Lyrics
A final curly box
You have no drums to relate
Union grey vase
You are grey vase
Look up
Detracted
What with
Attracted
Language
The mandrake runners 1
A final pearled vase
Union great vase
Commentary
< Post in progress >
“Perverted by Language” is to all intents and purposes the title track of the album Perverted by Language (1983), except that it wasn’t included on the record.
The phrase “perverted by language” may be borrowed from the works of Ezra Pound:
And the betrayers of language
Ezra Pound, The Cantos, XIV.
…… n and the press gang
And those who had lied for hire;
the perverters, the perverters of language,
the perverts, who have set money-lust
Before the pleasures of the senses;
Footnotes
- The mandrake plant does not have runners. ↩︎
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “Perverted by Language” [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: “Perverted by Language”
- Wikipedia: The Cantos
- Wikipedia: Mandrake
Views: 6