Detective Instinct

Lyrics

(1)

You can tell by his fashion
That boy's been in prison
Detective instinct
Detective instinct
Always do it
Two thugs knocked down an old tree for an old lady's whim
Detective instinct
They were reasonable at first, it seemed
Detective instinct
Detective instinct
A riptide of integrity  (2)
He was a blubbering heap
He should have served himself up
Preferably in a restaurant with meat (3)
And wit goes with
Detective instinct
Sticks some paper under the door at 8 p.m. (4)
And my razor blades will cut down your entrance
Detective instinct
Detective instinct
The man at the bar had a v-neck vest on
No, it was a v-neck waistcoat.
Accurate!
Detective instinct
That's detective instinct
Always got it
Sticks some paper under the door at 8 p.m.
My razor blades will cut down your entrance
Detective instinct
Always got it
Always got it
Always got it
Detective instinct

Notes

1. In which MES, or the narrator if you prefer to be more "accurate!", brags about his powers of observation. A typically low-key Room To Live number, this requires a kind of relxed concentration to appreciate its subtle intensity. Also like some of the other songs on that album, live recordings suggest that it could slow the band's momentum a bit in that setting. Karl Burns may have played guitar on this song; some one on the talk page of the Wikipedia entry suggests that he did on the basis of the fact that there sounds like there are three guitars on the song. 

Rex on the Fall online forum makes the following insightful remarks about the song:

This song is so minimal -- and I really love minimal. It's a change of pace from the "Look at our big band!" feeling of Hex and the singles at this time. Fans of Hanley's bass really should love this one -- it's a simple bass line, but it dominates everything, and never really sounds like it's repeating itself even though it constantly does. As the song progresses, more additional sounds are occasionally thrown into the mix (you can hear the bloody space invader for a bit at about the 3:30 mark), the guitar and the percussion both sound like they are trying to mold the bassline like clay, to change its shape, and they often succeed. Mark's lyrics aren't all that important here. It's a beautiful change of pace, and the only moment on the record, for me, that sounds like nothing else the Fall ever did. A whole album of *this* kind of song would have been cool, because the Fall have never really done minimal and quiet, a sculpting of space.

Detective Instinct of the Yard points out:

"The tinkly noises on this starting around 3.30 and the big swoosh at 3.56 aren't guitar or space invader machine, they're a zither (c.f. the Third Man film). No credit for it on the RTL sleeve but the Hip Priests & Kamerads notes for RTL credit K.B. zither, feedback,snare." K.B. is presumably Karl Burns.

 

From The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler:

"Look here, Marlowe, I think I can understand your detective instinct to tie everything that happens into one compact knot, but don't let it run away with you."

MES seems to have read Chandler. From The Independent, 1994:

'These journalists are used to talking to cretins every day, and obviously their brains are going like sludge. This woman rang me up from the Sunday Times and wanted my Top 10- books. She'd only heard of three of the 14. I said, 'Raymond Chandler, y'know, the one all the programmes imitate?' 

From Dan:

The phrase "detective instinct" can be found in various books, but I have found it in an intriguing place: Heinz Höhne's The Order of The Death's Head: the story of Hitler's SS was identified by yours truly as the likely source of the German words found in "Oh! Brother." On page 58: "Hitler then disowned Otto Strasser, used Goebbels to expel all Strasser supporters from the Party, and capped his triumph with the receipt of a telegram of devotion from Gregor Strasser. He thought that he had silenced the Berlin opposition; the SS began to shadow its leaders, Hitler setting increasing store on the detective instincts of Kurt Daluege, who had meanwhile left the SA and by spring 1928 had risen to be head of the Berlin SS." These lines describe the events leading up to the infamous "Night of the Long Knives," when Gregor Strasser was shot to death and his faction purged from the NSDAP. MES is known to be somewhat of a history buff and could well have read this passage at some point but, as Dan acknowledges, this is highly speculative. 

Nairng has what seems to me to be the most promising suggestion, from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by MES favorite HP Lovecraft: "Driven by some vague detective instinct, the bewildered parent now glanced curiously at the vacant shelves to see what his son had taken up to the attic."

 

^

2.Dan:

"Riptide of integrity".

On 10 April 1982, at a gig at Paard Van Troje, The Hague, The Netherlands, MES announced:


"Good evening, this is MES and a riptide of integrity... and his go-go men... monkeys... (...). We are The Fall."


(during "Look Know")

Similar sentiments were aired at at least 5 other gigs the same year.

^

3. From one perspective this seems to miss the mark by a hair--surely the person in question is the meat, so MES should have said "carrots" or something. On second thought, however, I think this probably works as another twist in the insult: the person in question is somehow vegetal, insubstantial, and only worthy of being a side dish.

^

4. The following note is provided by the Lyrics Parade. I assume the typos are from the Lough book, so I left them in:

Note: The following are some notes from MES's diary dated January 26 (1982?) from the Lough book that bear on this song:

A necklace fur coated poodle over

Black burnt flesh\
Hark hark
Crack unit species
Who makes the Nazis?
I'd put a finger on the
weird. This was real Irish
know. Joe was then good
as gold + told of the rapist
in the Spa Motel
The real mould.
Remember when I used to follow you
home from school babe?
Stick some paper under
the door at 8 pm.
Rest room.
Motels like 3 split mirages who makes the Nazis?
Benny's cobweb eyes
Met some eyes in a dirty goods
shop/mutual recognition of
hard man crack/bllur
blur retreat
Who makes the Nazis?

^

Comments (13)

Martin
  • 1. Martin | 21/02/2015
The first live performance of this song: 29 July 1982: Geelong, Australia contains the following departure from the final recorded version:

"that steak house looks...the steak house looks pretty above board..."

I leave it for others to analyse this nugget of infor!
Antoine
  • 2. Antoine | 04/04/2016
Could it be "a riptide of intergrity?" That's what I've always heard. I think you can hear the P more clearly in this version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHx7ppwUdXc
bzfgt
  • 3. bzfgt | 19/05/2016
"A retired of integrity" sucks so I hope you're right. I'm going to listen to it now and, if it isn't "riptide," I hope I'll at least get something closer than "retired." There are five live versions of this too, I don't know offhand if I have any but someone could check those.
bzfgt
  • 4. bzfgt | 19/05/2016
Sorry, I'm loopy tonight, I see that's a live one you sent. Listening now.
bzfgt
  • 5. bzfgt | 19/05/2016
Definitely "riptide" on the live version, we're running with it since "retired" is one of those artifacts of the Lyrics Parade, it's said it for so long we forget to raise an eyebrow and say "surely not!" That's a great version, much more bludgeoning than the studio version which is killer but not really reproducible live...
dannyno
  • 6. dannyno | 17/02/2017
"Riptide of integrity".

On 10 April 1982, at a gig at Paard Van Troje, The Hague, The Netherlands, MES announced:


"Good evening, this is MES and a riptide of integrity... and his go-go men... monkeys... (...). We are The Fall."

(during "Look Know")

Similar sentiments were aired at other gigs the same year:
http://thefall.org/gigography/gig82.html
Martin
  • 7. Martin | 23/03/2017
Referring to MES's mentions of "riptide": mentioned in at least 5 gigs in 1982.
dannyno
  • 8. dannyno | 19/08/2017
The phrase "detective instinct" can be found in various books, but I have found it in an intriguing place.

Heinz Höhne's The Order of The Death's Head: the story of Hitler's SS was identified by yours truly as the likely source of the German words found in Oh! Brother.

I've just started reading the whole book (my edition is the Pan books edition of 1972), and have found this (p.58):


Hitler then disowned Otto Strasser, used Goebbels to expel all Strasser supporters from the Party, and capped his triumph with the receipt of a telegram of devotion from Gregor Strasser. He thought that he had silenced the Berlin opposition; the SS began to shadow its leaders, Hitler setting increasing store on the detective instincts of Kurt Daluege, who had meanwhile left the SA and by spring 1928 had risen to be head of the Berlin SS.


Notable, but inconclusive.
Nairng
  • 9. Nairng (link) | 05/07/2020
Perhaps even more likely as the source for the title is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by our old friend HP Lovecraft: "Driven by some vague detective instinct, the bewildered parent now glanced curiously at the vacant shelves to see what his son had taken up to the attic."
bzfgt
  • 10. bzfgt (link) | 12/07/2020
Now you're talking, nairng
dannyno
  • 11. dannyno | 12/07/2020
Comment #9, that's a good one! Better than my suggestion.

In the story, Ward has escaped - disappeared - from confinement - "that boy's been in prison" - albeit an asylum rather than gaol, but still. But even if the title is taken from Lovecraft, which of course will always now remain unproven, there is no need to assume there is more of Lovecraft in the lyric.
Detective Instinct of the Yard
  • 12. Detective Instinct of the Yard | 18/07/2020
The tinkly noises on this starting around 3.30 and the big swoosh at 3.56 aren't guitar or space invader machine, they're a zither (c.f. Third Man film). No credit for it on the RTL sleeve but the "Hip Priest & Kamerads" notes for RTL credit K.B. zither, feedback,snare.
dannyno
  • 13. dannyno | 01/04/2021

He was a blubbering heap
He should have served himself up
Preferably in a restaurant with meat


Reminds me of the 'dish of the day' scene in the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In the BBC TV adaptation, the dish of the day was played by Peter Davison:



Hitch Hikers had been repeated (for the third time on UK TV) in May-June 1982, so quite close to the debut of this song in Australia in July 1982. Not particularly a strong connection I suppose, but one I enjoy.

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