Oh! Brother

Lyrics

 

(1)

Ich hasse, die masse, die kleine, gemeine, die lahme, die zahme, mein herzblut, raubt (2)

Oh! little brother
We are in a mess
Don't look at me that way
Don't put me to the test
When I first saw you
People said:
He scrutinised a little monster
And disappeared through red door (3)

Now what we want is disinformation
Disinformation
Disinformation  (4)

He says:
Won't you give me one more chance?
Won't you give me one more chance?
I'm not a communist    
Won't you give me one more chance? (5)

Disinformation
Dissolve-amation
Dissolve-amation

Ich hasse, die masse, die kleine, gemeine, die lahme, die zahme, mein herzblut, raubt

Oh! little brother
We are in a mess
Don't look at me that way
Your d-jacket's a mess (6)
There's always
Someone beside you
And there's always
Someone in your arms
Oh! little brother
If only I had known
Then I might not
Be alone (7)

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Notes

1. This is a very old song, in Fall terms, dating back to 1977. The original incarnation was very similar lyrically to its 1984 revival, and where it differs I cannot make out what the words are on the horrible Live in 1977 recording. Musically, on the other hand, this changed quite a bit; in 1977 it is a Bo DIddley-type workout, whereas the later version drifts along poppily atop a repeating Steve Hanley bounce, and features syrupy "lalala" backing vox from either a multi-tracked Brix, or some combitionation of Brix and another uncredited female or two. The lyrics remind me of another song, but I can't place which; on the other hand, this may just be an illusion attributable to the fact that the lyrics are more conventionally conceived and structured than is the case with a good many Fall songs (but see below).  

From a press release for the "Oh! Brother"/"God Box" single, included in the box set book (thanks to MES Sage):

hey nar - 7" 12" WITH!
Oh! Brother
/GOD-BOX The real monty 
A TIGHT TOURNIQUET TWIXT WETPOP 
AND BRAINY POP LIES : THE FALL
SAY TO POP IN 'SHOP OF POP' HEY;
POP NOT THAT POP OR THAT incl:
PAPPY POP, POP OVER THE COUNTER : splinter
Sleep
ANTI- The group
QUEEN sound!
OH! BROTHER
WHILST: APPEALING TO BASEST FAMILY INSTINCTS MOTIVE : REVENGE

^

2. "I hate the masses, the small, mean, the lame, the tame, [who] steal my heart's blood." This baffled us for a long time; MES's German pronunciation is not accurate, but once we found the lines, it was clear that this is what he is saying.

According to Dan (the remainder is his words and quotations):

According to Dave Thompson, on page 76 of A User's Guide To The Fall: "anybody seeking to ascertain how Smith himself would deal with mass popularity needed only translate the pidgin German that echoes through 'Oh! Brother': 'I hate the crowd, the impotent crowd, the pliable crowd... who, tomorrow, will rip my heart out." This translation is taken from the Fall's "Oh! Brother" press release.

The sleeve to the "Oh! Brother" single includes the following credit: "Part Text: B. von Selchow" (you must click on the image of the cover and click through to the second image, of the reverse side). 

Bogislav von Selchow, (1877-1943) was a German/Prussian author/poet, navy officer, anti-semitic activist and (although not a party member) national socialist.  One of Selchow's poems (published in Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi party, in 1923, reads as follows: "[Ich hasse die Masse, die kleine, gemeine, den Nacken gebeugt, die isst und schläft und Kinder zeugt.] Ich hasse die Masse, die lahme, die zahme, [die heut an mich glaubt und die mir morgen] mein Herzblut raubt." 

Konrad Heiden's A History of National Socialism (Responding to Fascism Vol 2), published by Routledge, (freely) translates this as: "I disdain The profane, Plebeian, And mean, Servile of gait, That eat and sleep and procreate. I disdain The profane, The weak, The meek, That are loyal to-day And tomorrow will swear my life away." [I have given a more literal translation above--bzfgt] You could just as easily translate it as: "'I hate the crowd, the impotent crowd, the pliable crowd... who, tomorrow, will rip my heart out."

Where did MES read this poem? Well, Konrad Heiden's book was originally published in English translation in 1934, so maybe in a copy of that. It also appears in AL Rowse's A Cornishman Abroad, published in 1976. 

However, on the basis of the translation that appears in the press release (see above), we can conclude that the most likely source seems to be Heinz Höhne's The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS, which was originally published in German under the title Der Orden unter dem Totenkopf in 1966/7, and first published in English translation by Secker and Warburg in 1969.  

The poem appears (in German and English) on p.17 of the Penguin edition of 2000 (searched on Amazon), and on p.15 of the 1972 Pan paperback edition (which I now own) with a citation to p.98 Konrad Heiden's Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus. The translator, Richard Barry, renders it as:
 

QUOTE

I hate
The crowd
The little men
The mean men
Who bow their heads
And eat, sleep and beget children

I hate
The crowd
The impotent crowd
The pliable crowd
Which believes in me today
And tomorrow will tear my heart out

 

From Dan:

I tracked down the issue of Völkischer Beobachter in which Selchow's poem originally appeared. It was the issue of Sunday/Monday, 11/12 February 1923.

http://dannyno.org.uk/diemasse.jpg

 

See "More Information" for the complete story on the Selchow stuff.

^

3. Compare "Impression of J. Temperance": "Scrutinized little monster/Disappeared through the door." The line seems to have originated, however, in the 1977 version of this song (thanks to Antoine below).

Marvin points out the communist symbolism of the color red (note the "brother" goes on to deny being a communist). 

Of course the Rolling Stones wanted to paint red doors black, but there's not much reason to think there's an allusion to that intended here...

^

4. One or more of these may be "This information." The typewritten lyrics in the blue lyrics book have: "Now what we want is: Information, Information. Left-wing fracture. Left-leg traction. Information. And a groovy nation." See the full blue lyrics book version under "More Information" below. The 1977 version had "What we want is information, information, unmutual, information." These lines echo Number Six's interrogation when he meets the New Number Two each week on the 1960's TV show The Prisoner. (Thanks to Fit and Working Again.)

^

5. "Out of Control" by the Jefferson Starship may be a source of inspiration here (thanks to Dan):

He said, "You better get with it"
She said, "With what?"
He said, "I'm not a Communist"
She said, "Well, you better get with it"

He said "I am not out of control"
She said, "I tried to warn you
I tried to warn you"
He said "I am not Jesus"

"I am not radiation
I am not a commando
This is not Romper Room
I am not responsible, I'm going to Hollywood"

Shut up!!

The original "Oh! Brother" predates this 1982 song, but it does not have the "communist" lyric yet. 

Although the Jefferson Starship is an unlikely source of inspiration for a Fall lyric, it must be remembered that, in Fall lyrics, unlikely sources of inspiration are likely...however, see the very end of note 2 above.

^

6. Live versions have "donkey jacket": a donkey jacket is a garment associated with British manual laborers. From Dan:

It's possible to read some of the lyrics - those which don't appear in the 1977 version of the song, like this one - as referring to the 1983 UK general election, or early 1980s politics. If d-jacket is "donkey jacket" rather than "dinner jacket", then it is worth noting that Labour Party Michael Foot was vilified for wearing a donkey jacket at the wreath-laying ceremony at the cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday 1981. It wasn't a donkey jacket at all - "disinformation"?. This also makes sense of the "I'm not a communist" line, and also "won't you give me one more chance", perhaps.

 

Paul Hanley, Have a Bleedin Guess, p.143, note 124:
 


Oh Brother's 'Your D-Jacket's a mess' was a (well-deserved) snipe at the donkey jacket I wore throughout the early eighties.

^

7. The lines from "There's always/Someone beside you..." until the end are taken from "Little Baby" by the Blue Rondos, with "little brother" standing in for "little baby" (big thanks to John in the comment section).

^

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More Information

Oh! Brother: Fall Tracks A-Z

 

Blue Lyrics Book:

Oh! Brother 
Oh: Li'l brother, we are in a mess, Don't look at me that way, Don't put me to the test, When I first saw you, People said: He scrutinised the little monster, And disappeared thru a Red Door. I adopt this child. 
Now what they want is: Information, Information. Left-wing fracture. Left-leg traction. Information. And a groovy nation. 
Oh! Li'l brother. I want you for my own, But I never see you, you're never home, There's always, someone beside you, Someone, on the end of your arms, Oh! Li'l brother, if only I had known, Then I might not. Be Alone. Be Alone. I rescued you. Not to be alone. 

Return to Note 4

The Long Version: Dan's research on the German passage

 

http://dannyno.org.uk/pics/brotherpress.jpg

 

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Comments (78)

Robert
  • 1. Robert | 03/05/2013
I've always heard this as "Your e-jac it's a mess" and mentally connected it with the cover picture for the Creep single.
John
  • 2. John | 02/08/2013
The last verse? Totally a cover of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAmexbix9es
John
  • 3. John | 02/08/2013
I case that goes away, that's Little Baby by The Blue Rondos
dannyno
  • 4. dannyno | 17/02/2014
Note 1: "This is a very old song, in Fall terms, dating back to 1997"

Typo - 1977, surely.
dannyno
  • 5. dannyno | 22/04/2014
re:

"He says:
"Won't you give me one more chance?"
"I'm not a communist" "

No he doesn't. What he says is this:

"He says, "won't you give me one more chance? Won't you give me one more chance? I'm not a communist. Won't you give me one more chance?"

Which I'm sure you'll agree is a very different kettle of fish.
dannyno
  • 6. dannyno | 22/04/2014
"I'm not a communist" is also a line in the Jeffferson Starship song "Out of Control", from their 1982 album, "Winds of Change". If the line is in the earlier versions of The Fall song, then obviously I'd be mistaken in thinking this significant.
dannyno
  • 7. dannyno | 22/04/2014
I've listened to the '77 version. Nothing about not being a communist there.
bzfgt
  • 8. bzfgt | 23/04/2014
That is indeed an entirely different kettle of fish, and you're definitely correct since it is wrapped in "give me one more chance"s, and also the falsetto part is a clue. I abolished the quotation marks altogether, I don't think they provide any clarity here.
Mark
  • 9. Mark | 21/05/2014
The last two "Disinformation"s at roughly two minutes in, sound more like "Dissolve-formation" to me.
Cathal
  • 10. Cathal | 21/01/2015
The "scrutinised a little monster" bit is of course shared with the end of Impression Of J Temperance.
dannyno
  • 11. dannyno | 25/06/2015
It's possible to read some of the lyrics - those which don't appear in the 1977 version of the song - as referring to the 1983 UK general election, or early 1980s politics. If d-jacket is "donkey jacket" rather than "dinner jacket", then it is worth noting that Labour Party Michael Foot was vilified for wearing a donkey jacket at the wreath-laying ceremony at the cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday 1981. It wasn't a donkey jacket at all - "disinformation"?. This also makes sense of the "I'm not a communist" line, and also "won't you give me one more chance", perhaps.
WmPerry
  • 12. WmPerry (link) | 17/07/2015
my hearing:
"...Hey! Scrutinize the little monster
disappearing throught the red door.
And now what they want is information
(then aftr 'give me one...etc.)
disinformation, this old formation, this old formation
Also the fist chanty word i hear is "enhance, the mass..etc" and swear i remember "heart throb, lob" and the word 'clang' in there somewhere. second go round has "land, sand, hot spots, lots"
I'm totally amazed by the blue rondos thing. You wouldn't believe the tortured meaning I'd developed for this song about the alienated labor of the worker or even casual handler of an object haunting and animating that object, and then i had some shit about grave robbing a la 'the doctor and the devils' Ridiculously overwrought, but i was in art school then, so what do you expect?
Antoine
  • 13. Antoine | 24/10/2015
In the interest of academic rigour, I was going to echo the comment I made on the J.Temperance page and have just realized that Cathal has beat me to it. Cheerio!
bzfgt
  • 14. bzfgt | 16/11/2015
Does anyone know if the line is on the 70s version of Oh! Brother, or did it appear in J. Temperance first?
Antoine
  • 15. Antoine | 16/11/2015
Just listened to the Live '77 version, and indeed, it is there - just before the one-minute mark. Sounds like he says "he scrutinizes a monster, disappears through red door," this time around, to be precise. Hadn't gone back and checked that version for the line actually, good call.
dannyno
  • 16. dannyno | 09/03/2017
note #6 - error! The numbered annotation against the lyric is a second "5"...
dannyno
  • 17. dannyno | 25/03/2017
Obviously the German isn't quite right. However, I've made a discovery.

[Mecass, the mass, decline, domain, relan, drazan, my heart's blocked, rout]


and note 2:


according to Dave Thompson's Users Guide to The Fall translates thus: "I hate the crowd, the impotent crowd, the pliable crowd....who, tomorrow, will rip my heart out."


The Thompson quote comes from p76 of A User's Guide To The Fall:


anybody seeking to ascertain how Smith himself would deal with mass popularity needed only translate the pidgin German that echoes through 'Oh! Brother': 'I hate the crowd, the impotent crowd, the pliable crowd... who, tomorrow, will rip my heart out.'


The sleeve to the Oh! Brother single (see https://www.discogs.com/The-Fall-Oh-Brother/master/186247) includes the following credit:


Part Text: B. von Selchow


Bogislav von Selchow (1877-1943) was a German/Prussian author/poet, navy officer, anti-semitic activist and (although not a party member) national socialist. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogislav_von_Selchow

One of Selchow's poems (published in Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi party (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B6lkischer_Beobachter) in 1923) reads as follows:


Ich hasse
die Masse,
die kleine,
gemeine,
den Nacken gebeugt,
die isst und schläft und Kinder zeugt.

Ich hasse
die Masse,
die lahme,
die zahme,
die heut an mich glaubt
und die mir morgen mein Herzblut raubt


Konrad Heiden's A History of National Socialism (Responding to Fascism Vol 2), published by Routledge (at Google books: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/A_History_of_National_Socialism_Respondi.html?id=CkdZBwAAQBAJ), translates this as:


I disdain
The profane,
Plebeian,
And mean,
Servile of gait,
That eat and sleep and procreate.

I disdain
The profane,
The weak,
The meek,
That are loyal to-day
And tomorrow will swear my life away.


But a more literal translation would be:


I hate
The masses,
The small,
Mean,
Common (mean?),
Bent necked (bowed heads?)
Who eat and sleep and bear children (breed?)

I hate
The masses,
The lame,
The tame,
Who believe in me today
And who will rob my heart's blood tomorrow


But you could just as easily translate it as:

"'I hate the crowd, the impotent crowd, the pliable crowd... who, tomorrow, will rip my heart out"
dannyno
  • 18. dannyno | 25/03/2017
So now we know that, we can reconstruct the "pidgin German":


[Mecass, the mass, decline, domain, relan, drazan, my heart's blocked, rout]


I can now hear it more clearly as:


Ich hasse, die masse... die lahme, die zahme, mein hertzblut, raubt


Where I have the elipsis is a couple of lines which don't appear to be in the original.. will listen again.
dannyno
  • 19. dannyno | 25/03/2017
Ah, wait, he's going back to the first verse, isn't he?

So what he says is:


Ich hasse, die masse, die kleine, gemeine, die lahme, die zahme, mein hertzblut, raubt


Sorted!
dannyno
  • 20. dannyno | 25/03/2017
Where did MES read this poem? Well, Konrad Leiden's book was originally published in English translation in 1934, so maybe in a copy of that. Or it also appears in AL Rowse's A Cornishman Abroad, published in 1976. The former seems more likely, given MES' interest in the history of Nazism.
dannyno
  • 21. dannyno | 25/03/2017
Oops, comment #20, Konrad Leiden should be Konrad Heiden, as in previous comment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Heiden
dannyno
  • 22. dannyno | 25/03/2017
A tidier version of the above is posted at http://z1.invisionfree.com/thefall/index.php?showtopic=39570&st=100#entry40048724.

I also wonder aloud, there, if Thompson knew the source of the lines, since he includes the word "tomorrow", which is not present - as far as I can hear - in what MES recites in the song.
dannyno
  • 23. dannyno | 25/03/2017
Turns out that the translation provided by Thompson in fact comes from the Oh! Brother press release:


Translation of the pidgin-German on track reads: 'I hate the crowd / The impotent crowd / The pliable crowd / Who tomorrow will rip my heart out.'


http://thefall.org/news/980118.html#ob
dannyno
  • 24. dannyno | 25/03/2017
Most likely source for the poem I now think is Heinz Höhne's The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS. The translation has the same English version of the poem as the press release (albeit the press release doesn't match what MES actually says)/
dannyno
  • 25. dannyno | 27/03/2017
All of which information makes you wonder there is a Nazi theme running through the song - "I'm not a communist", for example? A Niemoller quote rather than a Jefferson Airplane lyric?
bzfgt
  • 26. bzfgt (link) | 01/04/2017
Dan, the Discogs link has not the text you quote, is it different in the US or something?

Kudos for this, I doubt anyone thought what we had was accurate. You did a typically superb job with this.
dannyno
  • 27. dannyno | 01/04/2017
You've picked the wrong line for the German bit.


Ich hasse die Masse, die kleine, gemeine die lahme, die zahme, die heut an mich glaubt und die mir morgen mein Herzblut raubt​


That's the text of the original German poem. But what MES says is:


Ich hasse, die masse, die kleine, gemeine, die lahme, die zahme, mein hertzblut, raubt
dannyno
  • 28. dannyno | 01/04/2017
Comment #26: discogs? You mean google books?
bzfgt
  • 29. bzfgt (link) | 01/04/2017
I used the link you gave. What remains to be fixed?
bzfgt
  • 30. bzfgt (link) | 01/04/2017
Aside from the link, that is.
dannyno
  • 31. dannyno | 01/04/2017
Looks good job, thanks.

Still a bit of a puzzle about MES's source, since Höhne has "tear" where the press release has "rip". But the poem can be translated so many ways that this seems close enough and probably just a transcription error, or deliberate alteration. At any rate I have found any other source.
dannyno
  • 32. dannyno | 01/04/2017
With discogs, click on the image and there's a second one comes up, of the reverse of the sleeve. That's where Selchow is cited.
dannyno
  • 33. dannyno | 01/04/2017
Note #2, "Oh! Brother press release".

This ought to link to http://thefall.org/news/980118.html#ob
dannyno
  • 34. dannyno | 01/04/2017
Image
bzfgt
  • 35. bzfgt (link) | 29/04/2017
Thanks Dan, all sorted. I had to include instructions for that Discogs image, since you can't link directly to the image. I had half a mind to omit it, but we must make hay while the sun shines...one day I'll have to begin the arduous task of going through and culling dead links.
dannyno
  • 36. dannyno | 29/04/2017
Unfortunately, you've attached the instructions to the Oh! Brother press release link, rather than the Discogs image link, which is on the next line. Oops!
bzfgt
  • 37. bzfgt (link) | 29/04/2017
Fucking fuck. Thank you, Dan, and thanks for your patience.
dannyno
  • 38. dannyno | 05/07/2017
Comment #22: An even tidier version of my Selchow research can be found here: http://z1.invisionfree.com/thefall/index.php?showtopic=42183&view=findpost&p=40052571
bzfgt
  • 39. bzfgt (link) | 24/02/2018
OK, can anyone please listen to a 70s version and tell me if it has "scrutinized a little monster"? I thought I had at least one version from the 70s but I cannot find one. I'm sorry to ask this as anyone likely to take on the task is also likely to have performed far too many such tasks, but please, I would appreciate it.
bzfgt
  • 40. bzfgt (link) | 24/02/2018
OK I found it, never mind!
bzfgt
  • 41. bzfgt (link) | 24/02/2018
And, the information I was seeking is already in the #^@% notes! Man, this stuff gets confusing some time.
dannyno
  • 42. dannyno | 24/02/2018
New link to Selchow research, in case the old link in comment #38 breaks:

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/thefall/mes-lyrical-magpie-list-in-first-posts-t42183.html#p40052571
Fit and Working Again
  • 43. Fit and Working Again | 28/04/2018
The 1977 version has, after the first verse - "what we want is information, information, unmutual, information" which is a reference to The Prisoner, so there may be small influence there. By 1984 the line has become "now what they want is disinformation".
But I only hear "disinformation" once. I reckon it to be, phonetically;
"now what they want is disinfuation, disinfuation, disinformation"
and then in the break;
"disinfuation, dissolve-formation, dissolve-amation"
I'd dismiss disinfuation as a flub or bad-hearing but it's clear in the Jenson version too, though I'm jiggered on what it meaneth.
Fit and Working Again
  • 44. Fit and Working Again | 13/05/2018
And the "oh little brother" refrain has a Clockwork Orange vibe
Portsmouth Bubblejet
  • 45. Portsmouth Bubblejet | 08/07/2018
As dannyno has shown, Smith condensed Selchow's strophes in the opening German line so that it doesn't make strict grammatical sense - the relative pronoun is missing. To fit in with German orthography, I'd transcribe it as:

"Ich hasse die Masse, die kleine, gemeine, die lahme, die zahme, mein Herzblut raubt"

Selchow's poisonous 'heroic realist' poems are still circulated by far-right groups in Germany, particularly the 'Burschenschaft' organisations at German universities. Selchow was appointed leader of a student group in Marburg in 1920 that wanted to launch a military coup in the city during the Kapp Putsch. (Marburg University is one of my university's partner institutions.)

A German article on Selchow's enduring toxic influence

There's a connection with the 'Thule group' too (see 'Gut of the Quantifier') in that Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, a Nazi eugenicist who had been Selchow's aide-de-camp in Marburg, went on to join the Thule Society.
bzfgt
  • 46. bzfgt (link) | 09/07/2018
Good ear FAWA, I'm trying to get the permutations and might not be able to confirm them all, but definitely "Now what we want is..."
bzfgt
  • 47. bzfgt (link) | 09/07/2018
The first three definitely sound like "disinformation" to me...after that I do hear something like "dissolve-amation," I'm trying to get it straight while remaining conservative
bzfgt
  • 48. bzfgt (link) | 09/07/2018
Fuck I can't find the red box, I'm going to take your word for it about the 1977 version and if there's a mistake someone I hope will catch it.

Thank God, I found an online converter that let me reproduce the lyrics book text and I only had to correct 3 letters...that was a serious time saver
dannyno
  • 49. dannyno | 02/02/2019
Just following up a loose end from note 2, I got hold of a copy of Rowse's A Cornishman Abroad.

The Selchow text appears on p.62:


Ich hasse die Masse, die kleine, die gemeine,
Den nacken gebeugt,
Die isst und frisst und kinder zeugt.


No English translation is provided, and no source is given.

Note that the German text here departs from the originals previously cited. Here it's "die gemeine", not just "gemeine". And instead of "und schläft" ("and sleeps"), we have "und frisst". Which is a curious difference, because "isst" comes from "essen" and straightforwardly means "eats", while "frisst" comes from "fressen" and is used for animals eating, or for humans eating like animals - faces in the pig trough, kind of thing, indicating greed or stuffing your face, something like that. So it seems to be used for emphasis in this context. The former is, I learn, polite, the second is derogatory.

Would be interesting to know the origin of this variant text, or if Rowse is reproducing it from memory.

Anyway, this is clearly not MES's source.
Bradley
  • 50. Bradley | 09/03/2019
In the notes, you've twice written Jefferson Airplane instead of Jefferson Starship.
dannyno
  • 51. dannyno | 17/03/2019
Holy hell. My resignation is in the post.
dannyno
  • 52. dannyno | 17/03/2019
Oh, maybe that wasn't directed at me.
MES Sage
  • 53. MES Sage | 30/05/2019
can't scan so text from press release in boxset book;

hey nar - 7" 12" WITH!
Oh! Brother
/GOD-BOX The real monty
A TIGHT TOURNIQUET TWIXT WETPOP
AND BRAINY POP LIES : THE FALL
SAY TO POP IN 'SHOP OF POP' HEY;
POP NOT THAT POP OR THAT incl:
PAPPY POP, POP OVER THE COUNTER : splinter
Sleep
ANTI- The group
QUEEN sound!
OH! BROTHER
WHILST: APPEALING TO BASEST FAMILY INSTINCTS MOTIVE : REVENGE
bzfgt
  • 54. bzfgt (link) | 03/07/2019
Thank you, MES Sage!
dannyno
  • 55. dannyno | 15/11/2019
I tracked down the issue of Völkischer Beobachter in which Selchow's poem originally appeared. It was the issue of Sunday/Monday, 11/12 February 1923.

http://dannyno.org.uk/diemasse.jpg

Note that the poem is cited as coming from Selchow's book of poetry Der Ruf des Tages ("The Call of the Day"), dated 1922.

Also note that there are more verses than quoted by Heiden (see above). And that if the poem comes from the book, then it can't have been a response to Hitler's article in the 'paper of 27th January 1923, as Heiden implies.
dannyno
  • 56. dannyno | 15/11/2019
.. which means that re: my comment #49, Rowse's "und frisst" is incorrect, and Heiden's "und schläft" is correct.
dannyno
  • 57. dannyno | 17/11/2019
Note 2:

Portsmouth Bubblejet translates more literally:

I hate
the masses,
the rank and file*,
clever,
busy and loud
who brew tomorrow out of yesterday


Noooo, this is a translation of the first verse of the full four verse poem as it originally appeared - Portsmouth Bubblejet having helpfully translated the first and second verses for us over on the FOF. But what appears in the lyrics are bits of the third and fourth verses only - I would argue because MES's source only reproduced the third and fourth verses - I haven't found a translation of the poem which consists of all four verse.
dannyno
  • 58. dannyno | 17/11/2019
The whole German "your heart out" bit makes me think of the song, Your Heart Out. Coincidence, most likely.
dannyno
  • 59. dannyno | 17/11/2019
Been listening to some live versions, "d-jacket" is often sung as "donkey jacket" on the versions I've got: eg Buster Brown's, Edinburgh, 19th March 1984; Forum Les Halles, Paris, 16 December 1984, Royal Court, Liverpool, 12 November 1983; Elephant Fayre, Cornwall, 29 July 1984.
bzfgt
  • 60. bzfgt (link) | 23/11/2019
Crap, you're right, that doesn't match.
dannyno
  • 61. dannyno | 28/12/2019
Paul Hanley, Have a Bleedin Guess, p.143, note 124:


Oh Brother's 'Your D-Jacket's a mess' was a (well-deserved) snipe at the donkey jacket I wore throughout the early eighties.


Paul Hanley has said, in public conversation about this song, that he thought the song could have been about him (being the younger brother of Steve Hanley). It's worth noting, however, that the song (if not all the text) is a very early one and likely predates MES's familiarity with Paul. Although in Steve Hanley's book he describes first seeing The Fall at the last Electric Circus gig in October 1977, and getting to know the group over the next several months, I've not seen anything suggesting Paul was particularly close to The Fall at that point.

Indeed, in this interview, Paul says that the Electric Circus gig was "slightly before my time", and that he first heard the group on the subsequently released recording which came out in 1978. Also, the first gig he went to was Darts at the Free Trade Hall (25 May 1978).

Which doesn't mean the lyric couldn't have become about him, at least in part.
dannyno
  • 62. dannyno | 28/12/2019
... and as previously noted, the donkey jacket line is a later addition.
dannyno
  • 63. dannyno | 03/02/2020
Oh, and just following up on Paul Hanley's theory (theory putting it a bit strongly) that this song is about him. He said this at eh Louder than Words festival 2013:



Paul HanleyI always thought Oh! Brother was about me. But then, turns out that they had the song called Oh! Brother really early, before he even knew that I existed.
dannyno
  • 64. dannyno | 28/02/2020
All my research on the Selchovian Refrain in one place:

https://data.hexencyclopedia.xyz/2020/02/ich-hasse-die-masse-uncovering-oh.html
Lee Rogers
  • 65. Lee Rogers | 26/06/2020
The lines 'there's always someone beside you and there's always someone in you arms' are from the song 'Little Baby' by the Blue Rondos, produced by Joe Meek.
dannyno
  • 66. dannyno | 27/06/2020
Comment #65, yep quite right. See comments #2 and #3 by John back in 2013, which bzfgt incorporated as note #7.
dannyno
  • 67. dannyno | 17/07/2020
The Oh! Brother promo letter/press release:

http://dannyno.org.uk/pics/brotherpress.jpg
dannyno
  • 68. dannyno | 20/09/2020
I've been reading about Albert Goering, Hermann's anti-Nazi brother. Were it not for the fact that Albert's story was not widely known until well after this song was written, it would be tempting to suggest it as a possible theme.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_G%C3%B6ring

It's interesting, anyway.
dannyno
  • 69. dannyno | 20/09/2020
There are mentions of Albert in the book The Reich Marshal, by Leonard Mosley (1974). But nothing that connects to the lyric here.

Open Library
archive.org
bzfgt
  • 70. bzfgt (link) | 27/09/2020
I bet we could find a lot of brothers that seem to fit
dannyno
  • 71. dannyno | 04/10/2020
Absolutely. I was attracted to Albert because of the Selchovian Refrain. Nazi era poetry and a brother of a leading Nazi would fit nicely. But it's not that straightforward of course.
dannyno
  • 72. dannyno | 25/10/2020
The Fall Online Gigography presents one of the MES' letters to Tony Friel, dated 25 January 1977, which lists songs considered for the group, which was then still called "The Outsiders". some have been recorded or are "presentable" (which may mean unrecorded but considered good), some are recorded and/or "rough" and some are "unrecorded" and/or perhaps existing only as ideas.

In the "recorded/presentable" category falls "Oh! Brother (Information)":

http://thefall.org/gigography/image/1977-01-25_lettertoFriel-withsongtitles.jpg

This supports the theory that however the song evolved and whatever else it contains, it was always strongly linked to The Prisoner.
Marvin
  • 73. Marvin | 02/11/2020
(3) - Red door. Note the communistic symbolism of the colour red.

Oh, Brother! was also the name of a British situation comedy shown on BBC television starring Derek Nimmo, which was broadcast between 1968 and 1970. About monks.

+A 1976 song by Joan Baez (O Brother!).

I am sure there is no obvious connection however.
dannyno
  • 74. dannyno | 06/04/2021
There's an echo of the original cover of Günter Grass's 1959 novel The Tin Drum, and the cover of the Oh! Brother single:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d1/Die_Blechtrommel_earliest_edition_german.jpg

(It was the same for English editions, I think)

And the film too:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYmM0ODBiMTQtNDFkZS00Zjg1LWFkNGMtZTg2NzBlMmZjNjlhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTMxMTY0OTQ@._V1_.jpg

https://img.discogs.com/QZQyrhQg27_6NYxx3Eb_nMJDqVE=/fit-in/600x589/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-373386-1479004803-3574.png.jpg
dannyno
  • 75. dannyno | 06/04/2021
"And disappeared through red door"

Just trying to find some meanings in this line.

Might it be something to do with the green/red door/channel customs system at international airports, where the green door or gate is for those with nothing to declare, and the red door is for those with something to declare?

There's a red door in Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame too.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Red_door_of_the_Notre-Dame%2C_Paris_29_May_2009.jpg

Might be worth checking Victor Hugo...
Nairng
  • 76. Nairng | 07/05/2021
Title perhaps a nod to Peanuts comic strip, wherein various character exclaim 'oh, brother!' regularly. Peanuts strip appears Dragnet sleeve of course
bzfgt
  • 77. bzfgt (link) | 08/05/2021
Yeah there could be an echo of that here
dannyno
  • 78. dannyno | 16/05/2021
I think the problem is that "Oh, Brother!" is, like, one of the most common phrases in the history of the world. I don't think there's much point putting forward a suggestion for what it might be quoting unless we also can firmly link to to a lyric.

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