Elves

Lyrics

(1)

When will the good Scotch return
In all its scarred splendor
When will the price of Scotch come down? (2)

 

Here's him in nearly '85
Hanging around with pop scum
It's not the business I despise
On this train, extended ride
It's the Scotch end of the market now

 

And steel glasses
And bad music corpses
Cannot hide the new rock scum
Spitting on what's good and gone
Spitting on what's good and gone
When will the price of Scotch come down?

 

Arrangement before job done
Alignment before job done
Assignment before song sung
Alignment before job done

 

All that is fantastic leagues against me
The fantastic is in league against me (3)

 

Tin-can rattle on the path
The bestial greed is on the attack
The cat black runs round the tree
The sky in me's reached the shore
The siamese reached the shore (4)

 

No never, no never no more
will I trust the elves of Dunsimore  (5)

Notes

1. This cops the riff from The Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog." According to Brix and Hanley (via Reformation):

Quotes from the booklet accompanying The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall (re-release of the album by Beggars Banquet, 2010): Brix Smith "Elves was mine. I think it was I Wanna Be Your Dog, of which at the time I was truly unaware. I must have heard it and not even realised what I had done. Until later, and at which time I went to dig a hole in the dirt!"  Steve Hanley: "This is I Wanna Be Your Dog...what we used to do is try to hide that kind of thing...and make it your own. But by the time we finished with Elves it sounded nothing like The Stooges."

MES also says that Brix had never heard the song at the time.

Embarrassing or not, the Stooges' riff makes a return on the Peel rendition of "Clasp Hands," and can be heard in a somewhat altered form in "Rememberance R."

The CD notes for this song say 

"a Tubby commotion at the feet"
Lloyd "brain and face made of cow-pat" Cole?, not scotch but scot-based
 

MES Sage, who submitted these, comments "viz. intro to "No Bulbs" on Live at Pandora's: 'This next one is heavily influenced by Lloyd Cole. It's called The Day the Fat Slug Crawled from Underneath the Dustbin.'"

 

"Tubby commotion at the feet" seems like it might have something to do with a cat...

^

2. The following comes from an interview with MES in Tape Delay: Confessions from the Eighties Underground:

In what ways are you being experimental now?

MES: With the lyrics I think, 'cause I'm surprised, some of the new stuff that I've been writing is really weird. I've got a great song about Scottish groups, and it's uh, I started out trying to write about how shitty all Scottish groups are and how Scottish groups always lecture everybody on how they are from Scotland, and how hard up they are, and I just tried to make out that this is just a part of the national character of everybody, and you shouldn't take it seriously, don't feel guilty about it, you know? I started writing it like that, but then it started going on about the price of Scotch Whisky, and then it sort of goes into this weird thing about how I can attain to the sky and stuff, and it was really weird and really good. I'm sorry, I don't want to talk about it anymore 'cause it's a really good song you know? And the riff is like, it's like something the Sex Pistols would do, it's really good. (laughs) The riff is like completely you know, just not what you'd think from something like that. I mean if it's going to be a satire it would be something like the Bluebells or something, tinkly things, but the music is just like, how the boys came up with the music is just like, I don't know, you know, it's was one of Brix's tunes actually. When you heard the music you would have thought, you know, "I'm in hell, I'm living in hell", do you know what I mean, a sort of like direct, very simple thing, but the lyrics are really, they get more and more complicated the more I do it.

^

3. Michael Moorcock, The Warhound and the World's Pain"Be warned, war hound. All that is fantastic leagues against you!" And "Everything that is fantastic leagues against me," I said, repeating Klosterheim's warning."

^

4. I'm not so sure about all this. The first time the 'k' is clear, and MES says (see note 2) there's something in here about "attain[ing] to the sky." The second one might be Siamese. If so, there are theories about this--Dan says:

There's a strong echo here of a folk tale from Thailand (the Siamese link, you see). It can be found in various places, but a nice summary of the story is here: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMBWWY_The_Sculpture_of_the_Mouse_and_the_CatSongkhla_Thailand.  A Chinese merchant captain buys the cat and dog as pets, however, the animals wish to return home. To do so they compel a mouse to steal from the merchant, a magic crystal, which prevents drowning. With the protection of this crystal they enter the water and swim back to Songkhla town. Regrettably, with their goal in sight, the baleful influence of greed rears its ugly, but influential head. The three animals squabble over the valuable crystal, which is lost at sea in the confusion, causing the cat and the mouse to drown. These two become islands—"Cat Island" and "Mouse Island". The dog struggles ashore, but exhausted, dies and becomes a hill—"Dog Hill" by name. I suppose the big difference is that in the story, but not in the lyric, the cat drowns. But there's a clear echo nonetheless, especially given the mention in the lyric of "bestial greed".

Meanwhile, according to Basmikel:

"The Siamese reached the shore" could refer to the original Siamese Twins Chang & Eng Bunker, who were shipped to America by Robert Hunter, a Scot living in Bangkok who figured he could make some money when he saw them swimming.

^

5. The lyrics here are reminiscent of "The Wild Rover" (Roud 1173), a traditional Irish folk song, which goes: 

And it's No, Nay, never, 

No, nay never no more 

Will I play the wild rover, 

No never no more 

However, the proximate source is perhaps more likely to be "Evergreen No More" by Canadian singer David Wilcox. The chorus of WIlcox's song:

And it's nay, nay, nay never

Nay nay never no more

Shall he stay green forever

He's evergreen no more

This seems likely because Wilcox's song also contains the lines:

"Broken brown branches half-buried in snow/Are bones of a hero one Christmas ago"

which perhaps find an echo in Service: "Kick the broken brown branches."

This is speculative, and may be coincidental, or MES could be familiar with both songs (or another folk ballad containing a formulation like the above, where there's one there's generally another...).

"The Wild Rover" is generally thought to be a temperance song, which perhaps obliquely resonates with the complaints about Scotch in this song, whereas Wilcox's song, which is basically about being depressed in the winter time, is more obviously thematically connected with "Service."

Dunsimore I'm not sure of. There is a "Dunsinore" mentioned in Shakespeare's Henry VI, and in general it has a fantasy-adventure ring to it, but whether there's more to it or not I can't say at this time.

Also, Putti reports on the name Dunsmore, which is associated with a Scottish family name: "'The Dundemores' seem to have been a family of great ability, and their talents raised them to high positions both in Church and State. In the struggle for Independence, they adhered to the patriotic side, and suffered in consequence.' It fits, because it's about Scotland too." 

At one point it's possible MES says "Will I have truck with the elves of Dunsimore" while the backing vocals continue the "trust" refrain (thanks to MES Sage for this suggestion).

^

 

 

 

 

Comments (33)

dannyno
  • 1. dannyno | 02/03/2014
"all that is fantastic leagues against me"

This comes from Michael Moorcock's "Warhound and the World's Pain" (1981), part of his "Von Bek" series. From the book:

"As we rode away, Klosterheim shouted fiercely at me: 'Be warned, war hound! All that is fantastic leagues against you!

Dan
bzfgt
  • 2. bzfgt | 11/03/2014
Damn it, Danny, I just added that Moorcock thing tonight before I saw this. You always beat me to it.
Putti
  • 3. Putti | 10/07/2016
Another clue about the Dunsimore or Dunsmore thing:
"The Dundemores' seem to have been a family of great ability, and their talents raised them to high positions both in Church and State. In the struggle for Independence, they adhered to the patriotic side, and suffered in consequence"
Wikipedia
It fits, because it's about Scotland too.
The whole Wikipedia article is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunsmore
Simon
  • 4. Simon | 01/08/2016
I suspect a more likely Shakespearean reference (given the Scottish theme and the fantastical atmosphere of the song) is to the Scottish play:

"Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him." (4.1.105–107)

"Dunsimore" may be a corruption, intentional or otherwise, of "Dunsinane" (or a conflation of it with "Dunsinore" and/or "Dunsmore").
dannyno
  • 5. dannyno | 10/08/2016
"The cat black runs round the tree
The siamese reached the shore"

I have a feeling these lines about swimming Siamese cats come from somewhere - a story or a news item. MES is a cat lover, so I'm not thinking that any of his cats would have been in a position to have to swim to shore... But I've not found anything yet.
bzfgt
  • 6. bzfgt | 03/09/2016
Simon,

Yes, in fact I could swear I had that in a previous note, although the connection seemed too weak so I removed it. But anyway it's here now, in your comment, so we are covered.
Connor
  • 7. Connor | 14/09/2016
I think, instead of "The Siamese has reached the shore", it reads "The sky and me has reached the shore". This makes more sense to me, especially when cross-referenced with this NME quote: "it sort of goes into this weird thing about how I can attain to the sky and stuff...."
Simon
  • 8. Simon | 16/09/2016
There may also be an element of "Elsinore" in "Dunsimore".
dannyno
  • 9. dannyno | 20/09/2016
Connor: doesn't sound like that though. Also, the Tape Delay interview seems to have been conducted while the song was still a work in progress, and the "attain the sky stuff" doesn't appear to have made it into the final song.

The Siamese cat reached the shore:
http://www.rbhayes.org/hayes/manunews/paper_trail_display.asp?nid=65&subj=manunews

:-)
bzfgt
  • 10. bzfgt | 15/10/2016
That is suggestive, though, Connor. Where is the NME quote found?
dannyno
  • 11. dannyno | 21/11/2016
It's not in the NME, it's from "Tape Delay":

http://thefall.org/news/000326.html#tape

Dan
dannyno
  • 12. dannyno | 05/07/2017
"The bestial greed is on the attack
The cat black runs round the tree
The siamese reached the shore"

There's a strong echo here of a folk tale from Thailand (the siamese link, you see). It can be found in various places, but a nice each summary of the story is here:

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMBWWY_The_Sculpture_of_the_Mouse_and_the_CatSongkhla_Thailand


A Chinese merchant captain buys the cat and dog as pets, however, the animals wish to return home. To do so they compel a mouse to steal from the merchant, a magic crystal, which prevents drowning. With the protection of this crystal they enter the water and swim back to Songkhla town. Regrettably, with their goal in sight, the baleful influence of greed rears its ugly, but influential head. The three animals squabble over the valuable crystal, which is lost at sea in the confusion, causing the cat and the mouse to drown. These two become islands—"Cat Island" and "Mouse Island". The dog struggles ashore, but exhausted, dies and becomes a hill—"Dog Hill" by name.


I suppose the big difference is that in the story, but not in the lyric, the cat drowns. But there's a clear echo nonetheless, especially given the mention in the lyric of "bestial greed".
dannyno
  • 13. dannyno | 22/07/2017
From Jamming, November 1984:

http://thefall.org/news/jamming.html


On 'Wonderful And Frightening', Smith is as sharp and sourish as ever, spinning out his bloodstream of brittle sarcasm with all the force of old. Some of it takes his continuing habit to turn specific song-targets into many layered, almost surreal word paintings. 'Elves' is like that; "starting out as an attack on Scottish groups and how they sell their arses for any amount of money...turning into something supernatural."
Basmikel
  • 14. Basmikel | 14/06/2018
"The Siamese reached the shore" could refer to the original Siamese Twins Chang & Eng Bunker, who were shipped to America by Robert Hunter, a Scot living in Bangkok who figured he could make some money when he saw them swimming.
MES Sage
  • 15. MES Sage | 25/02/2019
LP Sleeve notes for this track = "a Tubby commotion at the feet"
Lloyd "brain and face made of cow-pat" Cole?, not scotch but scot-based
viz. intro to No Bulbs on Live at Pandora's "This next one is heavily influenced by Lloyd Cole. It's called The Day the Fat Slug Crawled from Underneath the Dustbin"

At least one "not ever no more will I have truck with the elves" in the singlaong
Karlb
  • 16. Karlb | 30/03/2019
On the Wonderful and Frightening world omnibus edition, CD 3 contains a Saturday live performance of Elves. It omits the lines tin can rattle etc...possibly sung off mic but Mark clearly sings the sky in me is reached for sure. No cats, no beaches.
bzfgt
  • 17. bzfgt (link) | 13/04/2019
MES Sage--I don't have a CD player so they're all packed away and I listen to the files. So, I'm at your mercy for spelling, etc. Am I correct that "viz intro etc." is your comment? The sleevenotes don't cite another Lloyd Cole comment, do they?
bzfgt
  • 18. bzfgt (link) | 13/04/2019
Isn't there yet another Lloyd Cole insult somewhere? Not in the lyrics though, according to Dan's concordance...
bzfgt
  • 19. bzfgt (link) | 13/04/2019
Huh, the sky in me...I have to look out for that.
bzfgt
  • 20. bzfgt (link) | 13/04/2019
I can kind of hear "have truck" and kind of don't, it's hard to say...I know the part you're thinking--it maybe appears twice and then seems to go away again
Karlb
  • 21. Karlb | 11/11/2019
Just to re-iterate on the Sky in me is reached for sure line. Mark states in the interview in note 2 that he was writing about attaining to the sky.
bzfgt
  • 22. bzfgt (link) | 16/11/2019
OK it doesn't really make sense either way, interview or no, but it the 'k' is, as you say, distinct the first time. For now I've hedged my best and left the second one "Siamese"...but this may be doomed. For now I don't hear the 'k' the second time...
bzfgt
  • 23. bzfgt (link) | 16/11/2019
*bets I mean
Karlb
  • 24. Karlb | 16/11/2019
CD 3 Omnibus edition of The Wonderful and Frightening world.....contains a Saturday Night live studio version of Elves. The line the sky in me is reached for sure could not be any clearer. I would urge you to listen.
bzfgt
  • 25. bzfgt (link) | 23/11/2019
Yeah I mean I already put it in, the only question is if he varies it...probably not, I'd like a 3rd opinion though
dannyno
  • 26. dannyno | 02/04/2020
Paul Hanley, during the @Tim_Burgess curated TWAFWOTF ##timstwitterlisteningparty on 2nd April 2020, said


In 'The Big Midweek' Steve says I asked Brix about the riff's similarity to 'I Wanna Be your Dog'. But I don't think anyone did.


https://twitter.com/hanleyPa/status/1245822282628505605
Xyralothep's cat
  • 27. Xyralothep's cat | 02/03/2021
Sorry, but bestial greed needs revisiting. Phonetically it sounds more like "best coll green" . Various live versions have different permutations (links and timestamps on request!) that vary the order e.g "coll green the best", or the "coll green I like the best". I'm tempted toward coll being girl so "best girl green" is on the attack and it's something to do with a (greenyed?) cat, hence the tin can rattle on the path, and the black cat scarpering. And FWIW I hear sky-amese reach the shore first time, then siamese on the second quieter repeat
Xyralothep's cat
  • 28. Xyralothep's cat | 05/03/2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8Bg7_7P84I
02:53 “girl green the best”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE8TP0PuBC0
03:01 “the girl green I like”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_CpqcY0nFE
02:16
“the girl green I like best”

Not convinced its "girl" but its definitely not "bestial greed".
bzfgt
  • 29. bzfgt (link) | 13/03/2021
Fuck, this needs more study. It does sound like "best girl green" or something. I have to dig up some livers, if you have links to any that would be helpful.
bzfgt
  • 30. bzfgt (link) | 13/03/2021
Definitely doesn't sound like "bestial greed"
dannyno
  • 31. dannyno | 28/06/2021
The full annotation for this song from the sleevenotes to the Wonderful and Frightening World of... album reads:


A Tubby commotion at the feet... reasonable feuding now irrelevant, only sharp scythes and a cold tongue could match this horrid Travesty.


Sounds like something to do with a cat, doesn't it? Do elves have cold tongues, do we think?
Xyralothep's Cat
  • 32. Xyralothep's Cat | 24/10/2023
re comment 28 - so confirmed now "best cold green" whatever that might mean
And Dunsimore possibly a nod to Lord Dunsany (see bottom of lyric sheet)
dannyno
  • 33. dannyno | 24/10/2023
A lyric sheet for this turned up in the Omega Auctions sale of MES-estate memorabilia, 21 November 2023:

https://goauctionomega.blob.core.windows.net/stock/40344-3.jpg?v=63833671729700

It's not very clear.

However, support there for some alternate lyrics. Needs listening to, see what we can hear in light of this.

"Band music courses" rather than "bad music corpses".

"Best cold green" rather than "bestial greed" (is "best cold green" a reference to money, maybe?). I note "bestial greed" has proved controversial here.

"Reached for sure" rather than "reached the shore".

Interesting bit at the beginning about a taxi driver.

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