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The Annotated Lyrics
- (Birtwistle's) Girl in Shop
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- (We Are) Mod Mock Goth
- (We WIsh You) A Protein Christ
- 15 Ways
- 2 x 4
- 2nd Dark Age
- 4 1/2 Inch
- 50 Year Old Man
- 986 Generator
- A Figure Walks
- A Lot of Wind
- A Past Gone Mad
- Afternoon Disco
- Age of Chang
- All Leave Cancelled
- Alton Towers
- Amorator!
- An Older Lover Etc.
- And Therein...
- And This Day
- Anecdotes+Antidotes in B#
- Arid Al's Dream
- Arms Control Poseur
- Assume
- Athlete Cured
- Australians in Europe
- Auto Chip 2014-2016
- Auto-Tech Pilot
- Backdrop
- Bad News Girl
- Barmy
- Before the Moon Falls
- Behind the Counter
- Bill is Dead
- Bingo-Master
- Birmingham School of Business
- Birthday Song
- Black Roof
- Blindness
- Blood Outta Stone
- Bo Demmick
- Bombast
- Bonkers in Phoenix
- Bound
- Bournemouth Runner
- Breaking the Rules
- Bremen Nacht
- Brillo De Facto
- British People in Hot Weather
- Bug Day
- Bury Pts. 1+3
- Butterflies 4 Brains
- C'n'C-S Mithering
- C.R.E.E.P.
- Cab It Up
- Calendar
- Can Can Summer
- Carry Bag Man
- Cary Grant's Wedding
- Cheetham Hill
- Chicago, Now!
- Chilinism
- Chino
- Choc-Stock
- City Dweller
- City Hobgoblins
- Clasp Hands
- Clear Off!
- Cloud of Black
- Coach and Horses
- Contraflow
- Copped It
- Cosmos 7
- Couldn't Get Ahead
- Couples vs Jobless Mid 30s
- Cowboy George
- Cowboy Gregori
- Crackhouse
- Craigness
- Crap Rap 2/Like to Blow
- Crew Filth
- Crop-Dust
- Cruiser's Creek
- Cyber Insekt
- D.I.Y. Meat
- Das Boat
- Das Katerer
- Das Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wai
- Dead Beat Descendant
- Dedication Not Medication
- Deer Park
- Detective Instinct
- Devolute
- Dice Man
- Disney's Dream Debased
- Distilled Mug Art
- Dktr Faustus
- Dog is Life/Jerusalem
- Don't Call Me Darling
- Don't Take the Pizza
- Dr. Bucks' Letter
- Draygo's Guilt
- Dresden Dolls
- Early Days of Channel Führer
- Eat Y'Self Fitter
- Ed's Babe
- Edinburgh Man
- Elf Prefix
- Elves
- English Scheme
- Enigrammatic Dream
- Entitled
- Everybody But Myself
- Everything Hurtz
- Exploding Chimney
- Extricate
- Fall Sound
- Fantastic Life
- Feeling Numb
- Fibre Book Troll
- Fiery Jack
- First One Today
- Fit and Working Again
- Flat of Angles
- Fol de Rol
- Fortress
- Free Range
- Frenz
- Frightened
- Futures and Pasts
- Garden New
- Gentlemen's Agreement
- Get a Hotel
- Get A Summer Song Goin'
- Gibbus Gibson
- Glam-Racket
- God Box
- Gramme Friday
- Green Eyed Loco Man
- Greenway
- Gross Chapel-British Grenadier
- Groundsboy
- Guest Informant
- Guide Me Soft
- Gut of the Quantifier
- H.O.W.
- Haf Found Bormann
- Hands Up Billy
- Happi Song
- Happy Holiday
- Hard Life in Country
- He Pep!
- He Talks
- Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot
- Hey! Fascist
- Hey! Luciani
- Hey! Marc Riley
- Hey! Student
- High Tension Line
- Hilary
- Hip Priest
- Hit the North
- Hittite Man
- Hollow Mind
- Hostile
- Hot Aftershave Bop
- Hot Cake
- Hot Runes
- Hotel Bloedel
- How I Wrote Elastic Man
- Hurricane Edward
- I African Mancunian
- I Am Damo Suzuki
- I Come and Stand At Your Door
- I Feel Voxish
- I Wake Up In The City
- I'm Frank
- I'm Into C.B.
- I've Been Duped
- I've Seen Them Come
- Ibis-Afro Man
- Iceland
- Idiot Joy Showland
- Immortality
- Impression of J. Temperance
- In My Area
- In The Park
- In These Times
- Industrial Estate
- Inevitable
- Insult Song
- Irish
- Is This New
- It's A Curse
- It's The New Thing
- Ivanhoe's Two Pence
- Jam Song
- Janet, Johnny + James
- Jawbone And The Air-Rifle
- Jazzed Up Punk Shit
- Jetplane
- Jim's "The Fall"
- Job Search
- Joker Hysterical Face
- Junger Cloth
- Just Step S'Ways
- Kick The Can
- Kicker Conspiracy
- Kinder of Spine
- Kurious Oranj
- L.A.
- Ladybird (Green Grass)
- Laptop Dog
- Last Commands of Xyralothep Vi
- Last Orders
- Latchkey Kid
- Lay of the Land
- Leave the Capitol
- Levitate
- Lie Dream of a Casino Soul
- Life Just Bounces
- Light/Fireworks
- Live at the Witch Trials
- Living Too Late
- Loadstones
- Look, Know
- Lucifer Over Lancashire
- Ludd Gang
- M5 #1
- Mad.Men-Eng.Dog
- Mark'll Sink Us
- Marquis Cha-Cha
- Married, Two Kids
- Mask Search
- Masquerade
- Medical Acceptance Gate
- Mere Pseud Mag. Ed.
- Mess of My
- Mexico Wax Solvent
- Middle Class Revolt
- Middle Mass
- Midnight in Aspen/Aspen Repris
- Midwatch 1953
- Mike's Love Xexagon
- Mister Rode
- Mollusc in Tyrol
- Monocard
- Mother-Sister
- Mountain Energei
- Music Scene
- Muzorewi's Daughter
- My Condition
- My Door Is Never
- My Ex-Classmates' Kids
- My New House
- Nate Will Not Return
- Neighbourhood of Infinity
- New Big Prinz
- New Face in Hell
- New Facts Emerge
- New Formation Sermon
- New Puritan
- Nine Out Of Ten
- No Bulbs
- No Respects Rev.
- No X-mas for John Quays
- Noel's Chemical Effluence
- Noise
- North West Fashion Show
- O! ZZTRRK Man
- O.F.Y.C. Showcase
- Octo Realm/Ketamine Sun
- Oh! Brother
- Ol' Gang
- Oleano
- On My Own
- One Day
- Open The Boxoctosis
- Oswald Defence Lawyer
- Over! Over!
- Overture From "I Am Curious, O
- Oxymoron
- Pacifying Joint
- Paintwork
- Papal Visit
- Paranoia Man/Cheap Sh*t Room
- Pat-Trip Dispenser
- Pay Your Rates
- Pearl City
- Perverted by Language
- Petty (Thief) Lout
- Pilsner Trail
- Pine Leaves
- Pittsville Direkt
- Pledge
- Plug Myself In
- Ponto
- Pop Stickers
- Portugal
- Powder Keg
- Pre-MDMA Years
- Printhead
- Prole Art Threat
- Proteinprotection
- Psycho Mafia
- Psykick Dancehall
- Psykick Dancehall #2
- Pumpkin Head Xscapes
- Pumpkin Soup and Mashed Potato
- Put Away
- Putta Block
- Quit iPhone
- R.O.D.
- Race Hatred
- Rainmaster
- Rebellious Jukebox
- Recipe for Fascism
- Recovery Kit
- Reece Stick
- Reformation!
- Rememberance R
- Repetition
- Reprise: Jane--Prof Mick--Ey B
- Return
- Riddler
- Ride Away
- Room to Live
- Rose
- Rowche Rumble
- Rude (All The Time)
- Scareball
- Scenario
- Secession Man
- Second House Now
- Segue
- Senior Twilight Stock Replacer
- Serum
- Service
- Session Musician
- Shake-Off
- Shift-Work
- Shoulder Pads
- Sing! Harpy
- Sinister Waltz
- Sir William Wray
- Slang King
- Slates, Slags, Etc.
- Sleep Debt Snatches
- Smile
- Smith and Mark
- Snazzy
- So What About It?
- So-Called Dangerous
- Solicitor in Studio
- Sons of Temperance
- Spectre vs. Rector
- Spencer Must Die
- Spinetrak
- Spoilt Victorian Child
- Squid Lord/ Squid Law
- Stephen Song
- Stepping Out
- Stout Man
- Surmount All Obstacles
- Surrogate Mirage
- Susan vs. Youthclub
- Symbol of Mordgan
- Systematic Abuse
- Taking Off
- Telephone Thing
- Tempo House
- Ten Houses of Eve
- Terry Waite Sez
- That Man
- The 500 Dollar Bottle of Wine
- The Acute
- The Aphid
- The Ballard of J. Drummer
- The Book of Lies
- The Boss
- The Classical
- The Coliseum
- The Container Drivers
- The Crying Marshal
- The Joke
- The Knight, the Devil and Deat
- The League of Bald-Headed Men
- The Littlest Rebel
- The Man Whose Head Expanded
- The Mixer
- The N.W.R.A.
- The Past #2
- The Quartet of Doc Shanley
- The REAL Life of the Crying Ma
- The Reckoning
- The Remainderer
- The Steak Place
- The Usher
- The War Against Intelligence
- The Wright Stuff
- Theme From Error-Orrori
- Theme From Sparta F.C.
- Time Enough At Last
- To Nk Roachment: Yarbles
- Tom Raggazzi
- Tommy Shooter
- Totally Wired
- Touch Sensitive
- Touchy Pad
- Town Called Crappy
- Trust in Me
- Tuff Life Booogie
- Twister
- Two Face!
- Two Librans
- Two Steps Back
- U.S. 80s-90s
- Underground Medecin
- Unutterable
- Van Plague?
- Various Times
- Venice With The Girls
- Victoria Train Station Massacr
- Victrola Time
- Vixen
- W.B.
- W.M.C.--Blob 59
- Way Round
- Weather Report 2
- What About Us?
- What You Need
- Where's the F***in Taxi? C**t
- Whizz Bang
- Who Makes the Nazis?
- Win Fall CD 2088 AD
- Wings
- Winter (Hostel-Maxi)
- Wise Ol' Man
- Wolf Kidult Man
- Words of Expectation
- Wrong Place, Right Time
- Xmas With Simon
- Y.F.O.C./Slippy Floor
- Yes O Yes
- You Don't Turn Me On
- You Haven't Found It Yet
- You're Not Up To Much
- Your Heart Out
- Youwanner
- Zagreb
- Zandra
-
Arranged By Album
- Live at the Witch Trials
- Dragnet
- Grotesque (After the Gramme)
- Slates
- Hex Enduction Hour
- Room to Live
- Perverted by Language
- The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall
- This Nation's Saving Grace
- Bend Sinister
- The Frenz Experiment
- I Am Kurious, Oranj
- Extricate
- Shift-Work
- Code:Selfish
- The Infotainment Scan
- Middle Class Revolt
- Cerebral Caustic
- Light User Syndrome
- Levitate
- The Marshall Suite
- The Unutterable
- Are You Are Missing Winner
- The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country on the Click)
- Fall Heads Roll
- Reformation Post TLC
- Imperial Wax Solvent
- Your Future Our Clutter
- Ersatz G.B.
- Re-Mit
- The Remainderer
- Sub-Lingual Tablet
- Wise Ol' Man
- New Facts Emerge
- 2014
- O! ZZTRRK Man
- New Facts Emerge
- Segue
- Ponto
- Smith and Mark
- Afternoon Disco
- Reece Stick
- Home /
- The Annotated Lyrics /
- Second House Now
Second House Now
Lyrics
There's ghosts
I get a lift on highway
WM dot C
Where ya been?
Where ya going, man? (this is reply)
Nowhere to go, this is his reply:
Ghosts are rising
Coming down
It's al return--
He's coming back...ward
He said I'm going to a big city
My image, black and white
Said he's going to big city
My image, black and white
The tearing of muscle years
Sword of Mexico
Spirit-like
Horrible
Its sword is red
I'm going to big city
My mirage: black and white
Sword of Mexico
Any spirit-like
New facts emerge
The city lights used tonight in
The AM/PM
Come chew you up
I'm going big city
My image in black and white
Apparition-like
Come on! Come on!
Everybody come on with me!
Down on the street (2)
Wind rising red
Am/P
Within, rising red
Circle trails around
Come on! Come on!
Come on! Come on
Going to the big city
Come on! Come on!
Everybody come on with me!
Tearing of muscle years
Black and white!
SaveSave
Notes
1. Thanks to Buy Kurious!, on whose transcription this is based.
From Pamela Vander's instragram post about Mark's death:
"He was happy and excited and we’d found a second home a couple of years back, moved in, set up shop. Total privacy. He loved it there, wrote a lot, walked in the garden, we watched films."
From Robert Brokenmouth in I-94 Bar:
". . . the extremely well-read MES often hints at the social origins of Nazism - or shall we say, fascist bullshit - in his lyrics. The title 'Second House Now' echoes the chant popularised by the Communist Party and their adherents in UK from late 1942, 'Second Front Now'. Russia was a selfish and ugly ally, which could not comprehend the idea of a discerning and decent life after the war. Similarly (and you don't even need to read the lyrics) Mark knows that the time of fascism in the UK is at hand - and by that, I don't mean either the National Front or the Tory Party. No, it's a social requirement by now, that free people are required to merge into the mass, accept what they're given and be told what to do by the state. This ties in with the lyrics to 'Couples vs Jobless mid-30s' as well, the way in which large chunks of the young population are both disregarded and used as fodder, forcing their ambitions to be selfish and unthreatening to those genuinely in power. This is not the first time MES has compared the social situation in the UK to that of the Communist Bloc.
MES also knew - as do many others - that the UK was heading in this direction in the 1980s, a circumstance exacerbated by the Blairites. (If I was going to write a song about the place now I'd start with 'Land of Roundabouts and Warning Signs'). It might not be too long before we see scenes reminiscent of the Nuremberg rallies - oh, wait... that's on TV now ..."
Dan reports that, according to Greenway, the intro is the band's "daft version" of "In The Jailhouse Now."
2. "Down on the Street" is opening track on the Stooges' Funhouse which, as Zack points out, MES has cited at least once as his favorite album.
Comments (40)
Spirit-like
Horrible
his sword is red (bloody i guess)
The 'muscle' line seems to me to be 'the tearing of muscle years', there is a fashion at the moment for bodybuilding / big muscles. To get big muscles you have to tear the muscle fibres which then heal and enlarge. Usually done by progressive weight training.
http://www.sexdrugsandhiv.com/tracks.html.
The MES track is titled "Blow Up Muscles".
Discussion on the FOF:
http://z1.invisionfree.com/thefall/index.php?showtopic=32330
I hear that as "My mirror's black and white," which perhaps fits more snugly with "my image" elsewhere.
". . . the extremely well-read MES often hints at the social origins of Nazism - or shall we say, fascist bullshit - in his lyrics. The title 'Second House Now' echoes the chant popularised by the Communist Party and their adherents in UK from late 1942, 'Second Front Now'. Russia was a selfish and ugly ally, which could not comprehend the idea of a discerning and decent life after the war. Similarly (and you don't even need to read the lyrics) Mark knows that the time of fascism in the UK is at hand - and by that, I don't mean either the National Front or the Tory Party. No, it's a social requirement by now, that free people are required to merge into the mass, accept what they're given and be told what to do by the state. This ties in with the lyrics to 'Couples vs Jobless mid-30s' as well, the way in which large chunks of the young population are both disregarded and used as fodder, forcing their ambitions to be selfish and unthreatening to those genuinely in power. This is not the first time MES has compared the social situation in the UK to that of the Communist Bloc.
MES also knew - as do many others - that the UK was heading in this direction in the 1980s, a circumstance exacerbated by the Blairites. (If I was going to write a song about the place now I'd start with 'Land of Roundabouts and Warning Signs'). It might not be too long before we see scenes reminiscent of the Nuremberg rallies - oh, wait... that's on TV now ...
By the by. Because the band's LPs don't include lyrics, and only two lyric books have been published (in small quantities, and those often incorrect) so I've been nicking the lyrics mostly from the poor sods at the Annotated Fall website - a lyrics site dedicated to The Fall. They don't think they've got everything right (and I can't blame them - later songs feature gargles and vocal noises which may or may not be words) but their site is one of the few places online you must peruse at least once. The bewilderment, the wonder, the stories behind the stories... it's a fascinating place to lose yourself in."
Full article here: http://www.i94bar.com/albums/the-fall-new-facts-box-set
When I was little I mixed up the Marseillaise and the Tricolor, and if that's happened here, tearing of Marseillaise makes sense. The tricolor was a symbol of the revolution, liberty etc. in opposition to fascist black and white, so it would fit that theme too.
Also, New Facts Emerge is mentioned here; shaking down frogs (French), brexit?
I told you it was far-fetched.
At 0:20 it sounds like “Never hear of him, WC” (dub-c)
At 0:45 “It’s a return/He’s coming back……wards”
At 1:50 “His sword is red” presumably with blood
Starting at 2:10 I hear these lines as “Sword of Mexico, any spirt-like new facts emerge?” as if it is all a question, but that I’m certain about that reading, it definitely sounds more like any than and
At 2:29 “The steady light is used tonight/Do it then/The heir of BEM continued up” knowing MES penchant for old weird horror fiction could be BEM could be Bug Eyed Monster - BEM could be another description of the spirit, who is rising (continued up) and who may have spoken the line about the steady light in quotation, just like mose of the song’s lyrics
At 3:14 “In a rare and anonymous street/with rides in ring/in any old street prostrate/within rising ring/absurd ghost trails around”
OK, back to the lyrics....
At 0:15 it sounds to me like “I couldn’t lift on the highway,” life here presumably meaning to shake or get rid of
Sounds more like "get a lift" to me
At 0:20 it sounds like “Never hear of him, WC” (dub-c)
Sounds reasonably clearly to me "double-ewe M dot Cee
At 0:45 “It’s a return/He’s coming back……wards”
I think so, although it could go either way, I'll change it though...maybe "Back...ward," I get no 's'...but "back...what" seems more like it. I'll try this on for a while though, it's closer than I had it
At 1:50 “His sword is red” presumably with blood
I think "its sword is red"
Starting at 2:10 I hear these lines as “Sword of Mexico, any spirt-like new facts emerge?” as if it is all a question, but that I’m certain about that reading, it definitely sounds more like any than and
I think so
At 2:29 “The steady light is used tonight/Do it then/The heir of BEM continued up” knowing MES penchant for old weird horror fiction could be BEM could be Bug Eyed Monster - BEM could be another description of the spirit, who is rising (continued up) and who may have spoken the line about the steady light in quotation, just like mose of the song’s lyrics
I don't hear "heir," it's more like "M, BEM" or maybe AM/PM that we have...will have to let this percolate.
Do they have AM/PM convenience stores in England? They have them here, that's what I always thought here but never thought to note it. But maybe M, BEM. Crap.
At 3:14 “In a rare and anonymous street/with rides in ring/in any old street prostrate/within rising ring/absurd ghost trails around”
I have:
Down on the street (this is wrong but I don't quite hear "rare and anonymous")
Wind rising red
Am/P
Within, rising red
Circle trails around (wrong but I can't get to "absurd ghost trails")
"Red" might be "ready"
We need more ears on it.
in any old street...
I definitely hear these two now- good work Quix
Down on the street (2)
With rising rent?
Circle trails around = Circle Squares?
http://circlesquaremanchester.com/
Come chew you up = Continue up?[u][/u]
Live version in Southampton 27.01.17:
"I'm going to the big city, in a ring a ring a roses" - West Coast joke?
"I'm going to the muscle years, where hideous new facts emerge.
Triple new facts emerge
Second House Now
...Religion-like"?
Mumbles something about steroids at the end. "religious steroided broccoli? haha
Leeds 23/05/17:
"I'm going back, I will survive
Ghosts are riding
With no return
Second house now
I'm back...
I'm in a second house now
Going down the muscle years"
This ties in with Pam's quote around sorted out their new house around the time of his diagnosis, and the interrupting burst of 'New Facts Emerge!' which I believe some on the fall forum interpreted as his diagnosis?
References to spirits, apparitions etc. maybe tie in with this theory. Not sure how the rest of it fits in with my idea but there you go.
Disclaimer - I may have read this exact theory elsewhere, I thought it was on this very site but on visiting to check I couldn't find reference to it.
Sorry for the morbidity of it all, but I actually find the defiance of this tune quite uplifting - a fuck you to death in the vein of the final verse of Psykick Dancehall
Read the first comment on "Segue."
That said, on reading the above it does sound more like Sword so I'm probably over-reaching.
1. the "c'mon, c'mon" could be quite sinister in this interpretation - dragging the living to the afterlife with him
2. the 'big city' could be interpreted literally and he is actually haunting Manchester city centre
I also think the lyric is 'eye muscle' which is a call back to Quit iPhone
After the song Mark says the words "Religious, steroided rocker. Religious, 'roided up rocker."
There was the case of the Christian rock band who were pretending to be Christians. The singer went crazy taking steroids and tried to hire a hitman to kill his wife but was caught by an undercover FBI agent. The code name of the agent was "Red."
He also references Canal Street in Southampton so this is just wild speculation. It would help if I could hear what he says properly...
On the record penultimate verse I hear
On Canal Steet
With rising red
In Canal Street
Within, rising red
Circle swirls - I ran
Down Canal Street
The red fucking river
Rocking Reagan Religious steroided Rocker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgANIsj2fEQ
Gotta be, surely.
https://twitter.com/ImperialWaxBand/status/1319380802858291201
https://twitter.com/ImperialWaxBand/status/1319379829872001025
The city lights used tonight period PM
The AMVEL continued up
Within rising red
Circle swirls - I ran
Pamela Vander put out a statement on Instagram in response to some of the sillyness, which has some relevance to this song. Here's a portion of her statement: