Ibis-Afro Man

(1)

I ate a monkey for breakfast
I ate a skunk for lunch
I living in the bush
I eat with my fingers
I don't use no knife or fork
cause I live in the jungle
I live in the jungle

I living in the bush
I living in the bush
I'm eating with my fingers
I use no fork or knife
I use no fork or knife
I know elephants and lions
I'm a Africa hotel man (2)

And I do what I can
I do what I can
I eat a monkey for breakfast
I eat a skunk for lunch
I'm living in the bush near Luton (3)
I'm an Ibis hotel man

I'm eating with my fingers
I use no fork or knife
Sometimes things can be too slow
And the sky, the Sky channel above me (4)
It looks so great

I eat with my fingers
I use no fork or knife
Only what the hotel supply
I'm an Ibis hotel man

I'm living in the bush
Around Luton, I'm a man
And I do what I can
And I do what I can

I eat a monkey for lunch
And for breakfast I eat a snack
I eat a skunk for lunch
I'm an Ibis hotel man
I know elephants and lions
To the children, turn out your light
I'm an African man
I'm living in a...

I'm an Africa man
And I do what I can
I got three minutes
I eat the lunch
I put it on the bill
I eat a skunk, I eat a skunk

[monkey screeching] (5)

["Race With The Devil" is incorporated here:

Led an evil life, so they say But I'll outrun the devil on judgement day, say Half price and I'm movin' Move fast, yeah, move man Move fast and move man down the line Goin' fast, the race was won A-here come the devil doin' a hundred and one, yeah Move fast, yeah, move man A-move fast, yeah, move man Move fast and move man down the line I thought I was smart, the race was won And here come the devil doin' a hundred and one, yeah F-F-F-F-F-F-F move fast, yeah, move man Move fast, yeah, move man Move fast and move man down the line Aaaah!]    (6)

...my throat was dry
I look around, I looked around
And I always did
Uh uh uh 
I got christmas island
And join the troops
I got christmas island
I'm gonna join the troops (7)
When you look around, I sit down

A mission
I'm an Ibis computer man   (8)
I do what I can, I do what I can
I do what I can, I do what I can, I do what I can
And here's one of my friends
He's gonna sing one of the old songs from Trigger Hap[py]...
"Good Evening London, you lucky, lucky, lucky people - Mark E" [Ed Blaney]

I was walking down the street again and again (9)

[mobile phone interference]

[outro of "Birthday Song" for 1 second with crowd cheering] (10)

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1. The lyrics (but not the music) for this song draw heavily from Iggy Pop's "African Man," a perplexingly idiotic and (ironically, one hopes) racist song from the 1979 album New Values. I have reproduced the lyrics below; as far as I can make out, this is the only place they are available on the internet, so I may have made a few mistakes in transcibing them, although in general the vocals are pretty clear:

I eat a monkey for breakfast
I eat a skunk for lunch
I live in the bush
I eat with my fingers, I don't use no knife and fork
'cause I live in the jungle
I no eat tigers
I know about lions
I know about lions, I know about everything that lives in the jungle

I'm an African man, I'm an African man
And I do what I can 

What's that bird, so strange 
In a blue Kenya sky
It's a dirty bird
Go home ya dirty white man 
Go home ya, go home ya dirty white man
I hate ya, I hate the white man
Wanna go back to the jungle again where I came 

Oo, ah, oo it's good in the jungle

I know lions, I know tigers
I know elephants
I'm an African man, I don't eat with a fork
I don't use no knife
I use my finger
I live in the bush
I'm gonna stomp like a gorilla, I beat my chest

I know tiger, tiger rag
I know lions, eat with fingers
I live in bush, live in bush
I live in bush look up at blue sky
Blue sky of Kenya, airplane up high
But that airplane is flying too low
That white man's airplane is flying too low
Sometimes things change too slow.... 

^

2. This line is unclear; the Lyrics Parade has "I'm an elephant hotel man." 

Also, of course, it's possible that the hotel in question is in, or near, "the bush." There is an Elephant Hotel in Somers, NY, and in the 19th century there was a hotel actually built in the shape of an elephant on Coney Island named the Elephantine Collossus and informally called The Elephant Hotel.  

It's an odd twist that Iggy Pop's tale of jungle life is transposed to a hotel for the Fall's rendition, one that was probably inspired by the Ibis chain of hotels, which mostly operates in Europe. It's not immediately clear whether a hotel is being likened to the jungle or vice versa, but the former option is rendered a bit more likely by the circumstance that on some live versions MES sang "I'm an Ibis hotel computer man." 

Perhaps the fact that the hotel chain is named after an African bird inspired MES to draw this connection...

^

3. Luton is a small city near London.

^

4. Probably a reference to Sky TV, a televised sports network, which would possibly be "above" the narrator in the corner of a hotel lounge, for instance. Sky TV may also be referenced in "Paranoia Man In Cheap Sh*t Room." Could be "sky trail" though...

^

5. On the Fall online forum, where the monkey noises seem to have horrifed some of the regulars, bass player Jim Watts ("sdok") avers, "The frightening thing is it isn't a sample." One hopes he was joking--Stephen's reply, "It's an old tape of Brix rehearsing," reassuringly suggests a more plausible scenario. Actually, the monkey sounds (which are certainly a sample) are employed in a fairly musical way, and could almost be a keyboard part.  

^

6. "Race With the Devil" is a 1956 song by Gene Vincent. The Fall played it live once in 1989, and it appears on their 2013 EP "The Remainderer."

^

7 Christmas Island is an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean where the British conducted tests with nuclear weapons in the late 1950s.  

^

8. There is a company in Britain called Ibis Computer, although I have not yet managed to determine how long it's been around.

^

9. "Again and again," indeed--this is a notoriously common Fall lyric, appearing in such songs as "Jerusalem," "Hey! Student," "Ol' Gang," "On My Own" and (later) "Blindness."  

^

10. "Birthday Song" is on The Marshall Suite, and is not to be confused with "Birthday," a song by The Idle Race, written and sung by future ELO leader Jeff Lynne. The Fall recorded the latter track in the mid-90s with Lucy Rimmer on lead vocals.  

^

Ibis-Afro Man: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 2001

Race with the Devil: Fall Tracks A-Z

Birthday Song: Fall Tracks A-Z

Birthday: Fall Tracks A-Z