Commentary

Credited to “Smith” alone on Ersatz GB (2011), this is very much the typical late-period strange, sinister, impenetrable, M.E.S. lyric. It is entirely unclear who or what has been seen to come (or go), or why the song’s narrator has been to all these places (some of which are real, and some of which seem to be made up – indeed stereotypically “oriental” in most cases, for no readily apparent reason). Note, however, that what is transcribed here by way of place names may not be accurate, since the vocals are not always clear. Live, M.E.S. cited a variety of place-names not heard on record.

As bzfgt pointed out on the old doomby.com version of The Annotated Fall, the lyrics appear to take the form of a boastful “look-at-all-the-things-I’ve-seen-and-done” song like Bo Diddley’s “I’ve Seen Them All” or more specifically Geoff Mack‘s “I’ve Been Everywhere” (1959) (covered by Johnny Cash, 1996, but the most often cited covers are by Lucky Starr and Hank Snow, both 1962, and there is even a version by Rolf Harris, 1963), which which this song has place-name-dropping in common. Mack’s original focused on Australian place names, but cover versions tend to adapt the song to the singer’s country of origin.

The version transcribed at the original doomby.com The Annotated Fall is incomplete – it misses out what can be heard during the extended coda.

The opening staccato drums remind me of what Steve Albini’s band Shellac did on occasion. “Falling about on a drumkit start”, as Tommy Mackay would have it (p.235).

“I’ve Seen Them Come” is not a highly regarded song in the canon. Tommy Mackay assesses it as “addictive in time if only the playing wasn’t so undemanding… subtle keyboard floating around in the background is the best bit”, before concluding that it “belligerently outstays its welcome” (p.235). Steve Pringle admires the song’s “sheer bloody-mindedness”, as it “locks onto a brutal, simplistic three-chord motif and doesn’t let go for six minutes”, but cites the negative views of some contemporary reviewers of Ersatz GB. “It doesn’t quite sustain its length”, he says, “but it does flirt with that hypnotic quality that the group often achieved.” (p.473).

Footnotes

1. These opening lines, in italics, are sung by members, or a member, of the group – don’t know who – rather than M.E.S. Variations occur as indistinct backing vocals throughout the song. I haven’t tried to transcribe them. ↩︎
2. Indistinct muttering at this point, possibly by M.E.S. ↩︎
3. If this is indeed “Banding”, all I can find is Banding Island, artificially created in Temenggor Lake, Perak, Malaysia. ↩︎
4. I have unable to find any such place. ↩︎
5. No such place, as far as I can tell. ↩︎
6. No known place, but also may not be accurately transcribed. ↩︎
7. It’s unclear if this is a real place. ↩︎
8. Guangzhou is a Chinese city. Whether it is actually what M.E.S. is saying is another matter. ↩︎
9. Pretty sure this is Prague, capital of Czech Republic. M.E.S. does not pronounce it straight, though, it sounds more like “pra-a-ha-ha-ha” or something. ↩︎
10. It’s not clear if this is the correct transcription. If it is, there’s no such place that I can find. ↩︎
11. There are a couple of rivers with this name, but it is not even clear that this is the correct transcription. It might be “Balsazar”. But there’s nowhere I can find called that. ↩︎
12. The Alps is (are?) a series of mountain ranges that sits across eight European countries. ↩︎
13. Meijiang, if that is indeed what M.E.S. is saying, is a district of Meizhou City, Guangdong, China. So it would kind of fit. There are a couple of other places with the same, or similar, name. ↩︎
14. Probably intended to be Auckland, New Zealand. ↩︎
15. Brisbane, Australia, presumably. ↩︎
16. “Dong Ding” is a Taiwanese tea, and the name of a Taiwanese island, but I think that M.E.S. just messing about at this point. ↩︎
17. There are two places in China called “Dongfu“. Whether either or them is intended is unknown. ↩︎
18. Betty Blue is a French film directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix (1986), and starring Jean-Hugues Anglade and Béatrice Dalle. Wikipedia describes it as an “erotic psychological drama”. If what we can hear is what M.E.S. intends, it’s not obvious what the connection is. ↩︎
19. A “Metal Mass” is a heavy metal-style church service in Finnish Lutheran churches, a phenomenon started in 2006. I have no idea if this is what M.E.S. has in mind or not. ↩︎
20. Beijing is the capital of China. ↩︎
21. That’s what it sounds like, more or less. I can find no such place. However, “ansatz” is a term used in physics and mathematics to mean, more or less, “an educated guess” – a preliminary assumption subject to experimental confirmation. Sadly not much opportunity for that with this song. ↩︎
22. The Australian Brisbane, again? ↩︎
23. The last few lines are very unclear and the transcription likely to be incorrect. ↩︎
24. The same backing vocalist who sings the lines at the beginning of the song returns, again indicated with italics here. Remember that there are backing vocals throughout the song, but I have only transcribed them when they appear on their own. ↩︎
25. Not sure about these final words. ↩︎

Sources / Links

• The Annotated Fall: “I’ve Seen Them Come” [Archived]
• 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]
• The Track Record: “I’ve Seen Them Come”