Excuse me for getting a bit excited, but every now and then you come across a Half Man Half Biscuit song which you’d sort of forgotten about, and which turns out to be brilliant. And Thy Damnation Slumbereth Not fits into that category. It’s the A Country Practice or National Shite Day of Cammell Laird Social Club and it contains so many great references, I don’t know where to start. So I won’t, I’ll just let you get on with it. Thanks to EskimoEric
See lyrics to Thy Damnation Slumbereth Not
Fredorrarci
“…blag my way into the aftershow”
And maybe:
“Now the Britpop refugee…”
Agree completely about this song. The Ken Livingstone bit cracked me up something silly the first time I heard it.
31 October 2008
Ben
The bit from ‘Come saddle my milk white steed” through to the shouty coda, is about as angry as Blackwell has ever sounded, it’s also the most ‘sing-alongy’ Biscuits bit till ‘Trad Arr Tune’ came along.
Anyone ever heard them do this live? I’d love to hear it ‘in a live environment’.
31 October 2008
Neil G
‘Come saddle my milk white steed’ comes from ‘Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard’, as performed by Martin Carthy on the album Prince Heathen. I recommend it highly. The line may have been used in other folk songs, I don’t know, but that’s the one that sticks in my mind. Actually, I’ve just been singing it to myself and it’s ‘Go saddle me my milk white steed’. How embarrassing. I shall never live this down. I wish I could go back in time and not press the SUBMIT button.
31 October 2008
Charles Exford
As I set off for the gig in Manchester tonight, I notice it’s 40 years ago today that the Beatles played their ‘final gig’ on the roof of Apple as the band disintegrated…and I think of this song.
The connection, I reckon, is a scene in the Rutles spoof of the Beatles’ career called ‘All you need is Cash’ …
It seems to me that the line I’ll be “stealing the lead off the roof ” isn’t just random … not just the sort of scallyish thing Nige would love to say to the pretentious tw*ts at a music business party, but also a sort of quote of that moment in the Rutles film where as Apple disintegrates, the Beatles’ hangers-on are basically nicking everything from the Apple building including the lead off the roof ….
Will post more about this song when I have more time but wanted to post that cos’ it was 40 yaers ago today ….
30 January 2009
Ben
Following on from Exford (absolutely loving your/his* work by the way) how appropriate is ‘Stealing the leaf off the roof!” (again I yearn to hear this live, though I listened to it today on CD) in view of the fact that tonights gig (7.5/10 in HMHB live gigs (that I’ve seen)I reckon) was opposite ‘The Holy Name Church’ from Vicar in a Tutu “I was lifting the lead off” fame.
*”Full marks to the blockhead who thought it was a great idea to leave a pony in” etc Arf!
31 January 2009
Peter
Please tell me if this is too petty to bother with…but I’m pretty sure it’s “Oh yes we’re really excited”, not “And yes…”, and later on it’s “So I’ve sprayed it onto the wall”, rather than “I sprayed it…”.
Just tried to do the lyrics of She’s from Broadstairs, only to be totally defeated by the couplet that ends with the word “equator”. I’m sure it’s not “a scenic regulator”, as someone posted on their myspace page.
10 April 2009
Chris The Siteowner
Nothing’s ever too petty Peter, but I’d like to hear others’ comments!
10 April 2009
NIck Ink
Brilliant site Chris and a constant refuge from the triviality of non HMHB-related business.
But why the commas in the coda? Isn’t it just a statement ‘Thy damnation slumbereth not’ , i.e you lot are going to hell sooner than you think?
7 November 2009
Charles Exford
I reckon NB would go for ‘placing a comma after each word, as if to give pause while that word was driven well home to the reader’s heart’.
7 November 2009
Charles Exford
And talk about meerkats
And come out with statements like:
“Well of course music these days is the slave of mammon and as a result
It has become corrupt and shallow
Its real essence is industry
Its moral purpose is the acquisition of money
Its aesthetic pretext is the entertainment of those who are bored…”
I thought it might have been Nietzsche, but in fact it turns out this is quoting Wagner from “Art and Revolution” (1849).
Except the bit about meerkats, like
19 February 2010
TWO FAT FEET
Not necessarily my all-time favourite, but defnitely my favourite track from my favourite album. Even if it was just the guitars and drums for twenty minutes it would be brilliant.
6 April 2010
Alex B
Sorry for going over old pedantry, but I’d say it was neither ‘and yes’ nor even ‘oh yes’ but ‘though yes, we’re really excited…’. As in saying how shallow and soulless the music industry is, before then trying to flog their new album. Kind of in the ‘we’re forever slagging off the majors’ spirit?
To distract from this dreadful pettiness may I say how much I’m looking forward to the old farm games again next year – it’s not been the same down here in League 1 without you.
7 April 2010
a_p
So, I come into work this morning and notice on the rear of the building opposite that huge swathes of lead have been stolen off the roof overnight. The protective razor-wire ripped away offering no protection at all. And what song comes to mind…?
10 August 2010
Shirley Dimensions
I was considering asking if the building opposite happens to be a church, as this would lead me to conclude ‘Vicar In A Tutu’. However, I decided against this as it wouldn’t be big or clever. I’m actually fairly chuffed though that people still steal lead from roofs* to be honest. It’s almost ‘dog on the pitch’ like, and gives me a warm glow inside. I’ll celebrate by whacking ‘Cammell Laird Social Club’ up loud on the drive home…specifically track twelve. Do I win £5? (copyright ‘Viz’ circa 1993).
* pre-empting (God, I hope that one’s correct) any rising excitement at this juncture, it can be either roofs or rooves, rooves being the older form of usage).
10 August 2010
Mike
To be in line with the Hardy reference it represents, the commas in the coda are essential.
8 April 2011
Jim Wickham
I’m with Mike – but commas, not comma. I’m on a survey ship in the Timor Sea right now, and the absence of Thomas Hardy from the ship’s library is a constant niggle. However, online renditions suggest either no commas, or two, as in “Thy, damnation, slumbereth not”. I can’t really justify the two comma version, but there you are.
So two commas or no commas? Anyone got a copy of “Tess” handy?
19 September 2011
Charles Exford
Thought we’d dealt with this above, after which everyone would have got their copies of ‘Tess’ out to check, signed if not by the author himself then by Natassja Kinski. But apparently not.
Anyway, in ‘Tess’ it’s:
“…placing a comma after each word, as if to give pause while that word was driven well home to the reader’s heart -
Thy, damnation, slumbereth, not. II Peter 2: 3”
So if you’re quoting Hardy, you need the three commas, but if you’re quoting Pope Pete the Apostle, you don’t. As there are other references to Hardy in the same song, it is surely best to include them.
See also a recent Hardy-inspired gig reviewer, who wrote:
“…placing a comma after each word, as if to give pause while that word was driven well home to those who’ve been on a motorway or a pneumatic drill all day -
Best, sound, at, a, gig, ever.”
19 September 2011
Jim Wickham
Ooops! I, stand, corrected.
20 September 2011
Paddy
Brilliant song. The line “come saddle me my milk white steed” appears in the Planxty trad. arr. tune Raggle Taggle Gypsy/Tabhair Dom da laimh
4 December 2011
Guy Weston
Your grammar in the last verse is incorrect. Apostrophe at the end of each line only.
17 June 2012
Charles Exford
Second to last track on Gideon Coe tonight was a phenomenal track that I’d never heard from a 1992 Peel session by Welsh combo Datblygu. I lived overseas during most of the years when Datblygu featured on Peel, and so I hardly know their stuff at all and this track was utterly knew to me, and blew me away and all that but anyway, if anyone wants to listen to it again …on the “listen again” perhaps … and tell me that they are not totally convinced that NB57′s “Ken Livingstone” line is a direct quote from that song….
17 July 2012
MIKE IN COV
@2:46:15. Sorry Charles, not convinced. Noisy bunch of lads though, we’re agreed on that.
17 July 2012
Charles Exford
You spotted the stand-alone “Ken Livingstone” towards the end, with the exact same inflection?
Strikes me as a band Nigel & Neil would very much enjoy (especially with the former always keen to improve his Welsh).
17 July 2012
MIKE IN COV
@Charles, yes, I spotted the single KL reference; and the way the lyric names a variety of people to admire or to despise is very much up NB’s street. I’m on the fence, not on the other side of it.
Gid corrected his pronunciation of the band’s name in the post-announcement, but didn’t risk the song title either before or after. It’s Rauschgiftsuechtige? (German (!) for Drug Addicts), and here’s the album track, which doesn’t mention Red Ken. So, if your theory is correct, NB was presumably taping Peel just like the rest of us.
17 July 2012
John Burscough
“I stated before that I didn’t know how he gained his money; neither am I aware of the means he took to raise his mind from the savage ignorance into which it was sunk.”
(Mrs Dean on Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights Ch 10.)
17 July 2012
MIKE IN COV
@John, chapeau!
The more I read this lyric, the more I feel there’s all sorts of hidden allusions none of us has recognised yet. I’m beginning to slip off the fence onto Charles’s side.
17 July 2012
John Burscough
“And I know that you won’t heed the call” – The Times They Are a-Changin’ reference, possibly?
17 July 2012
MIKE IN COV
@John, chapeau avec etoile d’or – “heed the call” nails the reference, and I wish I’d got there first.
17 July 2012
vendor of quack nostrums
@ Exxo re: 21. Possible, but could just be a coincidence. A question for next time perhaps? Good choon though, I’m not familiar with their work but I shall investigate further.
17 July 2012
ACIDIC REGULATOR
“… just as Susan Nunsuch, even more primitive creature of the heath, in her savage ignorance, intends to destroy Eustacia.” Martin Seymour-Smith, Hardy, 1995.
And I propose “after-show”, with a hyphen.
2 September 2012
Charles Exford
Great find that, Mike, and a nice one to come home from me holidays to. I’ve known for years that it must refer to Hardy’s Egdon Heath (and thus also indirectly to King Lear too), but had not found the proof. Another Golden Biscuit 2012 nomination for you I reckon.
2 September 2012
Rubber Faced Irritant
Seconded. I also knew this must be a reference to said Heath in Return of the Native. Albeit only for the last few weeks since I finished it. An absolute cracker btw, if you’ve not read and are in the mood for a Hardy novel.
2 September 2012
Charles Exford
Must admit though that I wish I’d written ‘relate to’, rather than ‘refer to’.
As for John B’s Bob Dylan suggestion from July 17th (which I hadn’t noticed before), I can’t see that we need a particular source for “heed the call”. Those three words are a fairly common collocation, especially in texts referring to religious matters, and the dauber of ‘THY, DAMNATION, SLUMBERETH, NOT” in ‘Tess’ tells the heroine that his next slogan is written for “dangerous young females like yerself to heed.”
3 September 2012