I’d better get a move on, we have more subscribers to the blog now than songs transcribed. It’s also time to get on with Cammell Laird Social Club. Anyway, San Antonio Foam Party has a go at officialdom assuming it knows what you think (see also A Country Practice) and suggests Britain’s two best tennis players at the time of the end of the century party were robots. And the relevance of the title of the song? I’ve no idea. Thanks to Rob
See lyrics to San Antonio Foam Party
Matt
Good job. My only comment is that the line beginning ‘Sniffer dogs…’ could do with a comma, thus:
‘Sniffer dogs in, fluorescent bibs’.
This is because without the comma it means ‘Sniffer dogs wearing fluorescent bibs’, whereas I have always taken it to mean ‘Sniffer dogs enter [the brothel] – fluorescent bibs’. There is a definite pause, and the listing of observations in this manner is a HMHB trademark. For example, ‘Ballad of Climie Fisher’ has the line ‘Fisher goes berserk. Mayhem, police cars.’
3 September 2008
Fredorrarci
Sounds like “This is me calling for some civic pride”.
Also, it’s “Twin town said we just weren’t cool”.
3 September 2008
Bob Ginger
I think the line near the end is “twin town said we just weren’t cool.” I have a vague memory of Nigel quoting these lines in an interview at the time of the album’s release, unless I dreamed it.
3 September 2008
Fredorrarci
I going to be really pedantic here and point out that it’s “So now we’ve got a suicide pact with Goole”.
And of course I meant “This is me pleading…”, not “This is me calling…” above. Something about petards springs to mind.
3 September 2008
Bill Stow
Line 30 – I think it should be ‘with the storming’ not ‘in the storming’
4 March 2009
Jitsu G
Chimps and wires ?
I thought the chimps were pulling the strings, chips doesn’t make sense
20 February 2011
Neil G
Chips, as in silicon chips, computers.
20 February 2011
Jitsu G
My other half has just corrected me, you are right Neil, I shall clean my ears out before being so hasty in future
20 February 2011
John Burscough
The twin town/suicide pact bit is probably a reference to the late Linda Smith, who used to say her home town of Erith in Bexley wasn’t twinned with anywhere, but it did have a suicide pact with Dagenham. When she was starting out in Sheffield in the 80′s the pact was apparently with Rotherham.
Goole is funnier (unless you live there).
27 March 2011
Rowan
This is wildly late, but I’m certain that it’s the dogs that are in bibs – every sniffer dog I’ve ever seen working for the police wears one.
22 December 2011
Charles Exford
Cheers Rowan for drawing our attention back to this one. When I previously read Matt’s comment above I assumed he was in a minority of one, and who was just someone who hadn’t come across the fairly common sight of police dogs in fluorescent bibs. But I hadn’t noticed that Chris had actually written the lyric in the highly debateable way that Matt suggested: ‘Fluorescent bibs’ surely can’t be a narrative development along the lines of ‘Police cars’. What do other readers think?
22 December 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
No comma. No other comment.
22 December 2011
John Burscough
Could go either way. Here’s a nice picture of a doggy.
23 December 2011
Rowan
In my personal experience, there are no fluorescent bibs in brothels in Palermo. In my personal experience.
23 December 2011
Rowan
Unless he means that the police are the ones wearing fluorescent bibs. Anyway, in my humble, there should definitely not be a comma.
23 December 2011
John Burscough
Anyway, moving on. Is it Palermo in Sicily (where the brothels have supposedly been shut down for decades and gives its name to the anti-human trafficking Palermo Protocol), or Palermo the red light district in Buenos Aires?
We really ought to know.
23 December 2011
Chris The Siteowner
OK, no comma it is.
23 December 2011
Tangerine Wizard.
Are people from Goole known as Goolies?
7 June 2012
MIKE IN COV
Might Palermo have entered the mind of Mr NB via this?
5 July 2012
MIKE IN COV
Jesus Christ, come on down! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-LUDF1uzck&noredirect=1. That adjective…
6 July 2012
John Burscough
Idly flicking through Gez’s News Archive (July-December 2002), I see that NB57 told Paddy Shennan from the Echo that the line in the last verse is “This is me pleading for some civic pride, using or losing the park and ride”. (Not “use it or lose it”.)
29 August 2012
John Burscough
Though on re-listening, I’d say “usin’ or losin’ ” would be nearer the mark.
30 August 2012
MrQuomps
I’m with Matt on this one. I’d always assumed there was a comma there.
I still say there should be a comma, regardless of who is wearing the bibs!
2 September 2012
Chris The Siteowner
Happy to go with “usin(g) or losin(g)” …makes sense. Anyone else?
3 September 2012
John Anderson
I’ve always heard it as “used and abused in the park’n'ride.” Completely wrong obviously, but far better than whatever it actually is in my opinion.
3 September 2012
Third Rate Les
I was listening to this recently and I agree that it sounds like “using or losing” even though the exhortation for civic pride would be “use it or lose it”.
3 September 2012
ACIDIC REGULATOR
After half a dozen careful listens, I vote for “using or losing”. It’s possible to overdo writin’ apostrophes for missin’ terminal g’s.
Imagining a comma after “pride”, the verse makes sense to me – show civic pride by using (or losing) the facility. Grammatically incorrect, perhaps, but clear, concise and unambiguous.
3 September 2012
John Burscough
I’d always been puzzled by this title: do they have foam parties in Texas? However, my lady friend informs me that there is a San Antonio in Ibiza, where they do. I suppose I should have checked Gez’s site. Anyway, this is them doing it at Eden. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA5cPisXEss
(Still no idea why it’s called that, though.)
6 February 2013
ACIDIC REGULATOR
@John, there’s photographic evidence of foam malarkey in what purports to be San Antonio, Ibiza in the YouTube link on the lyrics/videos page.
8 February 2013