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The Annotated Lyrics
- (Birtwistle's) Girl in Shop
- (Jung Nev's) Antidotes
- (We Are) Mod Mock Goth
- (We WIsh You) A Protein Christ
- 15 Ways
- 2 x 4
- 2nd Dark Age
- 4 1/2 Inch
- 50 Year Old Man
- 986 Generator
- A Figure Walks
- A Lot of Wind
- A Past Gone Mad
- Afternoon Disco
- Age of Chang
- All Leave Cancelled
- Alton Towers
- Amorator!
- An Older Lover Etc.
- And Therein...
- And This Day
- Anecdotes+Antidotes in B#
- Arid Al's Dream
- Arms Control Poseur
- Assume
- Athlete Cured
- Australians in Europe
- Auto Chip 2014-2016
- Auto-Tech Pilot
- Backdrop
- Bad News Girl
- Barmy
- Before the Moon Falls
- Behind the Counter
- Bill is Dead
- Bingo-Master
- Birmingham School of Business
- Birthday Song
- Black Roof
- Blindness
- Blood Outta Stone
- Bo Demmick
- Bombast
- Bonkers in Phoenix
- Bound
- Bournemouth Runner
- Breaking the Rules
- Bremen Nacht
- Brillo De Facto
- British People in Hot Weather
- Bug Day
- Bury Pts. 1+3
- Butterflies 4 Brains
- C'n'C-S Mithering
- C.R.E.E.P.
- Cab It Up
- Calendar
- Can Can Summer
- Carry Bag Man
- Cary Grant's Wedding
- Cheetham Hill
- Chicago, Now!
- Chilinism
- Chino
- Choc-Stock
- City Dweller
- City Hobgoblins
- Clasp Hands
- Clear Off!
- Cloud of Black
- Coach and Horses
- Contraflow
- Copped It
- Cosmos 7
- Couldn't Get Ahead
- Couples vs Jobless Mid 30s
- Cowboy George
- Cowboy Gregori
- Crackhouse
- Craigness
- Crap Rap 2/Like to Blow
- Crew Filth
- Crop-Dust
- Cruiser's Creek
- Cyber Insekt
- D.I.Y. Meat
- Das Boat
- Das Katerer
- Das Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wai
- Dead Beat Descendant
- Dedication Not Medication
- Deer Park
- Detective Instinct
- Devolute
- Dice Man
- Disney's Dream Debased
- Distilled Mug Art
- Dktr Faustus
- Dog is Life/Jerusalem
- Don't Call Me Darling
- Don't Take the Pizza
- Dr. Bucks' Letter
- Draygo's Guilt
- Dresden Dolls
- Early Days of Channel Führer
- Eat Y'Self Fitter
- Ed's Babe
- Edinburgh Man
- Elf Prefix
- Elves
- English Scheme
- Enigrammatic Dream
- Entitled
- Everybody But Myself
- Everything Hurtz
- Exploding Chimney
- Extricate
- Fall Sound
- Fantastic Life
- Feeling Numb
- Fibre Book Troll
- Fiery Jack
- First One Today
- Fit and Working Again
- Flat of Angles
- Fol de Rol
- Fortress
- Free Range
- Frenz
- Frightened
- Futures and Pasts
- Garden New
- Gentlemen's Agreement
- Get a Hotel
- Get A Summer Song Goin'
- Gibbus Gibson
- Glam-Racket
- God Box
- Gramme Friday
- Green Eyed Loco Man
- Greenway
- Gross Chapel-British Grenadier
- Groundsboy
- Guest Informant
- Guide Me Soft
- Gut of the Quantifier
- H.O.W.
- Haf Found Bormann
- Hands Up Billy
- Happi Song
- Happy Holiday
- Hard Life in Country
- He Pep!
- He Talks
- Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot
- Hey! Fascist
- Hey! Luciani
- Hey! Marc Riley
- Hey! Student
- High Tension Line
- Hilary
- Hip Priest
- Hit the North
- Hittite Man
- Hollow Mind
- Hostile
- Hot Aftershave Bop
- Hot Cake
- Hot Runes
- Hotel Bloedel
- How I Wrote Elastic Man
- Hurricane Edward
- I African Mancunian
- I Am Damo Suzuki
- I Come and Stand At Your Door
- I Feel Voxish
- I Wake Up In The City
- I'm Frank
- I'm Into C.B.
- I've Been Duped
- I've Seen Them Come
- Ibis-Afro Man
- Iceland
- Idiot Joy Showland
- Immortality
- Impression of J. Temperance
- In My Area
- In The Park
- In These Times
- Industrial Estate
- Inevitable
- Insult Song
- Irish
- Is This New
- It's A Curse
- It's The New Thing
- Ivanhoe's Two Pence
- Jam Song
- Janet, Johnny + James
- Jawbone And The Air-Rifle
- Jazzed Up Punk Shit
- Jetplane
- Jim's "The Fall"
- Job Search
- Joker Hysterical Face
- Junger Cloth
- Just Step S'Ways
- Kick The Can
- Kicker Conspiracy
- Kinder of Spine
- Kurious Oranj
- L.A.
- Ladybird (Green Grass)
- Laptop Dog
- Last Commands of Xyralothep Vi
- Last Orders
- Latchkey Kid
- Lay of the Land
- Leave the Capitol
- Levitate
- Lie Dream of a Casino Soul
- Life Just Bounces
- Light/Fireworks
- Live at the Witch Trials
- Living Too Late
- Loadstones
- Look, Know
- Lucifer Over Lancashire
- Ludd Gang
- M5 #1
- Mad.Men-Eng.Dog
- Mark'll Sink Us
- Marquis Cha-Cha
- Married, Two Kids
- Mask Search
- Masquerade
- Medical Acceptance Gate
- Mere Pseud Mag. Ed.
- Mess of My
- Mexico Wax Solvent
- Middle Class Revolt
- Middle Mass
- Midnight in Aspen/Aspen Repris
- Midwatch 1953
- Mike's Love Xexagon
- Mister Rode
- Mollusc in Tyrol
- Monocard
- Mother-Sister
- Mountain Energei
- Music Scene
- Muzorewi's Daughter
- My Condition
- My Door Is Never
- My Ex-Classmates' Kids
- My New House
- Nate Will Not Return
- Neighbourhood of Infinity
- New Big Prinz
- New Face in Hell
- New Facts Emerge
- New Formation Sermon
- New Puritan
- Nine Out Of Ten
- No Bulbs
- No Respects Rev.
- No X-mas for John Quays
- Noel's Chemical Effluence
- Noise
- North West Fashion Show
- O! ZZTRRK Man
- O.F.Y.C. Showcase
- Octo Realm/Ketamine Sun
- Oh! Brother
- Ol' Gang
- Oleano
- On My Own
- One Day
- Open The Boxoctosis
- Oswald Defence Lawyer
- Over! Over!
- Overture From "I Am Curious, O
- Oxymoron
- Pacifying Joint
- Paintwork
- Papal Visit
- Paranoia Man/Cheap Sh*t Room
- Pat-Trip Dispenser
- Pay Your Rates
- Pearl City
- Perverted by Language
- Petty (Thief) Lout
- Pilsner Trail
- Pine Leaves
- Pittsville Direkt
- Pledge
- Plug Myself In
- Ponto
- Pop Stickers
- Portugal
- Powder Keg
- Pre-MDMA Years
- Printhead
- Prole Art Threat
- Proteinprotection
- Psycho Mafia
- Psykick Dancehall
- Psykick Dancehall #2
- Pumpkin Head Xscapes
- Pumpkin Soup and Mashed Potato
- Put Away
- Putta Block
- Quit iPhone
- R.O.D.
- Race Hatred
- Rainmaster
- Rebellious Jukebox
- Recipe for Fascism
- Recovery Kit
- Reece Stick
- Reformation!
- Rememberance R
- Repetition
- Reprise: Jane--Prof Mick--Ey B
- Return
- Riddler
- Ride Away
- Room to Live
- Rose
- Rowche Rumble
- Rude (All The Time)
- Scareball
- Scenario
- Secession Man
- Second House Now
- Segue
- Senior Twilight Stock Replacer
- Serum
- Service
- Session Musician
- Shake-Off
- Shift-Work
- Shoulder Pads
- Sing! Harpy
- Sinister Waltz
- Sir William Wray
- Slang King
- Slates, Slags, Etc.
- Sleep Debt Snatches
- Smile
- Smith and Mark
- Snazzy
- So What About It?
- So-Called Dangerous
- Solicitor in Studio
- Sons of Temperance
- Spectre vs. Rector
- Spencer Must Die
- Spinetrak
- Spoilt Victorian Child
- Squid Lord/ Squid Law
- Stephen Song
- Stepping Out
- Stout Man
- Surmount All Obstacles
- Surrogate Mirage
- Susan vs. Youthclub
- Symbol of Mordgan
- Systematic Abuse
- Taking Off
- Telephone Thing
- Tempo House
- Ten Houses of Eve
- Terry Waite Sez
- That Man
- The 500 Dollar Bottle of Wine
- The Acute
- The Aphid
- The Ballard of J. Drummer
- The Book of Lies
- The Boss
- The Classical
- The Coliseum
- The Container Drivers
- The Crying Marshal
- The Joke
- The Knight, the Devil and Deat
- The League of Bald-Headed Men
- The Littlest Rebel
- The Man Whose Head Expanded
- The Mixer
- The N.W.R.A.
- The Past #2
- The Quartet of Doc Shanley
- The REAL Life of the Crying Ma
- The Reckoning
- The Remainderer
- The Steak Place
- The Usher
- The War Against Intelligence
- The Wright Stuff
- Theme From Error-Orrori
- Theme From Sparta F.C.
- Time Enough At Last
- To Nk Roachment: Yarbles
- Tom Raggazzi
- Tommy Shooter
- Totally Wired
- Touch Sensitive
- Touchy Pad
- Town Called Crappy
- Trust in Me
- Tuff Life Booogie
- Twister
- Two Face!
- Two Librans
- Two Steps Back
- U.S. 80s-90s
- Underground Medecin
- Unutterable
- Van Plague?
- Various Times
- Venice With The Girls
- Victoria Train Station Massacr
- Victrola Time
- Vixen
- W.B.
- W.M.C.--Blob 59
- Way Round
- Weather Report 2
- What About Us?
- What You Need
- Where's the F***in Taxi? C**t
- Whizz Bang
- Who Makes the Nazis?
- Win Fall CD 2088 AD
- Wings
- Winter (Hostel-Maxi)
- Wise Ol' Man
- Wolf Kidult Man
- Words of Expectation
- Wrong Place, Right Time
- Xmas With Simon
- Y.F.O.C./Slippy Floor
- Yes O Yes
- You Don't Turn Me On
- You Haven't Found It Yet
- You're Not Up To Much
- Your Heart Out
- Youwanner
- Zagreb
- Zandra
-
Arranged By Album
- Live at the Witch Trials
- Dragnet
- Grotesque (After the Gramme)
- Slates
- Hex Enduction Hour
- Room to Live
- Perverted by Language
- The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall
- This Nation's Saving Grace
- Bend Sinister
- The Frenz Experiment
- I Am Kurious, Oranj
- Extricate
- Shift-Work
- Code:Selfish
- The Infotainment Scan
- Middle Class Revolt
- Cerebral Caustic
- Light User Syndrome
- Levitate
- The Marshall Suite
- The Unutterable
- Are You Are Missing Winner
- The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country on the Click)
- Fall Heads Roll
- Reformation Post TLC
- Imperial Wax Solvent
- Your Future Our Clutter
- Ersatz G.B.
- Re-Mit
- The Remainderer
- Sub-Lingual Tablet
- Wise Ol' Man
- New Facts Emerge
- 2014
- O! ZZTRRK Man
- New Facts Emerge
- Segue
- Ponto
- Smith and Mark
- Afternoon Disco
- Reece Stick
- Home /
- The Annotated Lyrics /
- Youwanner
Youwanner
Lyrics
There's always work
in progress
You're always in work in progress (2)
I coulda had a life
Coulda had a wife he said
There's always someone round me
Not her
You wanner
Always someone around me
Not her
Always someone around me
But it's not her
And you say
I've never felt like this
With anyone else
So you moan all day
You're a moaner
You wanner
You wanner
You wanner
You never ever get the time
Never ever get the time together
Work in progress
It is the outsidedness flavor of it (3)
You wanner
A work in progress
Due about 2026
You wanner
You wanner
You wanner
(Work in progress) You say you never felt like this
(Work in progress) With anyone else
(work in progress) So you moan
(Work in Progress) Never ever get the time alone together
Ah,
You wanner
You wanner
You wanner
It's the outsidedness flavour of it
You wanner
As meandering through the trash pedal weight of investment guest solo (4)
You wanner
You wanner
Never ever got the time alone together
Ah,
You wanner
You wanner
Because she's a man, you take the line
I coulda had a life
Coulda had a - whup!
You wanna
(A work in progress) I coulda had a life
(A work in progress) But I'm living alone
(A work in progress) Never felt like this before
(A work in progress) With anyone else
(A work in progress) Never get the time together alone
(Work in progress)
Meandering through the trash pedal weight investments of your go-solo
You wanner
I've never felt like this with anyone else
You wanner
Yeah-yeah-yeah-you wanner
Y-y-you never ever get the time alone together
You wanner
N-n-never get the time together
It's the outsidedness flavor of it.
Notes
1. A song like this may be one of the things the Fall can get away with than few others could. Part of a musical lineage that includes "Smile" and "Last Commands of Xyralothep Via MES," the song features a chugging three-note riff that just repeats and repeats for five minutes. It may be the case that one has to already be a Fall fan to appreciate this, but it is an immensely satisfying experience nonetheless. The message of the lyrics seems to be a similiar lament to Yeats' famous poem:
The intellect of man is forced to choose
perfection of the life, or of the work,
And if it take the second must refuse
A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark
Zack thinks this may be about Pritchard or Trafford:
"I think this one is about Steve Trafford and/or Ben Pritchard. Looks at how closely the lyrics match up with Smith's remarks in Renegade:
'The other daft cunt, Steve Trafford (bass), was one of Ben's mates. [...] I kept hearing stories about how he preferred to save his best tunes for his own band. [...] He started losing it when he met that actress out of Shameless, Maxine Peake. He didn't realize she was only hanging around with him because he was in The Fall. I found it quite amusing when she buggered off after Phoenix. Same thing happened to Ben as well. He had this bird he couldn't stop gabbing on about, how she was this and that, and they were going to move in together, blardy-blah. Day after he's got home, he finds out she doesn't want to see him anymore. [...] What annoyed me most about Steve, though, was he was always very quick to sulk. I don't like lads who are so ready to fold.'"
I put this remark of Zack's here, and the associated quote, not because I think it likely that the song is specifically about one or both of these bandmembers, although it may be (and if you guys are reading this, sorry! I am not endorsing any of these remarks). But it may be a clue that the song is a third-person account in general, regardless of whom MES had in mind.
Harley comments: "Just a musical observation, but it may be relevant: the riff sounds to me like a car starting up over and over again - so another case of the form matching the content... a song about someone who can't ever finish what they've begun."
2. This is of course a common phrase, but Ian F points out, and it seems worth mentioning, that "Work in Progress" was the working title for Finnegans Wake when Joyce was writing it.
3. This line is cribbed from MES's "Pander! Panda! Panzer!", where it appears as the slightly different "the outside flavorness of it."
4. Zack reports: "Meandering through the trash pedal white - bar white - invest go solo" appears at about 36:38 on Pander! Panda! Panzer!
Comments (21)
"The other daft cunt, Steve Trafford (bass), was one of Ben's mates. [...] I kept hearing stories about how he preferred to save his best tunes for his own band. [...] He started losing it when he met that actress out of Shameless, Maxine Peake. He didn't realize she was only hanging around with him because he was in The Fall. I found it quite amusing when she buggered off after Phoenix. Same thing happened to Ben as well. He had this bird he couldn't stop gabbing on about, how she was this and that, and they were going to move in together, blardy-blah. Day after he's got home, he finds out she doesn't want to see him anymore. [...] What annoyed me most about Steve, though, was he was always very quick to sulk. I don't like lads who are so ready to fold."
The value of Finnegans Wake as a work of literature has been a point of contention since the time of its appearance, in serial form, in literary reviews of the 1920s. Initial response, to both its serialised and final published forms, was almost universally negative. Even close friends and family were disapproving of Joyce's seemingly impenetrable text, with Joyce's brother Stanislaus "rebuk[ing] him for writing an incomprehensible night-book", and former friend Oliver Gogarty believing the book to be a joke, pulled by Joyce on the literary community, referring to it as "the most colossal leg pull in literature since Macpherson's Ossian".