Wolf Kidult Man
Lyrics
[wolf howls] (1)
Reputation is gone
You're in the clear, boy
Every day of your life
You persevere, boy
Wolf kidult man (2)
Wolf kidult son
Where is your mum?
Your power is gone
Every moment of truth
Is here to stay
Somewhere up in your ear
You're babbling, frantic
Wolf kidult man
Wolf kidult son
Where is your mum?
Your power is gone
You start to walk
Where are you going?
Going to a shop
Your arms limp at your sides
And you've got to embrace this
Wolf kidult man
Wolf kidult son
Where is your mum?
Your power is gone
Reputation is gone
You're in the clear, boy
Every day of your life
You persevere, boy
Taped excerpt from Twilight Zone episode "Printers Devil":
[You put me to] work at once, I think we can save the courier.
How can i put you to work? I can't even pay my bar tab.
Well, that's simple. I'll waive salary until you're in the black.
That's crazy. I might never be in the black.
Well, it's a chance, but it's better than anything you have now.
More Information
Comments (15)
- 1. | 23/07/2014
- 2. | 14/03/2018
How can i put you to work? I can't even pay my bar tab.
Well, that's simple.
I'll waive salary until you're in the black.
That's crazy.
I might never be in the black.
Well, it's a chance, but it's better than anything you have now.
From https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=the-twilight-zone-1959&episode=s04e09
- 3. | 14/03/2018
(You put me) to work at once, i think we can save the courier.
- 4. | 21/03/2018
- 5. | 27/06/2020
- 6. | 05/07/2020
- 7. | 26/08/2020
- 8. | 06/11/2020
- 9. | 13/02/2021
- 10. | 13/02/2021
- 11. | 10/10/2021
- 12. | 09/11/2021
- 13. | 29/05/2022
I see the allusion in the title itself, i.e. "Wolf Kidult Man" may make readers who know a little bit about Freud think of one of his most famous cases, "The Wolf Man." The "Wolf Man" had a terrifying dream about wolves. The Fall song begins with the howling of wolves. The Wolf Man suffered from depression. The Fall song refers to the Wolf Kidult Man's fragile psychological state and loss of power. There is also a reference to the Kidult Man's mother. Freud's theory is often jokingly summed up as "Tell me about your mother."
The Freud connection should not be pushed too far, though. Mark E. Smith was a modernist/postmodernist poet whose method was to suggest and allude to meanings rather than present clear-cut "arguments" or "messages." Irony, ambiguity, humour, intensity, and subversion were the tools of his trade.
- 14. | 06/08/2022
See: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pe5dffhj
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amala_and_Kamala
The text is available in the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.158185
Probably not relevant!
- 15. | 06/08/2022
Thanks. I'm missing the kidult bit in what you say. I wonder if we might look instead at Jung, and Jungian archetypes. I do think MES draws on Jungian themes in his writing more often than is realised.
Thinking about Jung's "puer aeternus" in particular as a possible connection, but also plenty in his writing or connected to it about wolves (cf Jack London, apparently), the Great Mother and so on and so forth.
There's a proper study to be written about the influence of Jung on MES, I reckon.
But it's hard to connect any of this explicitly to the lyric.
Well, the earliest citation in the Oxford Dictionary of English is from the Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year, 1960, dated to 1958. It was a marketing term that primarily refers to television programmes etc designed and marketed to appeal to children and adults, but then also to adults with "juvenile tastes".