Nine Out Of Ten

The company supplied
The company supplied
Nine of out ten, they gave me (1)
Nine out of ten
Nine out of ten, they gave me
nine out of ten

And, come and and listen to my story
From when I started

I was in an orphan home since I was one
I was an orphan baby, all along
And when I was they gave me one out of
One out of ten

Then I was older
I was older
Made a home when I started
Nobody cared
If I was, a-baby, dead or alive

Nine out of ten
The company supplied, they said
Too dark baby
Try and understand,
You don't break rules you don't follow them (2)
Sub-lingual
Five out of ten
Nine out of ten
They gave me nine out of ten   (3)
 

1. According to John Robb's review on the Louder Than War website:

"The final track ‘Nine Out Of Ten’ is an acidic dark humoured snark attack on yours truly for giving Fall mate Ed Blaney’s recent very good album [which features MES on several tracks--TAF] a good review on this site and is all the better for its pointed assault on your author and probably loads of other targets in classic free form Fall style. It made me chuckle so much that I decided that [I would give] the 32nd Fall album the same score – otherwise it would have been a ten."

Corroborating this interpretation, Pro Rae on the Fall online forum points out that at the Fall gig from 2017-01-27 in Southampton, MES "clearly says, shortly after the 2:00 mark, 'and I got a review from John Robb.'"

The comment about Robb may have been improvised; since Robb knows about it, it's possible he was there. If this is the case, MES may have seen him and thoiught of the happy coincidence of the lyric and the score given Blaney's album. Really, who knows? But it's not clear that the song has anything to do with John Robb.

Since MES's recent illness and death, some have suggested the numbers in the song refer to survival odds.

According to Elliot R: "I just found a cigarette packet; the NHS warning on the front says 'Smoking causes 9 out of 10 lung cancers.' Probably a coincidence but I wanted to share it on here."

This may indeed be a coincidence, or it may be significant. MES died of lung and kidney cancer on January 24th, 2018. It's possible that the song is a meditation on his impending death, but at the same time I don't want to assume too much and start seeing things that aren't there. Do what you will with these clues, if that is what they are.

Caetano Veloso has a song called "Nine Out of Ten" (thanks to " " [sic] Tim Goldie).

John Howard points out a musical similarity between this and "Herpes Simplex" by Lizzy Mercier Descloux...coincidental or not, it is a plausible connection.

Dan reports that the band tweeted that this was the last thing recorded with MES.

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2. The meaning of this line would change depending on how it is transcribed; for instance, "You don't follow rules, you don't! Follow them," but the above seems most likely. For more, see the discussion of this line on the Fall online forum.

At the NME awards in 2018, Brix gave a speech in a kind of tribute to MES. She said, among other things, "It is said you are remembered for the rules you break. But for Mark E. Smith, there were no rules." See also "Before the Moon Falls": "I must create a new regime/Or live by another man's," which paraphrases Blake's "I must Create a System or be enslav'd by another Man's. I will not Reason & Compare; my business is to Create."

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3. The song ends with a lengthy repeated guitar coda. From David Cavanagh's feature about MES from the April 2018 issue of Uncut (pp.50-56, quote from p.56):

"He was animated as he sang his final vocal for the album ('Nine Out Of Ten'), with guitarist Greenway seated beside him. The song came to a natural end. Greenway stopped playing. 'No,' Smith said. 'Play it again.' He got up and walked slowly around the studio, tapping bits of percussion, while Greenway strummed the chords for three, four, then five minutes.

And that's exactly how we hear it on the record. The track ends. The guitar resumes. But Mark E Smith is now silent."

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

PETE GREENWAY: We didn't know at the time that it would be the last album and I'm sure Mark didn't. People have drawn conclusions from the last track, "Nine Out Of Ten", and how it ends [without vocals for the second half]. I'd met Mark for a beer and we ended up at the studio. I was too drunk to play and Mark just spouted lyrics about his life, spontaneously. I was surprised it ended up on the album.

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Nine Out Of Ten: Fall Tracks A-Z

Fall Online Forum: Discussion of "You Don't Break Rules,/You Don't Follow Them"