Don't Call Me Darling

[first two lines whispered by Brix]
Don't call me darling  (1)

Don't call me darling

Harbouring on it
hates this
wants this
she hates this

Brix:
Don't call me darling
Don't call me darling
Don't call me darling
Don't call me darling 

The long black hair
of wretched bluebottle (2)
darting all over
to no avail
I got zero tolerance
My head full 
Panga wood floor   (3)
>>Don't call me darling
>>Don't call me darling
>>Don't call me darling
>>Don't call me darling

People hate beauty
I cannot fathom it
They smell of oak paneling
voices thick with
Bouncing Jackson  (4)
with stupidity

Brix:
Don't call me darling
Don't call me darling
Don't call me darling
Don't call me darling
Don't call me darling

Soon there will be dancing
around the queue
Strippy, high and cheap
why do people hate beauty
I cannot fathom it
bouncing...

Brix:
Don't call me darling
Don't call me darling
Don't call me darling
Don't call me darling
Don't call me darling
Don't call me darling
Don't call me darling...

1.  Barnet suggests a resonance with "You Never Even Called Me By My Name," written by Steve Goodman and John Prine, and made popular by David Allan Coe:

You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
You never even called me by my name

From Shawn Swagerty:

I believe (and have believed, since I first heard "Cerebral Caustic", which I purchased upon its release) that the title is probably from a line said by Raymond to Peter in the infamous "Shut Up, Little Man!" recordings,"audio vérité recordings of two argumentative and violent alcoholics, Peter J. Haskett and Raymond Huffman in San Francisco."

During the CD track titled "You Always Giggle Falsely," Raymond says to Peter at one point, "Don't call me darling, you little . . .

Transcript

The recordings were officially released as a compact disc in 1993. I first read about the Raymond and Peter CD in GQ or some other slick mag that was around at the time.

It is quite likely that MES and the band were aware of this compact disc, as the CD was a topic of a lot of discussion in certain circles, in fact my copy of the CD was sent to me in 1993 by someone who was then a label-mate of the Fall on Matador records.

^

2. A bluebottle can be a fly, a parasitic wasp, a squeaky-voiced Boy Scout played by Peter Sellers on the 1950s British radio comedy The Goon Show, or a police officer. Here my money's on the wasp.

^

3. Brendan writes: 

I was struggling to make sense of the last line of the second verse. Finally cracked it with a little help from Wikipedia:

"Millettia stuhlmannii, commonly known as panga panga, is a well-known species of timber tree[1] that is native to the southeastern Afrotropics. The wood of the tropical species M. laurentii has similar qualities and uses, but is slightly darker, and lacks the copious yellowish white resin of the heartwood vessels."

This mght sound far-flung to read but if you listen again right now I'm sure you'll hear that the line is actually "My head for panga wood floor".

Maybe the subject is banging or resting his head on the floor because of the aforementioned "zero tolerance" for whatever is going on with the wretched bluebottle (which I think might be a metaphor for the "she" mentioned in the first verse. A woman with long black hair, maybe."). Is there any significance to panga panga wood versus any other type of floor? Probably the same reason it's "well known" but having never heard of it before I can't tell.

^

4. Bollocks submits the following ad lib from MES during the March 20, 1995 rendition at the Roadhouse, Manchester: "'Bouncing Jackson' is a poem I wrote about connections with carpets."

Bollocks and Dan suspect a reference to Inspiral Carpets here...according to Dan, "In 1994, MES appeared on the Inspiral Carpets' 'I Want You.' The single version, anyway. The album version was on their album Devil Hopping (bouncing?). It all seems a bit tenuous, but there is clearly a contemporaneous Carpets connection if you want one."

^

Don't Call Me Darling

The Story of the Fall: 1995