Prole Art Threat

Lyrics

(1)

Pink press threat!
 

MAN WITH CHIP: I'm riding third class on a one-class train.
I'm set at nought like a wimpey crane. (2)

 

I'm a pink prole threat.
 

GENT IN SAFE-HOUSE: Get out the pink press threat file
and Um-brrrptzzap the subject. (3)


 

MAN WITH CHIP: It's de-louse, recluse time


(now v. bitter) When I get to the safe house
Hanging rhyme
Hang this crummy blitz trad. by its neck
Pink press threat
I escaped the pink prole effect

 

GENT IN SAFE-HOUSE: It's a new prole art threat,
So it's recluse, safehouse time

 

NARRATOR: Then the clan began
Give them nail files soon
Then the clan began
Agenda Item One *

Pink press threat
Get out the pink press threat file
New prole art, the subject
It's safe-house, safe-house time

Everybody hears a hum at 3 a.m. (4)
But in the safe-house, it's not around

Pink press threat
Get out the wet lib file (5)
New prole art, the subject
Safe-house, safe-house tone

That clan has got away with 100 years of sheer brilliance until now

* The lyrics that were published in the Lough Press book continue as follows from this point:
Scene: Safe-house Give them nail files, soon

GENT AND STAFF- And looking at this agenda, we have a bit of
now revealed a problem here
to be m.i.9 Get out the pink press threat file
(6)
New prole art threat the subject
It's safehouse, safehouse time

 

(ALL: Everybody hears the hum at 3:00 a.m.)
 

But in the safehouse, it's not around
Pink press threat

 

GENT: Get out and apply the wet lib file
Vs. this new prole art threat
Safehouse, safehouse tone

 

MAN WITH CHIP, That clan has gotten away with 100 years
dissipated and knacked, of sheer brilliance
at home, video reach, --Up till now
stereo bog etc.   
(7)

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Notes

1. "Pink press" implies a socialist organ; the term "pink" or "pinko" is sometimes applied to someone who isn't necessarily a communist, but is rather a sympathizer or approaches communism on the political spectrum (it can also be used, often in an exaggerated or humorous sense, to paint someone who doesn't actually have communist sympathies as holding views that are de facto socialist or communist in nature). An episode of the cartoon series The Pink Panther is entitled "Pink Press." According to K-Punk,

The song is a complex, ultimately unreadable, play on the idea of Smith as ‘working class’ spokesman. The ‘Theat’ is posed as much to other representations of the proletarian pop culture (which at its best meant The Jam and at its worst meant the more thuggish Oi!) as it is against the ruling class as such. The ‘art’ of The Fall’s pulp modernism – their intractability and difficulty – is counterposed to the misleading ingenuousness of Social Realism. 


However, as the author himself acknowledges later, it is problematic to straightfowardly associate Smith himself with the "threat."

Reformation reproduces sone enlightening remarks from Smith about the song:

In an interview published in NME (November 14, 1981) MES is quoted thus: "Prole Art Threat is...about...the destruction of these ridiculous liberal views which perpetuate the system...they laugh at the skinheads, they laugh at the punks, they laugh at the heavy metal kids, and then they turn round and say the Americans are bigoted and fascist!" 

In TBLY (issue no 8, February 1997) MES, in an unattributed quote, says that the song "actually started as a play, about some commuter type who flips out on leftism and gets caught up with MI5 and that. I just compressed it and made it more of a joke. It was like how everyone's going on about the working class but when they do something it's seen as a threat. It was, like, an anti-intellectual middle class song, do you get my drift?"

From Dan:

The back cover of Slates reprints some of the "play" dialogue, preceded by this: "PROLE ART THREAT

starring 'gent' and 'man' in ASDA mix-up spy thriller"

ASDA is a British supermarket chain.

 

Dan:

 

Stephen Dalton, "Not Falling, Soaring", Vox, June 1991, pp. 24-25:
 


The Fall have always distanced themselves from Madchester scenes, but do they qualify as genuine prole culture? 'I wouldn't say so. The working class don't buy it. They're so bloody daft they're watching videos all the time. The working class are bloody stupid and that's what a lot of the songs are about. That's what annoys me -- everybody goes on about Prole Art Threat and that, but those songs are bloody satire!'

 

Tweeted by Paul Hanley during one of Tim Burgess' twitter listening parties:
 


The drums on Prole Art Threat were my attempt to rip off ‘Milk & Alcohol’ by Dr Feelgood- but I got it completely wrong and instead of a shuffle we ended up with a gallop, but it really fits the song
#TimsTwitterListeningParty
9:10 PM · Oct 18, 2020

^

2. "Set at nought"--to to be disregarded, ignored, dismissed, treated with contempt-- also pops up in "Middle Mass."George Wimpey is the name of a company (and its founder) that operated as a road surfacing contractor in Britain between 1880 and 2007. Wimpey also puts in an appearance in "Ladybird." 

^

3. K-punk likely has the right idea: "The text is presented to us as a transcript of surveillance tapes, complete with ellipses where the transmission is supposedly scrambled."

^

4.I have had the vague idea that this has something to do with either surveillance equipment or something even more sinister. But apparently "The Hum" is what is nowadays called "a thing." From Wikipedia:

The Hum is a phenomenon, or collection of phenomena, involving widespread reports of a persistent and invasive low-frequency humming, rumbling, or droning noise not audible to all people. Hums have been widely reported by national media in the UK and the United States. The Hum is sometimes prefixed with the name of a locality where the problem has been particularly publicized: e.g., the "Bristol Hum" or the "Taos Hum".

It is unclear whether it is a single phenomenon; different causes have been attributed. In some cases, it may be a manifestation of tinnitus.

Willam Burke bears witness:

A possible reference to mysterious hums heard in various places around the globe, most famously in the Taos Hum, in the New Mexico town of Taos in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains? Anyplace with such a hum can apparently have its own "Taos Hum".

Illustratively, I lived in Taos from 2006-2011, and never once heard the Hum until about 5-6 weeks before I moved back east to Virginia. On a hot July night I had the front door open at 3 a.m. (unusual because of the common "witching hour" events at that time, like disembodied voices and whistling, phantom drumming, and one time something that sounded like an immense street-sweeping machine, but nothing visible - needless to say they do NOT sweep streets at 3 am!) and I heard the Hum. Just as described, it sounded like an idling diesel engine at a great distance - paradoxically, at a distance which would be too great to hear an engine!

^

5. "Wet" is English public-school slang for someone perceived as weak and ineffectual. A "wet" liberal may refer to someone who is not staunchly liberal enough, but may perhaps also just be used an intensifier of "liberal" by those who see the position as inherently weak.

The phrase was used in the 1980s Britain by followers of Margaret Thatcher to refer to insufficently hardline Conservatives (thanks to Binyi). These, in turn, began calling the hardcore Thatcher types "dries"...

^

6. MI9 is a division of British military intelligence. A socialist Columbian guerilla movement called M-19 (19th of April Movement) was active in the 1980s; since Smith doesn't actually sing this lyric, it's not certain how he pronounces it, but "em eye nine" is probably more likely.  

^

7. The phrase "stereo bog" also appears in "C'n'C-S Mithering."

^

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Comments (51)

Zack
  • 1. Zack | 09/06/2015
I always took "wet lib" to mean either "bed wetting liberal" or "bleeding heart liberal". Not sure how popular those terms were in 1980s England though.
dannyno
  • 2. dannyno | 15/06/2015
Note 1:

QIn TBLY (issue no 8, February 1997) MES, in an unattributed quote, says that the song "actually started as a play, about some commuter type who flips out on leftism and gets caught up with MI5 and that. I just compressed it and made it more of a joke. It was like how everyone's going on about the working class but when they do something it's seen as a threat. It was, like, an anti-intellectual middle class song, do you get my drift?""

The quote comes from the interview with MES in NME, 1 Oct 1983 (p7) - but the text is not quite the same:
http://thefall.org/news/pics/83oct01_nme/83oct01_nme.html


That song actually started off as a play, about some commuter type bloke who flips out on leftism and gets caught up with MI5 and all that. I just compressed it and made more of a joke about it.
dannyno
  • 3. dannyno | 31/03/2016
"Everybody hears a hum at 3 a.m"

I wondered if this is a specific hum to the situation, like an approaching helicopter, or if it refers to that mysterious buzzing that some people hear in the early hours:
http://www.livescience.com/38427-the-hum-mystery-taos-hum.html
dannyno
  • 4. dannyno | 31/03/2016
Zack:

In 1980s England, "wet" was a Thatcherite term for those members of the Tory party who were nervous of her neoliberal nostrums.
dannyno
  • 5. dannyno | 16/02/2017
"I'm set at nought like a wimpey crane."

To be "set at nought" is to be disregarded, ignored, dismissed, treated with contempt.
dannyno
  • 6. dannyno | 16/02/2017
"I'm set at nought like a wimpey crane"

It February 1979, two building workers spent several days protesting up a Wimpey crane in Dagenham (in sub-zero conditions and without food and water) in protest at their sacking the previous month. Kevin Healey, 25, gave up after 5 days due to frostbite. But Michael Bridges, 32, stayed up longer.

Just a thought.
dannyno
  • 7. dannyno | 26/02/2017
"Stereo bog"

Cross reference to http://annotatedfall.doomby.com/pages/the-annotated-lyrics/c-n-c-s-mithering.html
dannyno
  • 8. dannyno | 09/03/2017
"set at nought like a wimpey crane"

The phrase "set at nought" also appears in "Middle Mass", also on Slates.
dannyno
  • 9. dannyno | 25/06/2017
The back cover of "Slates" reprints some of the "play" dialogue, preceded by this:


PROLE ART THREAT

starring 'gent' and 'man' in ASDA mix-up spy thriller:
William Burke
  • 10. William Burke | 12/09/2017
"Everybody hears the hum at 3 a.m."

A possible reference to mysterious hums heard in various places around the globe, most famously in the Taos Hum, in the New Mexico town of Taos in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains? Anyplace with such a hum can apparently have its own "Taos Hum".

Illustratively, I lived in Taos from 2006-2011, and never once heard the Hum until about 5-6 weeks before I moved back east to Virginia. A hot July night I had the front door open at 3 am (unusual because of the common "witching hour" events at that time, like disembodied voices and whistling, phantom drumming, one time something that sounded like an immense street-sweeping machine but nothing visible - needless to say they do NOT sweep streets at 3 am!) and I heard the Hum. Just as described, it sounded like an idling diesel engine at a great distance - paradixically, at a distance which would be too great to hear an engine!
dannyno
  • 11. dannyno | 12/09/2017
William Burke, comment #10.

Yep, see my comment #3.
bzfgt
  • 12. bzfgt (link) | 07/10/2017
Thank you William, and Dan, sorry that the Hum fell through the cracks the first time (that sounds like a badly mixed metaphor).

William, I;d have thought that "they" do sometimes sweep at 3 a.m.--certainly they do it at odd hours when there are few cars, although probably a few hours later than that, 3 doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility. I'm not dismissing the supernaturalness of the Hum, of course...what fun would that be?
Ian F
  • 13. Ian F (link) | 17/04/2018
Note 3 - the drop out in transmission is a repeating trope. See also 'Garden' and 'Symbol of Morgan' amongst others. In the latter a point by John Peel is deliberately elided, and the rest of the conversation makes little sense without it.
Paul G
  • 14. Paul G | 25/05/2018
Could the 'Blitz trad.' be the New Romantics?

The Blitz club was in London's Covent Garden in 1979/1980 was hosted by Steve Strange and frequented by the likes of Boy George. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitz_Kids
bzfgt
  • 15. bzfgt (link) | 05/07/2018
Ian: Yeah and I guess Paintwork...

Paul, that is indeed suggestive..."trad." short for what, tradition? Why a "neck"?
Paul G
  • 16. Paul G | 24/08/2018
Trad. is short for tradition ("Trad. jazz" was used in That Man)

Can't add much to the 'neck'. If you're going to hang something it's probably by the neck!
bzfgt
  • 17. bzfgt (link) | 25/08/2018
Well, "traditional" in that context.
Boncas
  • 18. Boncas | 22/03/2019
I always heard it as: "Delouse, safe-house time."

A type of purging process.
Chris Cohen
  • 19. Chris Cohen | 06/05/2019
Pretty sure it's "commie", not "crummy" in the line Hang this commie blitz trad. by its neck
bzfgt
  • 20. bzfgt (link) | 09/06/2019
Delouse and commie make more sense, I'll listen
bzfgt
  • 21. bzfgt (link) | 09/06/2019
De-louse appears earlier. I hear "recluse" and "crummy" where they are now, though.
Chris Cohen
  • 22. Chris Cohen | 20/06/2019
At the very beginning it really sounds to me like "Pink press rats!" instead of "Pink press threat!" I don't hear a "th..." sound at the beginning of the word, anyhow
bzfgt
  • 23. bzfgt (link) | 03/07/2019
Listen to the In a Hole version; it seems like he says "threat" more, but it also sounds almost the same...there's "threat" elsewhere, I think he just swallows the beginning a little
Dr X O'Skeleton
  • 24. Dr X O'Skeleton | 09/03/2020
Interesting article on possible causes of 'the hum' as volcanic in origin. It has long been that sort of 'mystery' that fascinates papers like the Daily Mail, like ufos, etc.
https://www.ecowatch.com/new-underwater-volcano-hum-sounds-2644666065.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1
dannyno
  • 25. dannyno | 09/03/2020
That is interesting.

But I think it's unlikely that all hums all over the world have the same source.

I also think it's interesting how some people can hear it and other people can't.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/mar/13/what-is-the-mysterious-gl-hum-and-is-it-simply-noise-pollution
bzfgt
  • 26. bzfgt (link) | 20/03/2020
I had no idea about The Hum, but it is a thing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum
bzfgt
  • 27. bzfgt (link) | 20/03/2020
Crap I guess I knew that when I made a note of it...er...
bzfgt
  • 28. bzfgt (link) | 20/03/2020
I even said it was "a thing"
bzfgt
  • 29. bzfgt (link) | 20/03/2020
Some day I'll go through and systematically delete all those &$^# "Story of the Fall" links...
dannyno
  • 30. dannyno | 22/03/2020
Note #2 - you have the definition of "set at nought" twice in the note, once at the beginning and again at the end.
bzfgt
  • 31. bzfgt (link) | 27/03/2020
Did you point it out more than once? I don't know how this thing could have happened!
bzfgt
  • 32. bzfgt (link) | 27/03/2020
But it must be your fault...
dannyno
  • 33. dannyno | 27/03/2020
Undoubtedly.
Binyi
  • 34. Binyi | 22/04/2020
Wet also means an insufficiently hard-line conservative, coined in 1979-80 by Margaret Thatcher. So "wet" in a derogatory, political sense would be most common right when this song was released, in 1981.
bzfgt
  • 35. bzfgt (link) | 24/04/2020
Oh that's helpful
dannyno
  • 36. dannyno | 25/04/2020
Yes, see my comment #4... Just saying.
bzfgt
  • 37. bzfgt (link) | 02/05/2020
Yeah I guess because he had a link it sank in more. Thanks, though, Dan...
dannyno
  • 38. dannyno | 16/05/2020


The one time I don't include a link....
egg
  • 39. egg | 25/06/2020
Regarding "Um-brrrptzzap the subject":

MES was a big fan of the TV show The Prisoner, and unsurprisingly imagined himself as the main character. In the title sequence, around one minute in, there's a bit where Number 6's photo is marked with rows of typed X's after he resigns.


I think this is supposed to be something like that, where the main character has his file (something like a journalist's pass?) erased, and is forced to become a recluse because he's pursued by the authorities, because he was publishing something controversial in the press.
dannyno
  • 40. dannyno | 18/10/2020
Tweets by Paul Hanley during one of Tim Burgess' twitter listening parties:


The drums on Prole Art Threat were my attempt to rip off ‘Milk & Alcohol’ by Dr Feelgood- but I got it completely wrong and instead of a shuffle we ended up with a gallop, but it really fits the song
#TimsTwitterListeningParty
9:10 PM · Oct 18, 2020


https://twitter.com/hanleyPa/status/1317920888398860288


Originally called Pink Press Threat. This was Marc’s tune, absolutely brilliant – a right cavalry charge!
#TimsTwitterListeningParty
9:09 PM · Oct 18, 2020


https://twitter.com/hanleyPa/status/1317920636900044800
dannyno
  • 41. dannyno | 20/10/2020
Comment #39 : That's a good call, I like that idea very much. Makes sense in context.
dannyno
  • 42. dannyno | 06/04/2021
Stephen Dalton, "Not Falling, Soaring", Vox, June 1991, pp. 24-25:


The Fall have always distanced themselves from Madchester scenes, but do they qualify as genuine prole culture? 'I wouldn't say so. The working class don't buy it. They're so bloody daft they're watching videos all the time. The working class are bloody stupid and that's what a lot of the songs are about. That's what annoys me -- everybody goes on about Prole Art Threat and that, but those songs are bloody satire!'
dannyno
  • 43. dannyno | 30/10/2021
From Ann Bouwma's interview with MES in the Dutch magazine Vinyl, #5, August 1981, pp.12-13.

MES (p.13):

De Engelse rockpers bijvoorbeeld, die wil iedere band nog steeds als een soort minstreel zien. 'Prole art threat' (van Slates) gaat daarover, over de manier waarop mensen proberen een bepaald gezichtspunt of mening op te dringen. Je krijgt geen toestemming om jezelf uit te drukken. Veel van dat nummer kwam voort kritiek als 'waarom gaat The Fall geen geregeld leven leiden, waarom voegt The Fall zich niet gewoon bij de punkbeweging en maakt het iedereen gemakkelijk in plaats van te proberen intelligent te zijn’. Mensen die rock volgen, denken dat het een sport alternatief is, maar het is twintig jaar geleden al opgehouden een alternatief te zijn'.


Translated with help from translate.google.com:


"The English rock press, for example, still wants to see every band as a kind of minstrel. 'Prole Art Threat' (from Slates) is about that, about the way in which people try to impose a certain point of view or opinion. You are not allowed to express yourself. Much of that song came from criticism like 'why don't The Fall start living a regular life, why don't The Fall just join the punk movement and make it easy for everyone instead of trying to be intelligent'. People who follow rock think it's kind of an alternative, but it stopped being an alternative twenty years ago."
dannyno
  • 44. dannyno | 30/10/2021
From the same interview, the interviewer notes:


Een detail in verschijning is ook de rose map die hij overal, behalve op het podium, meeneemt en waar of en toe lets uit wordt opgediept.


Rough translation:


A detail in appearance is also the pink folder that he takes everywhere, except on stage, and from which something is unearthed from time to time.


So that makes me wonder if the "pink press file" is a based on MES' own folder of... stuff.
Mason Jarrs
  • 45. Mason Jarrs | 22/10/2022
"That clan has got away with 100 years of sheer brilliance until now". Hi. Does anyone hear " shrimp fluids" i.e. oil (??), instead of sheer brilliance? Just wondering.
Alex
  • 46. Alex | 17/02/2023
The blurbs showing who is apparently speaking like "MAN WITH CHIP:" make the lyrics look much, much less readable and force a certain interpretation onto the lyrics of a song from a band that is known for ambiguous lyrics that often have no clear meaning or explanation.
dannyno
  • 47. dannyno | 20/02/2023
Comment #46.

Indeed. As they are not song I agree they don't belong in the lyric text.

However, those speaker notes do originally come from the cover of Slates:

https://i.discogs.com/hJEB8PUTAWKCLFG8TdJkCuw6VPHCCE2kpieo-weT09o/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:593/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTM3MzQy/My0xMzE2NDQwNDU1/LmpwZWc.jpeg
dannyno
  • 48. dannyno | 20/02/2023
"not song" should have been "not sung"
Alex
  • 49. Alex | 29/05/2023
If anyone's interested, I made a transcription of the In a Hole version.
here
dannyno
  • 50. dannyno | 07/01/2024
The use of the word "clan" reminds me of It's the New Thing: "Re-form the old clans".
dannyno
  • 51. dannyno | 07/01/2024
Prole Art Threat debuted live in late 1980. It's on the Acklam Hall recording of 11 December 1980, but also the mysterious bootleg that tends to be dated to November - exact date and venue unknown. The "hum" lyric is there in those early recordings.

Given how close that date is to the first performances of the song, it is I think significant that the Manchester Evening News of 25 November 1980 (p.14) published a piece on the "hummadruz" (a nineteenth-century coinage for what appears to be the same phenomenon) on 25 November 1980 (there was some subsequent correspondence).

It seems not unlikely that MES read the article and incorporated a reference to it into his new lyric:

https://img.newspapers.com/img/img?user=6860488&id=924986309&clippingId=138222452&width=820&height=2253&crop=4084_350_2073_5698&rotation=0

Link to newspapers.com: https://www.newspapers.com/article/manchester-evening-news-hummadruz25nov19/138222452/

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