The Crying Marshal

Lyrics

(1)

Hey!
The marshal left town over 60 times
Mainly for the fashion exhibition
Pulled in behind ya
He’s dead he said
So am I
So am I
So am I
The marshal left town over 60 times
Maybe to avoid the fashion exhibition
Tucked in behind
Said, So am I so am I
The marshal left town over 60 times
Mainly for the fashion exhibition
Pulled in behind ya
He’s dead he said
So am I
So am I
So am I
Pulled in behind ya
He’s dead he said
So am I
So am I

Notes

1. A lot of people accuse the marshal of being a Gloomy Gus, but walk a mile in his shoes before you judge.

The above was written due to my policy of always having at least one note per song, even if I have nothing to say about it. Now, there's more:

From The Outsider:

So who, or what, is the Crying Marshall?

"He's just. . . a figure, to link it together. The idea started when I did the track "The Crying Marshall" with these two blokes called The Filthy Three; one of them is Jason [Barron]. They had a song and they didn't have any lyrics for it. That song came from that; throwing ideas around. I thought it would be good to do it as the story of his life, a themed LP, with a thread running through it. It's such an unhip thing to do, but I do want to continue and develop it. Maybe a five sided thing next: the return of the Marshall."

"Marshal(l)" is spelled with two 'l's in the title of The Marshall Suite, and with one 'l' in the title of the three songs that contain the word in their names. According to the OED, the correct spelling of the word is with one 'l', "Marshal"; although the two-'l' version is not credited as an alternate spelling, it survives in many of the examples of its use given under the entry, with none of these more recent than 1933 (or 1954 if we count the definition "an officer of the highest rank in any of various armies"; however, MES most likely had the definition that identifies a "marshal" as a sort of sheriff in mind). 

^

Comments (15)

policetruck
  • 1. policetruck | 04/09/2013
Could also be...

The marshal left town over 16 times
Mainly for this passion exhibition
?
Hold it behind ya
His daddy said
So am I
So am I
So am I
The marshal left town over 16 times
Maybe to avoid this passion exhibition
I've seen it
Keep it behind ya
Said so am I
The marshal left town over 16 times
Mainly for this passion exhibition
?
Hold it behind ya
His daddy said
So am I
So am I
So am I
Hold it behind ya
His daddy said
So am I
So am I
So am I
Squeller
  • 2. Squeller | 23/02/2018
Always sounds like "60 times" to me.
Squeller
  • 3. Squeller | 25/02/2018
"60 times" also makes more sense because "over" is used with round numbers. "Over 16 times" is a very unnatural construction.
bzfgt
  • 4. bzfgt (link) | 10/03/2018
Hm, good point...
bzfgt
  • 5. bzfgt (link) | 10/03/2018
OK, I'm listening to it and I am persuaded that it is 60...now it shall be changèd.
junkman
  • 6. junkman | 10/03/2018
Check out Real Life of the Crying Marshal, he's clearly singing '"If you're dead", he said, "So am I"'
dannyno
  • 7. dannyno | 10/03/2018
It sounds like "sixteen times" to me. The "eee" sound is a long one, to my ears.

If anyone fancies comparing sounds, "sixty" also appears in English Scheme (sixty hour weeks), Glam Racket (sixty page computer printouts), and Hilary (the sixty quid you borrowed off me).

"Sixteen" appears in 15 Ways (sixteen ways to leave your man), Frightened (the time when I was sixteen), H.O.W. (from sixteen to forty), I'm Into C.B. (At sixteen I drank cheap sherry), Paintwork (I'd have packed up and pissed off when I was sixteen), Susan vs Youthclub (reverted back to age sixteen), and Victrola Time (From twenty-eight, from sixteen).
bzfgt
  • 8. bzfgt (link) | 18/03/2018
Crap.
Orlando
  • 9. Orlando | 26/03/2019
From the Sunday Times (reviewer Stewart Lee):

THE FALL The Marshall Suite
Artful/Circus ARTFULCD17, 15.99

"and, just in case things were getting too accessible, the eponymous final track, a study of a minor Mayor of Casterbridge character, offers an ambitious electronic song cycle."
bzfgt
  • 10. bzfgt (link) | 09/06/2019
Huh, I think I read that years back, but I don't remember what it's about...
Mitt Dem
  • 11. Mitt Dem | 12/07/2020
Er - why is there no mention of the Marshall from the Marshall Plan was named here? I always presumed that was who Smith was referring to right back to when I first bought the album. The cover with the dollar bill on a no entry sign appears to bear this out too. Isn't the man from the Marshall plan sort of returning from death to look back on the Europe his plan created and crying at the outcome?
bzfgt
  • 12. bzfgt (link) | 19/07/2020
That seems like an interpretation that could have legs, but I don't see it yet...
Mitt Dem
  • 13. Mitt Dem | 25/07/2020
As ever, it's difficult to be more than about 51% sure. Besides the cover, consider Touch Sensitive, F-Oldin Money, both references to US and a theme we are used to from the likes of CnC stop mithering, 2nd Dark Age etc. In Bound the Crying Marshall is a "Sheriff in the rain". Orson Welles said of George Marshall acc to Wikipeida "He was a tremendous gentleman, an old fashioned institution which isn't with us anymore" => Left town for the fashion exhibition i.e. the present. That was always my take!
dannyno
  • 14. dannyno | 06/09/2020
I don't think there's any reason to think that the song refers to George Marshall or anyone in real life called Marshall. What MES said about it, was that it was a kind of sheriff character.

But it is at least a unique interpretation.
Anon
  • 15. Anon | 21/11/2020
The altogether more marketable The Marshall Suite, I'm told in good faith by Smith's publicist, is inspired in some obscure way by Thomas Hardy's novel The Mayor Of Casterbridge. When I ask Smith, his face folds up in disgust. "Fuck it, is that a press officer or what? Can you believe that? I was trying to explain to him that I wanted a three-sided as opposed to a four-sided LP." So there's definitely no connection with Hardy's chronicle of woe? "The connection is that he's gonna get drowned in a well, he's gonna end up in shame and defeat at the end, and his assistant will be wearing a black dress."

interview Friday April 23, 1999

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