Symbol of Mordgan

(1)

John Peel: Craig, you've been to see Manchester City. How was it?

Craig Scanlon. Er, grim.

JP: Grim? Really? Well once again, you see, because people always assume that I've got loads of technology available to me here and lots of people rushing about giving me bits of paper like they do on television. In fact I'm Just watching the television so erm...

CS: [...]

JP: Oh right yeah. Okay go on, tell us all about it

CS: Well I mean the first half we were all over them. It's a typical City game, y'know. Ye were like totally outplayed, and they're rubbish anyway, West Ham, it's got to be said. [.. .] but erm no we were all over them in the first half and I don't know what he puts in the tea in the second half but erm we were like kinda zombies when we came back on. There weren't any good players apart from er Rocastle which I thought was <cut>

JR: [...] that one little thing where he sort of...

......

CS: Yeah we do we play lots of football, loads of passing, they play too much football, they're just kind of er. . . everyone's like looking for a passing opportunity rather than like a scoring opportunity.

JP: Not going to go down though, are they, Craig?

CS: Er.. .I don't know. Everyone else in er. .. everyone else thinks we're gonna go down but they've just like suddenly come out of closets, y'know, they've like discovered their grandfather was a  United fanfar.

JP: Right

CS: ...some years back It's like the whole of Manchester at the moment anyway

JP: I was told you see, I was always told er the conventional wisdom was that .... <cut> that isn't the case any more.

CS: Well the true Mancunian is the Man City fan, I find.

JR: (laughs)

CS: I mean they're all reds really aren't they and er. . . <cut>

What upsets you really is that the training that you must have in discussion at your own level regarding the existence of god is far greater than everybody that's ringing in tonight. (2)

1. The "lyrics" are a recording of an interview of Craig Scanlon conducted by John Peel. The subject is a football game between Manchester City and West Ham united, which resulted in a 0-0 tie. The music is mostly someone (presumably Scanlon) playing a guitar; it has been claimed that the tune is "Yummy Yummy" by the Ohio Express. This is followed up by a snippet that sounds like the music from a TV program or movie, and a snatch of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music.  

Dan has that which is sought by each Number Two:

"The recording comes from the John Peel show of 12 February 1994, during a period when the Peel show was on in the early evenings:  The match was a no-score draw. I've confirmed the date and score with some soccer websites. According to this page (scroll down to the correct date}, Craig's report appeared between plays of Luke Slater's 'Sea Serpent' and Bad Religion's 'What Can You Do'."

And, also from Dan:

"Morgdan" (rather than Mordgan) is Bosnian for "morgue". In which case the reference to Zombies and Manchester City suggests the odd Spanish/Italian film The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue. But it's all very obscure.

Interestingly, MandrakeAnthrax has discovered that the song is published as "Symbol of Mordingen":

SYMBOL OF MORDINGEN (Legal Title)
BMI Work #3880853
Songwriter/Composer Current Affiliation CAE/IPI #
HANLEY STEVEN PRS 0
SCANLAN CRAIG ANTONY PRS 47107988
SMITH MARK EDWARD EDWARD PRS 46707670

Publishers
BMG BUMBLEBEE BMI 722300987

Dan muses:

I've been playing with comment #8 by MandrakeAnthrax, who reminds us that the registered title is "Mordingen". If that's not just a mistake, maybe it could be significant.

The symbol of "Merdingen" is a red rose (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merdingen), which is also the symbol of Lancashire.

"Mordingen" is a German town too, and could be translated as having something to do with murder, perhaps.
 

^

2. This last line is from the same recording that kicks off "Lucifer Over Lancashire," and is thought to be Scanlon calling in to a radio program.  

^

Symbol of Mordgan: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 1994