Lyrics
He is not appreciated
He is not appreciated
He is not appreciated
Drink the long draught, Dan, for the hip priest
I said drink the long draught, Dan, for the hip priest!
He is not appreciated
He is not appreciated
White collar hits motorway services
It's the hip priest
From the eyes he can see, they know it's the hip priest
He is not appreciated
It's purple psychology, not just an old lady's 1
It's the hip priest
That's hip hip hip hip hip hip hip hip hip priest
That's hip hip hip hip hip hip hip hip priest
And he's gonna make an appearance
And he's gonna make an appearance
I was shown in a freak show early on
And drunk from small brown bottles since I was so long
Cos I'm a hip priest
Cos I'm a hip priest
And people only need me when they're down and gone to seed
Cos I'm a hip priest
Cos I'm a hip priest
It's appreciation half won
And they hate their allegiance to hip preacher one
Hip priest
I got my last clean dirty shirt out of the wardrobe 2
I got my last clean dirty shirt out of the wardrobe
And all the good people know
That's hip hip hip hip hip hip hip hip hip priest
All the young groups know
All the young groups know
They can imitate but I teach, because I'm a hip priest
I'm as clean as a packet of chocolate Treets
One-time feast was tray o' grease
Hip priest
I practise bad unafeared art 3
That's hip hip hip hip hip hip hip hip priest
And if the good people knew they would say
He is not appreciated
He is not appreciated
So drink the long draught, Dan, for the hip priest
Commentary
< Post in draft >
Footnotes
- A reference to Jenny Joseph’s well-known poem, “Warning”, which begins “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple.” ↩︎
- This line is borrowed from “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, a song written and recorded by Kris Kristofferson. However, versions have been recorded by other artists, including MES-favourites Johnny Cash and R. Dean Taylor. ↩︎
- “Unafeared” is, according to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, now obsolete usage (having been replaced by “unafraid”) except in dialect. ↩︎
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “Hip Priest” [Archived]
- Ford, Simon (2003). Hip Priest: the story of Mark E Smith and The Fall. London: Quartet Books.
- 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]
- 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]
- Smith, Mark E. (2008). vII. The Lough Press & AMarquisManipulationProductions. [AKA the Blue Lyrics Book]
- Smith Start, Brix (2016). The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise. London: Faber & Faber. [Text available online in archive.org]
- The Track Record: “Hip Priest”
- Wolstencroft, Simon (2014). You Can Drum But You Can’t Hide: a memoir. Trowbridge: Strata Books. (2nd edition published by Route Publishing, 2017).
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