Lyrics
Slapp Happy/Henry Cow 1
[invocation]: Tell of the birth 2
Tell how war appeared on earth 3
Thunder and herbs
Conjugated sacred Verbs
Musicians with gongs
Fertilised an egg with song
Asleep in the sphere
her foetus was a Knot of fear.
She butted with her horn
Split an egg and war was Born
A miracle of hate
She banged her spoon against her plate
Upon her spoon this motto
wonderfully designed:
"Violence completes the partial mind." 4
// Tell of the birth
Tell how war appeared on earth
Musicians with gongs
Fertilised an egg with song
She butted with her horn
Split an egg and war was Born // 5
Stacking the bones
on the empty aerodrome
Tinted turtle green
She haunts the slender submarine
She shakes her gory locks
over the deserted docks.
Come follow me
Out of dark obscurity
Follow my torch
Pilgrims at the double march
Through meadows & seas
Abattoirs and Libraries
The pilgrims increase
Boasting they are led by peace
They gut huts with gusto
Pillage villages with verve
War does what she has to
People get what they deserve
Upon her spoon this motto
wonderfully designed:
"Violence completes the partial mind."
Anthony Moore 6
Tell of the birth
Tell how war appeared on earth
Thunder and herbs
Conjugated sacred Verbs
Collisions in time
Paralyse the partial mind
Asleep in the sphere
her foetus was a Knot of fear.
She butted with her horn
Split an egg and war was Born
A miracle of hate
She banged her spoon against her plate
On her spoon this motto
Wonderfully designed:
"Violence completes the partial mind."
Stacking the bones
On the empty aerodrome
Tinted turtle green
She haunts the slender submarine
She shakes her gory locks
Over the deserted docks
Come follow me
Out of dark obscurity
Follow my torch
People at the double march
Through meadows and seas
Abattoirs and libraries
And still they increase
Boasting they are led by peace
On her spoon this motto
Wonderfully designed:
"Violence completes the partial mind."
Tell of the birth
Tell how war appeared on earth
Thunder and herbs
Conjugated sacred Verbs
A miracle of hate
She banged her spoon against her plate
Stacking the bones
On the empty aerodrome
Tinted turtle green
She haunts the slender submarine
She shakes her gory locks
Over the deserted docks
They gut huts with gusto
Pillage villages with verve
War does what she has to
People get what they deserve
On her spoon this motto
Wonderfully designed:
"Violence completes the partial mind."
The Fall / Middle Class Revolt
Tell of the birth
Tell how War appeared on earth 7
Musicians with gongs
Permeate the autobahns
She split the egg
Foetus of disgusting breath
And she split the womb
Cast a spell and War was born
Come follow me
Out of the obscurity
Pilgrims in songs
Swamp the empty aerodromes
Kalashnikovs but no houses
Women at the double, march
No food for the spouses
They wait for the U.S. drop
Russians sit back and laugh
While War casts her gory locks
Over the deserted docks 8
She casts the gory locks
Over the deserted docks
Tell of the birth
Tell how War appeared on earth
She cast a spell
Split an egg and War was born
And pillage hopes with gusto
Even though they have no nerve
And she does just look on
And War does what she has to
War does what she has to
People get what they deserve
Commentary
< Post in progress >
Is that a Henry Cow cover [“War”] on Middle Class Revolt? Are you actually a fan of that group or just that particular cut?
Well, that’s not really Henry Cow, it’s Slapp Happy. No, I didn’t like a lot of that stuff, actually…
I was kind of surprised that it was on there.
Yeah, I find most of it very boring, though the Slapp Happy bits of it were good. I decided we should do it because it fit in with “Free Range” [single released during Operation Desert Storm] and stuff like that, what we’d been doing. But I went to get the Slapp Happy LP out, and I’d lost it; I hadn’t really played it for about eight years. So, all I had were the Iyrics on the back, and I had to explain it to the group, you know? from memory.
I suppose that can sometimes be more fruitful than picking it out note-for-note…
MES: Well, the funny thing was that I found the record again, and it’s a completely different bloody song. [laughs] Same Iyrics, you know, but the arrangement is completely different, not even the same notes. It’s funny what you think things sound like.
Well, see, now you can put your name on it and get a piece of the publishing.
MES: [Laughs] No, no, I don’t believe in that.
Source: Tim Midgett (out of Silkworm) interview with MES, The Rocket, #189, 14-28 September 1994, p.16. See Sources/Links for availability.
Note that MES’ reference to having the lyrics but not the record indicates that it was indeed the In Praise of Learning version that is being covered, rather than Anthony Moore’s solo version (because Moore’s album doesn’t have printed lyrics).
Described as a “spirited” cover by Simon Ford (2003, p.228), and “strident, aggressive… One of the more successful covers.” by Steve Pringle (2022, p.275), this is one of my favourite cover versions by The Fall (I have a lot of time for Slapp Happy and a soft spot for much of Henry Cow). This despite not sounding very much like the original, presumably for the reasons explained by MES in his interview with Tim Midgett, above. Both Pringle and Tommy Mackay (2018, p.138) note a similarity of the guitar line to “Echo Beach” by Martha and the Muffins (1980).
Slapp Happy/Henry Cow – version
The story of the Slapp Happy/Henry Cow collaboration/semi-merger is liable to become a bit complicated, but here at Annotation Research Laboratories we laugh in the face of convoluted band histories.
Anthony Moore – version
The Fall – versions
The Fall have officially released several versions of “War”:
1. Mark Goodier radio session (1993). Length: c2:35.
Recorded on 1 May 1993 and broadcast on 17 May 1993. This is the earliest version of The Fall’s cover to be recorded (it even predates the first known live performance, which was at Newcastle University Students’ Union on 6 May 1993 – though of course the session would not be broadcast for another 10 days or so), and is also the shortest.
2. “Behind the Counter” 12″/CD single (1993). Length: 2:44.
Recorded at Suite 16, Rochdale, mid-late 1993, and released in two parts on 13 December and 20 December. The version of “War” found on these records seems to be a slightly different mix/edit to the version which was to appear on the album, but the lyrics are no different.
3. Middle Class Revolt LP/cass/CD album (1994). Length: 2:57.
Tracks for the album were recorded at Suite 16, Rochdale (probably including “War”) and The Windings Studio, Wrexham, late 1993/early 1994. The album was released on 3 May 1994. This is the longest studio/session version of the song that The Fall recorded.
Footnotes
- I’ve used as my starting point the lyrics as they appear on the sleeve of the original issue of In Praise of Learning, including idiosyncratic capitalisation, adjusting for what can actually be heard on the record. ↩︎
- “[invocation]” is a textual note, not sung. ↩︎
- War is personified in the text, so it seems appropriate to give the word a capitalised initial letter. This was not what was done when the text was printed on the original album, however, and so I feel obliged to follow that example for the In Praise of Learning text. But I’m right and Slappy Happy and Henry Cow are wrong, so my transcription of The Fall’s version capitalises “War”. ↩︎
- According to Peter Blegvad, the line “violence completes the partial mind” is “from Yeats” (see Cutler, 2019, p.55). I’ve checked, and it’s not actually an exact, word-for-word, quotation. The source is Yeats’ poem Under Ben Bulben, thought to have been written in August 1938, and first published in July 1939, six months after Yeats’ death at the age of 73. The relevant lines appear in part III of the poem:
You that Mitchell’s prayer have heard,
‘Send war in our time, O Lord!’
Know that when all words are said
And a man is fighting mad,
Something drops from eyes long blind,
He completes his partial mind,
For an instant stands at ease,
Laughs aloud, his heart at peace.
Even the wisest man grows tense
With some sort of violence
Before he can accomplish fate,
Know his work or choose his mate.
(Source: Yeats, 1985, p.398 – Available in the Internet Archive) ↩︎ - These repeated lines are omitted from the text on the back of the album, but they are heard on the record so I have included them here. ↩︎
- This version of the lyrics is my transcription from Anthony Moore’s 1979 album, Flying Doesn’t Help. It was originally released under the name “A. More”. ↩︎
- My transcription of The Fall’s version of the lyrics capitalises “War” because it’s a personification, in defiance of the plainly incorrect text published with the original album. ↩︎
- This line would probably make MES think of Salford Docks, which had been part of Manchester Docks and closed in 1982. The redevelopment of Salford Quays under City council control was underway but not yet completed c.1993/4. ↩︎
Sources / Links
- Cutler, Chris (ed.) (2019). “Book 1 | The Studio: Official Releases”. The Henry Cow Box Redux: The Complete Henry Cow (box set booklet). Henry Cow. London: Recommended Records. [Available in archive.org]
- Ford, Simon (2003). Hip Priest: the story of Mark E. Smith and The Fall. London: Quartet Books.
- Henry Cow/Slapp Happy (1975). In Praise of Learning. LP. Virgin: V2027. [Discogs]
- Mackay, Tommy (2018). 40 Odd Years of The Fall. Place of publication unknown: Greg Moodie.
- Midgett, Tim (1994). “Interview: The Fall”. The Rocket, No. 189, September 14 – September 28. p.16. [Available via Newspapers.com] [Available via Washington Digital Newspapers] [Text available via The Fall Online – Bibliography]
- More, A. [Anthony Moore] (1979). Flying Doesn’t Help. LP. Quango: HMG 98. [Discogs]
- Piekut, Benjamin (2019). Henry Cow: The World is a Problem. Durham/London: Duke University Press.
- Pringle, Steve (2022). You Must Get Them All: The Fall on Record. [paperback edition]. Pontefract: Route Publishing Ltd. [Online store]
- The Track Record: “War”
- Wikipedia: Under Ben Bulben
- Wikipedia: “War” (Henry Cow Song)
- Yeats, W.B.(1985 [1950]). The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats. London: Macmillan. [Internet Archive]