Market Square Heroes EP - Market Square Heroes
Introduction: Fish
wrote: "Originally titled UB
2,000,001 as reference to the unemployment statistics at the time. The
lyric was about a would-be revolutionary with all the necessary charisma and
presence of a leader without direction or goals, just a sense of frustration
and anger. It was heavily influenced by the riots taking place all over
England in the summer of '81.The lyric was written in St Mary's graveyard in
Aylesbury on the comedown from an acid trip and was completed as dawn came
up and a ring of policemen moved in on my girlfriend and I who were acting
'suspiciously'. Weirdness incarnate."
‘Market Square’
Aylesbury is the county town of Aylesbury Vale in Buckinghamshire
town with a market square. It has a population of about 65,000 (2001
census).
Torch: "The
title comes from the Aylesbury Market Square; the band were photographed in
it for press releases at the time, but there is an obvious reference to
Nietzsche's 'Man in the market square'... Fish commented he was dead keen on
philosophy."
‘I found smog at the end of my rainbow’
Brewer’s:
"The old legend is that if one reaches the
spot where a rainbow touches the earth and digs there one will be sure to
find a pot of gold. Hence visionaries, wool-gatherers, day-dreamers etc.,
are sometimes called rainbow-chasers, because of their habit of hoping for
impossible things."
Torch: "Finding
'smog' at the end of a rainbow is indicative that rather than a crock of
gold and a promised fortune, there's just industrial pollution."
‘The constitution of the walkways’
Torch:
"This is the manifesto for the streets, as he 'speeds the beat of
the street pulse' and stirs people to action."
‘The day’
An allusion to ‘The Glorious Day’ when the Socialist Revolution will
take place.
Torch: "He
plans 'the day' when it will happen... think of The Knife by Genesis
and It All Stops Here by IQ."
‘Golden Handshake’
Brewer’s: "A phrase applied to
the often considerable terminal payments made to individuals, especially
business executives, whose services are prematurely dispensed with. It also
has been applied to the final grants made to colonial dependencies on
attaining their independence. The phrase was coined by Frederick Ellis
(d.1979), city editor of the Daily Express."
Torch: "The
'golden handshake' conjures up an image of unemployment again, nearly
breaking his arm, and he leaves the 'shuffling graveyard people'... dole
queues?"
‘silent chimneys’
Torch:
"The factories are all closed... strikes, pit closures... silent
chimneys provide silent steeples... a crusade launched from picket lines
outside empty factories."
‘storms to troop’
Torch:
"The real genius element is that he gathers the 'storms to troop'
and not the troops to storm... i.e. all the discontentment he stirs into a
fighting feeling."
‘Antichrist’
The name of the demon who is supposed to precede the Second Coming of
Christ, as mentioned in Revelation 13. In the early Christian church the
term was applied to the Roman Empire, and during the Reformation the Papacy
became identified by Protestants with the Antichrist.
Morris McClelland said:
"The Antichrist is a normal man who, through
his wits, intelligence and guile, will come to be proclaimed both secular
leader and Pope. He will unite the factions of Christianity, killing off all
other religions, (i.e. Satan worshipers, Muslims, Jews, Pagans, etc.). This
will all be a ruse, however, as he is totally given over to Satan. Upon
reaching power, he will hand the world over to Satan, plunging the world
into a thousand years of darkness, after which Christ will again walk the
earth, judge those who are worthy, and give them a world free of sin.
Everyone else will totally cease to exist."
Emiliano Bugatti
added: "I think that the word
'Antichrist' has been taken by Fish not from the Bible, but from the pages
of the German philosopher Nietzsche that with Antichrist describes the
new-man, the 'uber-man' (The notion of 'superman' -Ed. ). This
Antichrist and this antinichilistic, the winner of God and of nothingness,
he will come, a day."
Torch: "There
are further disturbing religious images...suffer my fallen angels... Satan
the fallen angel gathering his army to fight heaven...
"I am your antichrist...do you really
want a revolution...think about it. Ultimately it's a song that is a warning
to armchair revolutionaries as Fish claims in 'Words And Pictures'.
But the BBC missed the point and had the line changed to 'I am your
battle priest'. Fish added a rather crap verse live... 'have (sic -
Ed) yer peace signs when I wage war in the disco... I'm the warrior in
the ultra violet haze... armed with antisocial insecurity...' mmm. Are you
following me?"
‘Antisocial Insecurity’
Social Security is the system of payments made with income raised
from taxation. It goes to those who are unable to work, unemployed, and
other state dependants. In the case of Unemployment Benefit, once
fortnightly, a claimant has to ‘sign on’ to indicate that they are available
for and looking for work. In response, a giro-cheque is paid out. The level
for this (1995 levels) is about £35 a week for a single person under 25.
Additionally, you can apply to have the cost of your rent or mortgage paid
or part paid by the state. Unemployment Benefit has been replaced (Oct.
1996) by the Job Seeker’s allowance. It only lasts for six months, after
which you can be made to take a job you don’t want or face having your
benefit cut. Even better than in Fish’s day!
|
