Tempo House
Lyrics
A serious man
In need of a definitive job
He had drunk too much
Mandrake anthrax (2)
Pro-rae, pro-rae
Oloron (3)
Tormented tots
With Burton weeping (4)
His idiot contacts
Pro-rae, pro-rae
Pro-rae, pro-rae
Put your claim into Tempo House (5)
Go round there to Tempo House
Go round, have a grouse
Put your claim into Tempo House
Roll their chubby round jowls
Roll the chubby round jowls
And Burton is weeping
His shares are weeping
God damn the pedantic Welsh
Pro-rae, pro-rae
Loron, loron
Put your claim into Tempo House
Put your claim into Tempo House
Go round, have a grouse
Put your claim into Tempo House
Put your claim, put your claim
I'd sing "Solitaire" for the B.E.F. (6)
But who wants to be with them, anyway?
Snow on Easter Sunday
Jesus Christ in reverse (7)
I tell ya, the Dutch are weeping
In four languages at least (8)
Oloron
Pro-rae, pro-rae
Pro-rae, pro-rae
And Burton is weeping
Put your claim into Tempo House
Put your claim into Tempo House
Go round, have a grouse
Put your claim into Tempo House
Put your claim, put your claim, put your claim, put your claim...
Illness, pollution, should be encouraged and let loose
Then maybe some would have a genuine grouse
Spring right out of the fetters
Right away from 6 Green Market Place (9)
Tempo House address
Pro-rae, pro-rae
Oloron
Winston Churchill had a speech imp-p-p-pediment (10)
And look what he did
Erased half of London (11)
And the Dutch are weeping
Lusted after French paintings
Pro-rae, pro-rae
Oloron, oloron
Put your claim into Tempo House
Go round and have a grouse
Go round, have a grouse
Put your claim into Tempo House (12)
Notes
1. There is an office building at 15 Falcon Road in Battersea (London) called Tempo House (thanks to Dan and BreconBorn for pointing this out). The building indeed predates the song. Dan: "In the early 1980s, one of the companies based at Tempo House, Falcon Road, was 'Mike Mingard Music Limited.' Mingard seems to have been into music publishing and management," and in fact Dan has discovered that Mingard was apparently Gary Glitter's manager. As Dan goes on to say, "The lyric is not specific, but I think it's probably referring to some music industry organisation or something like that, that at the time was based at Tempo House. But it could be anything."
See also note 5 and More Information below for more on occupants of Tempo House.
Tempo is Italian for "time," and is music terminology for the pace at which something is played.
2. Mandrake is a hallucinogenic nightshade, and anthrax is a bacterial disease as well as a short form of the name of the bacteria, Bacillus Anthracis. Methaqualone (Quaaludes) was for a time sold in combination with an anti-histamine under the brand name "Mandrax," which may be what the lyric is alluding to. The song seems to be partially a mockery of people on the dole.
According to Dan, in 1981, a BBC report by Robert Harris alleged that Winston Churchill (see note 9 below) wanted to use anthrax bombs on Germany.
3. "Prorae" is the form of the Latin for "prow" (as of a ship) and comes from the Greek "proira," to go forth. Pro re nata is a Latin phrase meaning "use as needed," which may refer back to the mandrake/anthrax. "Prora" was a Nazi beach resort, although with the onset of war it was never completed. From the end of the war until 1955 it was a Soviet military base.
This is all even more of a stretch considering the transcription "Prorae" is speculative and uncertain.
There is a town in southern France called Oloron-Sainte-Marie. But some have speculated that MES is actually singing "Lorant" (or "Ah--Lorant"), which is the surname of the Hungarian anti-fascist Stefan Lorant, imprisoned by Hitler in 1933; Lorant was a filmaker and photo-journalist who founded the magzines Lilliput and Picture Post. Gyula Lorant, also Hungarian, was a famous football player. Such theories are bolstered by the fact that the first syllable is sometimes omitted; above, I've rendered this "Loron," but this is very uncertain.
John Coyle has taken a very impressive whack at it, in any case:
"Oloron" or more accurately Oleron may refer to the protagonist in the classic supernatural story, "The Beckoning Fair One" by Oliver Onions. In this, a writer named Paul Oleron becomes captivated by a mysterious spirit which appears to haunt the house he is renting. He gradually loses touch with reality and appears to kill the woman who loves him. The sort of thing MES would be all over.
Indeed, and Onions (his real name) is a writer of a genre (ghost stories) and era (his work appeared from around 1900 until c.1960) that MES is known to be "all over" as well...
And Dan:
In the twelfth century, Eleanor of Aquitaine (by that time Queen Consort of England) promulgated the Rolls d'Oléron - the Laws of Oléron - among the first maritime laws. Oléron is an island off the coast of France, and was where Eleanor was based at the time.
4. Martin reports that on at least one live version, "roughly after the midpoint of the song, MES sings 'Richard Burton is weeping.' I suppose this is fairly convincing evidence that this and no other is the man referred to in the lyrics." Burton is Welsh, and he played WInston Churchill in the TV play The Gathering Storm in 1974. While his jowls (see the next stanza below) were not increased quite to Churchillian proportions for the role, one could at least say they were playing the chubby round jowls of the former P.M. Indeed, the actor's famously chiseled features were make up to look a bit jowly, so I think this is the most likely reference for "Burton" (i.e. the actor, rather than the English explorer) and the jowls; since his features were altered, Burton's jowls would be especially noteworthy. And, as jensotto points out, in the BBC documentary The Valiant Years (1961), excerpts from Chruchill's memoirs were voiced by Burton.
Dan weighs in:
"In November 1974, anticipating the December screening of his Churchill play, Burton attacked Churchill in the New York Times (there were a couple of articles). Burton could be said to be 'pedantic Welsh,' couldn't he, if you disagreed with his assessment of Churchill? He criticises Churchill for his drinking, among other things."
Martin watched The Gathering Storm for us, and his report is in comment 51 below (see also Dan's comment 52).
5. According to David Sharman:
When I worked for BT directory enquires I was amused when a customer rang up to ask for the telephone number for Tempo House in London. When I asked what sort of organisation was working at that address I was told that he wanted to make a complaint about a travel agent as the holiday he had just had was the worst ever. When Mark E. Smith sings 'put your claim into Tempo House, go around and have a grouse, put your claim into Tempo House' I always think now that he is making a complaint about a hotel, travel or something to do with what would be considered a holiday, although it may have something to do with being on tour, which is the more obvious really.
See More Information below.
6. B.E.F. is "British Expeditionary Force," a former name for the British Army. However, this probably refers to the British Electric Foundation, a band formed by former members of the Human League in 1980. This B.E.F.'s 1982 album B.E.F. Presents Music of Quality and Distinction Volume One featured famous musicians covering songs by other famous musicians, including Manfred Mann singer Paul Jones doing a song the Fall would soon tackle, R. Dean Taylor's "There's a Ghost in My House." "Solitaire," which does not feature on the album, is a Neil Sedaka song made famous by The Carpenters.
The B.E.F. eventually became Heaven 17, and there seems to be an allusion to them also on the (unreleased) studio version of the track...
7. According to dannyno on the Fall online forum,
The following is from Brian Edge's book, "Paintwork" (pp.76-77):
He voted Conservative at the last election because the local Labour Party's candidate's antics had incensed him so much. "I used to call him Jesus Christ in Reverse," explained Smith, "because some fascist pinned him up. He had marks on his hands which he used to show everybody. And at Labour meetings he used to stand up, take out this rotting fish and say, 'What about the Grimsby fishermen?' A complete charlatan."
9. This would seem to be a direct reference to something or other, but I haven't found it yet.
10. From the Lyrics Parade: "In UK dole offices around the time, there were posters saying "Winston Churchill had a speech impediment" as part of a campaign to encourage people with disabilities."
Dan corroborates:
A reference to the poster appears in David Selbourne's essay "Wolverhampton on Ice," first published in New Society (subsequently merged into New Statesman magazine) 21 January 1982, and reprinted in Selbourne's 1987 book Left Behind: Journeys into British Politics (which compiles his series of articles for New Society reporting on his "state of Britain" tour between 1981-1985).Here's the quote (p17 of the book; p94 of the article): "At the job centre in Market Street, Xmas snow dust has been sprayed in white curlicues on the window-panes. 'Disability Can Be Overcome' says a poster: 'Winston Churchill Had a Speech Impediment.' Cigar-in-Mouth, and chin jutting, Churchill stands in the blitz's flaming ruins."
Tempo House was first performed, apparently, on 10 April 1982, a couple of months after the article was published, so it's possible that MES read New Society and borrowed the idea (but of course he could also have seen it in a job centre, or heard about it from others, or read about it elsewhere). Another reference to the poster occurs in Michael Paterson's 2005 book, Winston Churchill: Personal Accounts of the Great Leader at War, p.9-10: "he even appears on a poster addressed to the physically impaired: 'Winston Churchill had a speech impediment,' announces a caption next to the bowler-hatted, bulldog features, before going on to explain: 'Disability can be overcome' - a valid observation, since he became one of history's great orators, and an intriguing reflection of his universality."
Martin: The debut performance of the song contains the following lyric: "Winston Churchill had a speech impediment, and look what he did: put investments into Temple [cob?] limited..." Churchill was, evidently, a poor judge when it came to financial investments.
11. Or "He razed half of London." I assume this means he provoked the Germans into erasing/razing half of London.
12. Early live versions included the line "Jew on a motorbike," which later became the climax of "Garden."
More Information
Dan submits:
Some other occupants of Tempo House over the years:
Jackie Chan Fan Club
Canned Food Advisory Service
Acting Associates (a co-op acting agency)
EGO Models
A.G. McDougall (clearance of stock from liquidated businesses)
Greenway Publishers
Professor Peter Beresford/Open Services Project
National Association of Laryngectomy Clubs
Qubie Distribution
Task (Security and Safety Services) Ltd
Boland Advertising
Charles Airey Associates
Pamaldo Nursing Agency
Gran Quartz (UK)
Rumour Records
Green and Bull (solicitors)
etc
Comments (133)
http://z1.invisionfree.com/thefall/index.php?showtopic=3470&st=50
But if the reference is to Richard Burton, that could also work (perhaps as a double meaning), because in November 1974, anticipating the December screening of his Churchill play, Burton attacked Churchill in the New York Times (there were a couple of articles). Burton could be said to be "pedantic welsh", couldn't he, if you disagreed with his assessment of Churchill. He criticises Churchill for his drinking, among other things.
Verse four: "Burton is weeping", as noted in a previous comment, but not apparently updated yet.
After the fourth verse's "pro-rae"s, are some "Loron, Loron"s. Not "Oloron"s. This suggests that where in the sound it sounds like "Oloron", it's actually "Oh, Lauren" or something like that.
Fifth verse is:
"Put your claim into Tempo House
Put your claim into Tempo House
Go round and have a grouse
Put your claim into Tempo House
Put your claim, put your claim"
After the "Solitaire" verse it's "And Burton is weeping" again, not "And Burton's weeping".
And having listened to the "and look what he did / He razed half of London" lines, I think it's actually "and look what he did / Erased half of London".
And the "pro-rae"s which follow "Lusted after French paintings" are themselves then followed by more a couple more "Oh Lauren/Loron/Oloron"s.
And after the final "Put your claim into Tempo House" there's another two pairs of "Pro-rae" and some backing vocal "put your claim, put your claim"
https://sites.google.com/site/reformationposttpm/perverted-by-language/tempo-house
have always read this as "Alarum!"
as in Shakespeare when there's a fuss or panic, esp. when repeated
maybe?
TEMPO HOUSE would then be good musicians' slang for being on the dole.
I've never heard of Government/DHSS offices all having the same name. And I've never heard, and cannot find, any indication that "Tempo House" is slang for "Temple House", or that "Temple House" had any connection to benefits, tax or other such functions.
So the debut of this song was in the Netherlands, in April 1982. Did this bit of the lyric appear that early?
Why would the Dutch be weeping? One reason might be connected to the FIFA world cup, which took place in Spain during June-July 1982. The Dutch failed to qualify for the competition, famously losing 2-0 to France in November 1981, the last of their eight qualifying matches. Could that be it?
"And the Dutch are moaning [could possibly be "mourning": I need others to listen to this recording] in four languages..."
The Dutch are again mentioned on 17 August at the Christchurch gig, and once more the following day: "God damn the Dutch for weeping in four languages at least."
I think that we have to discount the World Cup theory suggested by Dannyno (comment no. 19 above) and look for other reasons why the Dutch suddenly started to play a lyrical role in the song. Chances are, though, that it was one of those non-sequiterial phrases thrown in at random by the singer, and subsequently retained in the song.
BTW, Martin, note my comment 3 above , which notes that Burton could be the mens outiftters because of a theory I have that MES read certain New Statesman articles, but that the actor could also fit for the reasons stated (i.e. he famously criticised Churchill, although the incident was unusually early for a Fall lyric).
And while this might be even more meaningless, "House of Time" appears to be a 2015 film involving both WWII Nazi experiments and time-travel. Plenty Fallish-sounding indeed, even though I'd never heard of it before Googling "House of Time."
"I tell ya, the Dutch/are weeping/in four languages/at least" may be my favorite Fall lyric.
Dannyno, referring to your comment above (no. 25) about snow on Easter Monday: I'll be on the job as soon as other stuff allows. Sometimes I don't see new comments on here until months afterwards, which is a pity: when the word "NEW" comes up next to a song I know there's been some updating, but I have the suspicion that this only appears when the board operator himself adds stuff...or maybe I'm mistaken here?
The first thing to say is that roughly after the midpoint of the song, MES sings "Richard Burton is weeping". I suppose this is fairly convincing evidence that this and no other is the man referred to in the lyrics.
Secondly, we do have the line "snow on Easter Monday" This automatically rules out references to snow in 1983 (see above comments) but does at the same time concentrate our attention on 1982. Now, as it happens, Easter Sunday in 1982 fell on 11 April, just a couple of days before the gig mentioned above. As one naturally does, I googled for Dutch weather records of the era and found this website:
https://weatherspark.com/history/28802/2016/Amsterdam-Noord-Holland-The-Netherlands
If you scroll down to the section entitled "Snow"" then it can be seen that snow fell in Amsterdam during the month of April. Here's an extract from the site:
"The first reported snow fall in the last 12 months was on December 16; the last was on November 18. The month of the last 12 months with the largest number of those reports was April, with a total of 62 reports."
Admittedlly, Amsterdam is not Rotterdam or anywhere else in Holland, but the country is so small and mostly at or just above sea-level so one would expect snowfall to be fairly constant across the country. And The Fall would have been travelling from gig to gig by road and so MES would presumably have seen this Easter Sunday snow along the way.
So there's a long journey up north between 10th - 12th, and back again to Rotterdam. And Amsterdam is on the way. Maybe they stayed there overnight on the way up the country?
The anti-spam is going crazy and accusing me of having ad-block on when it's disabled for this site....damn it. Various other nonsense, I've had to retry this 5 times now. Here goes...
On the FOF I noted that a reference to the poster appears in David Selbourne's essay "Wolverhampton on Ice", first published in New Society (subsequently merged into New Statesman magazine) 21 January 1982, and reprinted in Selbourne's 1987 book "Left Behind: journeys into British politics" (which compiles his series of articles for New Society reporting on his "state of Britain" tour between 1981-1985).
Here's the quote (p17 of the book; p94 of the article):
Tempo House was first performed, apparently, on 10 April 1982, a couple of months after the article was published, so it's possible that MES read New Society and borrowed the idea (but of course he could also have seen it in a jobcentre, or heard about it from others, or read about it elsewhere).
Another reference to the poster occurs in Michael Paterson's 2005 book, "Winston Churchill: Personal Accounts of the Great Leader at War.", p.9-10 [the apparent present tense is not to be taken literally]:
Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, 13 August 1983:
Text in English: http://www.admiraltylawguide.com/documents/oleron.html
"Pro re nata" is the kind of phrase one would find in a legal text, isn't it?
A new research direction, anyway.
Given some of the implicit meanings of the lyrics, it might be worth getting hold of this book in case MES also read it.
Punctuation as in original I assume? Kind of dodgy.
Really?!
"Winston Churchill had a speech impediment, and look what he did: put investments into Temple (cob?) limited..."
Churchill was, evidently, a poor judge when it came to financial investments:
http://janiczek.com/winston-churchill-investment-mistakes/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3231410/Winston-spendaholic-teetered-brink-bankruptcy-saved-secret-backhanders-new-book-Chuchill-s-finances-reveals-spent-40-000-year-casinos-54-000-booze.html
Churchill's financial woes are directly addressed, for example. Also, two of his children (tots?) feature prominently in the fim. His youngest daughter, near the beginning, is upset about a dog of hers which has been injured, presumably hit by a car, and later on there is an altercation between Churchill and his son Randolph (the difficult relationship between father and son is well-documented).
Holland is only mentioned once, as Churchill learns that the Germans have been building boats in that country as well as in Finland.
In September 1981, an 8 part series starting Robert Hardy as Churchill commencing broadcasting on ITV.
In the FOF thread on the song (http://z1.invisionfree.com/thefall/index.php?showtopic=3470) I suggest watching the final scene of Burton's film "Absolution", which was released in 1981 - "Jesus Christ in reverse", you see.
There's an interesting echo of the "pedantic" lyric in the Guardian's review of "Absolution", by their longstanding critic Derek Malcolm. It was published on 5 November 1981:
A biography of Burton by Paul Ferris was published in September 1981. Maybe there would be some clues in that?
I have in the past wondered if we have several "Burtons" in play in the lyric.
I have also previously pointed out that
http://z1.invisionfree.com/thefall/index.php?showtopic=3470&view=findpost&p=12054700
Associations keep piling up with this song.
Another Burton-track is that John "Peel" Ravenscroft grew up inn Burton, Cheshire - while the Peel family were central in Burton, Staffordshire centuries ago.
According to PWC (peel.wikia.com), Peel did not play Tempo House :-)
However, and more significantly, no English historian (and I think we can count Mark amongst this number) would hear the words "Snow on Easter Sunday" and not immediately assume this was a reference to the Battle of Towton in1461 during the Wars of the Roses. Almost forgotten now, it was fought in a snowstorm on Palm Sunday. It remains the single bloodiest battle on English soil, with casualties reportedly up to 38,000, and no quarter given on either side.
The effect of the battle was to secure the Yorkist Edward IV's position on the throne against an army of Lancastrians. A Yorkist dynasty remained intact with one brief interlude until Richard 111 lost his throne to Henry Tudor, backed by the Lancastrian cause in 1485. It was a significant encounter in creating a new royal Yorkist dynasty. Not hard to see why it might have caught Mar's eye, perhaps.
The snowstorm affected the course of the battle. The howling wind meant the Yorkists could loose their arrows into the Lancastrian ranks, while the Lancastrian reply fell short. This, coupled with the snow streaming into their faces, forced the hand of the Lancastrians They determined on hand-to-hand fighting - the battle lasting between three and ten hours, depending on which source you trust.
Although the allusions are loose, to say the least, I've always heard an historical thread running through the song, - Churchill, the Dutch waiting offshore to take advantage of a weak monarch, much as Henry Tudor did in 1485. The Lancastrian rump that fled the battlefield eventually ended up abroad and some could have gone to the Dutch courts (I haven't checked this), in effect, weeping.
And I've always heard "Jesus Christ in reverse" as a poetically accurate description of one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar turning into this horrific bloodbath. Literally, the streams around the battlefield were said to have run red for days afterwards. There may even, on the continued historical note, be an echo of "The Anarchy" in King Stephen's reign of the twelfth century, when "men openly said Christ and his angels slept".
"Oloron" or more accurately Oleron may refer to the protagonist in the classic supernatural story, "The Beckoning Fair One" by Oliver Onions.
A possible factor in favour of this reference - the story was adapted for an edition of the 1968 Hammer tv anthology series Journey To The Unknown, episodes of which were receiving sporadic nightcap-telly repeats throughout 1983 on the ITV network. Afraid I can't access the relevant listings to confirm further, but it's within the bounds of possibility that MES might've happened across it over his Ovaltine one evening.
"the story was adapted for an edition of the 1968 Hammer tv anthology series Journey To The Unknown, episodes of which were receiving sporadic nightcap-telly repeats throughout 1983 on the ITV network. "
I'll try and check this.
JOURNEY TO THE UNKNOWN
The Beckoning Fair One
by William Woods and John Gould from the story by Oliver Onions
First broadcast: Saturday, 15 Feb 1969, 23:15 (60 mins)
ITV London
Jonathan Holden, a young artist, is strangley drawn to an old house, rebuilt after the wartime bombing of London and falls under the spell of a long-dead coquette.
Producer - Anthony Hinds
Director - Don Chaffey
Cast
Clive Francis - Crichton
Gabrielle Drake - Kit Beaumont
Gretchen Franklin - Mrs Barrett
John Fraser - Derek
Larry Nohle - Mr Barrett
Robert Lansing - Jonathan Holden
Repeated:
26 January 1972, 2245
ITV Grampian
Friday, 8 Feb 1985, 00:30 (50 mins) [so actually, 9th February]
ITV London
But not shown on Granada, and I haven't yet found that it was shown in 1982 or 1983.
Friday 3 April
Granada
11:15pm - 12:15am
After 1985, it was shown again in 1988.
So to summarise: the programme was not shown in 1982/3, and anyway the character's name was changed from the original.
Oh, I'll do it now, as it turns out there's just one more broadcast to add.
Friday 3 April 1970
Granada
11:15pm - 12:15am
So to summarise: the programme was not (on current evidence) shown in 1982/3, and anyway the character's name was changed from the original.
After 1985, it was shown again in 1988.
Well, sorry for the wild goose chase. After digging through some old DVD-Rs, I located my samizdat off-airs of JTTU, & discovered the name-change of the lead character in TBFO, was just coming back here to note my solecism. Should also have mentioned that my memories of 1983 repeats are from the Grampian TV area, which had eccentric late-night variations in its schedule. But thank you for checking.
He could have read it. It's a possibility, though you wonder what the name is doing there in that case. Although, house theme....
https://www.google.com/search?q=tempo+house+battersea&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjusqXs_83gAhXgSxUIHXlsDMsQ_AUIDygC&biw=1600&bih=789#imgrc=JFoQPwD3aWVc9M:
There's an Irish stately home of the same name but 15 Falcon Road is the one everyone finds or knows about and is the most plausible candidate.
It was there long before the Fall song, and I think it is exactly what the lyric is referring to.
I've done quite a bit of research on it, and over the years it's been home to loads of different agencies, companies etc. So for example if you read old magazine or newspaper adverts, Tempo House crops up quite often as an address to write to.
See some of my posts here from a couple of years ago.
The lyric is not specific, but I think it's probably referring to some music industry organisation or something like that, that at the time was based at Tempo House. But it could be anything.
Some other occupants of Tempo House over the years:
Jackie Chan Fan Club
Canned Food Advisory Service
Acting Associates (a co-op acting agency)
EGO Models
A.G. McDougall (clearance of stock from liquidated businesses)
Greenway Publishers
Professor Peter Beresford/Open Services Project
National Association of Laryngectomy Clubs
Qubie Distribution
Task (Security and Safety Services) Ltd
Boland Advertising
Charles Airey Associates
Pamaldo Nursing Agency
Gran Quartz (UK)
Rumour Records
Green and Bull (solicitors)
etc etc etc
The line "Illness, pollution, should be encouraged and let loose" has always been one that intrigued me. Where does that come from?
Also, isn't pro latin for the word for?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%BB%8Cl%E1%BB%8Drun
It could be.
Question is, does it have a stronger claim than any of the other candidates?
For reference we have two YouTube clips, one of the debut performance of the song (10 April 1982; The Hague; track starts from 23’ 25”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Ig6xbvdds
And the live (canonical?) version as released on Perverted By Language:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUrOxZOAhSk
As I mentioned in comment no. 1, I’m intrigued by the way MES sings “six three” and not “sixty-three”. Could it possibly be a reference to floor 6, room 3?
“Roll the chubby round jowls
Roll the chubby round jowls”
In the debut, both “thes” sound like “their to me”. In Perverted, the first sounds like “their”, the second “the”. Opinions? And what is the following line at The Hague?
In the debut version, there are lines which (roughly speaking: can others check?) are along the lines of:
“Look at the boy(?)
Look at the boy
Look at the boy behind you
A black dog…shoulders
How many dogs do you have to carry around?”
which remind me of these lyrics from Backdrop, debuted on the same Dutch tour:
“It's about time you started thinking
About the black dog on your back”
Of course, The Fall had practice in such cross-referencing and conflation. Here’s a partial and incomplete list (further suggestions and criticisms welcome!)
https://thefallliveblog.wordpress.com/someone-always-on-my-tracks/cross-referencing-in-the-fall/
Finally, the debut version (a day before Easter Sunday) contained no references to snow. Much in the same way as in The N.W.R.A, MES reacted to current weather conditions and incorporated them in the lyrics.
"Winston Churchill had a speech impediment, and look what he did: put investments into Temple (cob?) limited..."
I now think that the word I was unsure about is cog.
https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=KBPERS01:002987009:mpeg21:p00001
He was painting in the South of France at the end of his life.
Going cryptic crossword, A Woman Weeping is a Dutch painting by Rembrandt - too tenuous.
Burtons shares are weeping - (Why?)
Churchill was supposed to be a bit of a weeper?
https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/churchill-the-cry-baby-war-hero/
But the lyric doesn't say that Churchill lusted after French paintings.
I mean, it could be that we can find a credible connection between Churchill and French paintings. But we also need an open mind, because what this is yet another example of MES's willingness to be flexible with the order of lines.
Might be worth a detailed analysis of all the versions we can find.
“A lorra lorra laughs”
http://linguistics-research-digest.blogspot.com/2012/01/its-lorra-lorra-laughs.html
M.E.S. would probably have been familiar with Liverpool hits of the 70s. (Though I think your Oloron is probably right.)
For what it's worth, I always thought he was saying “allora,” the Italian word for “Well, Then, So, Come on, and So What.”
This was an 8-part series (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill:_The_Wilderness_Years) broadcast on ITV in the UK in September and October 1981. It focuses on Churchill's decade out of government, 1929-1939, and starred Robert Hardy as Churchill.
Given that Tempo House debuted live in April 1982, I thought I might find some clues in the series. I could imagine it being more of an influence on the themes of the song than the 1974 series starring Burton. And I wondered if Burton might have been said to be "weeping" with envy at the quality of Hardy's performance. But
However, although Churchill's problems with investments in shares play a part in the series, like the 1974 The Gathering Storm there's no dialogue that seems to have directly informed the lyrics.
If anyone wants to watch it - it's quite good - it's currently on YouTube. Episode one for example:
He said snow falls down and Jesus rose up.
That's the version I choose to believe.
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/prora#Latin
I don't know if that's coherent enough as is for a note...also see comment 66
I guess the point to address in the first place is whether "Snow on Easter Sunday/Jesus Christ in Reverse" represent a single thought or idea, or stand alone. I mean, the meanings accumulate anyway, but consider that verse:
So we have the B.E.F. bit and the weeping Dutch bit, and sandwiched in the middle those two lines. They don't appear to be connected as such. We know there was Easter snow at the time, and we also know there is some baggage to the Jesus Christ in reverse line (local politician).
So perhaps the two lines are brought together from different places because they sound good together and have all these associations, but perhaps there's not really anything deeper than that.
"Snow on Easter Sunday! Jesus H Christ in reverse! Is someone going to tell them to stop that racket?!"
From which research I am confident in concluding that there is not now, and nor has there ever been, anywhere in the UK with the name "Green Market Place".
The closest I can get is a street in Penzance, Cornwall, called "The Greenmarket":
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/The+Greenmarket,+Penzance/@50.1183482,-5.5375782,20z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x486ac4641e041219:0x732987c69a9c49b!8m2!3d50.1183448!4d-5.5370887
I've listed to the demo. I'm skeptical, but I definitely don't think the "G/green Market" hearing can be dismissed out of hand. If it is that on one occasion, I mihgt suspect MES of flubbing the line that one time. But he might also have changed it. A possibility.
I am also not sure it's supposed to be an actual address in the first place.
But my general approach to Fall lyrics is to assume that there is a real world reference and run with it until we run out of options - it's an approach that has paid off many times.
So I guess we keep looking, and I'll add this "Green Market" hearing to the list too. I've suspected a Dutch location, because the song
Listen to the first documented recording of the song, at Paard Van Troje, The Hague, 10 April 1982:
https://thefallliveblog.wordpress.com/2020/03/13/saturday-10-april-1982-paard-van-troje-the-hague-the-netherlands/
It's sounds much more like "6 3" there, to me.
Listen from about 25
So I've often suspected a Dutch location because of where the song debuted, but I can't make that stand up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2h8tuHBp48&t=1s
I'd just like to clarify, as I don't think any of the comments do, that the battle was on Palm Sunday, not Easter Sunday.
Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Good Friday and celebrates JC entering Jerusalem on his donkey.
Easter Sunday is the Sunday after Good Friday (crucifiction day) and is the day of the resurrection of JC.
More generally, although it's great that there is a Tempo House in Battersea, I'm not sure that it has more than a coincidental connection with this song, unless we can establish another link between M.E.S. and the building in question.
I agree with Russell Richardson (comments 15/16), it seems to me that Tempo House is very much concerned with the process of of making benefit (welfare) claims and wider themes surrounding this, such as whether an artist should be supported by the State, is the extent of welfare provision justifiable or desirable ? etc.
Russell is right to say that Government Buildings had generic names, often ending in 'House.' For example in Preston, where I'm from, we had Gateway House, Duchy House, Elizabeth House, Victoria House, Red Rose House, Palatine House and Barry House : all DHSS/DWP buildings within walking distance of each other in the city centre. Tempo House sounds to me like a name M.E.S. could have invented for an imaginary unemployment or supplementary benefit office. It is not inconceivable that MES or other band members were either signing on the dole or claiming an associated benefit, such as Housing Benefit, in 1981/82 when this song was written. Tempo House could be a fantasy warping of their direct experience at a DHSS or Local Council office.
The "serious man in need of a definitive job" ,"put your claim into Tempo House" and "go round and have a grouse" lyrics and the Winston Churchill speech impediment poster reference all back this up.
People accessing benefits have to make a 'claim.' In the 80s this involved filling in a claim form which was posted to, or sometimes handed in at, the local DHSS office. Anyone who has experience of these offices in the 70s and 80s will recognise the 'go round and have a grouse (argument)' line, as people who had problems with their claim generally had to sort them out in person with staff at the DHSS office, rather than phoning a helpline as they would do now. Parents with no childcare options often had to bring their kids with them into these offices, hence the 'tormented tots' in the 2nd verse. It sounds like M.E.S. could easily have seen the Winston Churchill poster in his local DHSS office too.
In the rest of the song, M.E.S. seems to playing about with the morality around welfare provision. Richard Burton and the Dutch "weeping in four languages at least" are cited as liberal stereotypes who support the system. M.E.S.'s typical devil's advocate response to liberals is "Illness, pollution, should be encouraged and let loose, then maybe some would have a genuine grouse." However, he is also unimpressed with the Conservative alternative, to follow the example of Churchill's self-reliance, sniping that he 'erased half of London.'
Tempo House was first aired in Spring 1982, around the time Hex Enduction Hour was released. In later interviews, M.E.S. said that he was thinking of ending The Fall at that time and that Hex was intended to be the band's final statement. If you believe that, a reading of Tempo House as being themed with unemployment and benefit claims makes sense, as M.E.S. could have been considering making a benefit claim himself, if he was about to split up the band.
In this context, "I'd sing Solitaire for the B.E.F" might even be a joke about the kind of employment that M.E.S. envisages he would be offered if he turned up at the Job Centre saying that he was looking for work ('a serious man, in need of a definitive job') and had been the singer in a band for the last 5 years. I also think it's a very Fall-like construct to repurpose the B.E.F. as a state-subsidised outfit whose main function was to provide gainful employment for superannuated pop singers. And, after all, the B.E.F. were responsible for reviving Tina Turner's career!
Swimming in praise, the great man hurries to the confluence.
He will refuse entry to the magpies,
Pampon and Durrance will confine them. "
Nostredamus prediction about Napoleon?
Hope this helps?
Cheers
Your earlier comment about Penzance Greenmarket/Place. I'm from Pz. We have The Greenmarket and Market Place. They're right next to each other.
Mark was known to visit Pz not infrequently as he would visit Anthony Frost. Business or as afirend too I don't know. We used to see him in what was The Peruvian pub.
Which would make sense because of the line "And the Dutch are weeping/
Lusted after French paintings"
Well, that's my take on it! Lemme know what you think.
From wikipedia-
"Claude Lorrain (French: [klod lɔ.ʁɛ̃]; born Claude Gellée [ʒəle], called le Lorrain in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in Italy, and is one of the earliest important artists, apart from his contemporaries in Dutch Golden Age painting, to concentrate on landscape painting. His landscapes are usually turned into the more prestigious genre of history paintings by the addition of a few small figures, typically representing a scene from the Bible or classical mythology."
One thing I don't think anyone has mentioned in that connection is this quote from Churchill (source: https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-157/france-and-the-french-cross-of-lorraine-lion-of-britain/):
Cross of Lorraine, aka Cross of Anjou:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Lorraine
See: /https://www.thefrenchmag.com/attachment/300101/
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-adoration-of-the-golden-calf-205452