Das Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wain

Lyrics

(1)

Das Vulture Ans Das Nutter-Wain
Das Vulture Ans Das Nutter-Wain
La la la la la la

Das Vulture Ans Das Nutter Ein Wain
Vulture Ans Das Nutter-Wain
Vulture Ans Das Nutter Ein Wain

Jester
Jester
Parson's prayer (2)
So few and far between

Down and out
Carry on, clown (3)
Paint your face
And close your mouth
Vulture Ein das Nutter
La la la la la la

Vulture

Das Vulture Ans Das Ans Ein Nutter-Wain
Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wain
La la la la la la
La la la la la la

Carry on clown
Ans Vulture
Ans Ein Nutter-Wain

 

Notes

1. MES once again shows off his fluent German with this one. Actually, only Das, Ans, and Ein are German, meaning, respectively, "the" (neutral gender), "onto the," and "one" or "a(n)." "Nutter" is slang for a mad person, whereas "wain" means "cart," so the title phrase could mean "The vulture lands on the nut-wagon"; "ein nutter wain" also sounds like "another one," and "ans" sounds like "an," so we might also get "The vulture and another one." Nutte is also German for "prostitute." And, Max Williams points out that "'Wain' is a Scottish word meaning 'child,' which MES could have encountered during his Edinburgh years, if not before. So 'nutter wain' could mean 'mad kid,'  Winter-style.

Brix remarks (The RIse, The Fall, and The Rise, via Dan), "Mark doesn't know German at all, but that doesn't stop him from speaking it. I think he learns it from Nazi war movies. Our current [at the time] album featured the lyric, 'Das Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wain', which meant absolutely nothing."

Portsmouth Bubblejet: "It's grammatically impossible in German to have 'ans' and 'ein' next to each other. I'd therefore agree with Brix that the title is ultimately meaningless - it comes out as 'the vulture onto the a nutter-wain,' allowing for the fact that Germans would use 'der Geier' for 'vulture,' and would be baffled by 'nutter-wain.'"

Perhaps relevantly--although it's almost too intriguingly convoluted to be so--Dan points out that "Richard Wagner designed his own coat of arms, showing a vulture (representing his step-father - Ludwig Geyer, whose name sounds like Lammergeier, the German for vulture) holding a shield on which is depicted the constellation of the plough (representing his father - Wagner is not far from the German for wagon or cart, which in English can be 'wain')."

The music makes about as much sense as the lyrics on this one; in other words, it's pretty much perfect. This, in short, should be recognized by the world (were the world serious!) as a Fall classic.  

 

^

2. Yorick, the parson in Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, is named for the jester in Hamlet. Martin points to an essay called Yorick's Congregation: the Church of England in the Time of Laurence Sterne which uses the phrase "jester parson."

^

3. In keeping with the vulture and the paranomasic nature of the lyrics, we should probably also hear "carrion" for "carry on."

Dan reports that there is a clown beetle sometimes called a "carrion clown" (Coleoptera: Histeridae). I'm inclined to think this is not a total coincidence, although Dan expresses skepticism, perhaps because the beetle is North American...

^

Comments (15)

Martin
  • 1. Martin | 25/01/2014
Did MES read Tristram Shandy?:

http://books.google.es/books?id=wDXWmKIRZioC&pg=PA141&lpg=PA141&dq=%22jester+parson%22&source=bl&ots=zKVC_lOhVS&sig=Tt6EvkAk4BAMFoRlN95VZx1h0PY&hl=es&sa=X&ei=UZbjUre8JoWThgf2jIFQ&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22jester%20parson%22&f=false
bzfgt
  • 2. bzfgt | 15/02/2014
You've been hot lately...
bzfgt
  • 3. bzfgt | 15/02/2014
Shit, that's an essay about Tristram Shandy... I wish it had been in the text, this is a more tenuous possibility.
dannyno
  • 4. dannyno | 06/08/2014
couple of posts on the forum from me, one pointing out that Richard Wagner designed his own coat of arms, showing a vulture (representing his step-father - Ludwig Geyer, whose name sounds like geier, the German for vulture) holding a shield on which is depicted the constellation of the plough (representing his father - Wagner is not far from the German for wagon or cart, which in English can be "wain").
http://z1.invisionfree.com/thefall/index.php?showtopic=4770&view=findpost&p=22383609

and the other pointing out the historical German punishment for prostitutes of being made to drag a "hurenkarrn" ("whore's cart") through town.
http://z1.invisionfree.com/thefall/index.php?showtopic=4770&view=findpost&p=22383618
Max Williams
  • 5. Max Williams | 29/01/2015
"Wain" is a Scottish word meaning "child", which MES could have encountered during his Edinburgh years, if not before. So "nutter wain" could mean "mad kid", Winter-style.
dannyno
  • 6. dannyno | 05/05/2016
According to Brix, in The Rise, The Fall and The Rise:


Mark doesn't know German at all, but that doesn't stop him from speaking it. I think he learns it from Nazi war movies. Our current album featured the lyric, 'Das Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wain', which meant absolutely nothing.
bzfgt
  • 7. bzfgt | 24/06/2016
If only you weren't all foreigners I'd get credit for notes like this: "This, in short, should be recognized by the world (were the world serious!) as a Fall classic." 
dannyno
  • 8. dannyno | 29/03/2017
There is an American insect called a "Carrion Clown Beetle" (Saprinus Fimbriatus aka Xerosaprinus fimbriatus).

http://symbiota4.acis.ufl.edu/scan/portal/collections/individual/index.php?occid=14985253

Just for interest. Probably irrelevant.
dannyno
  • 9. dannyno | 29/03/2017
The family crest devised by Richard Wagner (see comment #4):

Image
IMN
  • 10. IMN | 08/03/2018
Re.5. Max Williams = "Wean" (not "wain" although pronounced that way) is more commonly used in the west of Scotland, especially the Glasgow area, and not so much in Edinburgh.
Portsmouth Bubblejet
  • 11. Portsmouth Bubblejet | 06/04/2018
'Ans' is a contraction of 'an das' and means 'onto the', not 'on the' (i.e. it implies motion).

It's grammatically impossible in German to have 'ans' and 'ein' next to each other. I'd therefore agree with Brix that the title is ultimately meaningless - it comes out as 'the vulture onto the a nutter-wain', allowing for the fact that Germans would use 'der Geier' for 'vulture', and would be baffled by 'nutter-wain'.
dannyno
  • 12. dannyno | 26/02/2021
There are those who think this borrows from Frank Zappa/Ruben and the Jets - No, No, No.

Johnny
  • 13. Johnny | 20/04/2021
To my ears the la la las in this song pick up the melody of the song 'boy from New York City' by The As Libs and covered in the 80s by Manhattan Transfer and Darts.
bzfgt
  • 14. bzfgt (link) | 24/04/2021
Johnny, I can hear a similarity but not enough to say it's a quote, it's a very basic melody
bzfgt
  • 15. bzfgt (link) | 24/04/2021
Same with Ruben...it's a similar riff to the "no no no" but no smoking gun, although MES did listen to Zappa

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