Lyrics
"Dresden dolls take one
This is for all you guys who work on industrial estates, sorry"
Dresden dolls are back in style
With a clockwork walk and a backward smile
Dresden dolls don't hear a sound
They're programmed to jump up and down
Up and down, round and round
Tapping feet to formless sound
Dresden dolls and Nazi boys
Dance arm-in-arm to formless noise
Up and down, round round
Tapping feet to formless sound
On plastic bars they sit and pose
Count their fingers with their toes
They sit and smile and drink and grin
Then they all get up again
Up and down, round round
Tapping feet to noiseless sound 1
Dresden dolls are back in style
With a clockwork walk and a backward smile
Up and down, round round
Tapping feet to formless sound
Commentary
Although MES did the vocals, Una Baines wrote the lyrics to this song, which is credited to Mark E Smith, Una Baines, Tony Friel, Karl Burns, and Martin Bramah. No official studio version exists, but it is included on the Total Eclipse “rehearsal” bootleg and the lyrics here are derived from that version:
“Dresden Dolls” appears on Rehearsal Early ’77 (Vol. 1) (also known as the Dresden Dolls 7″ and More Songs from the Front Parlour (Parts 1 & 2)), a bootleg 7″ on Total Eclipse records. Provenance is unclear, but the tracks are generally thought to be from a rehearsal tape recorded in the summer of 1977.
The earliest documented performance of “Dresden Dolls” is at the gig on 6 September 1977, at Barbarella’s, Birmingham. There is a setlist, and also a diary entry by Buzzcocks roadie Fran Taylor which records that The Fall played a new song called “Dresden Dolls” at this gig (see The Track Record and The Fall Online: Gigography).
The last documented performance (it’s on the setlist) seems to have been at the Tower Club, Oldham, on 10 April 1978. According to The Track Record, Una did not appear on stage at Oldham, but it seems she was at the next gig at Band on the Wall, Manchester, on 30 April 1978. But “Dresden Dolls” is not on the setlist of that gig, and as far as we know it was never played again. Yvonne Pawlett had replaced Una on keyboards by the time of the Greyhound, Croydon, gig on 7 May 1978.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellini%27s_Casanova
TV Broadcast
What’s On.
Sounds Like…?
annotatedfall.doomby.com user @bobby suggested (comment #6, 1 December 2014) that there is a musical resemblance to Serge Gainsbourg’s limited edition instrumental single “La Horse”, from the soundtrack to the Pierre Granier-Deferre movie, La Horse. It seems relatively obscure, but still.
Footnotes
- Hang on: “noiseless sound”? ↩︎
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “Dresden Dolls” [Archived]
- The Fall Online: Gigography – 1977
- Serge Gainsbourg, “La Horse” (1969). 7″ single. Hortensia: PPN 4185. [Discogs]
- The Track Record: “Dresden Dolls”
- The Track Record: The Una Baines Interview (originally published in the Reformation! Webzine, #5, Spring 2009)
- Unmagic Realism blog: 1978-79. 3: What’s On (Granada TV)
- Wikipedia: The Dresden Dolls (band)
- Wikipedia: La Horse (movie, 1970)