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- Home /
- The Annotated Lyrics /
- New Facts Emerge
New Facts Emerge
Lyrics
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"
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 (43)
Possible, certainly, Definitely, no chance.
I'm not convinced it's the lyric, though.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32718813
and/or
https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/red-eyed-tree-frogs-shaking-vin
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
Frogs in the garden
I hear:
Sprogs if you gottem/and it’s cancer
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!”
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!”
It's remarkable how often that when something looks like fractured English it's wrong...
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.
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.
https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18026625370128672/
Les Bourgeois is not on Walker's album of Brel covers, but the link is there.
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.
So I guess we need to re-evaluate it in the light of terrorism in France, then.
https://twitter.com/ImperialWaxBand/status/1319376890252218368
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!
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
Making some of those changes. It does not sound like "England" to me