Lyrics
Right we'll go here
Where is he?
Just been to the park 1
Not the pub, the park 2
Go on
We too do not recognise the M.U. 3
We come with our hands open in fiendship
We can lead you to proletariat visions of posterity
W.M.C.! 4
The social alternative was incredibly frequent
We come with our hands open in fiendship
We can lead you to proletariat visions of posterity
We merely make cabaret
We are on Gramme Friday 5
Commentary
< Post in progress >
One of the more obscure track titles. “Blob” was an alcoholic drink available in Yates’s Wine Lodges. The Blob is also a film directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. and starring Steve McQueen. Although released in the United States in 1958, it seems not to have arrived in British cinemas until 1959. It’s unclear whether either or neither of these is the intended reference.
Blob 59 – the Words
Footnotes
- The preceding song on Grotesque, of course, is “In The Park“. ↩︎
- There was a pub in Prestwich called “The Park Hotel”. It was demolished in 2005. This line may be clarifying that the actual park is meant, and not the pub called The Park. ↩︎
- “M.U. is the abbreviation of the Musicians’ Union [see Wikipedia]. ↩︎
- “W.M.C.” is the acronym for “Working Men’s Club”. ↩︎
- “Gramme Friday” is the next song on the album. So the lyric points back to the previous song and forwards to the next one. ↩︎
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “W.M.C.-Blob 59” [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]
- Pubs in Manchester: Park Hotel, Lowther Road [Archived]
- 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]
- The Track Record: “W.M.C.-Blob 59”
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The lyrics above are to ‘WMC’, but ‘Blob 59’ can be considered its own track. The lyrics to this are sung by Kay Caroll underneath MES’s rant, and from the live versions that began many Fall shows of the era, the words are –
As to who started this in the first place
I can’t deny – It was I
Since you became Blob 59, i’ve spent a lot of time
Wondering who, what the hell, and what’s the crime……
Yep. All of that is in the original doomby.com entry, and will be incorporated here in due course.
I’ve had to ask myself, in this case and in others, whether to treat tracks that are linked on record as one song or two. The answer isn’t necessarily the same in each case.
In this case, “WMC” doesn’t exist as a stand-alone live track and the Blob 59 lyric isn’t heard on the album, so it’s not clear what the intention is. The approach I’ve arrived at is to deal with the live Blob 59 lyric here.
Compare Crap Rap 2/Like to Blow; Fortress/Deer Park; Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot; Dog is Life/Jerusalem; Octo Realm/Ketamine Sun; YFOC/Slippy Floor; C’n’C-various.