Lyrics

M.R. James, vivant, vivant 
Yog Sothoth, Ray Milland 
Sludge hai choi choi choi son 

M.R. James, vivant, vivant 
Yog Sothoth, Ray Milland 
Van Greenway, R Corman 
Sludge hai choi choi choi son 

Part one - spectre versus rector 
The rector lived in Hampshire 
The spectre was from Chorazina 
In evil dust in the air 
The rector locked his doors 

Part two - detective drives through Hampshire 
Stops because of the fog there 
And thinks a visit to the rector 
And meanwhile, and meanwhile 

Spectre possesses rector 
Rector becomes spectre 
Sludge hai choi choi choi son 
Sludge hai choi choi choi son 
Enter inspector 
Even as he spoke a dust-devil suddenly arose and struck him 

Part four - detective versus rector 
Detective versus rector possessed by spectre 
Spectre blows him against the wall 
Says "Die wretch, this is your fall" 
"I've waited since Caesar for this" 
"Damn Latin my hate is crisp" 
"I'll rip your fat body to pieces" 

M.R. James, vivant vivant  
Yog Sothoth, Ray Milland 
Van Greenway, R Corman 

Scene five, scene five 
Comes a hero, soul possessed a thousand times 
Only he could rescue rector 
Only he could save inspector 
And this hero was a strange man 
"Those flowers, take them away," he said, "they're only funeral decorations" 
"And oh this is a drudge nation" 
"A nation of no imagination" 
"A stupid man is their ideal" 
"They shun me and think me unclean, unclean" 

"I have saved a thousand souls" 
"They cannot even save their own" 
"I'm soaked in blood but always good" 
"It's like I drunk myself sober" 
"I get better as I get older" 

M.R. James, vivant, vivant 
Yog Sothoth, Ray Milland 
Van Greenway, R Corman 
Sludge hai choi choi choi son 
Sludge hai choi choi choi son 

Part six 
That was his kick from life 
That's how he pads out his life 
Selling his soul to the devil 
And the spectre enters hero 
But the possession is ineffectual 
But the possession is ineffectual 
And the possession is ineffectual 

And M.R. James, vivant, vivant 
Yog Sothoth, Ray Milland 
Van Greenway, R Corman 
Sludge hai choi choi choi son 
Sludge hai choi choi choi son 
I said, sludge hai choi choi choi son 

Last scene 
Hero and inspector walk from the scene 
Is the spectre banished forever? 
The inspector is half insane 
The hero runs back into the mountains 
The hero goes back into the mountains 
He was an exorcist but he was exhausted 
An exorcist but he was exhausted 
The rector is dead on the floor 

M.R. James, vivant, vivant 
Yog Sothoth, Ray Milland 
Van Greenway, R Corman 
Sludge hai choi choi choi son 
Sludge hai choi choi choi son 

[ ] chosen son 
Van Greenway, R Corman 
Van Greenway, R Corman 
Yog Sothoth, Ray Milland 
Yog Sothoth, Ray Milland 

Footnotes

1. This line is vigorously disputed.
   
   For many years it was rendered “M.R. James, be born, be born”, but more recent research has pointed us definitively towards Latin: either “vivat, vivat”, or “vivant, vivant”. There are two questions here. First of all, what is M.E.S. actually saying; and secondly, what should he be saying, were he being grammatically accurate (or accurately quoting his likely source)?
   
   Note Robert Bolt‘s play, Vivat! Vivat Regina! (first performed 1970, first published 1971), titled after a chant at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (meaning, of course, “Long live! Long live the Queen!”). ↩︎
2. Chorazin (also spelled Korazin, or Chorazim, among other variations) was an ancient Jewish village on a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee (AKA Tiberias), now a heritage site and Israeli National Park. The village seems to have existed from the first century CE, but most of the archaeological remains date to the 3rd-4th centuries, and the ruins of a synagogue have been unearthed; it was built in the third century, destroyed in the fourth and rebuilt in the sixth. The village was destroyed (likely due to an earthquake) in in the fourth century and rebuilt in the fifth. The modern day Israeli settlement of Korazim (occupying the site of the Palestinian village of Al-Samakiyya, the population of which was forcibly displaced during Operation Matateh) is named after it. Chorazin itself was abandoned in the middle ages but became the location of the Palestinian village of Khirbat Karraza, the people of which were forcibly displaced during the 1948 war as part of Operation Yiftach. The site was re-identified as Chorazin by R. Pockocke in 1738, surveyed in 1869, and first excavated between 1905-1907. Major professional archaeological excavations continued on-and-off up to the mid-1980s.
   
   Chorazin is significant in occult history (and hence this song) because of the context in which it is referred to The Bible. In the New Testament gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus curses the towns/cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum (known as the ‘Evangelical Triangle’ where Jesus is supposed to have mostly operated) for rejecting his message (despite the miracles he performed there).
   
   Matthew 11:20-24 (King James Version, see Bible Gateway):
   
   ²⁰ Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not:
   ²¹ Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
   ²² But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.
   ²³ And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
   ²⁴ But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.
   
   Luke 10:13-16 (King James Version, see BibleGateway):
   
   ¹³ Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
   ¹⁴ But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you.
   ¹⁵ And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.
   ¹⁶ He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.
   
   
   From M.R. James’s short story, “Count Magnus” (1904):
   
   “In the afternoon he had done with these, and after returning the boxes in which they were kept to their places on the shelf, he proceeded, very naturally, to take down some of the volumes nearest to them, in order to determine which of them had best be his principal subject of investigation next day. The shelf he had hit upon was occupied mostly by a collection of account-books in the writing of the first Count Magnus. But one among them was not an account-book, but a book of alchemical and other tracts in another sixteenth-century hand. Not being very familiar with alchemical literature, Mr. Wraxall spends much space which he might have spared in setting out the names and beginnings of the various treatises: The book of the Phoenix, book of the Thirty Words, book of the Toad, book of Miriam, Turba philosophorum, and so forth; and then he announces with a good deal of circumstance his delight at finding, on a leaf originally left blank near the middle of the book, some writing of Count Magnus himself headed ‘Liber nigrae peregrinationis.’ It is true that only a few lines were written, but there was quite enough to show that the landlord had that morning been referring to a belief at least as old as the time of Count Magnus, and probably shared by him. This is the English of what was written:
   ‘If any man desires to obtain a long life, if he would obtain a faithful messenger and see the blood of his enemies, it is necessary that he should first go into the city of Chorazin, and there salute the prince…’ Here there was an erasure of one word, not very thoroughly done, so that Mr. Wraxall felt pretty sure that he was right in reading it as aëris (“of the air”). But there was no more of the text copied, only a line in Latin: ‘Quaere reliqua hujus materiei inter secretiora‘ (See the rest of this matter among the more private things).” (p.68)
   
   and
   
   “That same evening the landlord of the inn, who had heard Mr. Wraxall say that he wished to see the clerk or deacon (as he would be called in Sweden) of the parish, introduced him to that official in the inn parlour. A visit to the De la Gardie tomb-house was soon arranged for the next day, and a little general conversation ensued.
   Mr. Wraxall, remembering that one function of Scandinavian deacons is to teach candidates for Confirmation, thought he would refresh his own memory on a Biblical point.
   “Can you tell me,” he said, “anything about Chorazin?”
   The deacon seemed startled, but readily reminded him how that village had once been denounced.
   “To be sure,” said Mr. Wraxall; “it is, I suppose, quite a ruin now?”
   “So I expect,” replied the deacon. “I have heard some of our old priests say that Antichrist is to be born there; and there are tales –“
   “Ah! what tales are those?” Mr. Wraxall put in.
   “Tales, I was going to say, which I have forgotten,” said the deacon; and soon after that he said good night.” (p.69) ↩︎

Sources / Links

• The Annotated Fall: “Spectre vs. Rector” [Archived]
• James, M.R. (1904). “Count Magnus.” reprinted in The Penguin Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James. London: Penguin, 1984. pp.64-74. [Anthology first published by Edward Arnold, 1931]
• 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. & Duff, Graham (2021).’Spectre vs. Rector’ in The Otherwise: an original feature film. London: Strange Attractor Press. p.219.
• The Track Record: “Spectre vs. Rector”
• Wikipedia: Chorazin