Death of a sense of humour And death of sense How do you recover from this? What do you fear? Being found out Then why do you always give yourself away? What do you want to do? Hide Then why go out and make an exhibition of yourself? What do you seek? Oblivion And drugs walk the streets What you want to be able to do is worst advice A louse given in largesse Arms control (poseur, poseur) Arms control poseur (Arms control poseur) Arms control Parliament connives with a diseased access company There's nothing much I can do about this So I drink in recline with an acquaintance, sound Spouse is talking on the phone To well-armed arms control poseur (Arms control poseur) Arms control poseur I found my home I made a calendar that wasn't there To find whether it was the first of December or not Armed control poseur In pity and envy dragged from the streets I quite very very much enjoyed his jovial lies, lying Arms control poseur (Arms control poseur) Arms control poseur (Arms control poseur) Arms control poseur
Armoured car interior Sports car interior Encrusted with bluebottles Armoured car interior Encrusted with bluebottles I even stoop to icy vodka As I feel the inevitable battle creep nearer and nearer Armed control poseur As my great great great great great great great great great familiar found out As my great great great great similar found out As my great great great great great great great grandfather found out Sports car interior Encrusted with bluebottles Armoured car interior Encrusted with bluebottles I even stoop to an icy vodka As I feel the inevitable battle creep nearer and nearer Chip! Chip! Arms control poseur Arms control poseur Arms control poseur Arms control poseur Arms control poseur Get me a nice woolly polo neck with a red cardigan from Next Ideal summer wear Arms control poseur
Commentary
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Footnotes
Sources / Links
The Annotated Fall: “Arms Control Poseur” [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]
The fuck do I know but I hear ‘and drugs off the streets’ which makes more sense considering the wider context of the song, it