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The Annotated Lyrics
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- Home /
- The Annotated Lyrics /
- Touch Sensitive
Touch Sensitive
Lyrics
Hey Hey Hey …
Hey Hey Hey …
I know, I know, I know …
In the cars or on the street (2)
If you smile you are a creep
If you don’t say it’s very cold
You are drunk or too old (3)
They say what about the meek?
I say they’ve got a bloody cheek (4)
Vanity and presumption, deaf old pensioners (5)
Living in the hard pawn shop lately
I say Hey hey hey
Touch Sensitive
I know, I know, I know …
And you’re dying for a pee
So you go behind a tree
And a Star Wars police vehicle pulls up
I say gimme a taxi (6)
Touch Sensitive
Touch Sensitive
If you don’t say it’s very cold
You are drunk or too old
It's Touch Sensitive
In the cars or on the street
If you smile you are a creep
It’s Touch Sensitive
If you don’t say it’s very cold
You are Touch Sensitive
Touch Sensitive
Say Hey Hey Hey
I know, I know, I know…
The Complete Peel Sessions:
Heeeey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Well everyone you meet,
In the pubs and the street
Is touch sensitive
Don't frown and you're a creep
If you smile you're bitter
If you don't say "It's bitter cold"
You're drunk or too old
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! .... Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
They say what about the meek?
But I think that I'm indiscreet
I think they've got a bloody cheek
I'm livin' in a pawnshop weekly
In Delia's
What don't want a little kip (7)
Yeah!
They're touch sensitive
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Touch sensitive
Old people worry about their milk
But in the street they call you filth
Houses line up
Volume tremors
Pass down your barber till your carrot speaks
Stand back and laugh
You are burstin' for a pee
So you go behind a tree
Two coppers follow and see
That as will be the end
The best thing is to stay home
And have a wank
Notes
1. The song was used in a Vauxhall automobile advertisment. According to MES (via Refomation):
Dan points out, I think justly, that the guitar part is a bit reminiscent of Iggy Pop's "Girls." Others have pointed out that the chords are similar to the Velvet Underground's "Waiting for the Man."
Better it is to see what thou mayst desire, than to desire that which thou canst not know. But this also is vanity, and presumption of spirit.
“Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.”
^
More Information
Touch Sensitive: Fall Tracks A-Z
Minder Music LTD. & Anor v Sharples
See the court records of a dispute over rights to the song at the link above. The document contains the following transcribed lyrics, which should be taken with a grain of salt:
76.
"You are burstin' for a pee
So you go behind a tree
Two couples followed safe
That as will be the end"
The Astoria Version instead included the following verse:
"So you go behind a tree
And you're dying for a pee
And a Star Wars police vehicle pulls up."
The Album Version (as transcribed by Mr Sharples) is different again:
"And you're dying for a pee
So you go behind a tree
And a Star Wars police vehicle Paul's off
I say gimme a taxi"
77. Another verse of the Original Song went:
"Well everyone you meet,
In the pubs and on the street
Is touch sensitive
Don't frown and you're a creep
If you smile you're a liar
If you don't say "it's bitter cold"
You're drunken too"
However, the Astoria Version included the first three lines of that verse and then went straight into the refrain repeating the words "I know" and "Hey Hey." The Album Version differed again:
"In the cars or on the street
If you smile you are a creep
If you don't say it's very cold
You are drunk or too old."
Comments (37)
"I think they've got a bloody check"
they've actually got a "bloody cheek"!
http://the1709blog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-fall-and-rise-of-touch-sensitive.html
Original official legal case report:
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/IPEC/2015/1454.html
I say they’ve got a bloody cheek
Vanity and presumption..."
Two biblical references for the price of one here, because "vanity and presumption" is the Douay-Rheims bible translation of Ecclesiastes 6 : 9:
http://biblehub.com/drb/ecclesiastes/6.htm
The King James version is:
Douay-Rheims wouldn't be the Bible of choice for someone Methodist-raised like MES, but perhaps MES has been reading Augustine, because in Augustine's "On the Sermon On The Mount", Book I, Chapter 1, para 3 is this:
In other words, for those who don't know their Douay-Rheims, translations of Augustine are probably the main source of the "vanity and presumption" phrase. There's a little bit more to that paragraph, and then we're into Chapter 2, which begins with para 4, which may or may not be coincidental but is certainly notable:
...and so on.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170710142147/http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/16011.htm
But already cited is the legal case: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/IPEC/2015/1454.html. Partial lyrics are given in there, as provided by "the claimants" (i.e Adamson/Nagle, Minder Music as Smith's publishers).
I'm not going to hire this Sharples...
“Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.”
"In the khazi or on the street... if you smile you are a creep."
Khazi is slang for bathroom in England and it makes sense that both places, making eyecontact would be seen as uncomfortable for the English.
"Cars" is also in the legal record:
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/IPEC/2015/1454.html
Khazi could certainly fit, for the reason suggested in comment #10. And there is the "dying for a pee" line. But it's not what I hear. Certainly there aren't syllables for "in the khazi or on the street". It would have to be "in the khaz.. or on the street" (which is why "cars" is heard) or "in the khaza on the street".
In fact, listening to several live versions, it pretty much always sounds like "bars". That's Leeds Irish Centre, October 2005; Middleton Civic Centre, March 2003; Middleton Civic Centre, March 2005; Sheffield Boardwalk, October 2005; Patronaat, Haarlem, Netherlands, April 2001; Knitting Factory, NYC, November 2001; Melkweg, Amsterdam, April 2001; Crocodile Bar, Seattle, November 2001; Concorde 2, Brighton, April 2001.
But the album version still sounds like "cars".
Julia Nagle/Adamson, posting on the FOF as invisiblegirl, said (9:05 PM - Feb 02, 2011):
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/thefall/mes-the-people-vs-jerry-sadowitz-t29033-s35.html
Personally I think it is "pawn shop", which is a thing (in UK parlance at least), whereas a shop that sells porn would be more likely termed a "sex shop".
But I may be wrong; the Peel version mentions having a "wank" (although MES seems to pronounce "wink", the sense is clear. Also MES's objection to porn it discussed in the Hanley book; it's clearly something which he held strong views about, and as such might find its way into his lyrics, unlike pawn shops.
That's my two cents, anyhow!
Vanity and presumption..."they're bald"? "Befalls"?
Single;
Vanity and presumption
Deaf old...
Living in the hock pawn shop lately
LP;
Vanity and presumption
Deaf old pensioners
Hock pawn shop lately
Might be daft rather than deaf, and hock implies pawn not porn
We'll go with "hard pawn shop for now," fuck
I personally think it is both pawn shop and porn shop. Deliberately ambiguous to imply both and fits in with much of the opening verse which seems to be about sex workers on the street and old Johns.
If you don't say it's very cold...could be if you're taking it out in public but a bit insecure, like in the pub 'khazi', or outside on the street walking home, and it looks small, well the classic is 'it's cold', unless you're too drunk or too old to care. Smiling while doing it is a bit creepy too.
Touch sensitive, might fit in with the hard porn shop too...I don't know...I wouldn't know, would I?