Two Librans
Lyrics
There was two Librans sat on a hill (1)
And one always exiting to the easy gate (2)
Exit to two years to be perfect
Two Librans reflect
Two Librans high and low in mind
To Oprah Winfrey
She studied bees
Studied bees down
War
The muggings
Dressing a soldat (4)
Nelson in Timor (5)
Tolstoy in Ch-Chechnya (6)
You will reflect on wastage
Two Librans reflect
Two Librans high and low in mind
To Oprah Winfrey
She studied bees
Studied bees down
Exit to two years to be perfect
Two Librans reflect
Two Librans
The miracles on blonde September (7)
Back to the lick back to the deviant
Notes
1. Libra is the seventh astrological sign of the Zodiac. The sun currently transits the constellation Libra between October 31 and November 16. However, due to the precession of the equinoxes, Western astrology, which was codified centuries ago, still considers a LIbran to be someone born between September 23 and October 22. Libra is Latin for scales (of the weighing, not the piscine, variety), and the sign traditionally represents fairness, justice, and reflection, the last of which is mentioned several times in the song.
Dan: "In Dick Witts' 1993 book, Nico: the Lives and Lies of an Icon, this line appears: 'Jackson Browne had been born in Germany exactly ten years later than Nico. Two Librans.' Given Witts' and Nico's walk-on parts in Fall history, maybe MES read the book."
The walk-on parts are as follows (again from Dan): "Nico lived in Prestwich for a time, and shared a house with MES' friend John Cooper Clarke. For a while her backing band included including ex-Fall personnel Una Baines and Martin Bramah. And she was managed by Alan Wise...MES mentions that he knew her in his Vice interview with John Doran. Witts was one of the founders of the Manchester Musician's Collective, under whose auspices The Fall played their first gig. He contributed to the 'Messing Up the Paintwork' conference in 2008, and his paper appeared in the subsequent book. Witts also founded the band The Passage, which Tony Friel joined when he left The Fall."
The music was written by Neville Wilding.
2. A fragmentary 1927 story by H.P. Lovecraft entitled "The Descendant" contains the following lines:
"He would travel leagues to follow up a furtive village tale of abnormal wonder, and once went into the desert of Araby to seek a Nameless City of faint report, which no man has ever beheld. There rose within him the tantalising faith that somewhere an easy gate existed, which if one found would admit him freely to those outer deeps whose echoes rattled so dimly at the back of his memory."
Mark E Smith has frequently decalred himself an avid reader of Lovecraft, so it is possible this phrase stuck in his mind at some point (thanks to nairng from the Fall online forum).
And, Dan tells us, "it's worth knowing that historically an "easy gate" or "lazy gate" (or "patent gate") is a kind of gate it is possible to pass through without having to get off a horse or get out of a coach or vehicle."
3. Oprah Winfrey (who is, since you are wondering, an Aquarius) is not, to my knowledge, a student of bees, although Oprah did apparently have the cast of the 2008 movie The Secret Life of Bees on her program (eight years after "Two Librans" was released), and she was the voice of one of the bees in Bee Movie (again, several years too late to be relevant). There is also a fake youtube video--again, alas, post-dating the song--of Oprah releasing a swarm of bees into the adoring faces of her audience. It's not clear whether the "she" who is said to have studied bees is meant to be Oprah or one of the titular Librans, whom we may imagine making a guest appearance on the show.
Peter Bee points out that the bee is a symbol of industry and industriousness (for which reason the beehive is the state symbol os Utah):
"From ancient times, bees and their beehives have been important symbols and elements in almost every culture on Earth. The very term “industry,” from an ancient perspective, referred to the employment of a very large number of men, tens of thousands in some instances. Individually, each man had his set task and together they accomplished much more than any one person could possibly do. Thus the beehive is that perfect emblem of the power of industry where the group works together toward a common goal..."
And Dan finds that the bee is employed as a symbol of Manchester (birthplace of the industrial revolution) and appears on the coat of arms of Salford...
4. Soldat means "soldier" in German, a language MES often (correctly or, more often, not) incorporates into his lyrics, and also has the same meaning in Russian, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, French, Catalan and Romanian. See note 6.
5. "Nelson" may be Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), a British naval hero whose name here may perhaps be taken as a synechdoche for British militarism or imperialism. It does not seem likely that Nelson ever set foot on the island of Timor, which had been under Dutch, Portugese, Indonesian and, briefly, Japanese control before East Timor gained independence in 2002 (West Timor remains under Indonesian administration). The island, particularly the Eastern half, has had a long history of struggle against colonial powers, and the line "Nelson in Timor" should probably be read as having more of a metaphorical or visionary intent rather than aiming at historical accuracy.
On the other hand (thanks here to Gnomus) the reference could be to Nelson Mandela, who in 1997 met with his fellow Nobel laureate and Timorese activist Jose Ramos-Horta, although he had been criticized for dealing with Indonesia and not proscribing their conduct in Timor, as this article explains: Mandela, East Timor meeting shrouded in secrecy .
And Dan points out that the HMS Nelson also made a voyage to Timor in 1825, when she was sunk by pirates...
The year before the song debuted, a three year old boy in East Timor named Nelson Soares lost his leg and nearly died when an air-dropped food package landed on him (thanks to Art Simak).
6. Count Lev (Leo) Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Christian anarchist and pacifist, and is, of course, considered one of the premier figures in world literature for his novels. Tolstoy served in the Russian army in the Caucusus region, and he lived in Chechnya in the 1850s.
There is a Tolstoy museum in Chechnya, and it re-opened in December, 2000, eight months after this song saw it's debut. But it was in the news earlier in the year, including an article in the Christian Science Monitor dated March 9--two weeks before the appearance of "Two Librans"--headlined "Lone Soldier Defends Tolstoy in Chechnya" (see "Dressing a soldat," note 4 above). The museum was seen as a symbol of Russian imperialism, and the Chechnyan government defunded it in 1997, but its director, the "soldier" of the headline, went to a lot of trouble, sans wages, to preserve its collection until the Russians entered the region and re-established the musem in 2000. The building in which the museum is housed was originally a schoolhouse named for the author.
Tolstoy's short novel Hadji Murat depicts the struggle between Russia and Muslim Chechnya at that time and, of course, this struggle continues to this day. "Tolstoy" could perhaps be considered a kind of term complement to "Nelson": in that case, a surface reading would suggest that, while the latter name conveys militarism, the former conveys pacifism, although this polarity is of course flipped when we consider the specific context. in any case, if we go that route we may also possibly detect the suggestion of cultural, rather than military, triumphalism and the hegemony of Christian and Western ideas in the name "Tolstoy" as well as the obvious connotations re: Russian military incursions in Chechnya.
In general, the two Librans theme here suggests a pair of opposites balancing the "scales": in addition to Nelson and Tolstoy we get "high and low in mind," and the close proximity of "muggings" and "dressing a soldat," which suggests someone dressing the wounds of an injured man. In that case, we could group these themes as follows: Nelson/low in mind/mugging, Tolstoy/high in mind/dressing. Certainly there is something like this at work in the lyrics, but how precise the symbolism is meant to be is unclear (and again, the associations are unstable, as the pacifist Tolstoy in context also symbolizes militarism and imperialism). But if we are to persist with this sort of thing it is necessary to add that the duality appears not just between, but also within, the "twins," and therefore two Librans adds up to four sets of ideas, symbols, or character traits. In that case Tolstoy will have to bear some of the onus of the muggings and perhaps also, then, Nelson must dress a wound or two.
From a contemporaneous Wall Street Journal article:
"With all my strength and with the aid of a cannon, I shall assist in destroying the predatory and turbulent Asiatics," Tolstoy wrote in a letter to his family from the front in Chechnya in 1852.
But I'll let the "soldat"/museum director have the last word:
Asked whether it is appropriate to maintain a museum celebrating a man whom many Chechens view as a Russian imperialist, Zagibov argues that the author should not be viewed in such a politically fractious light.
"Tolstoy is not just a Russian writer, he belongs to all of humanity." he says. "Tolstoy was a pacifist. He would have opposed this war too."
The Jewish-Greek poet Joseph Eliyia wrote a poem called "September" ("Poems", 1944) which includes the lines:
"In the paradise of the seasons, my thirsty soul pines
Til she finds you, cool blonde September
Torrid heat expires in your breast,
And your dawns are voluptuous, dewy, miracle of miracles".
From Sean: "Especially given the references to violence throughout the song, I read “blond september” as an allusion to/mutation of “Black September,” the terrorist group most infamous for the killings at the 1972 Olympics." Black September originally refers to the armed conflict between the PLO (Palestinian LIberation Organization) and the Jordanian military in September 1970, after Israel took control of the West Bank and the PLO started operating against Israel in Jordan and threatening the Jordanian monarchy. That same year, the Palestinian terror group of the same name was founded, and they assasinated the Jordanian Prime MInister, and also took eleven Israeli atheltes hostage and then murdered them during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
Paul Go submits:
1st September 1939 marks the Nazi invasion of Poland, and is often seen as the start of the relatively famous WWII. The Nazis promoted a false notion of a superior blonde Aryan race. I suspect "Blonde September" refers to this.
8. The Lyrics Parade has "The Cambodian Cambodian [rip]" (square brackets usually indicate that the Parade is uncertain about a word). MES does indeed make a sound like "rip" here, but to me it just sounds like a variant on the noise he makes to indicate to the band that the song is ending, which sometimes comes out more like "hup!" or "whup!", and not a lyric proper.
The demo version of Two Librans has different lyrics and, notably, Oprah Winfrey has not yet made an appearance:
More Information
Barnet transcribes:
Blackburn on the 22nd September 2002
There was two Librans sat on a hill
And both were contemplating their various knowledge
As in Aries
As in the Beatles
Two Librans
Two Librans sat on a hill
Over the long long days
Reflect down the long long days of mortal knowledge
Wanted to be on.
How long will I be on MTV?
How long will the strawberry-coloured freckles surround the house of the ridiculous idiocy?
Two Librans sat on a hill
Reflect
Genuflect
The nightmare of blonde September
The nightmare of Tolstoy in Ch-Chechnya
Two Librans sat on a hill
Reflect
On the long long days
Two Librans sat on a hill
Over the long long days
["As in the Beatles"--possibly a reference to "Fool on the Hill"]
Comments (86)

- 1. | 04/05/2013

- 2. | 04/05/2013
What nobody has done is look at the birth signs of the people mentioned in the song.
Nelson was born on 29 September, so he is a Libran.
Leo Tolstoy was born on 9 September,so he is a Virgo. Oprah Winfrey is not a Libran either.
So that didn't help!
Dan
.

- 3. | 04/05/2013
If Nelson and Tolstoy were both Librans that would have been neat.
I'll move that blonde September up to the notes, that's one that I hated to have hanging...

- 4. | 04/05/2013
As noted above, Horatio Nelson didn't go to Timor. Maybe MES just got that wrong.
But the HMS Lady Nelson did - but it was her last voyage as the ship was captured by pirates and the crew killed.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Lady_Nelson_(1798)#The_loss_of_the_Lady_Nelson_to_pirates
Another relevant Nelson could be David Nelson, ship's botanist on Captain Bligh's Bounty. He was one of the Bligh loyalists who were cast adrift, and he died of fever at Timor.
Dan

- 5. | 04/05/2013
There's a Lovecraft reference already in the notes, but it's worth knowing that historically an "easy gate" or "lazy gate" (or "patent gate") is a kind of gate it is possible to pass through without having to get off a horse or get out of a coach or vehicle.
Dan

- 6. | 25/04/2014

- 7. | 25/04/2014
The Altered Visual Aesthetic of Horror in Jonathan Demme’s Beloved.
By ELLEN C. SCOTT
(http://www.genders.org/g40/g40_scott.html)
"Not only do we see Beloved’s chronic excessiveness, we also hear it. Beloved invades and colonizes the soundtrack, marshalling control of the realm of the unseen, hovering sonically around the film’s margins. Her heavy, gasping breath, her slurred, moaning speech, her noisy, sloppy eating, and her demonically low voice all cause us to associate her with the basic bodily functions she has not yet mastered. Her body literally creaks, moans, gurgles, and groans but these sounds have no reasonable, ostensible source: they bubble forth from an unknown, untold internal location: they are not synchronized with her mouth and therefore appear extra-diagetic, although it is always her presence that catalyzes them. Beloved’s appearance also crucially ushers in another sonic motif: the sound of buzzing (of bees or flies -- we cannot tell which). Beloved appears to be herald and source of these sounds: we see neither bees nor flies on the image track in these scenes, although the soundtrack renders them swarms. The ambiguity of the source of the buzzing may itself be metaphorically significant, as bees are attracted to the sweetness of pollen and flies to its opposite, the stench of death, both of which are characteristics associated with Beloved’s form.

- 8. | 13/05/2014

- 9. | 20/07/2014
"contellation"

- 10. | 09/09/2014

- 11. | 08/10/2015

- 12. | 23/11/2015

- 13. | 23/11/2015

- 14. | 04/02/2016

- 15. | 19/03/2016

- 16. | 07/02/2017
http://madiba.mg.co.za/article/1997-07-25-mandela-east-timor-meeting-shrouded-in-secrecy

- 17. | 12/02/2017

- 18. | 30/01/2018
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/muggins

- 19. | 12/02/2018

- 20. | 12/02/2018

- 21. | 14/02/2018
"bees" comes from "wasps" which comes from "W.A.S.P.s", a largely derogatory American term used to describe what was both a chunk of her audience and a constant opponent around the turn of the century.

- 22. | 17/02/2018

- 23. | 17/02/2018

- 24. | 03/03/2018
Dick WittsJackson Browne had been born in Germany exactly ten years later than Nico. Two Librans.
Given Witts' and Nico's walk on parts in Fall history, maybe MES read the book.
Dan

- 25. | 15/03/2018
from
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/11/steven-spielberg-oprah-would-make-a-brilliant-president-and-i-will-back-her
Spielberg was speaking ahead of a press conference in London for The Post, at which the film’s star Meryl Streep said (Oprah) Winfrey talked like a presidential candidate should talk, and that she had the voice of a leader. “Whether she is leading us to the candidate we need or whether she herself is a candidate, she sets the bar pretty high on campaign talk.”
Asked about the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements Streep said we were seeing a “global seismic change”. She said: “As a movement it is pretty interesting to be involved because there isn’t a leadership hierarchy, we don’t know who the top dog is. We have a hive, it is like a hive of bees, there are more and more coming in. Everybody is making honey, everybody is doing the good work.

- 26. | 17/03/2018

- 27. | 17/03/2018
MES comments on Nico in the Vice interview with John Doran. See: https://youtu.be/aHpZlkbL_C4?t=8m18s. Asked if he knew Nico, he says he did.
Dick Witts says Nico even drank and played pool in the Woodthorpe.
Witts was one of the founders of the Manchester Musician's Collective, under whose auspices The Fall played their first gig. He contributed to the "Messing Up the Paintwork" conference in 2008, and his paper appeared in the subsequent book.
Witts also founded the band The Passage, which Tony Friel joined when he left The Fall.
Dan

- 28. | 24/06/2018

- 29. | 15/07/2018

- 30. | 29/08/2018

- 31. | 01/09/2018

- 32. | 02/09/2018

- 33. | 08/09/2018

- 34. | 13/10/2018
Peter, I kind of know what you mean, it's descending.

- 35. | 20/12/2018
no
is your spider-sense not tingling?
even with hard listening they're two different words.
the second has no S, the first doesn't start with a B.
neither of them are enough on their own to be a 'bees'
They are both phrases that say 'Oprah with bells on' surprisingly enough.
That's not a clue btw

- 36. | 22/12/2018
Second is : beee~low consonant/vowel ending
Quickest way is just say it out loud with the music off, and mutate through the possibilities.
she studied cheese
she studied geese etc.
studied beer down
studied beard down etc.
Keep in mind Oprah/conflict, the answer should pop out.

- 37. | 22/12/2018

- 38. | 19/01/2019

- 39. | 19/01/2019

- 40. | 19/01/2019

- 41. | 19/01/2019
There is a live version of the song which mentions "Aries" and "Beatles" or "Beetles". Aries and Libra would represent War and Peace, which might connect to Tolstoy. John Lennon was a Libran. Give peace a chance?
Could be "And war always exiting to the easy gate".... Rather than "And one"?

- 42. | 19/01/2019
For some discussion of Tolstoy, War and Peace, and bees, see:
http://tolstoy.ku.edu/literary-crticism/bees-and-war-and-peace-by-michael-a-denner/
No idea. But Oprah was not in the earliest versions of the song - it evolved to include her. I think that's important.

- 43. | 26/01/2019

- 44. | 28/04/2019
There was two Librans sat on a hill
And both were contemplating their various knowledge
As in Airies
As in the Beatles
Two Librans
Two Librans sat on a hill
Over the long long days
Reflect down the long long days of mortal knowledge
Wanted to be on.
How long will I be on MTV?
How long will the strawberry-coloured freckles surround the house of the ridiculous idiocy?
Two Librans sat on a hill
Reflect
Genuflect
The nightmare of blonde September
The nightmare of Tolstoy in Ch-Chechnya
Two Librans sat on a hill
Reflect
On the long long days
Two Librans sat on a hill
Over the long long days

- 45. | 24/05/2019
of course it's bloody 'peace', and studied 'being' down while you're at it.
how depressing.

- 46. | 24/05/2019
'exit to two years', 'lick' and 'deviant' make no sense.
not a fan of 'one' either, and I think it's 'as soldats' and 'a wastage'

- 47. | 25/05/2019

- 48. | 26/05/2019

- 49. | 26/05/2019

- 50. | 27/05/2019
I might be being over-sensitive, but I'm seeing a pattern over the 20 or so threads I've tried to help out on,
if I say something different to you, or add something new, then it's forever wrong? No matter what? Good policy.
1st September 1939 marks the Nazi invasion of Poland, and is often seen as the start of the relatively famous WWII. The Nazis promoted a false notion of a superior blonde Aryan race. I suspect, 'Blonde September' refers to this.

- 51. | 27/05/2019
I can't find any reference to this terrible poem 'September', or any of the lines from it.

- 52. | 29/05/2019
"Anything that flies on everything that moves." Was the famous order passed on to Kissinger. 2.7 million tons of bombs were dropped on Cambodia, exceeding the amount the US dropped on Japan during WWII (including the 2 A-bombs) by almost a million tons. This led to peasant support for the communist Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot who held power from 1975 to 1979.
In total, 1.5 to 3 million people died as a result, around 25% of Cambodia's population. Cambodia is 97% Buddhist.

- 53. | 29/05/2019

- 54. | 29/05/2019

- 55. | 29/05/2019

- 56. | 21/06/2019

- 57. | 21/06/2019

- 58. | 21/06/2019

- 59. | 21/06/2019

- 60. | 21/06/2019

- 61. | 22/06/2019
Too tenuous? Seriously? Compared to what?

- 62. | 22/06/2019

- 63. | 29/06/2019
Too tenuous compared to if there were several instances.

- 64. | 30/06/2019

- 65. | 30/06/2019

- 66. | 02/07/2019
'Bees' is all your work.
Put it to a vote on your forum thing.
If 'bees' wins, I'll never darken your doorstep again.

- 67. | 03/07/2019

- 68. | 03/07/2019

- 69. | 03/07/2019

- 70. | 07/07/2019

- 71. | 07/07/2019
Can I take us off into new waters for a second? Waters with a Jungian flavour (we have other songs where Jung is in the extra-textual shadows).
Jung, in his Psychological Types (1921), proposes four cognitive functions: two considered rational (thinking and feeling) and two considered irrational (sensation and intuition). There are then either extroverted or introverted attitudes of each of those functions. Something along those lines, anyway.
You can read the book here: https://www.jungiananalysts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/C.-G.-Jung-Collected-Works-Volume-6_-Psychological-Types.pdf
In the book, he discusses astrology's typology, which divides the zodiac into four trigons: fire, water, earth and air. The "aerial" signs are Aquarius, Gemini and Libra, and the "fire "signs are Aries, Leo and Sagittarius.
Now, while there's certainly a reading of the "librans" as in some sense symbolising the balance of war and peace, we could also interpret it in the light of Jung: the eros and logos dichotomy as lower and higher aspects of psychology. Maybe. Further exploration needed.

- 72. | 08/07/2019
I'm never sure if Oprah's for real or not, she picks up on details and is sensitive to the feelings of others, she's willing to show weakness, all touchy feely, and coordinates her mannerisms to her guests... but then I think, how can she do this so consistently with all these celebrities, and amass a fortune in the process... she has to have cold streak to be that strategic and successful.
Don't know Jung that well, but Oprah appears to have introvert and extrovert aspects to her character, and she excels in all these: thinking/feeling and sensation/intuition you mention.

- 73. | 02/09/2019

- 74. | 07/09/2019
Oprah is doubtless a sociopath, Paul--that would account for every element of your description...

- 75. | 22/09/2019
https://the22ndlandmark.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/speaking-to-the-bees-the-industry-of-freemasonry/
https://dr-david-harrison.com/freemasonry/the-lost-symbols-of-freemasonry-the-beehive/
It’s no wonder that operative masons came to see bees as beings of similar spirit, culture and intent. Bees have long been symbols of industry, stability, regeneration, wisdom and obedience. The bee works hard and tirelessly, not for herself, but for the benefit of the hive. She has a knowledge of material and process and works in cooperation with others. She is protective of her leader or Queen, opposes the admittance of enemies to the hive and lives in a society governed by law and order.
From ancient times, bees and their beehives have been important symbols and elements in almost every culture on Earth. The very term “industry,” from an ancient perspective, referred to the employment of a very large number of men, tens of thousands in some instances. Individually, each man had his set task and together they accomplished much more than any one person could possibly do. Thus the beehive is that perfect emblem of the power of industry where the group works together toward a common goal...

- 76. | 05/10/2019
Bees also appear on the Coat of Arms of Salford:
https://www.salford.gov.uk/your-council/ceremonial-mayor-of-salford/civic-history/coat-of-arms/

- 77. | 29/01/2020

- 78. | 01/02/2020

- 79. | 13/09/2020

- 80. | 20/09/2020
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/thefall/two-librans-t15073-s55.html
It's a touching story, but back then I said I thought it unlikely to be anything to do with this song. Because when I did some newspaper searches I couldn't find any contemporary coverage in the UK press. It was in the Australian press at the time, of course, so I couldn't say it was impossible that MES could have come across it, but it didn't seem like it was much of a big international story.
Double checking just now, though, I found an article in The Sun tabloid on 30 September 1999.
So make of that what you will. There remains a whole stack of Nelsons that could be the reference, but we've no way of choosing between them.

- 81. | 06/10/2020
It was submitted by Mackie to Fall News back in 2001.
https://thefall.org/news/010303.html

- 82. | 16/12/2020
http://thefall.org/un/unutterable.html
[Internet Archive version]
Second track is Two Librans, and is a thrashy kind of vibe, with M.E.S. in snarly mode. Neville Wilding is the man behind this tune - he wrote it, and it's typical of his guitar style. It's about:
'Two Librans
High and low in mind
To Oprah Winfrey she studied bees
Two librans
Reflect'

- 83. | 03/02/2021

- 84. | 27/02/2021

- 85. | 10/03/2021
"There was two Librans sat on a hill - H&M are the scales that will rebalance the cruelty of 'The FIRM'
And one always exiting to the easy gate - Meghan - 'OMG I'm outta here'
Exit to two years to be perfect - It was two years between royal wedding and leaving 'The Firm' for SoCal, chat show freedom and immersion in the perfection of worthy causes
Two Librans reflect - On the Oprah Winfrey chat show
Two Librans high and low in mind - they aim high, go low with the press, the hive mind. Libran balance again
To Oprah Winfrey - Like Meghan, she's a Queen Bee
She studied bees - And together they made a hive
As for Blonde September - Lady Di buried 0n 7/9/97
Oh God.
I'll get my coat.

- 86. | 23/07/2021
The Jewish-Greek poet Joseph Eliyia wrote a poem called "September" ("Poems", 1944) which includes the lines:
"In the paradise of the seasons,my thirsty soul pines
Til she finds you, cool blonde September
Torrid heat expires in your breast,
And your dawns are voluptuous, dewy, miracle of miracles".