Lyrics
Reece Stick 1
Reece Stick
Reece Stick
Reece Stick
Reece Stick
Reece Stick
Reece Stick
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Reece Stick
Reece Stick
Reece Stick
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Reece Stick
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Reece Stick
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Reece Stick
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Reece Stick
Reece Stick
Commentary
Frankly, there isn’t much I can offer by way of in-depth commentary on this one.
Writing credits are unknown.
“Reece Stick” was played live six times in 2017; for the first time at The Assembly, Leamington Spa (1 February), and for the last time at Unity Works, Wakefield (20 October). It was played at all but one of the gigs between those dates. No studio recordings are known; the song hasn’t had an officially licensed release and can be found only on bootlegs of five of the six gigs at which it was played (no recording of the Cardiff performance of the song has emerged, but there is evidence from reviews that it was played).
Here’s a list of the gigs in that time period; Leeds on 23 May being the only gig where the song was not played. I have noted how the song was written on the setlist at each gig, since the spelling changed over time (the handwriting is the same): it appears twice as “Reece Stick”, three times as “Rees”, and once as “Reese Sticks”.
- 1 February 2017: The Assembly, Leamington .Spa. “Reece Stick”.
- 3 February 2017: Tramshed, Cardiff. “Reece Stick”.
- 23 May 2017: Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds. Not played.
- 27 May 2017: Bearded Theory Spring Gathering, Catton Park. “Rees”.
- 28 May 2017: Transformer Festival, Victoria Warehouse, Manchester. “Rees”.
- 27 July 2017: 100 Club, London. “Rees.”
- 20 October 2017: Unity Works, Wakefield. “Reese Sticks.”
There is controversy over the correct titling of the song. Should it be “Reece Stick” because that’s what it was called on the first setlist, or “Rees” because that’s what it was called most often, or “Reese Sticks” because that’s what it was called on the occasion of its final and therefore arguably definitive performance? I’m lying; there’s no controversy.
A case could be made that since song titles might evolve just as music or lyrics do, the last iteration should be the one adopted.
Furthermore, although the song title was rendered three different ways on setlists, there seems little doubt that the Hershey product was what MES was referring to (see footnote). Why MES was doing this is, at the time of writing, entirely obscure. I guess the lyric was easy to remember, but it offers few clues to aid interpretation. We don’t know what MES’ intention was, or whether his intent was stable.
Although titles change over time, I don’t think we can assume that they do so in a linear progression. There are examples of song titles which incorporated brand names sometimes being changed – “Facebook Troll” / “Fibre Book Troll”, for example, or “Roche” / “Rowche”.
(For the record, The Fall Online Gigography goes with “Reece Stick” four times and “Reese Sticks” for the Wakefield performance (video is known to exist of only a handful of songs from the Cardiff gig, so the track isn’t listed in the absence of a recording); The original Annotated Fall went with “Reece Stick”, as does The Track Record.)
Footnotes
- Reese’s Sticks (originally called ReeseSticks, but renamed Reese’s Sticks in 2009, apparently because that’s what everyone was calling them anyway) are a peanut butter-filled wafer biscuit covered with milk chocolate, manufactured since 1998 by the American confectioner Hershey. ↩︎
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “Reece Stick” [Archived]
- The Candy Encyclopedia: Reese’s Sticks
- HersheyLand: Reese’s Sticks
- The Track Record: “Reece Stick”