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The Annotated Lyrics
- (Birtwistle's) Girl in Shop
- (Jung Nev's) Antidotes
- (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 /
- Surmount All Obstacles
Surmount All Obstacles
Lyrics
You must retreat into mysticism
To find an origination (1)
Locate the base enclave
Surmount all obstacles
Surmount all obstacles
Heinz is guilty,
He says "Look, I left the shotgun by accident
I'm a black belt" (2)
His face is full of ex ex ex ex-cruelty
Guilt, blue-eyed
A caring, sharing man
Embarrass them into extinction
Must he retreat into mysticism
Or locate the base and climb?
Surmount all obstacles
(You can surmount all obstacles)
Progress
We can surmount all obstacles
We can surmount all obstacles
Why can't we surmount pointless reflection...
It must have taken
Hours and hours, that
What an interesting article
Heinz is guilty
On the borders of your imagination
We can surmount all obstacles
Das Richard und das Judy
Are the cobwebs on your couture cuticles (3)
All obstacles
Notes
1. The ambiguity of this line is remarkable, and indicative of MES's ambivalent attitude toward mysticism and spiritualist phenomena in general; the imperative "you must" is balanced by the word "retreat," which has a connotation that is at least slightly negative, and hints at another, more direct course of action--we learn later that it is to "locate the base and climb"-- that would be preferable but for whatever reason is not possible at the moment.
2. "Heinz" may be, according to Russell Richardson, a featured character on the 1960s Granada TV program The Golden Shot. Heinz was, Richardson recounts, the camera assistant. His role was to take instructions from contestants who "gave instructions to a blindfolded crossbow operator (Heinz) who was aiming his Tele-Bow at a taut string holding a treasure chest of golden coins. The idea was to direct Heinz to guide the bolt to cut the string and win the money at the bullseye of a target. Based on a cheesy version of William Tell, this Heinz had a (fake?) Swiss German accent. After not very long, Heinz was replaced by Bernie, and the catch phrase when the operator loaded the crossbow (a real one, mounted on a TV camera) was 'Heinz, the Bolt!'" (and later, as one might expect, "Bernie, the Bolt!"). "That's who's apologising in the song. I think he did that once, and accidentally shot before being told to."
For the Record suggests "it is probably referencing Joe Meek prodigy Heinz Burt who as Wikipedia tells us 'lived briefly in Meek's flat, further disagreements over royalties saw him move out, leaving some possessions behind including a shotgun. It was this shotgun with which Meek killed his landlady and then himself in 1967, and although Heinz was questioned by police, they concluded he had nothing to do with their deaths.'"
Two more, for the purposes of due diligence:
On June 20, 1913, an unemployed school teacher named Heinz Schmidt entered St. Mary's Catholic School in Bremen (the setting of another Fall song) and opened fire, killing five schoolgirls and wounding 20 other people. And Heinz-Wilhelm Eck was a German U-boat commander who was executed after World War II for ordering his crew to execute the survivors of a Greek ship sunk by the German U-boat under Eck's command.
3. Yes, this last line is unintelligible; according to Samuel Johnson "cuticle" can, aside from its more common meaning as the dead skin at the base of human fingernails, mean "A thin skin formed on the surface of any liquor," so maybe the image refers to a liquid that has been left in the kitchen so long that its cuticle has hardened to the point where it can collect cobwebs. I doubt that much thought went into the phrase, however, and it also may be a play on "kitchen cubicle."
RIchard and Judy are British television hosts, and mention of them is also made in "A Lot of Wind," "North West Fashion Show," and probably "Is This New."
Comments (25)
Can anybody make out what it says right after "Why can't we surmount pointless reflection"?
So now I'm hearing it as a football reference rather than a shooting reference.
http://her.oxfordjournals.org/content/18/6/706.full:
"They thought right, stick me in goal and they’d just keep the opposition away from me. It turned out I was rather good at it, cause of the size of me it wasn’t easy for them to get the ball past me. And we won and that was it, I was like a hero, they thought I was great, it were fun. Cause I was thinkin’ ‘if I let a goal in, I’ll get beat up’, you know, that’s literally what it was like, so I didn’t let a bloody goal in."
Manager Luis Felipe Scolari after his team lost to Barcelona:
"We lost 3-0, but it's not much different to what has happened to other big clubs. At least we didn't let in four like Real Madrid."
You could say "I let the shot go by" in an instance where the goalkeeper knew the shot was missing ("by" here would here imply "by the post") the goal and was allowing the ball to go out for a goal-kick.
On possibility might be the idea that "I let the shot go [in]", which would be an admission that you allowed a shot by an opposing player to enter into the net for whatever reason (bribery, blackmail, pissed off with your own team's performance, or whatever).
Could it be that MES meant to say (or couldn't be bothered for whatever reason) to say the italicised word in the following phrase: "I let the shot go off by accident"? This would tie in much more neatly with the gun theories expounded in the notes above.
Just some examples, not even going to source them:
“Nobody picked me up right away, so I let the shot go,”
"I closed my eyes when I let the shot go, hoping it would go in,"
"I had a nice angle with my left foot so I let the shot go,"
"I take a deep breath and I let the shot go."
etc
So there are real world examples of usage in football, if not exactly what I suggested. Letting a shot go by accident could therefore refer to a mis-kick.
It could still refer to shooting a gun, but this alternative reading does stand up.
I have just started digging into the last fall albums I have under-listened to... such is life... (seriously, I blame compilations) but I think I can 100% clear the question of Heinz up... it refers to the camera assistant of the 1960s TV show 'The Golden Shot' from Granada TV, where contestants gave instructions to a blindfolded crossbow operator who was aiming his Tele-Bow at a taut string holding a treasure chest of golden coins. the idea was to direct Heinz (for it was he) to guide the bolt to cut the string and win the money at the bullseye of a target. Based on a cheesy version of William Tell, the Heinz had a (fake?) Swiss German accent. After not very long, Heinz was replaced by Bernie, and the catch phrase when the operator loaded the crossbow (a real one, mounted on a TV camera) was "Heinz, the Bolt".
That's who's apologising in the song. I think he did that once, and accidentally shot before being told to.
Sounds dull and unlikely, but in fact was pretty participatory and exciting. 60s TV, eh?
Don't take my ailing memory for it, though, I have not bothered to correct its miniscule errors that this article sets right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Shot
Heinz was actually the German show creator, Hannes Schmid.
But it doesn't actually seem to have been Heinz's (or Bernie's) job to fire the crossbow. They just loaded it.
Apparently the role of "Bernie" was played by Alan Bailey, Derek Young, and Johnny Baker :
/tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/TheGoldenShot
The person whose job in the early rounds of the show was to receive instructions while blindfolded was cameraman Derek Chason.
There's a feature/interview about/with Chason in the magazine 405 Alive, issue 35: https://www.bvws.org.uk/publications/405alive/pdf/405_Alive_35.pdf
Another version here, not entirely sure who's copying who: http://lea.hamradio.si/~s56fpw/dir/pdf/cq-tv184.pdf
Anyway, so comment #14 is mistaken in thinking Heinz would ever have let a shot go.
Check out this live version here at 16:21
"Heinz is guilty, he said "I left the shotgun there by accident”"
So if the LP line is “I left the shotgun by accident”, which I think it is, then it is probably referencing Joe Meek prodigy Heinz Burt who as wikipedia tells us
"lived briefly in Meek's flat, further disagreements over royalties saw him move out, leaving some possessions behind including a shotgun.[5] It was this shotgun with which Meek killed his landlady and then himself in 1967, and although Heinz was questioned by police, they concluded he had nothing to do with their deaths.[4"
A lot of the LP version is blurry due to the doubled vocal - based on the single track "Rex Sergeant" mix I offer these suggestions;
1:04 His face is full of ex ex ex sex-cruelty
1:32 Must you retreat into mysticism
Or locate the base enclave
2:22 When can we surmount the British affection for the base swindler; “what a lad!”
(replacing Why can't we surmount pointless reflection...)
And the sign off;
Mit das Richard und das Judy
On the complex of your couture cuticles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXt9d3vS3OU
Not convinced by "sex cruelty."
Enclave is usually pronounced "en- clayv" so not convinced by that
Definitely "British affection"