Commentary

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“Babe” can mean a baby, or it can mean someone with whom you are having a sexual or romantic relationship. It seems that both meanings are used in this song. The lyrics are thematically obscure and raise a number of questions. First of all, is it significant that the song is titled “Ed’s Babe” rather than “Mary’s Babe” or indeed “Ed and Mary’s Babe”? Secondly, what is the exact nature of Ed and Mary’s relationship? It appears that they were not initially living together as lovers – indeed perhaps they still aren’t – but nonetheless manage to conceive a child together. Living together “like sister and brother” makes it sound like a very close relationship; they were not just flatmates. Thirdly, is the lyric about Ed exploiting his baby or his status as a father in order to seduce other women?

Footnotes

1. It sounds a bit incestuous on casual listen, if you miss the significance of the word “like”. ↩︎
2. The “D.I.Y.” refrain in parentheses here and throughout the song is sung by backing vocalists – presumably the rest of the group. “D.I.Y.” stands for “do it yourself” – i.e. carrying out home improvements (such as building shelves) yourself, rather than hiring someone in to do it for you. But given some of the other content, are we understand “do it yourself” sexually? ↩︎
3. This is one of William Blake’s “proverbs of Hell”, from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. ↩︎

Sources / Links

• The Annotated Fall: “Ed’s Babe” [Archived]
• Ford, Simon (2003). Hip Priest: the story of Mark E Smith and The Fall. London: Quartet Books.
• Mackay, Tommy (2018). 40 Odd Years of The Fall. Place of publication unknown: Greg Moodie.
• Pringle, Steve (2022). You Must Get Them All: The Fall on Record. [paperback edition]. Pontefract: Route Publishing Ltd. [Online store]
• Smith, Mark E. (1985). The Fall Lyrik & Texte Von Mark E. Smith. In Deutsch & Englisch. With Drawings by Brix. Berlin: The Lough Press. [AKA The Orange Book. Available online in The Internet Archive]
• Smith, Mark E. (2008). vII. The Lough Press & AMarquisManipulationProductions. [AKA the Blue Lyrics Book]
• Smith Start, Brix (2016). The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise. London: Faber & Faber. [Text available online in archive.org]
• The Track Record: “Ed’s Babe”
• Wolstencroft, Simon (2014). You Can Drum But You Can’t Hide: a memoir. Trowbridge: Strata Books. (2nd edition published by Route Publishing, 2017).