Susan vs. Youthclub

(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]

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.

^

Susan vs. Youthclub: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 2002