Lyrics
"What I'm saying to you really, is that the training that you must have in discussion at your own level regarding the existence of God is far greater than everybody that's ringing you tonight."
"I have to disagree, I don't have any training at all of that sort..."
"So..." 1
Saw six men under a tall tower
Break it to him like I'm breaking it to you, gently
The night people will remind you, oh yeah
Kicking, white, cheerleader 2
Wan, untanned, cheerleader
Lucifer over Lancashire
Lucifer over Lancashire
Lucifer over Lancashire
The blackbirds shake the hedges
On this, the hottest day for ages
Resemblance to
Doctor, doctor, hit the needle
Can be discounted no longer
Well it's Lucifer over Lancashire
Lucifer over Lancashire
Lucifer over Lancashire
Lucifer over Lancashire
I tell you no lies
Completely blind
Are the sentinel's eyes
At the back of his mind
This demon is hip
The demon's grip
He took over everywhere
And his blitz now over here
In sky of Bootle 3
His cock-eyed moon
A useless priest
Cram out your power
Well it's Lucifer over Lancashire
Lucifer over Lancashire
Lucifer over Lancashire
Lucifer over Lancashire
Monstrous kiss
Wet dagger ...
Lucifer over Lancashire
Lucifer over Lancashire
Lucifer over Lancashire
It's Lucifer over Lancashire
Now I'm just flyin'
I'm flyin'
I'm typin'
I'm shinin'
I'm winnin'
I got this on
I'm a runnin' shark
I'm winnin'
I'm shinin'
Commentary
< Post in progress >
Footnotes
- From the November 1986 issue of House of Dolls (p.9):
“Where does the taling [sic] of “Lucifer Over Lancashire” come from?
MARK: “It’s from a phone-in that was on Radio Manchester, where this real commy bastard called Jim Reeves insulted most of the callers. It was good show that!”
The reference is to James Reeve (https://jameshreeve.co.uk), although he was on Piccadilly Radio rather than BBC Radio Manchester in 1986. ↩︎ - “Kicking” becomes “shaking” in some versions of the lyric. ↩︎
- Bootle is a town in Merseyside, historically part of Lancashire. It’s about three miles from Liverpool, and so part of the same conurbation. During the Second World War, Bootle was a particular target for Nazi air-raids due to its docks. ↩︎
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “Lucifer Over Lancashire” [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: “Lucifer Over Lancashire”
- Wolstencroft, Simon (2014). You Can Drum But You Can’t Hide: a memoir. Trowbridge: Strata Books. (2nd edition published by Route Publishing, 2017).
Views: 94
“And his blitz is now over here,
In the sky of Bootle”
(I’m pretty sure that ‘cram out’ is not what comes before ‘your power’, but I can’t tell you exactly what it is)
Just listened to MES doing a spoken word version of “Lucifer over Lancashire.” It is “cram out your power” in that, but also “in sky of Bootle”. So I’ll amend that bit. It doesn’t quite sound like “cram out” in the actual song, but like you I don’t know what to replace it with, so probably safer to stick to what we have, especially since that is what the spoken word version is.
Ah good work – I didn’t think of the version on P!P!P!