Pacifying Joint

Lyrics

(1)

I'm only 19
I hit the street
I was looking for
A pacifying joint

Pacifying joint
With carrots and meat  
Pacifying joint
Or a place where
Nice people should meet

Pacifying joint

The picture is of
The widow of Windsor (2)
Or any of her
Sons and daughters

Pacifying joint
Pacifying joint
Pacifying joint
Pacifying joint

Pacifying joint
With carrots and meat
Pacifying joint
Or a place where
Nice people could meet

I'm only 19
I don't want the kind that
Puts you to sleep   (3)

And you think about a joint
Where treaties are signed
Not that kind

I have a pacifying joint
With carrots and meat 

in a pacifying joint

Pacifying joint
Standing on the street
Pacifying joint

Pacifying joint!

A place to meet

Uh, keep your voice down
Keep your voice down

Pacifying joint
Pacifying joint
Pacifying joint!
Pacifying joint!
Standing on the street
Pacifying joint
We're gonna meet
Pacifying joint

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Notes

1. From Martin:

MES, in an interview during the Mixing It radio session (broadcast 10 February 2006):

"It's not what you think it's about. it's about this teenager and he's going to town, you know and he wants to find somewhere to sit down, a joint he can sit down. Got to remember a lot of this stuff was recorded in New York...so he needs somewhere where he can get carrots and meat. He's only 19. I tend to write objectively instead of 'I love you and you love' me and all this crap."

^

2. There is a poem called "The WIdow at Windsor" by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) that lauds (a bit sarcastically) Queen Victoria. Here "sons" are the men of the British military:

Then 'ere's to the Widow at Windsor, 
         An' 'ere's to the stores an' the guns, 
         The men an' the 'orses what makes up the forces 
         O' Missis Victorier's sons. 
         (Poor beggars! Victorier's sons!)  

^

3. Dan points out that repeating a word while giving it a different meaning each time is called "antanaclasis." "Joint" has several possible meanings in this song, three of which are arguably on display in this verse: a leg of meat, a pub or inn, and what used to be called a "marijuana cigarette" by the squares. MES weighed in on the latter in an interview with Pitchfork:

Pitchfork: Here's something I want to throw at you. This is this reading I've been doing of the album as I listen to it. I'm seeing a thematic link-- maybe this speaks to the thread you were talking about-- between "Pacifying Joint," "What About Us?," and "I Can Hear the Grass Grow." They've all got these drug references in them, and you can even sort of trace a high from looking for pot in "Pacifying Joint" to copping in "What About Us," to euphoria and paranoia in "I Can Hear the Grass Grow," and you can take it further to spaced-out tranquility in "Midnight in Aspen"...

MES: Yeah.

Pitchfork: ...and then a flashback ["Aspen Reprise"], talkativeness in "Assume", inebriated camaraderie in "Clasp Hands"-- am I imagining this, or do you think that's there?

MES: Well, it's there, but I can't be objective about it. But it is there, isn't it? It is, it is. Because there's a lot of skunk damage in Manchester, I'll tell you that.

Pitchfork: Skunk damage?

MES: Yeah, skunk. The weed, yeah.

Pitchfork: Did you say skunk damage, though?

MES: Yeah, there's a lot of damage there.

Pitchfork: How do you mean, "damage"?

MES: Well, I've got a lot of young mates, and the skunk is like 30 times more powerful, isn't it... I'm not a pothead, you see, so I don't fucking know about it, I'm just commenting on it. It's weird, that thread, though.

 

^

Comments (17)

dannyno
  • 1. dannyno | 28/04/2014
"Joint" is given three meanings in this song"

At least five, surely? And it's the phrase "pacifying joint" rather than just "joint".

You have:

1. "Pacifying joint/We carelessly made" - which sounds like a carpentry thing.
2. "Or a place where/Nice people should meet" - pub/inn or meeting place
3. "With carrots and meat" -food
4. "I don't want the kind that/Puts you to sleep" - Cannabis or Skunk specifically
5."Where treaties are signed" - here the focus is on "pacifying" rather than "joint" -so some kind of diplomatic building or state rooms
dannyno
  • 2. dannyno | 28/04/2014
"We carelessly meet in a pacifying joint"

The line is "In a pacifying joint". The words "We carelessly meet" are not there, or not that I can hear on human wavelengths anyway.
dannyno
  • 3. dannyno | 28/04/2014
Also, "widow of Windsor" actually sounds a bit more like "window of Windsor". Widow would be better, though, since it's a widely known phrase, not just Kipling's, and could refer to a pub sign.
bzfgt
  • 4. bzfgt | 13/05/2014
Good points, I've never thought much about this song or checked the LP's lyrics for accuracy.
bzfgt
  • 5. bzfgt | 13/05/2014
Pacifying joint
We carelessly made
*Pacifying joint*
Or a place where
Nice people should meet

I don;t think the second "Pacifying joint" is right but I can't hear what it is.
bzfgt
  • 6. bzfgt | 13/05/2014
OK, I've actually made several corrections.
Zack
  • 7. Zack | 28/02/2017
"We carelessly made", "Where they can understand me" - This thread on the FOF - http://z1.invisionfree.com/thefall/index.php?showtopic=9103&view=findpost&p=4074249 - seems to be the initial source of these interpretations, but I don't hear them at all. I think it's "With carrots and meat" every time.
Zack
  • 8. Zack | 28/02/2017
And if you're looking for more evidence of a supposed "thread" that connects the songs on FHR, keep in mind that rabbits ("What About Us") love carrots.
bzfgt
  • 9. bzfgt (link) | 03/03/2017
"Carelessly made" sounds somewhat like to my ears but makes no sense. "We carelessly meet" is far more likely in terms of sense, but I don't hear it clearly, so I'll change it to "carrots and meat" as we know it's in the song. The third one kind of sounds like it could be "we carelessly meet" again. I'm not confident enough to keep it though, I'll defer to you.
Martin
  • 10. Martin | 23/03/2017
MES, in an interview during the Mixing It radio session (broadcast 10 February 2006):

"It's not what you think it's about. it's about this teenager and he's going to town, you know and he wants to find somewhere to sit down, a joint he can sit down. Got to remember a lot of this stuff was recorded in New York...so he needs somewhere where he can get carrots and meat. He's only 19. I tend to write objectively instead of 'I love you and you love' me and all this crap."

(By the way, there's a myth that MES doesn't talk about his lyrics much, but there are many occasions when he does just this.)
dannyno
  • 11. dannyno | 27/12/2017
In comment #1 I pointed out that the song addresses different meanings of the phrase "pacifying joint" in succession.

I was thinking there might be a literary term for that kind of thing. Today I had another look, and found "antanaclasis": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanaclasis: "the stylistic scheme of repeating a single word or phrase, but with a different meaning." Pretty close? Not quite?
bzfgt
  • 12. bzfgt (link) | 04/01/2018
No I think that's precisely it, Dan. "Joint" the word in question.
Autolytic Enzyme
  • 13. Autolytic Enzyme | 22/04/2019
Snatches of the Pacifying Joint riff from John Carpenter's soundtrack to Escape from New York - The Duke Arrives/Barricade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbi3Fosznck

The music from Systematic abuse is also cropped from the soundtrack. Coincidence?
Zack
  • 14. Zack | 27/06/2020
"My Tulpa" by Magazine features a similar "ah-ah-ah-ahhh" vocal motif.

Years later, fans noted that the riff to "Black Roof" is similar to that of "My Tulpa."
Victoria's Lager
  • 15. Victoria's Lager | 17/08/2021
It's "No pictures of the widow of Windsor".
Sound advice.
dannyno
  • 16. dannyno | 02/03/2023
The thought does not originate with me, but Pacifying Joint doesn't sound a million miles away from Sten Gun Rock, an early Fall song that can now be heard on the 1970s box set.
Vault of Impurity
  • 17. Vault of Impurity | 17/11/2023
Is the "only 19" here and on Wise Old Man relevant to Smith being 19 when the Fall began in '76?

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