Menu:

 Site Intro

1. Script Intro

Album Tracks:
 

1. Script for a Jester's Tear
2. He Knows You Know
3. The Web
4. Garden Party
5. Chelsea Monday
6. Forgotten Sons

B-Sides:

1. Charting the Single
2. Margaret

Script for a Jester's Tear - He Knows You Know

Introduction:  Writing in 1997 for the Script Remaster, Fish called it: "[A] song about drug abuse, the lyric originally written while suffering terrible stomach cramps on a desk in the [Unemployment Benefit Office]. My personal excesses and the unwanted advice they attracted from well-meaning people with no experience of the subject were documented and the first version of this song, one we thought was a possible single, was laid on tape."

‘This is a song about drugs... ’
Fish's intro on La Gaza Ladra

‘Singing psychedelic praises to the depths of the china bowl’
‘To vomit’ - Source: The Sick Book (Moran, Campbell da Vinci) (Yes, it does exist; a book about chutney juggling! - Ed)

‘listened to the priest... the sacred bread’
Fish is clearly not a Roman Catholic, else he would know that the host is not taken at the confession. That said, the offer might be for a later date.

‘crystal fever’
Meth-amphetamine or heroin are both crystalline before melting and injecting.

'the blind shall lead the blind’
This is an illusion to Matthew XV, 14. "Let them alone: they are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both shall fall into a pit."

‘vein lines stiffen’
With injecting over a period of time, the veins become hardened. Eventually, even with the use of a tourniquet it is impossible to get the needle into the vein. I accidentally had the great displeasure of seeing someone shooting up once. She took about eight goes to get it into her arm. It was seriously unpleasant, and not an experience I’d recommend even seeing, let alone trying!

Torsten Berger said: "I figure the 'chemists chain' is a pun with two meanings:

1. a complex molecule, such as cocaine (C₁₇H₂₁NO₄, I think :-) )
2. The progression of medicine that a patient might get to battle depression or perhaps pain. You buy medicine at the 'chemists', which I believe is what they call a pharmacy in Britain. This medicine is a 'chain' in that it gets more and more powerful as you go along, and often more addictive in the process."

Mark Dempster feels that the second interpretation is incorrect: "There seems to be some confusion around the words 'Chemist chain' - I believe this refers merely to pharmacists, generally called 'chemists' here in the UK; a chemist's chain is simply a retail company who deals in such things - Boots & Superdrug being probably the two biggest chains here."