New Facts Emerge

Lyrics

(1)

Don't think I can get it
Gotta gotta get it
You better start paying down
Stop shaking down
It might become a whirlwind

You better bog, stop
It might become whirlwind

You better stop shaking down those frogs
You better stop shaking down those frogs (2)

Horrible new facts emerge
(Whirl)

Better stop shaking down the bogs a might a whirlwind
You better stop shaking it down with a whirlwind

You better stop shaking down those
Better stop shaking down those 
Sprogs in the garden  (3)
Having fits

(Les bourgeois 
c'est comme les cochons 
Plus ça devient vieux 
plus ça devient gros!
) (4)

Horrible new facts emerge

G-g-g-g-g-g-g-get out

You better stop shaking down those frogs
Stop shaking down those
Better stop shaking down those frogs

You better stop

...you better!

Horrible new facts emerge
Horrible new facts emerge

You gotta stop shaking down them frogs
Better stop shaking down those frogs
Better stop shaking down those frogs

[French]

(Better stop, absolutement, better stop)

You better stop shaking down those frogs

New facts emerge
Horrible new newsmen emerge
Horrible new facts emerge

You better stop shaking down those frogs
You gotta stop shaking down those frogs

Choke!

 

Notes

1. It has been remarked that this sounds like "Broken Boy Soldier" by the Raconteurs, according to Reformation. It does, albeit in a way that could be a coincidence. Like many Fall songs that resemble previous numbers, the song is musically almost identical, but the overall feel is completely different.

From Tony Wifner:  "I saw a repeat of an episode of [Scottish detective show] Taggart recently where the headline "New Facts Emerge" was clearly shown on a local newspaper."

Dan reports:

 

According to @imperialwaxband during Tim Burgess twitter listening party devoted to New Facts Emerge,
 "So this was aimed at ISIS"

^

2. Note from wal:

There have been reports of animals and fish being carried up within storms, winds, etc., and then raining down in a biblical sense. The raining of frogs was a part of the Paul Thomas Anderson film, Magnolia.

"Frogs" is also a British epithet for the French, in reference to their cuisine, which includes frogs' legs. In the 19th century this term was applied to the Dutch, who were said to be swamp-dwellers; around the time of the first World War, it was transferred to the French (thanks to julibront). 

There is a passage here which sounds French. Antoine says "right around 0:57 the French voice says 'comme un nouvel immigrant de Marseilles, on dit, les cochons, Saxons, laissez-les tranquilles' so, 'like a new immigrant from Marseilles, we say, the Saxon pigs, leave them alone.'"

^

3. "Sprogs," or a stuttering run back at "frogs." If the former, Gizmoman says that sprog means child in "working class English." According to Kevin Prince, "Sprogs is also a generic military term for anyone with less service than you e.g. you sprog, I was doing that when you were still at school."

However, I am not entirely convinced MES is singing in English at all here and elsewhere. It seems to me his mind is saying "Stop shaking down those frogs/It might become a whirlwind" and he's letting the syllables just sort of spill out how they will. I've sort of split the difference by transcribing somewhat phonetically, but sticking to actual words. The result is that some of the words might not really be entirely in the song, unfortunately. 

^

4. From Maldoror on the Fall online forum:

 

I've just realised that the scrambled (echoey) backing lyrics to New Facts Emerge come from the Jacques Brel song "Les Bourgeois":

Les bourgeois 
c'est comme les cochons 
Plus ça devient vieux 
plus ça devient con!

Meaning:

"The bourgoisie
are like pigs
the older they get
the more they become idiots (cunts)"

Brel never sang the final "con" (cunt), although it was always implied by the rhyme and a sting of music.

Al points out that the lyrics here vary from Brel's version:

"Actually, the french part is :

Les bourgeois
c'est comme les cochons
Plus ça devient vieux
plus ça devient GROS 

Meaning: 'The bourgoisie/ are like pigs/ the older they get/ the more they become FAT,' the last word being the only difference with the Brel lyrics.

Dan:

It might be worth noting, in relation to the Jacques Brel quotation, that MES - according to Pamela Vander's instagram account, loved Scott Walker's rendition of Brel's Jackie:
 


Mark adored it, blasted it a lot, sometimes on repeat.


"Les Bourgeois" is not on Walker's album of Brel covers, but the link is there.

^

 

 

Comments (45)

wal
  • 1. wal | 04/09/2017
There have been reports of animals and fish being carried up within storms, winds etc and then raining down in a biblical sense. The raining of frogs was a part of the Paul Thomas Anderson film, Magnolia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo6tyeQJDLQ
Sam O'Brien
  • 2. Sam O'Brien | 14/09/2017
Instead of "It might become a whirlwind", I hear meccano whirlwind, as in Like eifell tower inverted?? As in Paris, bataclan, shaken frogs etc

Possible, certainly, Definitely, no chance.
bzfgt
  • 3. bzfgt (link) | 16/09/2017
Sam, what is "meccano" and what does it have to do with the Eiffel Tower?
dannyno
  • 4. dannyno | 16/09/2017
You could have just googled Meccano! It's a company that makes model construction sets - used to be popular with lads in the 1970s/1980s. It's a kind of a toy, but you could actually make really elaborate things with it. You could use it to build the Eiffel Tower.

I'm not convinced it's the lyric, though.
bzfgt
  • 5. bzfgt (link) | 16/09/2017
I did google it and all I found was that it was a model kit, which I didn't think had anything to do with what we were saying!
bzfgt
  • 6. bzfgt (link) | 16/09/2017
Pepe the frog? I think that's what Ezra Pound was getting at...he also hinted that his politics are not those of his namesake, which I hope is so.
bzfgt
  • 7. bzfgt (link) | 07/10/2017
I'm perplexed...he sings "It might be-COME a whirlwind," and even "It might become whirlwind," to my ears, pretty clearly, at least in 2017 terms...
Mike Watts
  • 8. Mike Watts | 15/11/2017
Comment on Brexit?
Kairam
  • 9. Kairam | 30/11/2017
Frog shake

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32718813

and/or

https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/red-eyed-tree-frogs-shaking-vin
bzfgt
  • 10. bzfgt (link) | 23/12/2017
Wow, that frog stuff is disgusting...
Al
  • 11. Al | 11/01/2018
Actually, the french part is :
Les bourgeois
c'est comme les cochons
Plus ça devient vieux
plus ça devient GROS!

Meaning:

"The bourgoisie
are like pigs
the older they get
the more they become FAT"

The last word being the only difference with the Brel lyrics
titfordshire
  • 12. titfordshire | 25/01/2018
Yesterdays news is devastating.
Tony Wifner
  • 13. Tony Wifner | 25/01/2018
I saw a repeat of an episode of Taggart!" recently where the headline, New Facts Emerge was clearly shown on a local news paper.
bzfgt
  • 14. bzfgt (link) | 04/02/2018
Titfordshire. Yes.
julibront
  • 15. julibront | 06/02/2018
the term "frogs" was also used as a slur referring to french people during ww1 and 2
bzfgt
  • 16. bzfgt (link) | 10/02/2018
Thank you, Al!
bzfgt
  • 17. bzfgt (link) | 10/02/2018
And also julibront!
Neil McIntoshOcelot
  • 18. Neil McIntoshOcelot | 13/02/2018
"Frogs, if you got 'em" is "Frogs in the garden" to my ears.
bzfgt
  • 19. bzfgt (link) | 13/02/2018
Crap I am not in a place where I can check this, but it seems more plausible than what I have so I'll change it and someone can object if they want to...
Muptonian
  • 20. Muptonian | 17/02/2018
I don’t hear:

Frogs in the garden

I hear:

Sprogs if you gottem/and it’s cancer
bzfgt
  • 21. bzfgt (link) | 19/02/2018
Definitely not "garden." But it's not "cogs," it's "frogs," he draws out the "fr" like FF--R--OGS" only not quite that exaggerated. I can hear "it's cancer" now you say it, but I don't feel sure enough about it to put it in--could others listen for it and tell me what you think?
bzfgt
  • 22. bzfgt (link) | 19/02/2018
Sorry you said "sprogs" not "cogs," but I still hear "frogs."
Gizmoman
  • 23. Gizmoman | 06/03/2018
It's "Sprogs in the garden" , A "sprog" is a child for those not familiar with working class english.
rik
  • 24. rik | 19/03/2018
why wouldnt you add..." its cancer" totally what he says and had.
bzfgt
  • 25. bzfgt (link) | 31/03/2018
Because I'm not certain that's what he says, why else wouldn't I add it? I'd like a few more people to weigh in on it before I put it in, does everyone hear it?
Kevin Prince
  • 26. Kevin Prince | 09/05/2018
Sprogs is also a generic military term for anyone with less service than you e.g. you sprog, I was doing that when you were still at school.
quixto
  • 27. quixto | 25/08/2018
I hear the beginning as G-g-g-getty or G-g-g-giddy. I guess there could some reference to Getty paying up in the song
At 0:20 it sounds to me like “You better start paying down,” but that could be wrong
At 1:22 I hear “Better stop shaking down the bars with mighty whirlwind” (MES pronouncing mighty like mai-tai)
At 1:47 instead of “And the frogs,” it should be “Having fits”
At 2:32 MES says “Choke your tongue better!”
At 3:04 it sound like “Better stop, absolute man”
At 3:59 MES ends the song by saying “Choke!”
bzfgt
  • 28. bzfgt (link) | 25/08/2018
Thanks for times, saves me a lot of work
I hear the beginning as G-g-g-getty or G-g-g-giddy. I guess there could some reference to Getty paying up in the song

Maybe but it sounds like "gotta gotta get it" to me

At 0:20 it sounds to me like “You better start paying down,” but that could be wrong

I hear that too

At 1:22 I hear “Better stop shaking down the bars with mighty whirlwind” (MES pronouncing mighty like mai-tai)

I don't hear "mighty". but I don;t have anything better

At 1:47 instead of “And the frogs,” it should be “Having fits”

Yes I think so
At 2:32 MES says “Choke your tongue better!”

I don't hear this but I have nothing but an ellipsis. But I don't hear this
At 3:04 it sound like “Better stop, absolute man”

Yes I think so

At 3:59 MES ends the song by saying “Choke!”
Billy
  • 29. Billy | 05/12/2018
Fair to say that this might be the last appearance of Mark's famed 'precognition', considering recent/current events in Paris?
bzfgt
  • 30. bzfgt (link) | 22/12/2018
"You better buy stock" not "you better buy, stop"

It's remarkable how often that when something looks like fractured English it's wrong...
bzfgt
  • 31. bzfgt (link) | 22/12/2018
Fuck, Mr. Marshall says the first time is "album" not "horrible." I really wanted to hear that since I think he thinks I dismiss his input, or that we all do, but it still sounds like "horrible" to me...
bzfgt
  • 32. bzfgt (link) | 22/12/2018
Fair in what sense?
Dan
  • 33. Dan | 25/02/2019
I'm positive that the line you've rendered "what mobs a whirlwind" is a very slurred "well, it might create a whirlwind" (or "or it might...").

And I'm less positive about the proceeding word which you've put as "bars" – it does sound like it starts with a 'b', but I can just about conceive of it as another "frogs". The "sprogs" is definitely just "frogs" with a drawn-out F.
bzfgt
  • 34. bzfgt (link) | 13/04/2019
I hope you're right, "What mobs a whirlwind" sucks. I'll listen to it and see.
bzfgt
  • 35. bzfgt (link) | 13/04/2019
"You better buy, stop" is also clearly wrong. It sounds like "bog, stop" anyway but I don't see that being it.

I can't get "it might become" out of the one you mention. And there it is seemingly "bogs." I got it as close as I could to English and closer to how it sounds. I'm not convinced he's saying anything English at all in some of these lines, it seems like he's just thinking "Stop shaking down those frogs/It might become a whirlwind" and letting sounds spill out.
joince
  • 36. joince | 23/04/2019
when MES sings "you better stop shaking down those - / you better stop shaking down those - " - well, perhaps this resonates with the Brel thing - where he leaves of the "cunts" at the end of the line. Not sure though. The line after , i don't so much hear "sprogs" as "those frogs" kinda slurred out. Well, maybe.
dannyno
  • 37. dannyno | 06/06/2019
It might be worth noting, in relation to the Jacques Brel quotation, that MES - according to Pamela Vander's instagram account, loved Scott Walker's rendition of Brel's Jackie:


Mark adored it, blasted it a lot, sometimes on repeat.


https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18026625370128672/

Les Bourgeois is not on Walker's album of Brel covers, but the link is there.
bzfgt
  • 38. bzfgt (link) | 07/06/2019
Wayback Machine freaks out in a way I've never seen when I try to save that Instantgram page...
Antoine
  • 39. Antoine | 21/02/2020
I posted this on the Annotatedfall megathread in the forum a few days ago, thought it would be worthwhile to bring it back here-

RE: New Facts Emerge, there are French lyrics in the first section which are not "Les Bourgeois" so right around 0:57 the French voice says "comme un nouvel immigrant de Marseilles, on dit, les cochons, Saxons, laissez-les tranquilles" so, "like a new immigrant from Marseilles, we say, the Saxon pigs, leave them alone"

Dan has a theory about a news article concerning a football hooligan, I believe. It's on there.

Also: I don't think the first lines are correct. I've been listening to the LP closely on vinyl and I hear, not clearly of course, nothing is clear in this wonderful song, but what I hear is:

instead of:
Gotta gotta get it
You better start paying down

I hear:

"Don't think I can get it, don't think I can get it, you better stop, England"

Also,

"Better stop shaking down the bogs a might a whirlwind
You better stop shaking it down with a whirlwind"

I think should be:

"Better stop shaking down that bourgeois mighty whirlwind, better stop shaking that damn, whirl, whirlwind"

And then, at around 3:03 there's a section at the end where the MES ghost vocals (I think, this is probably the section that I'm the least sure of) go:

"As for all, absolute morale, better stop"

One thing is for sure, at least, and that is that this is an absolutely phenomenal piece of recorded music.
dannyno
  • 40. dannyno | 22/10/2020
According to @imperialwaxband during Tim Burgess twitter listening party devoted to New Facts Emerge,


So this was aimed at ISIS


So I guess we need to re-evaluate it in the light of terrorism in France, then.

https://twitter.com/ImperialWaxBand/status/1319376890252218368
Antoine Procuta
  • 41. Antoine Procuta | 02/01/2021
I think this is close, but, you know, at this point, who knows?

Don't think I can get get it, don't think I can get it
You better stop, England
Stop shaking down what might become a whirlwind
You better not stop what might become whirlwind
You better stop shaking down those Frogs!
You better stop shaking down those Frogs!

(Comme un nouvel immigrant de Marseilles, on dit, les cochons, Saxons, laissez-les tranquilles!)

Horrible New Facts Emerge

(Whooo-aaah)

Better stop shaking down that bourgeois mighty whirlwind
Better stop shaking that damn, whirl, whilrwilnd
You better stop shaking down those-
Better stop shaking down those-
Frogs, in the garden
And, it's (?)

(Les Bourgeois, c'est comme les cochons, plus ça devient vieux, plus ça devient con)

Horrible New Facts Emerge
G-g-g-g-get out

You better stop shaking down those Frogs
Stop shaking down down those-
Better stop shaking down those Frogs
You better stop!
(Choke)

You gotta choke, you better!
Horrible New Facts Emerge
Horrible New Facts Emerge

You gotta stop taking down them Frogs
Better stop shaking down those Frogs
Better stop shaking down those Frogs

(Better stop, absolute morale, better stop)

You better stop shaking down those Frogs!

(Les bourgeois, c'est comme les cochons (?) (Saxons Saxons, cons, cons)

New Facts Emerge
Horrible new, newsmen emerge (les Bourgeois, c'est comme les cochons, plus ça devient vieux, plus ça devient con)
Horrible New Facts Emerge
You gotta stop shaking down those Frogs
You gotta stop shaking down those Frogs (les Bourgeois, c'est comme les cochons, plus ça devient vieux, plus ça devient con)
(Les Bourgeois) Choke!
Paul G
  • 42. Paul G | 15/01/2021
I was trying to think where I knew the the phrase 'you have sewn the wind, now you must reap the whirlwind'. I thought it was Churchill but Wikipedia tells me it's Arthur 'Bomber' Harris, Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command before the Allies air campaign in Germany in 1942.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Arthur_Harris,_1st_Baronet#Second_World_War

It seems Harris is quoting the bible - Hosea 8:7 to be precise https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Hosea%208:7&version=nrsv
bzfgt
  • 43. bzfgt (link) | 28/02/2021
Antoine 41

Making some of those changes. It does not sound like "England" to me
For the Record
  • 44. For the Record | 31/12/2023
Having fits = and the streets
For the Record
  • 45. For the Record | 31/12/2023
Musically this is a glamstomp take on the 2nd half of the NWRA

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