Lyrics
From the valleys of Leicestershire and all over 1
Came mystic crew filth
The first, the first was Dave Bush-babe 2
The second was Graham ponytail 3
They were mystic crew filth
Crew filth
Then from the land of the accordion came Dave Kiwi 4
He was crew filth
He had the shirts
He wouldn't meditate on his monitor room
Mystic crew filth
Hey mystic crew filth
Crew filth
Crew filth
Crew filth
Crew filth
Crew filth
Where did they come from, the little motherfuckers?
Nobody knows, nobody bothers
Crew filth
Crew filth
Crew filth
One was a Kiwi 5
One was a Bush baby 6
One had tattoos on his legs
One had brown spectacles on his head
Motherfuckers
Crew filth
Crew filth
Hey Kenny, tell us about crew filth 7
Crew filth
Crew filth
Crew filth
But those crew filth
They had sensitive sides to their nature
They would smoke pot in their rooms
(Breakdown)
They were always behind you
That's why we kept our backs to the walls 8
You gotta watch your wallet, man
Crew filth
What about crew filth Bill? 9
Bill was King of the fucking motherfucker crew filth
(Crew filth)
He had to do some work one night
Then his hair turned white
Crew filth baby
Crew filth motherfucker
He was the worst, one of the worst
He was the worst, one of the worst
He was the worst, one of the worst
He was the worst, one of the worst
Gotta watch your friends
Watch your girl
You never can tell
He might kill a tab 10
While you're jumping off
All your friends might turn out to be crew filth
Commentary
… a low-fi album-filler that reminds listeners that just below the surface lurks a Fall just as wilfully obscure and avant-garde as the day it recorded ‘W.M.C.-Blob 59’ in 1980.
Ford, 2003, p.215.
Credited to Mark E. Smith and Simon Wolstencroft, “Crew Filth” is a throwaway track stuck on the end of 1992’s Code: Selfish, in which MES teases The Fall’s road crew.
According to Steve Hanley (Hanley and Piekarski, 2014, p.310) “Crew Filth” was a “piss-take recorded in the tour bus on a Casio coming back from the glitzy Palace nightclub on Blackpool front.” That means its ‘composition’, if you can call it that, can be exactly dated to 3 December 1991, the night of the Blackpool Palace Nightclub gig (or to the early hours of 4 December, I suppose).
I actually got a credit on that song, but I don’t know why, it was Mark just handing them out. It’s an awful song anyway.
Wolstencroft, 2014, p.174.
“Crew Filth” was never played live, and the tour bus recording appears to be the only recording. I have categorised it as “no studio recording” on those grounds, but I’m not sure I should have done.
Footnotes
- The highest point in Leicestershire is Bardon Hill (Wikipedia: Bardon Hill), 278m/912ft above sea level. ↩︎
- Yes, that Dave Bush. Dave Bush was a roadie for The Fall for about a year before he joined the group. However, his first gig as a member was at Cities in the Park, Heaton Park, Manchester, on 3 August 1991. So he had not been a roadie for about four months when this track was recorded. ↩︎
- Graham(e) ponytail has not been publicly identified. On the original Annotated Fall, user @Martin noted the following comment from the stage by MES at the St. David’s Hall, Cardiff gig on 10 December 1990: “Graham, can you get it flatter outside, please?” I assume that was the same Graham(e). ↩︎
- Presumably this Dave is a New Zealander. He has not been publicly identified. ↩︎
- Dave the Kiwi, as previously mentioned. ↩︎
- Dave Bush, as previously mentioned. A bush baby is, I think, the more common name in Britain for the sub-Saharan African galago, a small and very cute primate (Wikipedia: Galago). The pun is an obvious one. ↩︎
- Kenny has not been publicly identified. ↩︎
- An old joke about gay people, there. MES doesn’t appear to have been homophobic, but he also had a small-c conservative attitude towards acceptable sources of humour. ↩︎
- Bill has not been publicly identified. ↩︎
- “Kill a tab while you’re jumping off”? I’m not sure what is being suggested here. A tab is northern English slang for a cigarette. Or it could be short for “tablet” (i.e. a pill – or a tab of ‘acid’). A “tab” can also be an account behind a bar, or a bill (“pick up the tab” = pay the bill). ↩︎
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “Crew Filth” [Archived]
- The Fall Online – Gigography: 1990
- Ford, Simon (2003). Hip Priest: the story of Mark E Smith and The Fall. London: Quartet Books.
- Hanley, Steve and Piekarski, Olivia (2014). The Big Midweek: Life Inside The Fall. Pontefract: Route Publishing.
- The Track Record: “Crew Filth”
- Wolstencroft, Simon (2014). You Can Drum But You Can’t Hide; a memoir. Trowbridge: Strata Books. (note there is a revised edition published 2018, Pontefract: Route Publishing).