Lyrics
Turn the music up
When I wake up in the city
I look around to see who's with me
And all the thoughts that pollute me
Canal and the gallery
How many of you are stable?
And the boxer with thief
The Deputy Collector is the Command in Chief
I wake up in the city
I look around to see who's with me
A lonely cloud descended
The Bill and the bushes haven't grown
Don't keep laughing
Can you give a dog a bone?
When they give me breakfast
Politburo KGB
Maybe a Flight-Commander
Is curled up in a tree
And even Jesus had a tale
And General Custer was the same
That old dollar bill
Came out backwards in the machine
When I wake up in the city
I find I'm not around
I look at who's with me
All the thoughts that pollute me
I got glasses under my skin
I don't know how thin I been
I don't want Jesus to keep laughin'
I don't need no reason to keep laughin'
Even Jesus had a tale
And General Custer was the same
Now I'm the enemy of the city
And the dollar bill came out backwards
And the new note it came out backwards
And the new note it came out backwards
And the new note it came out backwards
And the new note it came out backwards
... at nine to eleven year olds, so how do we cope with this?
I think it is, practically, I think you'll find across the country that some schools are delivering not just two hours but even more and it's very good quality and other schools are not delivering the amount of time that they should be
So now there has be an entitlement that every youngster must get that two hours of good quality
And I want an advancement in two different areas of not curriculum [ ] support
A youngster is given the chance ... by society [ ]
OK, well, let me just say one other thing
We've also got to recognise that for many youngsters, especially in their early teens ...
When I wake up in the city
I look around and see who's with me
All the thoughts that polluted them
It's the canal and the gallery
How many of you are sable?
How many of you are stable?
Sleep on the docks
The Commander in Chief
And the breaking of the chains
By the safe canal
By the gallery
By the fox cream boat
By the gallery
By the dark brown stable
No-one's stable
Commentary
< Post in progress >
Footnotes
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “I Wake Up In The City” [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: “I Wake Up In The City”
- 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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