New Facts Emerge

(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!

 

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.

^

New Facts Emerge: Fall Tracks A-Z