Lyrics
It's on forever
Hit it
You've heard about mad Blake
Went down the hill in Chepstow
In London he was broke
But it was oke 1
Rome didn't matter or come up
But Heaven and Hell did
And look up
The fire, the fire is falling
And look up, look up
Flaming hair shot through the streaking sun over him
Oh merchant leave thy oil
And Nebuchadnezzar never knew there'd be times like this
Rome didn't matter or come up
But Heaven and Hell did
And look up
The fire, the fire is falling
And look up, look up
Oh citizens of London
Enlarge thy countenance
From the flaming wind-hairs of thought in his forehead
Rome didn't matter or come off
But Heaven and Hell did
And look up
The fire, the fire is falling
And look up, look up
Commentary
< Post in progress >
“W.B.” is, of course, titled after the initials of the radical English poet and artist William Blake (1757 – 1827), who MES cited as an influence on many occasions. Many of the song’s lyrics are borrowed from Blake’s A Song of Liberty (1793).
Footnotes
- “She was broke, but it was oke” is a line from “The Lady is a Tramp”, a song from the Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms (1937). ↩︎
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “W.B.” [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: “W.B.”
- Wolstencroft, Simon (2014). You Can Drum But You Can’t Hide: a memoir. Trowbridge: Strata Books. (2nd edition published by Route Publishing, 2017).
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