Lyrics
Hittite man emerges from the ground
White robes, he says "you don't hear me"
Hittite man
Hittite man emerges
White robes to the ground, into sand
Says, "debt does not exist"
"And you can't hear me, you don't hear me"
Goodbye Stacey and Julie, goodbye [ ]
Pilgrim out of mind, out of depths, death does not exist
Hittite Man emerges from sand, he says
"You can't hear me, you can't hear me"
"(You don't hear me)"
What about Stacey, Julie and Dave?
What about Stacey, Julie and David?
Pilgrim out of mind, Hittite man emerges from sand
Pilgrim out of mind, out of death and debt, you do not exist
He says, "you don't hear me, you don't hear me"
Hittite man, white robe right down to the ground, disappearing into the sand
You have no idea about the gibbous morons you have unlollied on this earth
He says, he says, goodbye Stacey, he says goodbye Stacey and Judy, goodbye Stacey
Debt does not exist, you don't hear, he says, you don't hear me
Scalded crucifix, pilgrim out of mind
Hittite man
Commentary
< Post in progress >
AKA “Three Dreams”.
My favorite song is “Hittite Man.” I heard the other version where your wife sings backup on Facebook on it, and it’s incredible. Was it hard to pick out which one to use?
Everybody wanted me to use that one, but I stuck with the first one. You like the wife one? It was a hard choice.
So, when writing it, were you really thinking of a Hittite corpse coming to life, or is it a grand metaphor?
I read daft history books. Sometimes the books I read are a bit crackers or strange. So it sounded interesting. The Hittites didn’t believe in debt or insurance. When I first started thinking about it was when I went to Greece, because the Hittites were with the ancient Greeks. And they didn’t believe in debt or overdrafts, which sounds crazy, and I thought they didn’t believe in wrongful communication, which I believe is the cause of a lot of trouble in the world.
I like that you use the word gibbous in the song; it’s such a chic way of saying hunchbacked.
Lovecraft made up a lot of words, didn’t he? I might well have gotten that from him.
Source: Mark E. Smith, interviewed by William Van Meter (2013).
Footnotes
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “Hittite Man” [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: “Hittite Man”
- Van Meter, William (2013). “The Fall’s Mark E. Smith on Re-Mit, Playing for German Lawyers, and H.P. Lovecraft.” Vulture, 13 May. [Online] [Archived]