Lyrics
Susan had an accident 1
Reverted back to age sixteen
Went down to the youth club
In a mirror looked and started to scream
And a similar thing happened to me
When I was of the age thirteen
Reflection held a picture of a man
Of two hundred and three
And it was all in all safe and warm
Safe and warm
Reading book I had no teeth to talk about on that day
Badly Boy Drawn had confiscated them 2
And put them in a mouldy old acoustic case
Safe and warm for a Saturday
And it was all in all safe and warm
Safe and warm
The reflection held
I held [ ] looked a whole lot better
Distinguished
Picking crumbs off the floor
Sophisticated
Susan had an accident
Reverted back to age sixteen
Went down to the youth club
In a mirror looked and started to scream
And it was all in all safe and warm
Safe and warm
And it was all in all safe and warm
Safe and warm
And it was all in all safe and warm
Commentary
< Post in progress >
The starting point for these lyrics is a 2002 storyline from the long-running Australian TV soap opera Neighbours. According to the Wikipedia entry for the character of Susan Kennedy (played by Jackie Woodburn):
In 2002, Susan developed retrograde amnesia. The storyline saw Susan slip on some spilt milk and sustain a minor head injury. After she goes to sleep, she wakes up and has lost three decades of her life… Susan’s family take her to the hospital, where she is diagnosed with retrograde amnesia… Susan spots some students in Seventies clothes and she follows them to a Seventies themed party at Erinsborough High. However, the students recognise Susan as their principal, which distresses her. Susan ends up in the bathroom and she sees herself in the mirror for the first time since the accident, and is shocked to see a middle-aged woman staring back at her.
Source: Wikipedia
However, when asked by DJ Liz Kershaw whether the song was about a Neighbours plotline, MES of course denied it:
Liz Kershaw: We’ve got the new single next… We had somebody earlier on email me to say ‘what’s it all about’?
MES: Er. I don’t know, it’s just watching daytime TV with a bad leg …
Liz Kershaw: Oh, it is! Oh right, Ok, because there’s one on the website.
MES: Er no. Good that. Have you heard about that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCJAlasgmN0
MES, or more accurately the narrator of the song, says that a “similar thing”, except apparently in reverse, happened to him when he was thirteen: he saw himself as a very old man.
Footnotes
- As noted in the Commentary, “Susan” is Susan Kennedy – a character from the TV series Neighbours. The specific episode the lyrics take as their starting point is #4033, first aired in the UK on 21 August 2002 (see NeighboursEpisodes.com). The first known performance of “Susan Vs Youthclub” was 21 November 2002. ↩︎
- The musician Damon Gough, AKA Badly Drawn Boy. The mistake is obviously deliberate. The reference is to a well-known story in which MES left his false teeth in Badly Drawn Boy’s car. The Fall collaborated with Gough on the song “Calendar“. ↩︎
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “Susan vs. Youthclub” [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.
- NeighboursEpisodes.com: Episode 4033 [Archived]
- Pringle, Steve (2022). You Must Get Them All: The Fall on Record. [paperback edition]. Pontefract: Route Publishing Ltd. [Online store]
- Smith, Mark E. (2008). vII. The Lough Press & AMarquisManipulationProductions. [AKA the Blue Lyrics Book]
- The Track Record: “Susan vs. Youthclub”
- Wikipedia: Susan Kennedy#Retrograde_amnesia