Whizz Bang

(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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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. 

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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". 

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3. Or "gormless"?

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Butterflies 4 Brains: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 1990