Susan vs. Youthclub

Lyrics

(1)

Susan had an accident
Reverted back to age sixteen
Went down to the youthclub
In a mirror looked and started to scream

A similar thing happened to me
When I was of the age thirteen
Reflection held a picture of a man
Of two hundred and three

And it was all in all safe and warm
Safe and warm

Reading book I had no teeth
To talk about on that day
Badly Boy Drawn had confiscated them
And put them in
A mouldy old acoustic case
Safe and warm for a Saturday (2)

And it was all in all safe and warm

The reflection held
I hel... looked a whole lot better
Distinguished
Picking crumbs off the floor
Sophisticated

Susan had an accident
Reverted back to age sixteen
Went down to the youthclub
In a mirror looked and started to scream

And it was all in all safe and warm [to fade]

 

Lyrics

1. This is a farily straightforward story, and Reformation even has a theory:

There is a possibility that MES got the idea for the song from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, in which the following storyline took place (quote from Wikipedia): "In 2002, Susan Kennedy developed retrograde amnesia when she hit her head after slipping on some milk. This amnesia meant that she had forgotten the last thirty years (including her entire marriage to Karl) and could not remember anything that happened to her after she was sixteen. With a mental age of 16, Susan was scared by Karl and the couple were forced to split again."

And from the Wikipedia entry for the character Susan Kennedy (thanks to Danny):

Susan spots some students in Seventies clothes and she follows them to a Seventies themed party at Erinsborough High. However, the students recognise Susan as their principal, which distresses her. Susan ends up in the bathroom and she sees herself in the mirror for the first time since the accident, and is shocked to see a middle-aged woman staring back at her.


^

2. Badly Drawn Boy is English singer-songwriter Damon Gough, with whom the Fall collaborated on Calendar. Apparently the collaboration began with MES, one drunken evening, mistaking Badly Drawn Boy for a cabbie, and then, when the latter gave him a ride home, leaving his teeth in the car.

^

Comments (11)

dannyno
  • 1. dannyno | 08/04/2014
MES admits to a liking for Neighbours, so Reformation may well be right:
http://z1.invisionfree.com/thefall/index.php?showtopic=16807.htm
dannyno
  • 2. dannyno | 08/04/2014
In fact, a more helpful Wikipedia quote is this:

"Susan spots some students in Seventies clothes and she follows them to a Seventies themed party at Erinsborough High. However, the students recognise Susan as their principal, which distresses her. Susan ends up in the bathroom and she sees herself in the mirror for the first time since the accident, and is shocked to see a middle-aged woman staring back at her."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Kennedy#Retrograde_amnesia

I think that's pretty damn conclusive.

Let the Great 2014 Fall Neighbours References Hunt begin
dannyno
  • 3. dannyno | 12/07/2014
It's interesting how often the inspirations for Fall lyrics are very close to the first performance or recording of the song.

In this case, the episode of Neighbours which inspired some of the lyrics is this one:
http://www.neighboursepisodes.com/index.php?year=2002&episode=4033

There's a picture there of Susan looking in the mirror.

According to that site, the episode was first aired in the UK on 21 August 2002. The first known performance of the song was on 21 November. Now, 21 August may not have been when MES saw the episode, but it gives us a benchmark.

Dan
Lastcleandirtyshirt
  • 4. Lastcleandirtyshirt | 21/06/2015
Someone has put the song to the Neighbours episode. Awesome tune!

http://youtu.be/bTYZU1bihNs
dannyno
  • 5. dannyno | 16/03/2018
The url I cited in comment #3 is in the internet archive, just in case:

http://web.archive.org/web/20170629042423/http://www.neighboursepisodes.com/index.php?year=2002&episode=4033
Xyralothep's cat
  • 6. Xyralothep's cat | 15/12/2019
Grinning but I had no teeth...
bzfgt
  • 7. bzfgt (link) | 21/12/2019
I like that but it sounds more like "book" to me still
Thop
  • 8. Thop | 25/01/2021
There's some very faint MES pre-cog in the format of the title: a couple of years later there was a period when Neighbours episodes were given titles and among them was 'Boyd VS Satan', about a character called Boyd being attacked by a dog called Satan.
Cian O' Farrell
  • 9. Cian O' Farrell | 13/02/2021
In an interview with BBC Radio 6, Liz Kershaw asks if the song is about a plotline from Neighbours, MES answers no. Mark says "it's just about watching daytime TV, with a bad leg." This can be heard from 18:16 on this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCJAlasgmN0&ab_channel=dirtypearl
dannyno
  • 10. dannyno | 16/02/2021
Comment #9. Oh yeah. Of course, he also denied that he borrowed the "Eat Yourself Fitter" slogan etc etc. I suppose, though, that saying it's not about 'Neighbours' is probably literally true. He's obviously borrowed elements of the storyline. And he's acknowledging that by referring to watching daytime TV with a bad leg.
dannyno
  • 11. dannyno | 09/08/2022
MES and Neighbours, from The Word magazine, July 2007:

http://thefall.org/gigography/image/07jul_word.jpg


The only thing I really watch is Neighbours. I'm a big Neighbours fan - it's an Australian thing, so everything's in reverse. Can't watch Eastenders or Coronation St. but Neighbours is great. They've only got 12 actors in Australia, and you can see in all their faces how they want to move to London and make a pop record.

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