Lyrics
I was in a sleeping dream 1
When a policeman brought my mother home
By the window I didn't scream 2
I was too old for that
I was in a drunken dream 3
The pubs were closed
It was three o'clock 4
At the bottom of the street it seemed
There was a policeman lost in the fog 5
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't read it
Futures and pasts
You can cry for your lost childhood
Will you cry for our lost childhoods?
But remember how you hated it 6
And worse 'cos you couldn't state it?
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't read it
Futures and pasts
Look at the woman of thirty-nine
Look at the man of forty-nine
You can read their lousy lives
You can see their ugly face lines
They understand but they don't see it
They understand but they don't see it
I understand but I don't read it
Futures and pasts
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't read it
Futures and pasts
Commentary
Credited on record to Mark E. Smith and Martin Bramah, “Futures and Pasts” existed from the formative period of The Fall, and is probably one of the best of MES’ early lyrics. Obliquely about the past bleeding into the present (“explores the cyclical nature of time and history”, according to Mackay, 2018, p.16; “time as a kind of maze”, according to bzfgt at annotatedfall.doomby.com, who cites “Backdrop” and “The N.W.R.A.” as examples of songs with similar themes).
The earliest known reference to the song is in a letter from Mark E. Smith to Tony Friel dated 24 November 1976:
Here is the chorus from a song i am currently working on. I have many fragments but cannot seem to fit them into a complete whole:
"I understand but I don't see it
Futures and pasts"I think it will be one of my best. The music must be good dear T- I was thinking of a thrash out on gtr., with loping bass runs that you are so good at and that Doug Yule plays excellently on ‘Live ’69’.
“Dear quadruple”. Letter from Mark E. Smith to Tony Friel, dated 24 November 1976. Originally part of a set of letters uploaded by Friel to his now defunct website atomicsoup.co.uk, but quickly removed.
The title then appeared on a list of “RECORDED/Presentable” tracks by “The Outsiders Group” (i.e. before the group was renamed “The Fall”, and well before their first live performance) in a letter from MES to Tony Friel dated 25 January 1977.
We don’t have setlists for the very earliest couple of Fall gigs (the date of the very first gig by The Fall is currently as uncertain as ever), but it does appear on the earliest setlist we do have, for the gig at North West Arts, King Street, Manchester, on 13 June 1977.
The song was a setlist fixture through the rest of 1977 and up to the end of 1978. Its final known performance was at the Marquee, London, on 17 December 1978 (but we lack setlist information for the final two gigs of the year). So far as we know it was never played again.
A version (the best version, according to Mackay, 2018 p.16) of “Futures and Pasts” was recorded on 30 May 1978 for the group’s first John Peel Session, broadcast 15 June 1978. It was subsequently released as the penultimate track on The Fall’s debut album, Live at the Witch Trials (1979). There are no significant lyrical variations between the two recordings.
Nor are there many major differences in the lyrics on the various official and unofficial live recordings that are available. The version played at the 23 December 1977 gig at Stretford Civic Theatre has a “man of twenty-nine” rather than forty-nine.
The lyrics are included in what is known as the “Orange Book”: The Fall Lyrics or The Fall Lyrik & Texte Von Mark E. Smith (Smith, 1985, no page numbering). Unlike some other texts to be found in the book, this one is more or less identical to what can be heard on the Peel Session and album studio recordings.
Footnotes
- What might MES intend by “sleeping dream”? Is it to be distinguished from a “daydream”? Or it is a dream in which one is sleeping?
Why has the policeman brought the narrator’s mother home? Was she lost, or drunk, or ended up in trouble of some sort. Or, maybe we shouldn’t assume the policeman brought her home in a professional capacity. Maybe he gave her a lift. Maybe they were out on a date, or some other social event.
In Walter Scott’s novel The Monastery: a novel (1820) is a poem entitled “To The Sub-Prior”. It includes the lines, “That which belongs not to Heaven nor to hell, / A wreath of the mist, a bubble of the stream, / ‘Twixt a waking thought and a sleeping dream; / A form that men spy / With the half-shut eye.” I’ve no idea if this is relevant. But, there’s mist in it!
L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S. (2020) is an opera by Nicholas Lens, with a libretto by Nick Cave. One of the titular litanies is the “Litany of the Sleeping Dream”. ↩︎ - The narrator didn’t scream, but screaming seems to have been a potential reaction, otherwise why mention it? But why? Wouldn’t the narrator be pleased their mother was home? A scream of delight perhaps? Or a scream of fear or horror, or just surprise, that she’s been brought home by someone in uniform (assuming he’s in uniform)? ↩︎
- Since the narrator (assuming it’s supposed to be the same narrator) is now having a “drunken dream”, I suppose we can surmise that in this verse they are no longer the child of the first verse. The pubs are now shut, but evidently the narrator has been out drinking. Or alternatively, perhaps the second verse is told from the perspective of the mother of the first verse. ↩︎
- Probably three o’clock in the afternoon, not three o’clock in the early morning. At the time the song was written, pubs were required under licensing laws dating back to the First World War to close for a break of two and half hours beginning at 3:00 pm. It was not until the Licensing Act 1988 that pubs were once again allowed to open continuously from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm. For a fuller explanation see “Last Orders“. ↩︎
- Is this the same policeman who brought the narrator’s mother home earlier? Maybe he was subsequently promoted to Inspector and got himself lost in the fog of “Spectre Vs. Rector”. ↩︎
- MES’s disdain for nostalgia was a persistent theme across the entire history of The Fall. ↩︎
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “Futures and Pasts” [Archived]
- Mackay, Tommy (2018). 40 Odd Years of The Fall. Place of publication unknown: Greg Moodie.
- 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]
- The Track Record: “Futures and Pasts”
- Wikipedia: L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S. (opera)
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