Whizz Bang

Lyrics

(1)

The one I left 
Turned out to be
I caught a stylish mamba

But the road is distant to this month
My devoid means butterflies 4 brains

Whiz bang, dilly dang yeah
Whiz bang, dilly dang yeah

Death fish blue carp  (2)
I’ll have it please
Wondrous skeletons death head
Shiny cunt
Comin’ on brain

Butterflies 4 brains
Butterflies 4 brains

Whiz bang, dilly dang 
Whiz bang, dilly dang 
Butterflies 4 brains

The one I loved
Turned out to be
Consistently come-less  (3)

Head bangs 
Butterflies 4 brains

Don’t make my time uptight any more

Whiz bang, dilly dang 
Whiz bang, dilly dang 

Butterflies 4 brains

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Notes

1. This is an earlier version of "Butterflies for Brains"; it was recorded for Peel in 1989 but unreleased until 2005. Most of the lyrics seem improvised, and not much of it made it to "Butterflies for Brains." However, that doesn't mean they're bad; there's something satisfying about this little word sketch, and it has an appealling kind of wistfulness, perhaps partly attributable to the fiddle, that is lacking on the more jaunty single release. "Whizz bang" (or "whiz bang") was a nickname among Allied troops in WWI for high-powered German ordnance. The Germans' 77mm field guns fired shells at a velocity greater than the speed of sound; the soldiers would hear the shell "whizz" by before the heard the gun fire, hence the name. In World War II, the US developed a Sherman tank with a rocket launcher called the T40 Whizbang.

Captain Billy's Whiz Bang was a popular American cartoon and gag magazine from the 1920s and 1930s. The publisher and editor, Captain Billy Fawcett, soon began publishing other material under the name Fawcett Books, which is still a major publishing house. Robbindale, Minnesota, where Fawcett was headquartered in the 20s and 30s, hosts a four day festival every summer called "Whiz Bang Days."

Although this is much less likely to have been within MES' sphere of reference, there was once, in the 1920s-1930s, an Oklahoma oil town called Whizbang (the official post office name was Denoya--in fact, the Post Office insisted on "Denoya," finding "Whiz Bang" lacking in gravitas), which cleared out when the oil dried up, and was more or less abandoned by the early '40s. Colloquially, "whiz bang" is applied to something that is either very successful, or, alternately, swift to the point of being rushed or even a bit sloppy. 

^

2. Dan: Blue carp is a traditional German dish, prepared by "Blaukochen", if that's how to say it ["blue cooking"]. It's done for various very fresh fish and isn't actually cooked but "boiled blue". 

^

3. Or "gormless"?

^

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Comments (14)

dannyno
  • 1. dannyno | 22/07/2014
Only the first two "Whizz bang, dilly dang" lines end "yeah".

The third ends at "dang"
The fourth ends "[something] again"

The fifth and sixth end on "dang". No "yeah"s.
Mark
  • 2. Mark | 23/02/2017
"Consistently come-less" could be "Consistently gormless".
bzfgt
  • 3. bzfgt | 25/02/2017
It sounds like it could be either, it sounds in fact like "cormless."
bzfgt
  • 4. bzfgt | 25/02/2017
I had a link that said "this article is well worth checking out" (about the OK town). Unfortunately it died--in fact, even when I pare the link down the whole ezine is gone. The url was "okielegacy.org," i.e. probably a real treasure trove of history. Fuck! That's one problem with this site I may have foreseen if I were more web-savvy--the links often die with time, and a lot of the links here will go nowhere, more so as time passes.

I've often thought it would be good to start a website that collects all the articles I link to here, or even part of this site, so that they all stay alive as long as I do. But what a task that would be, and I wouldn't even know how to do it--I mean, I figured out how to do this, so I imagine I could figure it out, though--but what a bunch of work that would be. Still, it's a shame, and a flaw of this site--a dead link is even just aesthetically like a stab in the eye.
dannyno
  • 5. dannyno | 25/02/2017
There are certainly ways to do that.

okielegacy.org is in the internet archive wayback machine though, so maybe your article was captured there?

http://web.archive.org/web/20160317114327/http://okielegacy.org/journal/index.html
dannyno
  • 6. dannyno | 25/02/2017
"blue carp"

Blue carp is a traditional German dish, prepared by "Blaukochen", if that's how to say it. It's done for various very fresh fish and isn't actually cooked but "boiled blue". Google "karpfen blau" for more.
bzfgt
  • 7. bzfgt (link) | 03/03/2017
"Blue cooking"?
dannyno
  • 8. dannyno | 27/10/2020
re: Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, note that Brix's grandfather did a property deal with "Captain Billy" (i.e. Wilford Fawcett). See the entry for Hotel Bloedel.
dannyno
  • 9. dannyno | 27/10/2020
Some issues of Captain Billy's Whiz Bang can be read in the internet Archive:

https://archive.org/search.php?query=captain+billy%27s+whiz+bang
Brendan
  • 10. Brendan | 03/12/2020
I reckon the lyrics in this version are about Brix, as with a lot of material around the time of the Extricate album. I think the first line is "the one I loved" not left.

Are we certain about "stylish mamba" in line 2? I can't make it out but it could fit this theory, mamba seems a bit of an obscure snake to use as insult though. MES also referred to Brix as a skeleton in Sing! Harpy which might make line 10 further back up this theory.
dannyno
  • 11. dannyno | 08/02/2021
While there are songs that are convincingly about Brix, he also wrong songs about (or inspired by incidents with) other girlfriends/partners/wives. It's not like Brix was the only woman he knew, or even the one he was married to for longest.

I think you can definitely read a sexual theme into what is ostensibly a military-based lyric, but let's not decide that it must be about Brix without further evidence.
harleyr
  • 12. harleyr | 30/03/2022
I don’t suppose Mark E was watching Honey West back in the 1980s (or that it was even shown on British telly around that time) but I thought I’d note that the episode ‘The Fun-Fun Killer’ features not only the Whiz Bang Toy Company but also a soundtrack melody for one scene that is reminiscent of Pat Trip Dispenser.
dannyno
  • 13. dannyno | 06/04/2022


("Hush, Here Comes a Whizzbang" from Oh! What a Lovely War (1969))
dannyno
  • 14. dannyno | 06/04/2022
Comment #12.

I've checked, and while Honey West was shown on British TV in the 1960s, it doesn't seem to have been broadcast in the 1970s.

However, episodes do seem to have been broadcast in late 1989 through early 1990, which would work chronologically. But I'm not convinced that the connection is strong enough, given the war-song etc.

Of course, given MES and The Fall visited the US regularly, they could have seen episodes there. And it's not the case that we have only to take into consideration MES' viewing habits, if we're thinking about where tunes come from.

The episode of Honey West referred to is currently on YouTube here:

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