp hands
Clasp hands
And a cuckoo was talking to me
From the mantle place
It was clockwork, Swiss
In NYC
It was Steve's song in NYC
And we all clasped hands
And we all clasped hands
And we all clasped hands