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The Annotated Lyrics
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- Home /
- The Annotated Lyrics /
- High Tension Line
High Tension Line
Lyrics
High tension line, step down
Jeanette Fletcher is strange but not in a horrible way
And Michelle Spencer is this tight
Come and hear her today
And see 40-year olds in multicoloured shirts (2)
It never used to concern me
But now it's making me say
High tension line, step down
Buying houses and doing them up far far away
Got at my shoulder
CDTI and behind me TDK (3)
You have to go far for the simple and unadorned
And please excuse my words, wandering
High tension line, step down
At my feet CDTI breakdown
And I pick up the phone, no-one
And am far too far fast for sampling
Just spend my time avoiding
High tension line, step down
Life is nothing more than a disposable facial tissue (4)
In a brass bin and spawn
Take it out, I notice face imprint
And please excuse my words, I'm wandering
High tension line, step down
Notes
1. It's worth reproducing what Reformation has on this one:
According to Simon Ford in his book "Hip Priest", the song's title "came from an obscure source, composer La Monte Young's 'The Second Dream of the High Tension Line Stepdown Transformer' (1963), a piece of music with no apparent beginning, middle or ending. " Ford goes on to say that MES had some trouble persuading Phonogram to bring it out as a single, given that it was the fourth such from the group in a year.
This continuous steady hum is the ancestral origin of my work with sixty-cycles, which is the frequency that the electrical companies provide the power to us in the United States: 60 cycles per second. Everywhere we go, we hear this 60 cycle drone and, or, other frequency components that are related to this drone. Eventually I began to tune all of my music that I do in the U.S. with electronics to this 60 cycle per second drone, because even in today's year, 2001-2002, and even with the best equipment, there is still some residual hum. (60 cycles per second.) If you create music that is in tune with this hum, then there can never be an interference with the music that you are creating. It's the idea that it is the strongest drone in our vicinity.
MES on the lyrics:
anxious state. It's like an over-anxious state, I see it all the
time.
and a silly fight on a roof of a building and there was a huge glowing sign
TDK behind these two fighting it out.
More Information
High Tension Line: Fall Tracks A-Z
An Interview With La Monte Young, in which he talks about the sound of transformers
Comments (23)
Facial tissue"
Reminiscent of the joke phrase/saying, "Life is like a kleenex, not much good once you've blown it".
For what it's worth, the blue lyrics book has:
The spelling may be as accurate as the rendered lyric, there, ie. not very.
"High-tensipn"
Dabn
'High Tension Line' a lot, can you tell me what that's about?
"Ehm... I just liked the music and I liked to do it like that, wanted
to make it bit of a classical-type ('Classical'-type?) sounding
song. Didn't go down to very well. But it's on the CD now, so let's
see what happens. It's good. The production was really good, I
thought, by Grant and me, it's good. It's a bit ahead of its time, I
think. Take a while to sink in. If you listen to it the first time it
sounds like the Rolling Stones or something, but if you listen to it
properly it's quite good. If you listen to it the first time it sounds
like any other Fall song, but if you listen to it properly it's
good. The arrangement is quite unique."
And the lyrics?
"It's just basically a statement, you know. I think there's a lot of,
like, information anxiety around in the world, people are trying to
come to grips with computers and DATs and TDKs and shit like
that. They can't really handle it, so they get into this
anxious state. It's like an over-anxious state, I see it all the
time."
You say something like, 'It never used to concern me...'
"...but now it's getting me down, yeah."
This one is another from the Miejer interview, text archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20201115085004if_/https://sites.google.com/site/reformationposttpm/Home/bibliography/1991---early---miejer-interview
" If you listen to it the first time it sounds
like any other Fall song, but if you listen to it properly it's
good. "
It's like the old joke, Fall music--it's better than it sounds
From Kurt Vonnegut’s BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS: “ Why were so many Americans treated by their government as though their lives were as disposable as paper facial tissues?”
"Life is nothing more than a disposable,
facial tissue In a brass bin (that's Vonn.)."
To me it seems like he is lingering on an abbreviated "Vonn." and pronounced to rhyme with Vaughan or thorn.
Listened to all the versions, live and studio, that I have, and it sounds like "at dawn" now. But tricky to hear properly.
I'm hearing this:
My theory is triggered by the "come and hear her today" line.
This suggests to me, this section of lyric - or part of it - might possibly have been borrowed from spiritualist/medium/clairvoyant literature/leaflets/advertising. "Come and hear her today" suggests to me someone performing in that line.
Whether the names are real, or made up, or amended, is obviously something I don't know.
As theories go, I admit, it's a bit weak. And it's not much to go on. But at least it suggests some possible research directions.
I've always assumed Mark's driving a diesel Vauxhall with a TDK tape playing on the cassette player. Then the car breaks down and he can't get any help on the phone.