No Bulbs

I'm hunting and I'm tryna find
A belt in the early morn
When your home is a trash mount
Look all over but you're right out

In need of black strap
In need of black strap
In need of black strap
No belts in this flat (1) 

No belts in this flat
The former tenant was anti-corporal-punish (2)
Meant well, but it came to nothing
A light has just gone out
A bulb has just gone out
No belts in this flat
No bulbs in this flat

In need of white lamp
In need of white lamp

At the end of my tether
I destroyed years of hippy craft
Cut up a mad ship
Of a string wooden chandelier or something (3)

No belts in this flat
Give me a black strap
Give me a black strap
No belts in this flat

 

a bulb has just gone out and the only light I have found
is the original with a set square neck
Laying out cool dwellings,
For the next Britain in the evening
The apartments he has made
He is genius in allocation of space

In need of white lamp
In need of white lamp
In need of white lamp
No lights in this dump

Not like this place, you need light here,
even in the morning,
Compared to this, St. Petersburg was nothing (4)

In need of white lamp
In need of white lamp
In need of white lamp
No belts in this flat

In need of black strap
In need of black strap
In need of black strap
No belts in this flat

I'm hunting and I'm tryna find
A belt in the early morn
When your home is a trash mount
Look all over but you're right out

In need of black strap
In need of white lamp
No belts in this flat
No lights in this dump

They say damp records the past (5)
if that's so I've got the biggest library yet
the biggest library yet.

1. This mighty number is lyrically, much like "My New House" (and Dylan's "Clothes Line Saga" before it), a paean to mind-numbing banality. This is perhaps about the flat MES left for his "New House" (and which sometimes tempts him to "ring Swine-Tax"). 

In the comment section, Steve propounds an interesting theory that the song is a about a heroin addict (see below). 

According to Brix's account, the lyrics are autobiographical:

Dan: "According to Brix Smith-Start's autobiography, The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise:
 

'No Bulbs'... was about the squalor of our apartment... you couldn't find anything. One morning, Mark got up and started looking everywhere for a belt to hold his trousers up, because he was so skinny. He couldn't find the belt. He couldn't find the black strap. Then the light bulb went out... everything was breaking."

Rodrigo Alcocer suggests the title/refrain may allude to XTC's generation gap anthem "No Thugs in Our House." 

From Melody Maker (October 4, 1986, pp. 10-11, 46):

Several weeks ago, Channel 4, in their infinite liberal wisdom, decided to reinflict the better forgotten punk rock on the viewing public. Was that really the way they were?

"'They had XTC on for 10 minutes, it was terrible. And Elvis Costello's first appearance, you know, big deal. And Nick Lowe and all this, it brought back all this horror show, and what it was like in them days, it was really horrible. You know, people get nostalgic about it, it's fucking horrible. Tom Robinson, oh my God, it was a nightmare.'

It's only refreshing feature was a younger, skinnier, spottier Mark Smith insulting Tony Wilson in a slightly higher Mancunian monotone."

Note that "No Thugs in Our House" features some near-MESian phrases, like "the insect-headed worker-wife" and "his viscous poly-paste breath comes out"...

^

2. Apparently MES supplies his wardrobe with leftovers from the previous tenant; since that person was opposed to corporal punishment, s/he naturally didn't keep any belts around, lest they fall into less enlightened hands.

^

3. Hiccup Percy speculates that this line refers to a homemade dream catcher suspended from the ceiling. As Lanark26 points out, it could be a macrame lamp hanger, or something of that sort.

^

4. Possibly a reference to the almost three year long (1941-1944) siege of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) during World War II, during which the city was blacked out.

Also, according to CEC:

"Having been to St. Petersburg I can tell you it's bright there past midnight in the summer and incredibly dark during the winter. So perhaps the line about 'compared to this St. Petersburg was nothing' refers to how it's so dark that 'even in the morning' there's just no light getting into this dingy pit of a flat?"

^

5. According to dannyno on the Fall online forum, the British parapsychologist T.C. Lethbridge (1901-1971) propounded the theory that so-called magnetic fields of water could act as a medium for recording strong emotions. This is reminiscent of the idea of the "akashic record," common among occult practitioners. The idea is that there's a non-physical medium, "akasha," upon which ordinary events leave a kind of impression, and are thus recorded. This notion is ultimately derived from Vedic thought; "akasha" means either "space" or "aether" in Sanskrit. In ancient Hindu thought, akasha is a fifth element, i.e. aether or void. In the 19th Century, Theosphists (an occult organization originated by Helena Blavatsky, who did not herself use the term) developed the idea of "akashic records," which contain an impression of all mundane events, as well as a compendium of mystical knowledge. The totality of such records is sometimes referred to as a "library" or "Hall of Records" in occult literature, and the idea retains currency, in one form or another, among occultists to this day.    

^

No Bulbs: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 1984