Crew Filth

Lyrics

From the valleys of Leicestershire (1)
And all over
Came mystic crew filth
The first was Dave Bush-babe (2)
The second was Graham pony-tail (3)
They were mystic crew filth
Crew filth

[mock Urdu or Punjabi]

Then from the land of the accordion
Came Dave Kiwi (4)
He was crew filth
He had the shirts
He wouldn't meditate
on his monitor room
Mystic
Crew filth

Hey mystic crew filth
Crew filth
Where did they come from?
The little motherfuckers
Nobody knows
Nobody bothers
Crew filth
Crew filth

Crew filth

One was a Kiwi
One was a Bush-baby (5)
One had tattoos on his legs
One had brown spectacles on his head
Motherfuckers
Crew filth

Crew filth

Hey Kenny, tell us about crew filth (6)

Crew filth 

But those crew filth
They had sensitive sides to their nature
They would smoke pot in their rooms
They were always behind you
That's why we kept our backs to the walls
You gotta watch your wallet, man
Crew filth

What about crew filth Bill? (7)
Bill was King of the fucking Motherfucker crew filth
He had to do some work one night
Then his hair turned white
Crew filth baby 

Crew filth motherfucker

He was the worst, one of the worst 
Gotta watch your friends
Watch your girl
You never can tell
He might kill a tab
While you're jumping off (8)
All your friends might turn out to be
Crew filth

Note

1. Leicestershire is a county in central England.

Martin ran down the following:

From The Big Midweek (Steve Hanley and Olivia Pierkarski, Route, 2014; page 310): "...a throwaway piss-take recorded in the tour bus on a Casio coming back from the glitzy Palace nightclub on Blackpool front." (This dates the recording exactly to 3 December 1991.)

Joseph Holt points out a similarity between the music to "Crew Filth" and the Yamaha PSS-580 keyboard "Demonstration Song." Note that "Fortress," "The Man Whose Head Expanded," and the version of "Look, Know" on Hip Priests and Kamerads all use a pre-set from a Casio keyboard (the same one in each case). 

 

^

2. Dave Bush began his tenure with the Fall as a member of the sound crew, but by the time Code: Selfish was recorded he was in the band, playing keyboards and helping to write songs. According to Bush (interviewed for Dave Simpson's The Fallen), he actually disliked the Fall's music at first, but after touring with them for a short while he approached Smith and "told him he was brilliant and I'd do anything for them on keyboards and computers"; Smith was game, and Bush remained with the band until 1995.  

^

3. Anyone who knows anything about this "Graham" is encouraged to put me wise.  

^

4. Anyone who knows anything about this "Dave" is encouraged to put me wise. Presumably this Dave is not Bush, since he is said to have come after the latter. The epithet "Kiwi" suggests he may be a New Zealander.  

^

5. A bush baby is a small monkey native to Africa; the reference is again of course to Dave Bush.  

^

6.  Anyone who knows anything about this "Kenny" is encouraged to put me wise. 

^

7. Anyone who...etc.  

^

8. "Tab" is northern English slang for a cigarette, stank otter reports (and The Internet confirms...).  

^

Comments (10)

Martin
  • 1. Martin | 24/05/2013
Long shot but Kenny could refer to Kenny Brady, who sometimes played violin for the group just before the record was produced?

The only possible reference to Graham on te Reformation site:

10 December 90 St. David's Hall, Cardiff:

- "Graham, can you get it flatter outside, please?" (before "And Therein")

Maybe Graham was a sound engineer?
policetruck
  • 2. policetruck | 06/09/2013
I remember an interview in a magazine called Select, this was in the early to mid 90's, where Mark had his friend interview him or something. Anyway it's a bit vague but I think he was Marks hairdresser and called Dave Hill. Could be him, fuck knows where he comes from.
Crew Filth
  • 3. Crew Filth | 18/05/2014
Regarding: "They were always behind you, that's why we kept our backs to the walls."

That last bit, "You gotta watch your wallet, man", always struck me as Mark trying to save face, not wanting to imply that the Crew Filth were homosexuals or, at least, not wanting to make a gay joke.
Martin
  • 4. Martin | 12/10/2014
From The Big Midweek (Steve Hanley and Olivia Pierkarski, Route, 2014; page 310):

"...a throwaway piss-take recorded in the tour bus on a Casio coming back from the glitzy Palace nightclub on Blackpool front." (This dates the recording exactly to 3 December 1991.)
Joseph Holt
  • 5. Joseph Holt | 10/11/2017
bzfgt
  • 6. bzfgt (link) | 02/12/2017
Here's a weird rendition!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayPS5N8dUCU
stank otter
  • 7. stank otter | 29/12/2017
a tab is what they call a cigarette up north

i learnt this myself when taking lsd for the first time at a primal scream gig with a northern fella
he asked if i wanted another tab and i was a bit disappointed when it came in the form of a not very psychedelic benson and hedges
John Reardon
  • 8. John Reardon | 07/06/2022
I'm listening to Peking O and it reminds me vaguely of Crew Filth if the latter had been recorded in a foreign language (if only).

That said, this isn't a compliment to either song.
John Reardon
  • 9. John Reardon | 07/06/2022
Re the reference to Dave Hill above, I think it was actually Mike Hill. He later worked in the Cog Sinister office. If anybody wants to fake his signature there's a letter signed by him on CS headed paper on the cover of the 1996 CD edition of The Legendary Chaos Tape.
dannyno
  • 10. dannyno | 27/06/2022
Comment #9: correct, MES' hairdresser friend was Mike Hill.

He's mentioned in MES' "Heroes and Villains" feature in the NME, 11 December 1993:

http://thefall.org/gigography/93dec11.html


MIKE THE HAIRCUT HILL AND JR ETC

THESE ARE my North Manchester friends and they're quite important to me because they're always there for me when I'm depressed or under the weather or pissed off. They come round and cheer me up, not always the easiest of tasks. Heh heh heh! I haven't got many friends but these are good lads. They're only in their mid-20s and they're not really into The Fall that much. They like grunge and speed metal and all that, but they look out for me, y'know. They always pop around and check I'm alright. I don't socialise that much though, I spend most of my time avoiding people if I can and avoiding the music industry above all, cos I hate all that rubbish. The bit. I think I met these lads when the wife bought a car off one of them.

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