Music Scene

Lyrics

Oh aye you're a good lad (2)
Oh here is a pound note
The stupid bitch
They were made for each other

You should have met his brother
His mother was deaf and dumb

Well that stupid get
Played games with names
Of the place he'd worked
Of the women he tupped (3)

He thought he were envy of the music scene
Part of the choosy scene
Envy of the music scene (4)

Here comes long hair for the fair
No pay just take all the way
Those bastards stripped me bare
In front of all those people

Spat peanuts in my hair (5)
And all the leaves are brown (6)

And be part of the music scene
Heavy on the choosy scene
Part of the music scene

And aye you're a good lad
Oh here is a new flat
That stupid twat
Made for each other

You should have met his brothers
Real fuckers
That stupid kid
Played games with names
All the gigs he'd worked
And the women he'd fucked

He was part of the music scene
Envy of the choosy set
Part of the music scene

Leave a mark on the city
I'll smash your doors down
Become a demolition worker
A metal construction worker

And behind our conscious minds
Our affections are turning grey (7)

Yeah, we're part of the music scene
Heavy on the choosy scene
Part of the music scene

Part of the music scene
Part of the choosy scene
Part of the music scene (8)

6 minutes!

6:40!

OK, studio, that's plenty (9)

Notes

1. This song is built around a bassline which is the same as the one in "Fodderstompf" by P.I.L., though to quite a different effect. Reformation has preserved this quote for posterity:

MES, in an interview In Printed Noises in 1980:

"...you get things like Music Scene,which is very personal, in a way it's very self-indulgent, but also it says a lot, because it's so personal. People just take anything from it - it's amazing, the interpretations that Music Scene has had."

2. From "The Murder Mystery" by the Velvet Underground: "oh you're such a good lad here's another dollar..."

3. A "tup" is a ram, and as a verb this originally referred to a ram having sex with a ewe.

4. Pronounced "music skeh-neh" the second time in each chorus. TamFG comments on this:

The English word "scene" derives from the ancient Greek "skene" which I think is pronounced "skee-nee" and which, in classical drama, referred to the building connected to the stage upon which painted panels intended to be used as a visual background were attached.
It was also used to store costumes &c.
I've no idea if this is a conscious allusion however. It could certainly just be a deliberate mispronunciation a la "victuals" in "I Feel Voxish".

5. Dan: "I can't account for the spitting, but there is a story about slaves hiding peanuts in their hair in order to plant them later."

This is probably a red herring, though; it seems to be an account of being disrespected by scene-sters. I can see where Dan would want to make the connection, though, if they see MES as their slave or something.

6. This lyric is a quote from "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas & the Papas (or, as they were called on their debut album, "The Mama's and Papa's" [sic]).

As VEJ points out, this is a sign of the Fall...

7.This echoes the earlier "All the leaves are brown." The next line in "California Dreamin'" is "And the sky is grey."

This line sometimes appears in "Stepping Out." On the version from Liverpool 78 (from Augiust 22, 1978) MES says "The last line of that song was 'Our affections are turning grey,' so it's all slow."

8. Glenn F points out that at 5:41 the lead guitar quotes the main lick from "Repetition."

9. And the band played on...

From Dan:

From "The Fall: album by album", in Uncut magazine, July 2019:

BRAMAH: ...On "Music Scene", about the authoritarian hand of the music business, the studio engineers are telling us to stop playing. It was so funny, we used it.

More Information

Music Scene: Fall Tracks A-Z

Comments (28)

1. dannyno | 22/03/2014

I hear some of the "envy"s as "heavy"s. What do you think.

Also:

"No pay just take all the way" rather than "on the way"?

2. bzfgt | 08/04/2014

Yes to both.

3. TamFG | 02/09/2015

4. bzfgt | 05/09/2015

Yes, he enjoys mispronouncing words...

5. dannyno | 04/02/2016

"Spat peanuts in my hair"

I can't account for the spitting, but there is a story about slaves hiding peanuts in their hair in order to plant them later.

6. Mike Watts | 08/11/2017

Is this song maybe about the Bee Gees? Can't imagine any of the Bee Gee's spitting peanuts at MES - well, actually I can, but I doubt it really happened...

7. dannyno | 09/11/2017

The Bee Gees?!

8. bzfgt (link) | 02/12/2017

Mike, why the Bee Gees? That is, pending clarification, random as fuck.

9. bzfgt (link) | 02/12/2017

Don't get me wrong, I kind of like that it's random as fuck, and clarification may be a bit disappointing in a way if it actually makes sense...

10. VEJ | 19/04/2018

"and all the leaves are brown" - a sign of autumn AKA the Fall

11. PJ | 21/06/2018

i think 'spat peanuts in my hair' is simply that - it makes a horrid globular mess and was prob one form of (1970s) playground abuse..

12. bzfgt (link) | 09/07/2018

Yeah, PJ, I think that's what my note indicates, so I agree...or maybe it's the other way round.

13. dannyno | 15/05/2019

From "The Fall: album by album", in Uncut magazine, July 2019:

BRAMAH: ...On "Music Scene", about the authoritarian hand of the music business, the studio engineers are telling us to stop playing. It was so funny, we used it.

14. Joseph Holt | 10/06/2019

I’ve always heard “I meant a construction worker”. Given how it’s delivered, it sounds like someone correcting themselves, which makes sense given the prior line.

15. dannyno | 18/08/2019

From Ian Wood's review of The Fall at the Carlton Club, Warrington (26 Feb 1979), from NME. 24 March 1979, p.49:

I was stunned by the entire set, but 'Music Scene', as now reworked, was a classic piece of rock 'n' roll from any viewpoint. It's The Fall's 'The End,' made up from a melody line copped off Dale Evan's 'Happy Trails,' a standard Motown bass riff and heavily overlaid with Martin Bramah's quite unique guitar improvisation.

Misplaced apostrophe there. He means Dale Evans' "Happy Trails". I think she sang it with Roy and Dusty Rogers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Evans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Trails_(song)

16. bzfgt (link) | 23/08/2019

"The End"? Like the Doors?

17. Glenn F | 23/11/2019

At about 5:42, the guitar quotes the main riff of "Repetition."

18. bzfgt (link) | 27/11/2019

Hell if it doesn't!

19. bzfgt (link) | 27/11/2019

Does it say "envy"? They all sound like "heavy on the" to me I think

20. GLochin | 24/08/2020

I wonder if the "stupid get" is supposed to be MES himself... *hits joint*

21. bzfgt (link) | 30/08/2020

I suppose "stupid get" is common there, but it makes me think of the Beatles' "curse Sir Walter Raleigh he was such a stupid get"

22. sander | 11/09/2020

commenting on TamFG:
MES pronounces it exactly the right way according to ancient Greek (eg 400 BC): "skeh-neh" (σκηνή)
"skee-nee" would be the modern pronunciation.

23. bzfgt (link) | 21/03/2021

"Our affections are turning grey" kind of echoes "all the leaves are brown"

24. bzfgt (link) | 21/03/2021

Plus of course the next line is "and the sky is grey..."

25. dannyno | 05/09/2022

Re: pronunciation of "scene" as "skene"

See the set list for the Nashville Rooms gig of 1 March 1979, where the song title is written as Music Sken:

http://thefall.org/gigography/image/1979-03-01_set-ColinWalker.jpg

It didn't always appear like that.

In Lancashire dialect the word "sken" means (depending on the source) something like "look" or "take a quick look" or "stare".

Perhaps MES enjoyed the pun, so that "Music Sken" might mean "a look at the music scene" or "the music scene is glaring at me", or perhaps he's just deliberately enjoying the jocular mispronounciation of the word as he (well, people generally) sometimes did (leg-end/legend etc etc).

I mean, clearly i have no idea.