Lyrics

One, two, three, four
Antidotes

And those who wrote
And in the hoose hidden
If chewing gum is chewed

Antidotes

The wacky sports teacher and the big fat bullies
In the class he tolerates their dads on teams
It's a carry on sir country

Antidotes

If chewing gum is chewed
The chewer is pursued
And in the back shed he's shot, became a dog’s bone

Had scales on his face before he even reached the Sports Minister
Thanks to a country that’s so secondary modern

Antidote
And dogs
 
And the weird Addams Family replica, schizophrene, vice film, hooded eyes
Shoves people off the train and shouted at the show, rants

The driver always wants to go round and round and round the

There's no antidote

The poison is rising his skin is scaly to touch

Alright

Antidotes, and those who vote 
Antidotes
Antidotes

Antidotes, and those who vote
Where chewing gum is chewed
The chewer is pursued 
Seventies
Every time
So second-rate about it

Antidotes, and those who vote
Antidotes, and those who vote
Antidotes, and those who vote

Antidotes

No more inner city for you
Antidotes and those who vote

Country

Carry on sir
Carry on sir

If liberty is
The sports teaching kook

At liberty's

The sports teacher's
Antidotes

Antidotes and those who vote
Miss you, miss you, miss you 
Antidotes and those who vote
Antidotes
Antidotes and those who vote
Antidotes
Antidotes and those who vote

Antidotes
Miss you, miss you, miss you, miss you, miss you, miss you, miss you, miss you, miss you

Commentary

< Post in progress >

“Jung Nev” is presumably a reference to Neville Wilding, The Fall’s guitarist at the time, who gets a writing credit on this song alongside Mark E. Smith and Simon Hitchcock, the co-producer of the album. Note that Wilding doesn’t get a credit for Anecdotes + Antidotes in B#, also off The Marshall Suite, which is credited to Mark E. Smith and Julia Nagle – it shares some of the same lyrics, but is musically quite different – and I treat it separately here as bzfgt’s The Annotated Fall did before me.

Footnotes

1. This line isn’t entirely clear: bzfgt’s The Annotated Fall rendered it as “and dozy votes”, noting a similarity with the lyrics to the 1943 novelty song, “Mairzy Doats”, by  Milton Drake, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston, the words to which are adapted from an older rhyme that children used to try and catch each other out. ↩︎

Sources / Links

• The Annotated Fall: “(Jung Nev’s) Antidotes” [Archived]
• The Annotated Fall: “Anecdotes + Antidotes in B#” [Archived]
• Smith, Mark E. (2008). Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith. London: Penguin.
• The Track Record: “(Jung Nev’s) Antidotes”
• The Track Record: “Anecdotes + Antidotes in B#”
• Wikipedia: “Mairzy Doats”