Surrogate Mirage
Lyrics
[Can you give them lights a rest, a bit of a rest for a bit…we’re sweating too much…haven't done any work yet…hullo Karl]
This regards parting, leaving
Because art of bleeding
Raw pumpings of emotion
Your chummy lifestyle sits on my vein
And not that I bother
Surrogates always give up, persistent cracks
11pm is when those people recede
They get you right round the bend
When you ask what cake and to what end
I saw a surrogate mirror
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate vampire
He’s the sort that smokes 60 cigarettes
And none of them his own
He put his head in the basin
He put his head in the basin
He writes letters to his parents
He writes letters through his parents
Since they talk to him
I saw a surrogate mirror
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate vampire
I was left with this surrogate mirror
And thought “who created this monster?”
Take salt in tears and the sun going down
Wide right across the shore
Reminds me of the cause
Of this mental downpour
I saw a surrogate mirror
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate vampire
Everybody's telling me do this, do that
They're running my life for me
I'm gonna tell 'em my time's up
They’ve just given me my last orders (2)
Last orders, Dan, Daaaan.
They [...] his boots from his grave
And through azure chamomile haze
Finish his meal off Bailey
And nightly through the plains
To [...] his grave
And [...]
I saw a surrogate mirror
I saw a surrogate mirage
And when I saw him on the screen
He did not have a beer can
The audience got a quick rap
He looked sleek like an actors own should
He treats his family good
Knowing that he’s made the top prop
Keeping sleek and bud
For the living psy-cog of his ritual bog
Surrogate mirage
Notes
1. Thanks are in order to Stevoid on the Fall online forum for transcribing the lyrics. This is a song the Fall played only once, at Leicester Polytechnic on March 24, 1982. There are in fact many more lyrics in the song than the above, but I can't make them out on the atrocious recording I have.
Considering the length of this song and the amount of lyrics it contains, it is remarkable that the band only played it once.
Martin gives us the following information:
27 October 1981 Bierkeller, Newcastle: The NWRA and Cash and Carry both contain the line “I saw a surrogate mirage”, 6 months before the song was performed.
2. This stanza is more or less quoted from the earlier song "Last Orders."
More Information
Comments (17)

- 1. | 02/02/2014

- 2. | 02/12/2020
This regards parting leaving
He was out of leading
Your pointed centre of emotion
Your Johnny lifestyle sense of hiding
At first I was bothered
So late he was given dislocated cracks and LPN
His records people receive
They get you right round the bend
When you ask for cake and to what end
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate vampire
He's the one that sits smoking cigarettes
And none of them live as one
He put his head in the basin
He put his head in the basin
He writes letters to his parents
He writes letters through his parents
Says they talk to him
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate mirage
I was wracked by this surrogate mirror
I thought, who created this monster
Chains soaked in tears
And the sun going down
Why rise across his door
Reminds me of the cause
Of this incident poor
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate mirage
Undecipherable verse
Last orders Dan
Dan
The call him from his room
Two eyes from a vampire
Finishes him of a bailey
And right before the flames
He is definitely dismayed
And waits for the residence awful
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate mirage
I went and saw him on the screen
He didn't have a beer can
He only said a quick rap
He looks sleek like an actor once should
He treats his family good
Knowing that he's made the top pop
He's keep his can good
For the living cycle of his ritual hug

- 3. | 12/12/2020
And I wasn't bothered
Surrogates always give out scented cracks
11PM, It's when people recede
It gets you right round the bend
When you ask for cake and to what end

- 4. | 27/12/2020
Good MES line

- 5. | 22/02/2021

- 6. | 22/02/2021

- 7. | 14/03/2021
01:29
This rag-arsed RT ?
Because art of bleeding
Raw pumpings of emotion
Your chummy lifestyle sits on my ?
And not that I bother
Surrogates always give up, persisted cracks
11pm is when those people recede
They get you right round the bend
When you ask what cake and to what end
I saw a surrogate mirror
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate vampire
03:04
He’s the sort that smokes 60 cigarettes
And none of them his own
He put his head in the basin
He put his head in the basin
He writes letters to his parents
He writes letters through his parents
Since they talk to him
I saw a surrogate mirror
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate vampire
3:50
I’m entrapped with this surrogate mirror
And thought “who created this monster?”
04:28
Take salt in tears and the sun going down
Wide right across the shore
Reminds me of the cause
Of this mental downpour
I saw a surrogate mirror
I saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate vampire
05:13
Everybody's telling me do this, do that
They're running my life for me
I'm gonna tell 'em my time's up
They’ve just given me my last orders
Last orders, Dan, Daaaan.
05:45
They ? ?? from his grave
And through azure chamomile glades
Finish his meal off Bailey
And nightly through the plains
To ? ?? his grave
And ? ????
He saw a surrogate mirror
He saw a surrogate mirage
I saw a surrogate mirror
I saw a surrogate mirage
06:48
And when I saw him on the screen
He didn’t have a beer can
The audience got a quick rap
He looked sleek like an actors ? should
He treats his family good
Knowing that he’s made the top prop
Keeping sleek and bud
For the living psy-cog of his ritual bog

- 8. | 18/03/2021
I’d never heard this until two weeks ago, after seeing it here, it’s fantastic. If they’d ended “Room to Live” with this instead of Papal Visit it’d be in everyone’s top 10 Fall LPs. Timings from this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIXY9z4031M.
*Slight error on intro, should be "them lights"
*“This rag-arsed RT ?" Tempted by “this braggart’s” rather than “this rag-arsed” but sticking with first hear. Unsure of RT but seems right to invoke Totale here. Rest of line after RT sounds like “bleeg”
*“chummy lifestyle” is written on the cover of Hex Enduction Hour
*“11pm is when those people recede” changed to “At three a.m. The stick people recede” for Hard Life in Country
*“the sun going down, Wide right across the shore” puts me in mind of the cover of Echo and the Bunnymen’s Heaven Up Here, is Smith rueing his encouragement of the young McCulloch? Is Mac the surrogate mirror?
*“Everybody's telling me do this do that
They're running my life for me
I'm gonna tell 'em my time's up
They’ve just given me my last orders”
The first bit is off-mic, fades in at “do that”. These lines are from (but not identical) to Last Orders and sung as they are in finger-on-nostrils fashion would be indecipherable without the earlier song for reference.
“azure chamomile glades” is lovely, is it borrowed from somewhere? I’d love someone to work the rest of this verse out, we’re in poetic realms here.
“Finish his meal off Bailey” doesn’t seem quite right but can’t come up with better.
“ For the living psy-cog of his ritual bog” I hope this is right cause it’s the quintessential MES sign off. Earliest use of psy-cog in a Fall song?

- 9. | 20/03/2021
"Raw pumpings" I think is right, or right-er. I'm trying to work in everything you have that sounds like it could be right...

- 10. | 20/03/2021

- 11. | 20/03/2021

- 12. | 20/03/2021
Everybody's telling me do this, do that
They're running my life for me
I'm gonna tell 'em my time's up

- 13. | 20/03/2021

- 14. | 20/03/2021

- 15. | 28/03/2021

- 16. | 01/04/2021
And through azure chamomile haze
Finish his meal of Bailey
And nightly through the glades
...To his grave
And lights go out for his completely red is ochre

- 17. | 01/04/2021
Daily would make more sense as the next line involves nightly.
The NWRA and Cash and Carry both contain the line “I saw a surrogate mirage”, 6 months before the song was performed.