So What About It?

Fall advice!
Fall advice!
Fall advice!
Fall advice! (1)

Love Year Number One
Has gone and turned 
Into Year of Bomb
TV wars 24 hours (2)
But it happens

Fall advice!

Shaking my bones down the M40 (3)
Passenger seat gripped tight
In a Series 3           (4)
I cannot sleep
But I'm happy
I cannot eat
So what about it?

It happens
It happens
It happens

Fall advice!

The work's down the drain (5)
And interest never wanes
So what about it?

Fall advice!
Some are born to life
Some are born depressed
About it   (6)

Fall advice!

To parties underground
You're driving around in Lake District (7)
You're stepping around
It doesn't matter to me
Cause it happens
It's magic
So what about it?

1. This is definitely he says, at least part of the time, although sometimes it seems to morph into something like "Fall advance!" There's not really anything in the song that sounds like advice, unless "but it happens" means the equivalent of something like "don't worry about it." The addressee of the advice is most likely the singer (whether we take that to be MES or a character), judging by the first person form of the lyrics.

The first side of Shift-Work is labelled "Earth's Impossible Day" (see "More Information" below).

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2. What is Year Number One, and in what sense has it turned into the Year of Bomb? Harley suggests: "Year number '1' probably refers to 1991, the year that Shiftwork came out and the year that 'turned into bomb' with the beginning of Operation Desert Storm in Iraq on 17th January." This theory fits well with "TV wars 24 hours," as CNN's 24 hour coverage of the Gulf War was widely considered to have propelled the network into the big time, as for the first time a cable news channel was consistently surpassing network news in the ratings. Indeed, Simon Ford reports, in Hip Priest, that the original title of the album was "The War Against Intelligence," but Smith decided--for reasons which are inscrutable to me in lieu of more information--that the title was too controversial in light of the Gulf War (Ford doesn't exactly say this, but he strongly implies it, writing "Smith decided to change the title to something less controversial"). 

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3. There is an M40 that runs from Birmingham to London. The Lyrics Parade has "M14," which is also possible, but less so. There is not a motorway in England called the M14, but The Fall had been touring Europe, and there is a highway of that name in Germany. (There is also an M14 in Michigan--the 'M' in this case stands for "Michigan" rather than "motorway").

In any case, the blue lyrics book has

Shaking my bones
Down the M42
Passenger seat gripped tight

The version sung here definitely does not have "M42."

^

4.  A Series Three might be a Land Rover, which has a "Series III," or else a BMW, which has a "3 Series."

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5. This seems to be an echo of David Bowie's "Suffragette City" ("Hey, man, my schoolday's insane/Hey, man, my work's down the drain").

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6. This is somewhat reminiscent of these lines from Blake's "Auguries of Innocence":

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born.
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

Jim Morrison quoted the last lines in "End of the Night."

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7. The Lake District in northern England is also mentioned in "Levitate."

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The Story of the Fall: 1991

From Buy Kurious on the Fall Online Forum, the following is text from DC's Hawkman (taken from Dial B for Blog)::

EARTH'S IMPOSSIBLE DAY
THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN

"If ponies rode men and grass ate cows,
And cats should be chased to holes by the mouse,
If the mamas sold their babies to the gypsies for half a crown;
Summer were spring and the t'other way around.
Then all the world would be upside down."

In 1781, the British army under Gen. Cornwallis surrendered to Gen. George Washington, ending the American Revolutionary War. On the day of the surrender, the English fife and 
drum corps played a march called “The World Turned Upside Down” (lyrics above).

The declaration of July 4th -- to which America’s Founding Fathers had pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor -- had achieved fruition. Despite inconceivable odds and to the complete astonishment of the entire world, a tiny colony had defeated the world’s greatest military power and secured for itself the right to exist as a free and independent nation.

It was IMPOSSIBLE -- as unlikely as ponies riding men, or grass eating cows. It was as impossible as making rain fall upward, hurling lightning bolts, or seeing the invisible. There was just no possible way it could have happened. But it happened anyway.

Remarkably, on distant Thanagar, home of Hawkman, an annual Thanagarian holiday coincides with America's Independence Day. To celebrate it, Hawkman must make rain fall upward, hurl lightning bolts, and see the invisible! IMPOSSIBLE, you say? That's true! There is just no possible way it can happen. But history is not a record of the "possible," it is a record of what happened. To celebrate the "impossible" day America declared her independence, let's do something impossible. Today is the day for it, reader! Because TODAY is --

Earth's Impossible Day!

^

REMIX #1

[(Remix #2): (I think me and you are going to get along)
Bulletin from moth city
The insect posse will be crushed
(somethin’ within me)]

(Right, there was a problem)
By Fall: advice

Fall advice, Fall advice, Fall advice
Yak yak yak
Fall advice, Fall advice, Fall advice 
Yak yak yak, yak yak yak, yak yak yak
Fall advice

Love near number one
Has gone and turned
Into year of bomb
Thugs walking the streets 
Kicking doors with their feet 
It’s happened

Fall advice, Fall advice, Fall advice

Shaking my bones down the M40
Passenger seat gripped tight
If I don’t split
I’m gonna flip 
So what about it? 
So what about it? 
It happens, it happens 
But it happens
Fall advice
The works down the drain
And interest never wanes 
So what about it? 

Fall advice, Fall advice, Fall advice, Fall advice, Fall advice
Yak yak yak, yak yak yak 
Fall advice, Fall advice

Some are born to life
Some are born de-depressed about it
But luckily some are born to Fall advice
Fall advice, Fall advice 
So what about it?
Fall advice, Fall advice, Fall advice
Fall advice, Fall advice

To parties underground
You’re driving around in Lake District
You’re stepping around 
It doesn’t matter to me
Cause it happens
It’s magic
So what about it?
Cause it happens
Cause it happens

Please don’t touch me ‘cause I’m shaking so much *
It happens
Please don’t touch, ‘cause I’m shaking so much  
From moth city insect posse is crushed
So what about it?
From moth city insect posse is crushed

*Lines from "Please Don't Touch" by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates (1959)

Also covered by Headgirl (Motörhead and Girlschool, 1980)

Thanks to Bazhdaddy