Hot Runes

Lyrics

Hot June, summer afternoon
Hot June, summer afternoon

Alan Brazil and Hatton on about 'discipline for all' (1)
Involved in hyperbole about the track checklist. (2)
Post office workers are those who sit alone.
The promises they gave casual - used that before.
They've turned all cities into animal pens.

Hot June, summer afternoon
Hot June, summer afternoon
Hot June, summer afternoon
Hot June, summer afternoon

Upset, embarrassed skint in a tie

Notes

1. Alan Brazil is a former footballer and (current) sports broadcaster; "Hatton" is apparently Derek Hatton, a former Trotskyist and Labour Party politician turned radio host and commentator on sports. ^

2. "Hyperbole" is here pronounced "hyper-bowl."

^

 

3. On the bonus disc that comes with the deluxe edition of The Unutterable, the lyrics are entirely different, and heavily feature Julia Nagle:

 

Julia:

Why do I know so many ugly people?
I used to laugh at them with their soap-opera psychosis
I still can't watch soap-operas
Life is so much better than that (...)
But now these ugly, psychotic, attention-seeking crap actors scare me
They outnumber us
It's like an alien species that's dying to take over 

MES:

A (metal group) when you recording (demo) 

Julia:

A sense of security
Actual security, an alarm system
Pots of money in the bank for the taxman and everyone else
to try and steal
You end up s... trying to keep hold of it
Grab, grab
And it disappears nevertheless 

MES:

(Metal group. You... ninety nine code... metal group) 

Julia:

Because I can't adapt to them, they make no sense and don't hold any
keys I desire
That upsets them
That... now I can pretend otherwise
I never claimed to be an actor and have no desire to be one
Although it seems to be something I'm forced into just to accommodate
Them
These psychotic aliens

 

A sense of security
Actual security, an alarm system
Lots of money in the bank for the taxman and everyone else to try and
Steal
You end up trying to keep hold of it
Grab, grab
It disappears none the less 

Comments (19)

Martin
  • 1. Martin | 02/02/2014
To clarify: Alan Brazil is a former footballer (I even saw him play) but not yet a former broadcaster; he currently works for Talksport, a 24-hour radio sports station.
dannyno
  • 2. dannyno | 18/06/2015
"They've turned all cities into animal pens."

I think this refers to the measures taken against football fans to prevent football hooliganism, but which have meant ordinary fans being treated like cattle.
dannyno
  • 3. dannyno | 18/06/2015
Under "more information", the link to Fall Tracks A-Z is going to the Daily Reckless site by mistake. Correct link: https://sites.google.com/site/reformationposttpm/fall-tracks/hot-runes
dannyno
  • 4. dannyno | 18/06/2015
On a whim I decided to have a look at the radio broadcast schedules during June 2000 (since June is mentioned in the lyrics and the song was first performed in 2000). And lo and behold, on the "TalkSport" channel Derek Hatton's "Sports Break" show followed on directly after Alan Brazil's Breakfast show.
dannyno
  • 5. dannyno | 18/06/2015
.. not every day, mind. But they were on the same channel and sometimes their shows were back to back.
Martin
  • 6. Martin | 09/04/2016
Article in The Guardian about hooliganism/rioting in the 200 Uefa European championships:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2000/jun/19/euro2000.sport3

Sample excerpt:

Euro 2000 if its fans caused any further problems during the remainder of the tournament.

The unprecedented ultimatum and the behaviour of English fans has severely embarrassed the British government which came under fire from Uefa president Lennart Johannson for not doing enough to prevent hooligans from travelling abroad.

"After a weekend of violence in Charleroi and Brussels, Mr Johannson said: "Fans cannot be allowed to behave like this again and create havoc. The UK government owes it to everyone concerned to take similar steps to those taken in other countries to stop those troublesome fans from travelling abroad."

Alan Brazil's views on discipline:

https://www.sundaypost.com/sport/football/alan-brazil-he-says-what-he-thinks/

"A little bit of discipline in schools, a little bit of discipline at home. When i was a kid, when I was out of order, it did me no harm whatsoever...I got a wee slap, absolutely."

Obviously these comments are taken out of context, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had given similar comments during the 2000 Euro competition, which Mark E Smith may well have been listening to (on TalkSport).
Martin
  • 7. Martin | 10/04/2016
Has anyone got any ideas about the reference to post office workers? The only thing I can find is the Postal Services Act, which came into force in July 2000. Funnily enough, Mark E Smith refers to postal workers in The Fall's version of Jingle Bell Rock, proclaiming "Post office rot in hell". Whatever the answer is, it seemed that the lyrics were written quickly, as the Julia Nagle-sung demo version is so very different.
dev
  • 8. dev | 21/04/2019
I am sure he was singing 'Post office - Rotting Hill.' The title of a Wydham Lewis novel. Smith was fond of the title according to recent interview.
Philip Cartwright
  • 9. Philip Cartwright | 27/12/2019
I don't hear "post office workers" and that phrase doesn't really fit the rest of the song (but I admit it could well be a typical MES non sequitur). I mainly hear "most office workers" or even "us office workers".
bzfgt
  • 10. bzfgt (link) | 04/01/2020
Crap that's a tough one, I could hear it as "most"
bzfgt
  • 11. bzfgt (link) | 04/01/2020
I can't find another version with the line audible, Testa Rossa totally different, Touch Sensitive versions hard to hear the lyrics
nutterwain
  • 12. nutterwain | 29/05/2020
I'm hearing

Alan Brazil and Hackman

As in maybe Alan Hansen but not really fussed about knowing his name as the tv is causing a distraction to the hot June afternoon

rambling on about discipline and 'the track'
Don
  • 13. Don | 03/11/2020
Hot June = Hot gym

Upset, embarrassed skint in a tie = Observed, embarrassed speech in a church

Whoever transcribed this - You need better speakers!

Upset, embarrassed skint in a tie! - It is just nonsense.
Don
  • 14. Don | 03/11/2020
used them before = used that before
dannyno
  • 15. dannyno | 03/11/2020
Comments by Don, #13.

I think it's definitely "Hot June". Doesn't sound like gym on the album version or any of the live versions I've got.


Upset, embarrassed skint in a tie = Observed, embarrassed speech in a church


Doesn't matter how good your speakers are if your ears are basically shot! :-)

"in a tie" is difficult to hear, but the word to that point are "Upset" (you can hear the "t" clearly), "embarrassed" and "skint" (definitely not "speech").

As delivered, it sounds like "Upset. Embarrassed. Skint. (in a tie)." I.e. it doesn't seem like it's delivered as a meaningful sentence. But who knows.

#14:

Now you're right about this. It is indeed clearly "used that before".
dannyno
  • 16. dannyno | 03/11/2020
On record it's "June". Sometimes live he sings "Hot Runes". eg if you listen to the Brighton Concorde 2 gig on 17 April 2001, he sometimes sings "June" and sometimes very clearly "runes". But it's never "gym".
dannyno
  • 17. dannyno | 16/12/2020
From a preview commentary on some of the album tracks by Julia Nagle:

http://thefall.org/un/unutterable.html

[Internet Archive version]


Track 6 is Hot June. This is another of Neville's rock'n'roll tunes, and works well with this summery tone of the lyrics.


Which suggests the title changed after Julia wrote these notes?
bzfgt
  • 18. bzfgt (link) | 07/02/2021
Yeah hard to hear, this is what I got from the Lyrics Parade probably. I don't buy "gym."

17: It seems very likely as when a song is named after a phrase it contains the title often morphs into some permutation of it
Mark Oliver
  • 19. Mark Oliver | 01/09/2023
'Alan Brazil and Hatton'- another possibility would be the footballer Bob Hatton, whose career overlapped Brazil's for 8 years, between 1976 and 1984, so it's very likely they encountered one another, on the pitch, at least.

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