(1)
Mocking, not serious
Fed up and tedious
Long nights in bread land (2)
Oh they're nice nice nice
His skin was in default
too beautiful to talk
he's been waiting
Lonesome, lonely
She's off to Venice with the girls, he's been waiting so long (3)
She's off to Venice with the girls, he's been waiting so long
In bread land, oldernessness
His skin, whose is it
Too beautiful
The best thing for you to do is hide
He's been waiting so long
Yeah he's been waiting so long
For the right month to go
He's been waiting all night long
Best thing, best thing,
Long nights in bread land
Underness, his skin, whose is it
Too beautiful, best thing, best thing for to do is hide (4)
She's off to Venice with the girls, she's off to Venice with the girls
He's been waiting so long
Lonesome lonely, lonesome lonely
Lonesome lonely, lonesome lonely
He's been waiting so long, he's been waiting so long
He's been waiting so long, he's been waiting so long
He's been waiting so long, he's been waiting so long
Lonesome lonely, lonesome lonely
She's off to Venice with the girls, he's been waiting so long
She's off to Venice with the girls, he's been waiting so long
She's off to Venice with the girls, lonesome lonely
She's off to Venice with the girls, lonesome lonely
Notes
1. This was originally t**led "Gone to Venice." The Fall played in the general vicinity of Venice a couple of months before this debuted in late 2014, which may have had something to do with the genesis of the song.
The song is also apparently inspired by a television advertisement for Staysure travel insurance. A woman (an "over-fifty") is packing for a trip, and talking to the camera about travel insurance. Suddenly, a horn honks, and she leans out the window and bids her husband goodbye, saying "I hope you get a hole in one!" Turning back to the camera, she explains: "Me?! [a bit conspiratorially:] I'm off to Venice with the girls! Why should I be a 'golf widow'? Not when Staysure have covered!"
From a recent feature in Q magazine:
There are some song t**les on Sub-Ligual Tablet of reassuring excellence [some praise for "Stout Man"]...Venice with the Girls, inspired by Smith seeing a TV advert for travel insurance--he acts it out, swirling [sic] his bottle over his shoulder: "He's away on his golf holiday. Me? I'm off to Venice with the girls!"
^
2. Dan asks, "Does this mean "land of the rich" i.e. bread = money?
Or does it refer to a particular place, like Tlaxcala, which is sometimes translated as "land of bread"? Or other regions that get similarly labelled?" "Tlaxcala" is thought to perhaps mean "tortilla" in Nahuatl, the Aztec language.
Martin suggests "Perhaps 'Bread land' is 'Hovis Land,' as in The Fall's 'That Man.'" My note there for "Hovis" reads:
Hovis is an English brand of bread. A 1973 television advertisement (directed by Ridley Scott) depicting a boy delivering Hovis on a bicycle accompanied by Dvorak's New World Symphony is one of the most famous spots of all time in Britain. The ad played on nostalgia for rural and village life, and "Hovis land" may be another reference to a supposedly "heathen" Britain. Also, Hovis is a**ociated with nostalgia in the lyrics to "Just Step S'Ways." It is also mentioned more obliquely in "H.O.W."
So "bread land" may refer to a certain kitschy, pastoral England, which would be appropriate in context as way of emphasizing the banality of the narrator's married, middle class English life which his wife is escaping by traveling to Venice (and which, by implication, the narrator may also be escaping with the departure of his wife).
It has also been suggested in the comments below that the lyric is in fact "inbred land." This is possible, and may even be complementary in meaning to "bread land" in which case both may be intended.
^
3. Two points of reference have been suggested for this line: Cream's 1967 song "Sunshine of Your Love," and David Bowie's "Look Back in Anger," from 1979. The delivery is a little more like the refrain of the Bowie song, but Cream's song is probably burned on everyone's psyche (at least everyone in a certain, fairly wide, age range) so may have been somewhere in the back of MES's head even if it isn't consciously intended. So despite the greater similarity with Bowie, I would wager that it's either 1. an allusion to Cream, or 2. an allusion to Bowie and, secondarily, to Cream (indeed the Bowie song may be alluding to Cream to begin with, so there's just too many ways for Cream to weasel into it to ignore).
^
4. MES appeared on the British comedy/variety show The Adam and Joe Show in a recurring segment called "Vinyl Justice." The premise is that Adam and Joe are policement who raid celebrities' "homes" (often actually a set, as appears to be the case with MES) and check the subject's record collection for anything embarrassing or amusing. In MES's segment, he plays a song called "Little Diesel Driving Devil," by Don Bowman:
He's the fastest thing alive
When he puts that truck in overdrive
The safest thing for you to do is hide
MES seems to have a love for truck driving songs (which are usually Country & Western kitsch, although many classic songs belong to the genre--some of which are classics but also kitsch). These appear on countless compilations, often sold at truck stops (and sometimes nowhere else) and sometimes featuring exclusive material. It has been suggested that he got "White Line Fever" from a rendition by Bud Brewer which was featured on a trucking compilation--when we consider that Merle Haggard's version is one of the greatest records of the 20th century, this could almost be seen as the equivalent of covering George Harrison's "Something" after hearing Donny Osmond sing it...
...actually that's totally unfair, I haven't heard Brewer do it (it stays off the internet), and he may do it justice. It would be impossible to improve on, though, and although this determination is a priori in the case of Brewer, in the Fall's case I was able to confirm it empirically...
Mocking, not serious
Fed up and tedious
Long nights in bread land (2)
Oh they're nice nice nice
His skin was in default
too beautiful to talk
he's been waiting
Lonesome, lonely
She's off to Venice with the girls, he's been waiting so long (3)
She's off to Venice with the girls, he's been waiting so long
In bread land, oldernessness
His skin, whose is it
Too beautiful
The best thing for you to do is hide
He's been waiting so long
Yeah he's been waiting so long
For the right month to go
He's been waiting all night long
Best thing, best thing,
Long nights in bread land
Underness, his skin, whose is it
Too beautiful, best thing, best thing for to do is hide (4)
She's off to Venice with the girls, she's off to Venice with the girls
He's been waiting so long
Lonesome lonely, lonesome lonely
Lonesome lonely, lonesome lonely
He's been waiting so long, he's been waiting so long
He's been waiting so long, he's been waiting so long
He's been waiting so long, he's been waiting so long
Lonesome lonely, lonesome lonely
She's off to Venice with the girls, he's been waiting so long
She's off to Venice with the girls, he's been waiting so long
She's off to Venice with the girls, lonesome lonely
She's off to Venice with the girls, lonesome lonely
Notes
1. This was originally t**led "Gone to Venice." The Fall played in the general vicinity of Venice a couple of months before this debuted in late 2014, which may have had something to do with the genesis of the song.
The song is also apparently inspired by a television advertisement for Staysure travel insurance. A woman (an "over-fifty") is packing for a trip, and talking to the camera about travel insurance. Suddenly, a horn honks, and she leans out the window and bids her husband goodbye, saying "I hope you get a hole in one!" Turning back to the camera, she explains: "Me?! [a bit conspiratorially:] I'm off to Venice with the girls! Why should I be a 'golf widow'? Not when Staysure have covered!"
From a recent feature in Q magazine:
There are some song t**les on Sub-Ligual Tablet of reassuring excellence [some praise for "Stout Man"]...Venice with the Girls, inspired by Smith seeing a TV advert for travel insurance--he acts it out, swirling [sic] his bottle over his shoulder: "He's away on his golf holiday. Me? I'm off to Venice with the girls!"
^
2. Dan asks, "Does this mean "land of the rich" i.e. bread = money?
Or does it refer to a particular place, like Tlaxcala, which is sometimes translated as "land of bread"? Or other regions that get similarly labelled?" "Tlaxcala" is thought to perhaps mean "tortilla" in Nahuatl, the Aztec language.
Martin suggests "Perhaps 'Bread land' is 'Hovis Land,' as in The Fall's 'That Man.'" My note there for "Hovis" reads:
Hovis is an English brand of bread. A 1973 television advertisement (directed by Ridley Scott) depicting a boy delivering Hovis on a bicycle accompanied by Dvorak's New World Symphony is one of the most famous spots of all time in Britain. The ad played on nostalgia for rural and village life, and "Hovis land" may be another reference to a supposedly "heathen" Britain. Also, Hovis is a**ociated with nostalgia in the lyrics to "Just Step S'Ways." It is also mentioned more obliquely in "H.O.W."
So "bread land" may refer to a certain kitschy, pastoral England, which would be appropriate in context as way of emphasizing the banality of the narrator's married, middle class English life which his wife is escaping by traveling to Venice (and which, by implication, the narrator may also be escaping with the departure of his wife).
It has also been suggested in the comments below that the lyric is in fact "inbred land." This is possible, and may even be complementary in meaning to "bread land" in which case both may be intended.
^
3. Two points of reference have been suggested for this line: Cream's 1967 song "Sunshine of Your Love," and David Bowie's "Look Back in Anger," from 1979. The delivery is a little more like the refrain of the Bowie song, but Cream's song is probably burned on everyone's psyche (at least everyone in a certain, fairly wide, age range) so may have been somewhere in the back of MES's head even if it isn't consciously intended. So despite the greater similarity with Bowie, I would wager that it's either 1. an allusion to Cream, or 2. an allusion to Bowie and, secondarily, to Cream (indeed the Bowie song may be alluding to Cream to begin with, so there's just too many ways for Cream to weasel into it to ignore).
^
4. MES appeared on the British comedy/variety show The Adam and Joe Show in a recurring segment called "Vinyl Justice." The premise is that Adam and Joe are policement who raid celebrities' "homes" (often actually a set, as appears to be the case with MES) and check the subject's record collection for anything embarrassing or amusing. In MES's segment, he plays a song called "Little Diesel Driving Devil," by Don Bowman:
He's the fastest thing alive
When he puts that truck in overdrive
The safest thing for you to do is hide
MES seems to have a love for truck driving songs (which are usually Country & Western kitsch, although many classic songs belong to the genre--some of which are classics but also kitsch). These appear on countless compilations, often sold at truck stops (and sometimes nowhere else) and sometimes featuring exclusive material. It has been suggested that he got "White Line Fever" from a rendition by Bud Brewer which was featured on a trucking compilation--when we consider that Merle Haggard's version is one of the greatest records of the 20th century, this could almost be seen as the equivalent of covering George Harrison's "Something" after hearing Donny Osmond sing it...
...actually that's totally unfair, I haven't heard Brewer do it (it stays off the internet), and he may do it justice. It would be impossible to improve on, though, and although this determination is a priori in the case of Brewer, in the Fall's case I was able to confirm it empirically...