Crew Filth

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

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). 

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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.  

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

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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.  

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

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

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7. Anyone who...etc.  

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

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Crew Filth: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 1992