Lyrics
Totale’s Turns (released May 1980)
Hail the new puritan maelstrom, cook one
And all hardcore fiends will die by me
And all decadent sins will reap discipline
New puritan
This is the grim reefer 1
The snap at the end of the straw
With a high grim quota
Your ska karma, Jim
New puritan
In L.A. the window opener switch is like a dinosaur cackle
A pterodactyl cackle
Jet plane circle over imported trees
All the film ghosts will rise up
With the sexually abused and the new youth
In Britain the scream of electric pumps in a renovated pub
Your stomach swells up before you get drunk
Don't call me, Peter, I can't go
Salem's just up the road
I've got work to do
Hail the new puritan
Out of hovel, cum-coven cum-oven
(Right you go back to that riff)
Hail the new puritan
Out of hovel, cum-coven, cum-oven
And all hardcore fiends will die by me
And all decadent sins will reap discipline
New puritan
I curse your preoccupation with your record collection
New puritan has no time
It's only music, John
New puritan
New puritan
New puritan
New puritan
Ungodly mass
Thick ass
Peel Session (Sept. 1980)
The grotesque peasants stalk the land
And deep down inside you know everybody wants to like big companies
Bands send tapes to famous apes
Male slags, male slates, famous apes
Water cater now grim thoughts
The whole country is post- gramme
Echoes of the past
Hail the new puritan, righteous maelstrom, cook one
And all hardcore fiends will die by me
And all decadent sins will reap discipline
New puritan
This is the grim reefer
The snap at the end of the straw
With a high grim quota
Your star karma, Jim
New puritan
New puritan
The conventional is now experimental, the experimental is now conventional
It's a dinosaur cackle
A pterodactyl cackle
In L.A. a drunk is sick on Gene Vincent's star on Hollywood Boulevard
Ha-ha, ha-ha
Stripping takes off in Britain's black spots
The Kensington white rastas run for cabs
This I have seen
New puritan in Britain
The scream of electric pumps in a renovated pub
Your stomach swells up before you get drunk
The bars are full of male slags
At 10:35 they play "Send in the Clowns" once
Why don't you ask your local record dealer how many bribes he took today?
What do you mean "What's it mean? What's it mean? What's it mean? What's it mean?"
New puritan
New puritan
Hail the new puritan
Out of hovel, cum coven, cum oven
And all hardcore fiends will die by me
And all decadent sins will reap discipline
New puritan
New puritan
New puritan
New puritan
New puritan
New puritan
New puritan
New puritan [ ]
I curse the self-copulation of your lousy record collection
New puritan says, "coffee-table LPs never breathe"
New puritan
New puritan
New puritan
New puritan
New puritan says [ ]
New puritan
Discordian
New puritan
New puritan
New puritan
Commentary
<post in progress>
“New Puritan” is riddled with ambiguity; if, as we will see, MES seems not to ever fully decide whether Puritanism is his credo or his target, that is because in a sense it is both, and the aim of the song’s critique is to establish a distinction between these two senses of “Puritan,” i.e. the one with which the voice of the song identifies, and the one which is the target of its puritanical wrath.
bzfgt, from the entry on “New Puritan” at the original Annotated Fall, formerly at annotatedfall.doomby.com.
Footnotes
- A “reefer” is a self-rolled cannabis cigarette. The line puns on “Grim Reaper“, i.e. Death personified. ↩︎
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “New Puritan” [Archived]
- Ford, Simon (2003). Hip Priest: the story of Mark E Smith and The Fall. London: Quartet.
- 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. (2008). Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith. London: Penguin.
- Thompson, Dave (2003). A User’s Guide to the Fall. London: Helter-Skelter Publishing.
- The Track Record: “New Puritan”
Views: 156
[…] New Puritan […]
From the final live appearance of the song:
“ T.E. Lawrence rises up
with Arab boy on back
Seven pillars strike desert”
Thanks.
That’s from the 666 Club, Manchester, 15 May 1982. Interestingly, the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia (dir. David Lean) was shown on Granada TV on 20 June 1982.
MES recommends Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom in this Fred Perry SubCulture interview: https://www.fredperry.com/subculture/articles/mark-e-smith