Sons of Temperance

(1)

The firmament is both my enemy and my friend (2)
One other thing's for sure: division in my soul
Punk art person was you my son
You're an androgynous piece of slop

Roll up! Sons of temperance
Voila! Sons of temperance
Voila! Sons of temperance

Present crypto-moralist nation

Over the mountain lies the valley
Of sweet silence (3)
Dark distortions of the past
And the reconstruction of your new life

Firmament is both my enemy and madness
One other thing's for sure - division in my soul
The abolition of your mind and your brain and your soul
Voila

Roll up! Sons of temperance
Voila! Sons of temperance
Voila! Sons of temperance

Present crypto-moralist nation

Over the mountain lies the valley
Of sweet silence
Dark distortions of the past
And the restructure of your new life (4)

1. The Sons of Temperance was a fraternal organization, formed to further alcohol temperance, that was founded in the US in 1842 and imported to Britain in 1849.

This song is concerned with the tension, and the mutual implication, of discipline and ecstasy; the difference between the narrator and those he attacks is the way in which the two are combined (which is the difference between an overt hedonist who is a "crypto-moralist" and a disciplined and even Puritanical seeker of transcendence).  This is a central theme for the Fall, whether in lyrics, interviews, or seemingly even in practice, although it is never approached entirely directly and, thus, may even seem to be a pet theme of my own that I've attached to the lyrics. In my defense I can only say that I did not initially approach Fall lyrics with this idea in mind and, as far as I know, Fall lyrics are my original source for the idea. If you want to read me letting my hair down, so to speak, my notes for "New Puritan" are unhampered by any consideration for the patience of the reader or the sanity of the author, and pursue the theme of the relation between work and transcendence as far as I felt like going. "New Puritan" is a thematic companion-piece to this song; many Fall songs are, but this one is especially so. These lyrics should not be approached without consulting "New Puritan" and, if it's not presumptuous to suggest, my notes for the latter; I will not bloviate much here about matters already bloviated about there. 

Mark Aerial Waller suggests: "It might well be a reference to my video 'The Sons of Temperance' (2000) that I made after 'Midwatch'(1999) with MES. I didn't finish it in time to get it to him for the album, which might be something to do with 2 weeks, 1 week etc. (I shot it round the corner from the building mentioned in the comments here) The film's about an archaeologist from the future who decrypts a drunken message from a crystal glass. Mark was making a parallel narrative, like he did in a way with midwatch. Much gratitude for his parlay with me."

The "Testa Rossa" outtake contains the kick ass line "The Worm is both my enemy and brother..." From Doc:

Job 17:14: "I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister."

From The amaranth, or, Religious poems by Walter Harte:

Ah ! what are men, who God's creation scorn?
The worm their brother; -brother elder born! 
Plants live like them, in fairer robes array'd, 
Alike they flourish, and alike they fade. 

Tell me, vain-glorious Newtons, if you can,
What heterogeneous mixtures form the man
Pleasure and anguish, ignorance and skill,
Nature and spirit, slavery and free will, 
weakness and strength...

A very obscure poem, more likely the worm idea is from someone like Blake who Mark was reading at the time (see particularly "W.B."). 

The Sick Rose:

O Rose, thou art sick:
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy;
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

This poem is from Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul, a title which would be a good starting place for the "division in my soul" lines.

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2. "Firmament" can mean the vault of the heavens, Heaven, or a firm and stable foundation. If we take it in the first sense, it could mean the stars are both for and against the speaker, which harks back to themes from "Two Librans": astrology, and the duality of Libra (see also the next line, "division in my soul"). Any one of the three definitions could provide the starting point for a plausible interpretation. It seems most likely to me, however, that "firmament" means a strong foundation or a structure, the kind of ambiguous Puritanism that MES limns out in "New Puritan," to which this song is a kind of sequel. Some variant lyrics allow us a small handhold on this interpretation, though a uncertain one due to the fact that the various lyrics, here and on the demo and live versions, seem to weave a thematic web without ever congealing into a clear statement. The live version on Disc One of Touch Sensitive ends with MES singing, "Without form, without structure, in rectangle and pentangle." This could be an illusion to an invoked spirit, although a circle and pentangle would in that case fit better. The version on Disc Three begins, "The enemy is in the firmament of my soul/The enemy is in my soul..." This pushes me toward the third definition of firmament given above as the most plausible literal and immediate way to take the line. 

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3. The Western Cym, a valley at the foot of Mount Everest, is also often called "The Valley of Silence." Climbers who take the southeast route to the summit begin by traversing this valley. There is a poem by the Scots poet Fiona Macleod, a pseudonym for WIlliam Sharp (1855-1905), called "The Valley of Silence" which begins, "In the secret Valley of Silence/No breath doth fall;/No wind stirs in the branches/No bird both call..." Sharp, like W.B. Yeats, Arthur Machen and Aleister Crowley, was a member of the magical order The Golden Dawn. Shakespeare's 30th sonnet begins, "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past." The last phrase was adopted as a title by the first two English translators of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu (literally, In Search of Lost Time).

^

4. MES liked this ungrammatical statement enough that he decided to repeat it, and indeed it is an echo of a lyric from 1980's "Putta Block": "The complete restructure of your pretentious life."

The demo version of "Sons of Temperance" has some different lyrics:

Had two weeks to view
To the blockage of
Two weeks

Present
(Has week to two view)
(Has week to two view)

The worm
Is both my enemy
And brother 
To

(The ... all around. Devilry... and sweet...)
Temperance

Has week to view
Has two weeks to view
To the blockage of
Twelve percent interest
And children
Sidetracked
Voila! Sons of temperance
Voila! Sons of temperance
Voila! Sons of temperance
Voila! Sons of temperance

Dan points out the "enemy and brother" is reminiscent of Cain and Abel...

^

Sons of Temperance: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 2000