Lyrics
Vocalist: MES:
Bonkers at Phoenix
Bonkers at Phoenix
Bonkers at Phoenix
Vocalist: Brix:
Veins on leaves
A cat of kings
A mouthful of seed
A strand of beads
An hour of lust
A bucket of trust
It's time to rest
My shiny things
Pull them off
Pull them off
Pull them off of me
Little one, please don't cry
Shiny things you just can't buy
Little one, please don't cry
Shiny things you just can't buy
Trying to fix
Isn't broken
Letting dust
Inside swings
Turning to rust
My shiny things
Pull them off
Pull them off
Pull them off of me
Little one, please don't cry
Shiny things you just can't buy
Little one, please don't cry
Shiny things, you just can't buy
Trying to fix
Isn't broken
Locked in dust
Insect wings
Turning to rust
My shiny things
Turning to rust
My shiny things
Turing to rust
My shiny things
Pull them off
Pull them off
Pull them off of me
Little one, please don't dry
Shiny things you just can't buy
Little one, please don't cry
Shiny things you just can't buy
Little one, please don't cry
Vocalist: MES:
Bonkers at Phoenix
You never know, though, eh? eh?
That Glastonbury
Would all people who want vegetarian burgers go on the left
And those who want meat burgers on the right
Car parking is available at Glastonbury Phoenix
Bonkers at Phoenix
Bonkers at Phoenix
Bonkers at Phoenix
Bonkers at Phoenix
Bonkers at Phoenix
See me
You see me
You see me
Naughty wicker man, oogie man
You see me, oogie man, oogie man
M Riley
You mood swing
And from the day
Angles with you
Out of the back
Bonkers at Phoenix
Bonkers at Phoenix
Commentary
< Post in progress >
“It started out as a song I wrote for myself, for my solo stuff. It was sort of sweet. It’s really a depressing song but I couldn’t make it hard enough. And I thought well give it to The Fall and see what they do. Of course Mark completely manipulated it and added his own things to it. Originally it was a love song about feeling as if you’re a material possession and that material possessions really mean nothing. They start to rust. They start off shiny but in the end it’s like such a delicate thing,
Brix Smith Start, quoted in “It’s Brix!”, interview by The Biggest Library Yet fanzine, #4, July 1995. pp.5-6.
like the dust on an insect’s wings. That’s the sort of thing I was trying to get across. But then when Mark got it, it was: No, I want to make this song about going to the Phoenix festival or
Glastonbury! And tripping on acid and being in between the indie tent, the rock tent and the folk psychedelic tent and how it all sounds. If you were on acid standing in the middle of a festival with all these different noises and musical styles coming at you, this is what it would be like. And so the song
worked on different levels.”
Footnotes
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “Bonkers in Phoenix” [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]
- “It’s Brix!” (1995). The Biggest Library Yet, #4, July, pp.3-11.
- The Track Record: “Bonkers in Phoenix”
- Wolstencroft, Simon (2014). You Can Drum But You Can’t Hide: a memoir. Trowbridge: Strata Books. (2nd edition published by Route Publishing, 2017).