No X-mas for John Quays

Lyrics

(1)

The X in X-Mas is a substitute crucifix for Christ (2)
A-one, A-two, A-one, two, three, four
No Christmas for John Quays
No Christmas for John Quays
No Christmas for John Quays
No Christmas for John Quays  (3)

The powders reach you
And the powders teach you
When you find they can't reach you  (4)
There is no Christmas for junkies

He thinks he is
More interesting
Than the world
But buying cigs
Puts him in a whirl

A packet of three-five fives
Five hundred and fifty five  (5)
A packet of those over there
And 20 special offer cigars
And 20 special offer cigars

Found talking to the cigarette machine...

Into nicotinic acid  (6)
Good King Wenceslas looked out
Silly bugger, he fell out  (7)

He spits in the sky
It falls in his eye (8)
And then he gets to sit in
Talking to his kitten

And talking about Frankie Lymon

Tell me why is it so?
Tell me why is it so? (9)

Out of his face with The Idle Race (10)
Out of the room with his tune

Although the skins are thin
He knows its up to him
To go out or stay in

I'll stay in
I'll stay in
I'll stay in 
I'll stay in

You
Me
X-Mas
X-Mas

Well the powders reach you
And the powders teach you
When they find that they can't reach you

There is no Christmas for John Quays

No girls
No curls
Just the traffic passing by
Bye bye bye bye bye bye bye
Bye bye bye
Bye bye bye

One, Two, Three, Four
No Christmas for John Quays
No Christmas for John Quays
No Christmas for John Quays
No Christmas for John Quays

Notes

1. The name of the title character is seemingly a pun on "junkies" (see note 3 below). In his book The Fallen, Dave Simpson talks with a woman who had been close to the Fall at the time, and who reveals that John Quays was an actual person (and, conveniently enough, a junkie, or at least a heavy drug user). The implication in the book is that "John Quays" was/is his actual name, but this is never confirmed and seems less than certain to me. On the other hand, former (briefly) Fall member and Una Baines associate Jonnie Brown was reportedly convinced the song was about him.

Dan: 

"It's worth noting that Dave Simpson (author of The Fallen) says 'The John Quays character is certainly a play on words' - i.e., this isn't the precise name of the person in question. Also, for what it is worth, I've tried an English/Welsh births records search from 1916 and nobody whatsoever was born after that date with the name 'John Quays.'"

According to Alan, "I can vouch that John Key does indeed exist - I've been for a drink with him - Mark just changed the spelling. Apparently he went out with Mark's sister for a while, which Mark didn't approve of and so wrote a song attacking him."

There is a John Key from Prestwich, who founded the band The Teardrops, which included Fall members Karl Burns, Tony Friel and Martin Bramah at one time or another (thanks to Wheelie).

From Stopping, Starting, and Falling All over Again, interview with MES and Bramah by Graham Lock. NME, 7 April 1979, p.7-8, 40.

 


Mark: [...] 'Xmas' is about takers. It's anti-drugs in a lot of ways. A lot of people use drugs for getting off on 'n' they're just mind-fuckers, fucking their own brains. And they really try 'n' get your sympathy, saying 'Oh, I musthave some barbs' or whatever. And there was this guy - not called John Quays - who just kept wanting things. It's about him really. He was a real bastard.

According to Duncan "There's another version where he sings 'Up in her room there's a cloud of smoke' a couple of times. This is a quote from 'Up in her room' by The Seeds." 

Ex-worker man: "Intro to 'Frightened' on Live 77 CD; "We are frightened, cause it's Christmas, Santa never comes for junkies." This is especially interesting if you think MES more or less identifies with the narrator of "Frightened" (which is debatable), as he would seem to hoist himself on his own petard in that case...

 

In any case, the song may be about a type as much as any one person. MES expounds the idea of "No Xmas" in the Dutch fanzine Unite and Fight, issue 4, 1980 (thanks to Dan):



Wel, het zijn een soort junkies, en dan niet zozeer met drugs, naar die de hele tijd opwinding willen en nodig hebben. En op is voor hun geen kerstmis. Met andere woorden: ze onderschneiden de schijnkicks niet meer van de echte kicks.

Well, they're kind of junkies, not so much with drugs, who want and need excitement all the time. And there is no Christmas for them. In other words, they no longer distinguish the fake kicks from the real kicks.

^

2. X, which looks like a cross lying on its side and leaning away from the viewer, has been used as a symbol for Christ since at least the 11th century, standing for the Greek letter Chi (the initial letter in Christos).  

^

3. MES does not enunciate the 's' the first three times, so it sounds like "No Christmas for junkie." However, it may also be "No Christmas for John Key," i.e. he could be lapsing into the original name that inspired at least the title, if not the song (see note 1, particularly Alan's testimony). Or, he may just be swallowing the 's' (although it doesn't sound like it).

^

4. From "Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boy" by the Equals (1970):

Cool is school
But the teachers beat ya
When they see
That they can't reach ya

^



Read more:  The Equals - Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys Lyrics | MetroLyrics

5. State Express 555 is a British cigarette.  

^

6. Nicotinic acid is niacin, a B vitamin. It has nothing (much) to do with nicotine, although it is probable MES is punning on nicotine here, given the context. 

Nicotine is named after a Frenchman named Jean Nicot de Villemain, introduced tobacco plants to France in the 17th century. Nicotinic acid was discovered by the chemist Hugo Weidel in 1873; he derived it from nicotine (hence the name), but it can come from lots of other sources, like vegetables, meat, or eggs. It was named "niacin" (a compound of "nicotinic" and "vitamin") when, apparently, there was a bit of a scare that people were ingesting nicotine with their flour. 

^

6. A reference, of course, to the popular Christmas carol "Good King Wenceslas," which begins: "Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen." Wenceslas (actually a Bohemian Duke, Wenceslaus) was a 10th-century saint and martyr. Otto I, founder of the Holy Roman Empire, posthumously conferred kingship on the late Duke.   

The rendition MES has here is in fact a traditional children's parody of the carol. Here is one version:

Good King Wenceslas looked out
Of his bedroom winder
Silly bugger he fell out
On a red hot cinder
Brightly shone his bum that night
Though the frost was cruel
Till the doctor came in sight
Riding on a mule
Good King Wenceslas drove out
In his Austin Seven
He bumped into a trolley bus
And now he's up in heaven

There are versions around the internet with other verses, but you get the idea.

Danny brought this to my attention, and he has located one version in Frank Rutherford's 1971 book, All the Way to Pennywell: Children's Rhymes of the North-East.

^

7. This line appears in "People Grudgeful" by Sir Gibbs (one of two songs that form the basis of the Fall's "Why Are People Grudgeful?"), and in "Jim Screechey" by Big Youth ("You spit in the sky, it fall in your eye").  MES also seems to quote Big Youth on "Get A Hotel" and "City Hobgoblins." The origin ultimately seems to be the Jamaican proverb which, in patois, runs "Pit inna de sky, it fall inna yuh y'eye."

^

8. Frankie Lymon was the lead singer of the Teenagers, whose "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" (which contains the line "Tell me why, tell me why") went to number one in the UK in 1956. In 1968, Lymon died of a heroin overdose at the age of 25.  

^

9. The Idle Race were a British band in the late 60s and early 70s that featured future ELO mastermind Jeff Lynne. The Fall covered the Lynne-penned "Birthday" in the 1990s (with Lucy Rimmer on lead vocals).  

^

Comments (65)

Colin
  • 1. Colin | 25/12/2013
Lyrically, he's saying "junkies", not "John Quays". MES titled it "John Quays" as a goofy little play on words.
bzfgt
  • 2. bzfgt | 15/02/2014
That might be, but how can you tell for sure?
dannyno
  • 3. dannyno | 22/04/2014
The lyrics here are not quite right.

He quite clearly sings that the "powders reach you" and "teach you", and that verse appears twice.

Wenceslas "last looked out", not "he looked out".

I hear "out of the room with this tune", not "his tune"/

And there's a missing powders verse after the "you, me, Xmas, Xmas" verse.

Here's what I hear (I know you won't want to repeat all the repeated lines):

The x in Xmas is a substitute crucifix for Christ

One, two, one, two, three, four
No Christmas for John Quays
No Christmas for John Quays
No Christmas for John Quays
No Christmas for John Quays

Well, the powders reach you and the powders teach you
And when you find they can't reach you
There is no Christmas for John Quays

He thinks he is more interesting than the world
But buying cigs puts him in a whirl

A packet of three five fives
555
A packet of those over there
And twenty special offer cigars
And twenty special offer cigars

Found talking to the cigarette machine
Into nicotinic acid
Good King Wenceslas last looked out
Silly bugger, he fell out

He spits in the sky
It falls in his eye
And then he gets to sit in
Talking to his kitten

And talking about Frankie Lymon

Tell me why is it so?
Tell me why is it so?

Out of his face with The Idle Race
Out of the room with this tune

Although the skins are thin
He knows it's up to him
To go out or stay in

Oh, I'll stay in
I'll stay in
I'll stay in
I'll stay in
I'll stay in

You, me, Xmas, Xmas

Well the powders reach you, and the powders teach you
And when you find that they can't reach you
There is no Christmas for John Quays

No girls
No curls
Just the traffic passing by
Bye bye bye bye bye bye bye
Bye bye bye
Bye bye bye

One, two, three, four

No Xmas for John Quays
No Xmas for John Quays
No Xmas for John Quays
No Xmas for John Quays
dannyno
  • 4. dannyno | 22/04/2014
The line,

"Good King Wenceslas last looked out
Silly bugger, he fell out"

is a traditional parody.

It is recorded, for example, in Frank Rutherford's 1971 book, "All the Way to Pennywell: Children's Rhymes of the North-East" (University of Durham Institute of Education):

"Good king Wence'las last looked out
Of his bedroom winder
Silly bugger, he fell out
On a red hot cinder"

and so on.
bzfgt
  • 5. bzfgt | 23/04/2014
I never listen to this song because I don't like it, but I saw your corrections and listened to it and put things right. If I missed anything you think is important let me know, I didn't check it all against yours but it looks about the same. I took Colin's advice and made it "junkie(s)" since that sounds pretty much right although I'm not sure if the move is warranted, and there's no lyrics book version of this.

Excellent find with the King Wenceslas stuff.
dannyno
  • 6. dannyno | 24/04/2014
Much improved.

However:

You're missing the "one, two, three, four after "substitute crucifix for Christ".

"But buying cigs", not "And buying cigs".

"Good King Wenceslaus last looked out", not "Good King Wenceslaus looked out"

:-)
steve hamilton
  • 7. steve hamilton | 24/04/2014
Listen again Dan, there's no "last" in the Wenceslas line - it's the last syllable of his name (which traditionally I think doesn't have a U in it either).
dannyno
  • 8. dannyno | 25/04/2014
Good heavens, you're right!
dannyno
  • 9. dannyno | 25/04/2014
I now have the "All the Way to Pennywell" in front of me. If anyone is checking, the quote I gave is on p.113, alongside some other versions. The bit I quoted is all that is given for that version, and it is attributed to "Boy, 10, Chester-le-Street, 1967".

So it's at least as old as that.
dannyno
  • 10. dannyno | 25/04/2014
Jim Screechey, by the way, is also sometimes titled Jim Squashey (for example, on the Big Youth album "Natty Cultural Dread").
bzfgt
  • 11. bzfgt | 13/05/2014
Shit, I don't know how I missed that stuff, I actually listened to the crappy song. I am not checking to make sure you're right, I don't want to listen to it again!
bzfgt
  • 12. bzfgt | 13/05/2014
OK, I actually did listen to it (not that bad, really) and this is now all what I hear, and very close to what you here. I fixed the spelling, Steve--it's "Wenceslas" for the hymn, and "Wenceslaus" for the historical figure.
Tom
  • 13. Tom | 05/05/2015
Never read Junkies into it and seems so obvious now, not sure he isn't singing John Quays some of the time though.
Accent sometimes needs attention listening to MES.
One thing...
I always heard 20 special offer stickers not cigars. That would have been more familiar at the time, you didn't get huge disparity in cigarette prices and the cheap deal was usually a discount sticker on a pack rather than a supposed inferior brand like now. Brand was just preference then apart from a few premium choices. Stickers also fits better on a packet of 20 cigs rather than cigars, you didn't get 20 cigars.
Listening now I actually hear 20 special offer stickers followed by 20 special offer cigars: so go with the whirl of indecision taking him from his 555s through, whatever, on to the cheap deal brand then the alliteration of stickers and cigars lead him to end up with asking for that as well.
On the totals turns version where he rants at the band, he substitutes the special offer...for 20 Number 6 for a headache x2. Players No 6 were a harsh smoke that would give you pain choking if not headache if puffed through a pack.
Cheers
Duncan
  • 14. Duncan | 14/09/2015
There's another version (on Totale's Turns?) where he sings "Up in her room there's a cloud of smoke" a couple of times. This is a quote from "Up in her room" by The Seeds.
Zack
  • 15. Zack | 30/12/2016
On Live 1977, MES prefaces "Frightened" with "We are Frightened 'cause it's Christmas. Santa never comes for junkies," which suggests that the lyrics for "No Xmas" may have been percolating at the time of this recording (December 23, 1977).
Martin
  • 16. Martin | 20/03/2017
Wontonton on The Fall Online:

"The story of 'No Xmas For John Quays' is really good."

"I'll post 'No Xmas For John Quays' if more Blue Orchids' 10"s sell! It's funny, that one."

Anyone who hadn't read the whole thread might think it was Martin Bramah himself posting, given the sales push for Blue Orchids. However:

"I am not Martin Bramah,"

I don't think I'm being overly curious when I ask myself just who wontonton is and what connection he has to Blue Orchids (all the threads he's started are about that band/Martin Bramah) and what other knowledge he has about early Fall in general. When we go down the whole song interpretation debate (see "Mother-Sister") I think that it's important to know who exactly is claiming what and why. But maybe I shouldn't be so nosy!
bzfgt
  • 17. bzfgt (link) | 23/03/2017
Yours ain't the only mind the question has crossed.
Alan
  • 18. Alan | 09/12/2017
I can vouch that John Keys does indeed exist - I've been for a drink with him - Mark just changed the spelling. Apparently he went out with Mark's sister for a while, which Mark didn't approve of and so wrote a song attacking him.
dannyno
  • 19. dannyno | 10/12/2017
Yeah, there's a picture of him on the FOF somewhere. He definitely exists. But when you say, Alan, that "apparently" he went out with Mark's sister, and the song is an attack on him, do you mean that John Keys said that this was the case? And did he say that because Mark or Mark's sister had told him so?

I ask the question not because the idea the song is based on Keys is implausible - it's very plausible - but because I think it's good to understand what the evidential basis of comments is.

The other question is whether Keys was in fact a junkie. This question has two angles. One is that in fact the song lyrics are not very specific when it comes to describing junkie behaviour - apart from the "powders reach you" bit. The portrait is not in fact wholly focussed on the junkie thing - there's more there about buying cigarettes. So that leads me to wonder whether in writing a song based on a real character, and attacking him, MES enjoyed the Keys/Quays pun and so generalised the lyric to have a broader meaning. You take my point? Keys could be the original lyrical target without the song being about him specifically as a junkie or accusing him of that.
bzfgt
  • 20. bzfgt (link) | 16/12/2017
Dan, I was just about to post the same thing, more or less, and then decided to read your comment to see if you made the point--it hadn't occurred to me until reading Alan's comment that John Keys/Quays may not have been a junkie at all, but that the whole thing was inspired by the name, ie. MES decided to create a fictional character OR to talk about a real character who is not John Keys, and gave him that name because it's the perfect name for a junkie.
bzfgt
  • 21. bzfgt (link) | 16/12/2017
Oh, yeah, I see you're actually making a different point now that I read it slowly. But it's also possible that all Keys contributed is the name, is it not?
bzfgt
  • 22. bzfgt (link) | 16/12/2017
This is not to question the veracity of Alan's account. One possible scenario:

MES decides to write a song about Nigel Blackwood (isn't every third Englishman named that?). Blackwood is a junkie. MES is also struck by the fact that John Keys's name is pronounced close to the same as "junkies," or exactly the same depending on your accent. So MES decides to use a version of John Keys's name as the name in the song of Blackwood.
bzfgt
  • 23. bzfgt (link) | 16/12/2017
Then, Keys hears it and says "Blimey! 'John Quays' my ass, he's attacking me, John Keys, for going out with his sister!" All very plausible (along with several other things that are equally plausible based on the information we have).
bzfgt
  • 24. bzfgt (link) | 16/12/2017
Your point is also taken that the character in the song may not be a junkie, although this is less likely. But we leave that possibility open more than other sites, since we don't take the spelling in the lyrics (as opposed to the title) to be "junkies." Now I have to check if there's a version in the lyrics books...that would settle that one. You'll know the answer, if you don't already, by the spelling in the lyrics above in 7 minutes.
bzfgt
  • 25. bzfgt (link) | 16/12/2017
No, damn it:

1. I DO have "junkie" in the lyrics, and;
2. As was pointed out pretty decisively last week, the lyrics book will not settle anything, since at least some of them are third party transcriptions!
bzfgt
  • 26. bzfgt (link) | 16/12/2017
OK, no lyrics book version anyway. So, a question:

SHOULD I have "junkies" in the lyrics? Is that too much of a commitment? After all, the title is "No X-Mas For John Quays," and it's as likely as anything else that that is what he in fact says, isn't it?

Right now I'm changing it to "John Quays" with a note, but I will listen to arguments as to why i must restore "junkies/junkie." It seems to me now that this transcription is as much an interpretation as a transcription, is it not?

Is there some sort of evidence beyond the aural that it's "junkie"?
bzfgt
  • 27. bzfgt (link) | 16/12/2017
Yes some times through he doesn't enunciate the 's' but I don't find that dispositive.
bzfgt
  • 28. bzfgt (link) | 16/12/2017
Oh, sorry, the "John Quays/Keys was not a junkie" theory is already bruited by Simpson as noted in note 1, so that's already in play. Sorry, I haven't looked at the notes in a while now.
bzfgt
  • 29. bzfgt (link) | 16/12/2017
I think my solution above is as good as can be done now. I put "John Quays" as the text, and a note suggesting it may be "junkie" and recognizing that he does not always enunciate the 's.'

Alan: did you leave this encounter certain that his name is not "John Key"? That would be another wrinkle, it would make "junkies" slightly less likely, and the idea that the song is indeed about him slightly more likely, I think.
dannyno
  • 30. dannyno | 16/12/2017
Assuming we're talking about the same person, then he was a member of The Teardrops and called "John Key". No "s".
bzfgt
  • 31. bzfgt (link) | 16/12/2017
OK, Alan, I changed your testimony in note 1 to "John Key," let me know if this is wrong and you're sure of the 's.'

Just to reiterate, it's possible that:

1. John Key was a junkie and the inspiration for the song;
2. John Key was not a junkie but was the inspiration for the song, which is a bit of mischief which
a. may or may not be due to his dating MES's sister;
3. John Key was the inspiration for the song's title, but not its content;
a. it's about another junkie but uses JK's name
b. it's a fictional character
c. it's a composite character, of which
i. one of the models is John Key
ii. is modeled after two or more people, neither of whom are John Key
4. John Key has nothing to do with the song, but he thinks he does.
dannyno
  • 32. dannyno | 04/02/2018
From Stopping, Starting, and Falling All over Again, interview with MES and Bramah by Graham Lock. NME, 7 April 1979, p.7-8, 40.


Mark: [...] 'Xmas' is about takers. it's anti-drugs in a lot of ways. A lot of people use drugs for getting off on 'n' they're just mind-fuckers, fucking their own brains. And they really try 'n' get your sympathy, saying 'Oh, I must have some barbs' or whatever. And there was this guy - not called John Quays - who just kept wanting things. It's about him really. He was a real bastard.

(p7)
bzfgt
  • 33. bzfgt (link) | 17/02/2018
Good find. "it's" in the second sentence--sic?
dannyno
  • 34. dannyno | 17/02/2018
... yep, that's my typo. Should be a capital "I".
Ex worker man
  • 35. Ex worker man | 01/04/2018
Intro to Frightened on LIve 77 CD;
"We are frightened, cause it's Christmas, Santa never comes for junkies"
MES Sage
  • 36. MES Sage | 23/04/2019
U,V, X-mas, X-mas
dannyno
  • 37. dannyno | 20/09/2020
Reach/teach etc.

From Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Hungry Freaks, Daddy


Mr. America, walk on by your schools that do not teach
Mr. America, walk on by the minds that won't be reached
Mr. America try to hide the emptiness that's you inside
dannyno
  • 38. dannyno | 20/09/2020

The powders reach you
And the powders teach you


Vaguely echoes here of the lyrics of Mother-Sister:


Reach or preach
It's all a diminished return
Wheelie
  • 39. Wheelie | 23/09/2020
Like Mark E. Smith, John Key was from Prestwich. He was a guitarist/vocalist with the band The Teardrops, who had ex-Fall members Karl Burns, Tony Friel and Martin Bramah among their ranks at one time or another.

I reckon he's yer fella.
dannyno
  • 40. dannyno | 27/09/2020
Comment #39. Yes, he seems the obvious choice. Was he not the boyfriend of one of MES' sisters at one point? Not sure, just improvising this before getting out of bed! I think I read that somewhere. Better check!

The thing is, is John Key the target of the song in any sense, or did he merely contribute a pleasing pun? That's the question here, leaving aside mere coincidence. Anyone brave enough to ask him for his take?!
bzfgt
  • 41. bzfgt (link) | 27/09/2020
I'm guessing he's the guy, from how the aggregate of people have talked about this. Although I need to revise the revision to note that he may not be the guy, I hate to finger him like this, particularly since he may not be
Anon
  • 42. Anon | 11/11/2020
Note that Nicotinic acid, although the name is similar, has nothing to do either with smoke or the nicotine found in tobacco.

Nicotinic acid (also known as niacin) is vitamin B3, which occurs naturally in food is used as a medicine. Niacin (nicotinic acid) is used to prevent and treat niacin deficiency (pellagra). Niacin deficiency may result from certain medical conditions (such as alcohol abuse, malabsorption syndrome, Hartnup disease), poor diet, or long-term use of certain medications (such as isoniazid).

I guess Mark didn't know this.
dannyno
  • 43. dannyno | 14/11/2020
Comment #42. Well, so you're saying that either MES means "nicotine" and didn't know nicotinic acid is actually niacin/Vitamin B3. Or he did know and is actually referring to Vitamin B3. Or it's a deliberate pun on both. And you're right, niacin appears to be an important part of the treatment of heroin addicts, if you google it.

Lots of vitamins in Fall songs, of course:

http://dannyno.org.uk/fall/v.htm

I guess we'll never know what the intention was now, but good to bring out the associations.
westpier
  • 44. westpier | 14/12/2020
Didn't at least two prominent early members of the Fall, who were close to MES, become heroin addicts? Whether they were just dabbling at the time he wrote the words I don't know. I didn't want to name them in case I'm completely wrong! John Cooper Clarke was a heroin user but i don't think it's a reference to him, though he did later shack up with Nico who moved to Manchester (or did she just live in London with him?).
dannyno
  • 45. dannyno | 18/12/2020
Cooper Clarke's adventures are well documented, including in his recent memoirs.

Jonnie Brown was a heroin user (see The Fallen), and of course Baines took up with him for a bit. Her own drug use is also briefly discussed in The Fallen. Eric the Ferret is also noted as a user in the book. Bramah has spoken about his own experiences: https://www.popmatters.com/motorways-bank-robbers-and-other-delights-a-conversation-with-martin-bramah-2495427441.html

But I'm not sure we necessarily should be worrying about the "who". It may or may not be the case that "John Quays" or Keys was a "junkie". We know there was a real person with a similar name in the orbit who MES may have disapproved of, or vice versa. The guy is still around and can be asked, although who would dare? But fundamentally, junkie or not, the pun on the name is probably the crucial aspect. If he was a heroin user himself, then you could take it literally, but if not then it still works as a pun and probably annoys the guy into the bargain.
bzfgt
  • 46. bzfgt (link) | 09/01/2021
Speaking of puns, I think it's possible that MES knows nicotinic acid is not nicotine, AND uses it to mean "nicotine," the way people do that sort of thing when talking all the time, in a slangy-jokey way.

I didn't know that though, and it's really good intel.

And that is possibly also similar to the case here with "John Quays." I feel uncomfortable trying to determine and identify any Fall member or associate of the time who may have been on smack, it's a general point and the chips may fall where they may, unless we at some point have good reason to think he has someone in mind.
bzfgt
  • 47. bzfgt (link) | 09/01/2021
Interesting you guys mention Nico though, now if we could work that in with "nicotinic"...
bzfgt
  • 48. bzfgt (link) | 09/01/2021
The first thing I do now when I open one of these is make the font bigger, I can't believe how much my vision has deteriorated since 2013...
SRH
  • 49. SRH | 17/02/2021
The Peel Session version of this song from 27 November 1978 is titled 'No Xmas for John Key' on the 1987 Strange Fruit release - see the images of the label and cover on Discogs.

It does sound at times like MES is singing Keys/Quays. I have always (since I bought the album in the mid '80s) understood the song to be about junkies.

After the line "You could say he was into nicotinic acid" he sings "Down the chimney good St Nicholas". Nic - St Nick - think of the Beach Boys. Surely there is a pun there somewhere. Later in the song, incidentally he sings "Make sure the album this song is on is in your Christmas stocking". Just a shame it came out in March the following year.

The Nico ref is a stretch but fascinating. She did live in Manchester for a period in the '80s. After a gig at Rafters in 1981 she was put up in temporary accommodation in the city by Alan Wise and later she got a flat in Sedgeley Park, Prestwich, the very same area MES had lived in. She frequented the pubs in Prestwich where she played pool (did she bump into Smith?). She recorded with Martin Hannett (inc an excellent version of 'All Tomorrow's Parties') and performed live/toured with Blue Orchids. See the article from the Guardian by Dave Simpson (5 July 2019) 'Nico in Manchester:"She loved the architecture and the heroin"' for more info. She did live with JCC for a while but I think that was in London. See also YouTube video 'Nico Icon Play - BBC Inside Out', showing the house in Prestwich.

On a personal note I lived in Manchester on and off throughout the '80s myself and saw Nico at the Band on the Wall in '85 doing a solo gig playing harmonium. After her performance my friends and I were critiquing the show when we realised that she was sitting at the table behind us!
dannyno
  • 50. dannyno | 20/02/2021
MES was asked about the meaning of this song in the Dutch fanzine Unite and Fight, issue 4, 1980.

Here's a couple of quotes with my Google-translate assisted translations:


Dat gaat over mensen die voortdurend geestelijke prikkelingen nodig hebben, zeg maar hoofdorgasme - je hebt er een van in Holland. Het zijn een soort, weet je wat dat sijn.

That is about people who constantly need spiritual stimuli, say head orgasm - you have one of them in Holland. They are kind, you know what that is.



Wel, het zijn een soort junkies, en dan niet zozeer met drugs, naar die de hele tijd opwinding willen en nodig hebben. En op is voor hun geen kerstmis. Met andere woorden: ze onderschneiden de schijnkicks niet meer van de echte kicks.

Well, they're kind of junkies, not so much with drugs, who want and need excitement all the time. And there is no Christmas for them. In other words, they no longer distinguish the fake kicks from the real kicks.


Source: https://www.bacteria.nl/unite-and-fight-4/
SRH
  • 51. SRH | 23/02/2021
Comments 49 & 50

The extra E I put in the middle of Sedgley Park stands for Edward. And the Dutch can keep their hoofdorgasme to themselves.
dannyno
  • 52. dannyno | 26/03/2021
In a letter to Tony Friel from MES (briefly online years ago), date-stamped 20 Sept 1976, MES writes:


JOKE 45 OF THE WEEK

'I'm a human being'-John Quay
Paul Hopkins
  • 53. Paul Hopkins | 20/10/2021
Is there any record of William S. Burroughs being aware of The Fall, and if so could the title of his 1989 short story The Junky's Christmas be influenced by this song? (Not that there's any textual similarity between the two pieces)
dannyno
  • 54. dannyno | 30/10/2021
Paul Hopkins, comment #53.

No, there isn't such a record.

But it is moot anyway, because although it is true that A Junky's Christmas was not published until it appeared in the 1989 Burroughs's anthology, Interzone, it was actually written in the early 1950s and therefore cannot have been either inspired or influenced by this song (nor can MES have encountered it before writing this song).

From James Grauerholz's introduction to Interzone, p.xvi:


"The Junky's Christmas" dates from Mexico or early Tangier days, and is set in New York in the 1940s. Danny the Car Wiper is a young junky trying desperately to score on Christmas day. His experiences are written in a straightforward third-person narrative style, somewhat reminiscent of Truman Capote's. This sentimental story was the basis of a later, and much different, story: "The Priest, They Called Him," published in the London Weekend Telegraph in 1967 and collected in Exterminator! (Viking, 1973). Burroughs has written several "Christmas" stories over the years, but never again in this style.
KEVX313
  • 55. KEVX313 | 14/12/2021
The “powders reach you / teach you” lines seem to be an echo of the Equals 1970 UK top ten hit “Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys” in which they sing “school is cool / but the teachers beat you / when they find / they can’t reach you.”
dannyno
  • 56. dannyno | 16/12/2021
KEVX313, comment #55 - cheers, but bzfgt already has that information in note 4.
dannyno
  • 57. dannyno | 12/03/2022
The "bye bye bye" bit seems like it might echo European Son by the Velvet Underground.

Dan
Kawfmin
  • 58. Kawfmin (link) | 07/05/2023
I don't believe the following played any role in the origin of the song, but it still seems interesting to me. From the Wikipedia page on the origin of the word "yankee". The paragraph has to do with the Dutch origin hypothesis:

"Alternatively, two Dutch given names Jan (Dutch: [jɑn]) and Kees (Dutch: [keːs]) have long been common, and the two are sometimes combined into a single name (Jan Kees). Its Anglicized spelling Yankee could, in this way, have been used to mock Dutch colonists. The chosen name Jan Kees may have been partly inspired by a dialectal rendition of Jan Kaas ("John Cheese"), the generic nickname that Southern Dutch (particularly Flemish) used for Dutch people living in the North.[15]"
dannyno
  • 59. dannyno | 13/06/2023
"Nicotinic acid".

From Aldous Huxley's essay Heaven and Hell, his 1956 sequel to the more famous The Doors of Perception (1954) [my edition combines both as The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell, published with a J.G. Ballard foreword by Vintage, 2004]:


A person under the influence of mescalin or lysergic acid will stop seeing visions when given a large dose of nicotinic acid. This helps to explain the effectiveness of fasting as an inducer of visionary experience. By reducing the amount of available sugar, fasting lowers the brain's biological efficiency and so makes possible the entry into consciousness of material possessing no survival value. Moreover, by causing a vitamin deficiency, it removes from the blood that known inhibitor of visions, nicotinic acid.


(p.56 of the Vintage edition)

Whether this sort of thing is behind the mention of nicotinic acid in the lyric is uncertain given the dearth of context. Perhaps it is a survival from a longer verse that got cut.
Mark Oliver
  • 60. Mark Oliver | 26/08/2023
This seemed a bit obvious, but given the poly-drug themes and references in the song, surely the line '..the skins are thin..' must refer to cigarette papers as well as being a play on 'thin-skinned'?
dannyno
  • 61. dannyno | 24/10/2023
A lyric sheet for this song (we don't know how "final") turned up in the Omega Auctions sale of MES-estate memorabilia dated 21 November 2023:

https://goauctionomega.blob.core.windows.net/stock/40340-2.jpg?v=63833671720590

Some variations that just didn't make it to record, but otherwise close to what we have here.

Note that "junkies" explicitly appears at one point, which addresses a point of occasional dispute in the comments here.
dannyno
  • 62. dannyno | 24/10/2023
St. Nikolas Blackhawk down the chimney seems to get replaced in the version on record with the Wenceslas thing.

A Blackhawk might possibly be the Ruger Blackhawk revolver, which suggests paranoia of getting shot down the chimney, maybe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger_Blackhawk
dannyno
  • 63. dannyno | 24/10/2023
There's also an American Quality Comics/DC comic book character from the 1940s/50s onwards:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackhawk_(DC_Comics)

And a British comic book character from Tornado / 2000AD between 1979-1980 and a few early-1980s annuals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hawk_(British_comics)

So it could also be a reference to either or both of those.
dannyno
  • 64. dannyno | 24/10/2023
re discussion of nicotinic acid above, note that lyric sheet's version of the text doesn't have that phrase. Instead it has a "no ta/no tar" pun.
Leighroy
  • 65. Leighroy | 14/02/2024
John Key is real (I have even been to his house) and yet rather unreal in his own special way He formed The Teardrops, grew up in Prestwich with Mark E Smith and the original Fall members, has told me he used to go out with Mark E Smith's sister and the song is about him.

Therefore from the list above the correct answer is:
2. John Key was not a junkie but was the inspiration for the song, which is a bit of mischief which
a. is due to his dating MES's sister;

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