Well I didn't eat the weekend, but I put the weight back on again And our kid got back from Munich, he didn't like it much Has a psyche that hadn't been synthesised 1 Just like machines It's getting like that here now, it just goes to show
No nerves left Monday morning And I think I'll cut my dick off, the trouble it got me in Went home to my slum canyon On my way I looked up, I saw turrets of Victorian wealth I saw John the ex- fox sleeping in some outside bogs There's a silent rumble in the buildings of the night council It's a meeting of controllers, who drive right through the gates in white roll-tops
And I guess this goes to show the lie dream of the casino soul And I just suppose this goes to show the lie dream of the casino soul scene And I guess this goes to show the lie dream of the casino soul And I suppose this just goes to show the lie dream of the casino soul scene
I'm a bit jagged right now In a tongue tired, wired state Cos Sunday morning dancing I had an awake dream I was in the supervision dept of a big town store Security floors one to four They had cameras in the clothes dummies A man came up to them, he wanted sex in the dummies eyes Then came up the cry, "security, mobilised!" Meanwhile in the sticks, proles rich, dance in cardboard pants
And I guess this goes to show the lie dream of the casino soul And I just suppose this goes to show the lie dream of the casino soul scene And I guess this goes to show the lie dream of the casino soul I suppose this just goes to show the lie dream of the casino soul scene
Commentary
< Post in progress >
Footnotes
Or “Böse schlechte Heiden mit Synthesizern”, which is where annotatedfall.doomby.com had got to. This is placeholder pending a double-check. ↩︎
Sources / Links
The Annotated Fall: “Lie Dream of a Casino Soul” [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]
I always reckoned it was “Join the Experts” not Jon the fox. Join the Experts was a slogan on army careers recruiting adverts back in the 70’s and I always assumed the lyric was about a washed up ex-soldier. Any thoughts?
A creative suggestion, but sadly completely and demonstrably wrong.
It’s “John the ex-Fox” on the back cover of the single.
It’s “John the ex-Fox” in the version of the lyrics in the Blue Book.
It’s “John the ex-Fox” in the lyrics put up for sale from MES’ estate by his family via Omega Auctions on 29 November 2022.
None of which would matter if the evidence of our ears told us something different. But it sounds like “John the ex-Fox” to me.
MES and John Foxx were friends, for what that’s worth (given we don’t actually know it’s a reference to John Foxx at all!).
But finally, and crucially, not to say fatally, you’ve misremembered the army careers adverts. The slogan was not “Join the Experts” at all. The slogan was in fact “Join the Professionals”.
1:
(Reverse of the“Lie Dream of a Casino Soul” single)
From the old doomby site, a comment I found by John Foxx himself on this song:
“I remember the song,” says Foxx. “I don’t know what was in Mark’s head with that one, but no change there. I never felt the need to discuss it with him. He’d use words because he liked how they sounded and how he could crack them together in unique combinations. His ruthless logic and his ability to twist any topic to his own devices was fascinating. And he was the best at it. So audacious you’d be laughing with delight.”
Plenty more evidence out there if required, but here’s a page from a book called The British Army in the 1980s, by Mike Chappell (Osprey/Reed Consumer Books, 1987):
I always reckoned it was “Join the Experts” not Jon the fox. Join the Experts was a slogan on army careers recruiting adverts back in the 70’s and I always assumed the lyric was about a washed up ex-soldier. Any thoughts?
Thanks for the comment.
A creative suggestion, but sadly completely and demonstrably wrong.
1:
(Reverse of the “Lie Dream of a Casino Soul” single)
2:
https:/media-library/lie_dream_of_a_casino_soul/casinobluebook.jpg
(Source: VII (the Blue Book))
3:
5:
From the old doomby site, a comment I found by John Foxx himself on this song:
From Electronic Sound, issue 112 (April 2024).
6:
Here’s an example of a “Join the Professionals” advert from the Sunday Mirror, 6 April 1969: https://www.newspapers.com/article/sunday-mirror-prof1/166452724/
And from the Daily Mirror, 13 March 1973: https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-mirror-prof2/166453006/
Poster:
And The Professionals (Steve Jones and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols) had a song called “Join the Professionals”, after the recruiting ad:
https://youtu.be/8u9NCvG6cZ0?si=ndkiiRxRqYCHuJgg
Plenty more evidence out there if required, but here’s a page from a book called The British Army in the 1980s, by Mike Chappell (Osprey/Reed Consumer Books, 1987):
https://archive.org/details/britisharmyin1980000chap/page/8/mode/2up?q=%22join+the+professionals%22
(link is to archive.org)
Eventually all of this will end up in the actual entry!
Much of the above will go in the actual post in due course!
Well there you go. That strange rumbling noise from the far north is the sound of me crashing and burning.
Cheers & keep up the astoundingly good work.
I’m off to try & start a controversy involving different interpretations of the phrase ‘mushy pen’ now.