Impression of J. Temperance

(1)

Hate wide for dog breeder
in the town of the port
A never seen dog breeder
This is the tale of his replica.
 

Name was J. Temperance
Only two did not hate him
Because peasants fear local indifference
Pet shop and the vet, Cameron.
 

One night vet is called out
from his overpaid leisure
To Temperance household:
Delivered, ran out,
and phoned his wife in terror.
 

The next bit is hard to relate.
(There are no read-outs for this part of the track.)
The new born thing hard to describe
Like a rat that's been trapped inside
A warehouse base, near a city tide
Brown sockets, purple eyes
And fed with rubbish from disposal barges
Brown, uncovered
Brown, uncovered 

No changeling,        (2)
as the birth was witnessed.
Only one person could do this
Only one person could do this
"Yes" said Cameron
"and the thing was in the
impression of J. Temperance."
 

His hideous replica (3)
Scrutinized little monster
DIsappeared through the door (4)
His hideous replica
His hideous replica

1. A weird tale, but one not hard to get the basic gist of; a dog breeder conducting odd experiments, or, if you like, throwing himself into his work and taking the "breeding" part a bit too literally. In one way or another, he produces a dog/thing which resembles him closely enough that Cameron, the vet, runs from the scene of the birth in terror. On the Legendary Chaos Tape (recorded in December 1980 in London) MES reveals that 'J' stands for "Jermyn" (this is corroborated by leftover liner material for Grotesque). This is an apparent allusion to the early H.P. Lovecraft story "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family," which similarly has a theme of interspecies breeeding; Arthur Jermyn commits suicide when he discovers he is descended from a sort of ape goddess whom an ancestor of Jermyn's, an explorer, met in an African city of white apes.  

Dan submits: From the Grotesque press release: "'Impression' is the oldest song on the album and was written during the 'Totales Turns' period in a bed and breakfast in Retford miles from anywhere when the locals got suspiciously friendly and there was a huge man-sized one-eyed teddy bear on the landing."

Dan points out the similarity between this song and the main theme of Rossini's "William Tell Overture"; the bass line follows the rhythm, and a quite similar pattern of notes. 

Paul Hanley confirms the William Tell Overture debt in his book Have a Bleedin Guess (p.27, footnote 14):
 

The drum pattern's nicked from Gioachino Rossini's William Tell Overture, or more correctly the theme from The Lone Ranger.

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2. "Changeling" usually refers to a fairy baby that has been left by the fairies that abducted your baby, and more generally any baby that has been switched with another. 

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3. The influence of Lovecraft is perhaps evident in the choice of one of the latter's favorite adjectives, the insistence that the thing is hard to describe (which is nevertheless followed, as it always is in Lovecraft, by a grotesque description), and the general mood of the lyrics. The whole thing can be read as a joke (the punchline would be that the protagonist had sex with a dog), but it can also be taken as a homage to pulp horror stories.

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4. From "Oh! Brother": "He scrutinized a little monster/And disappeared through red door." "Oh! Brother" was recorded and released some years after Grotesque, but it was written in the 70s and performed in 1977 (only once, according to Reformation!, but I'm not sure how complete the records are). The lyric as quoted above appears in the one known version, preserved (in horrible sound quality!) on Live 1977.

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Impression of J. Temperance: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 1980