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The Thoughts of Chairman Fish

 
 
Sax
16:49 / 12.10.01
Given the number of Marillion fans peeking out of the closet over in the Conversation, I thought I'd give everyone a chance to share some of the wisdom of Mr Derek W. Dick.

I'll start you off, with a little pearl that warns of the stark realities of active service with the British Armed Forces:

"From the dole queue to the regiment, a profession in a flash, but remember Monday signings as from door to door you dash."

Wise words there from Forgotten Sons. Next!
 
 
Spatula Clarke
16:55 / 12.10.01
Pfft!
 
 
Ierne
18:00 / 12.10.01
The Thief of Baghdad hides in Islington now
Praying deportation for his sacred cow
A legacy of romance in a twilight world
A dowry for a relative mystery girl
– Fugazi

Next!
 
 
Seth
21:18 / 12.10.01
Grendel

Midnight sun bids moors farewell, retreats from charging dusk
Mountains echo curfew's bell, signal ending tasks
They place their faith in oaken doors, cower in candlelight
The panic seeps through bloodstained floors as Grendel stalks the night
Earth-rim walker seeks his meals, prepare the funeral pyres
The shaper's songs no longer heal the fear within their eyes,
Their eyes, their eyes, their eyes, their eyes
Wooden figures, pagan gods stare blindly cross the sea
Appeal for help from ocean fogs, for saviors born of dreams
They know their lives are forfeit now, priestly heads they bow in shame
They cannot face the trembling crowd that flinch in Grendel's name
Earth-rim walker seeks his meals, prepare the funeral pyres
The shaper's songs no longer heal the fear within their eyes,
Their eyes, their eyes, their eyes, their eyes
As Grendel leaves his mossy home beneath the stagnant air
Along the forest path he roams to Hrothgar's hall so fair
He knows that victory is secured, his charm will testify
His claws will drip with mortal blood as moonbeams haunt the sky
As Grendel leaves his mossy home beneath the stagnant air
Along the forest path he roams to Hrothgar's house so fair
He knows that victory is secured, his charm will testify
His claws will drip with mortal blood as moonbeams haunt the sky
Earth-rim walker seeks his meals, prepare the funeral pyres
The shaper's songs no longer heal the fear within their eyes,
Within their eyes, within their eyes, within their eyes
Silken membranes, span his path, fingerprints in dew
Denizens of twilight lands, humbly beg him through
Mother Nature's bastard child, shunned by leaf and stream
An alien in an alien land seeks solace within dreams
The shaper's lies, his poison tongue maligned with mocking harp
Beguiling queen, her innocence offends his icy heart
Hounds freeze in silence, bewitched by the reptile's spell
Sulphurous essence pervades round the grassy dell
Hero awaits him like lamb to the butcher's knife
Stellular heavens ignore even children's cries
Screams are his music, lightning his guide
Raping the darkness, d- d- d- d- death by his side
Chants rise in terror, pray round the oaken beam
Flickering firelight portraying the grisly scene
Warriors advance, prepare for the nightmare foe
Futile the sacrifices even the hearts must know
Heroes' delusions with feet in the grave
Lurker at the threshold, he cares not for the brave, he cares not for the brave
So you thought that your bolts and your locks would keep me out
You should have known better after all this time
You're gonna pay in blood for all your viscious slander
With your ugly pale skins and your putrid blue eyes
Why should I feel pity when you kill your own and feel no shame?
God's on my side, sure as hell I'm gonna take no blame,
I'm gonna take no blame, I'm going to take no blame
So you say you believe in all of Mother Nature's laws
You lust for gold with your sharpened knives
Ooh, when your hordes are gathered and your enemies left to rot
You pray with your bloodstained hands at the feet of your pagan gods
And you try to place the killer's blade in my hands
You call for justice, distort the truth
Well I've had enough of all your pretty, pretty speeches
Recieve your punishment expose your throats to my righteous claws and let the blood flow,
let the blood flow, let the blood flow, let the blood flow, flow,
flow, flow, flow, flow, flow, flow, flow - Repeat to fade…


 
 
Sax
10:51 / 13.10.01
And you just know that came from memory, ladies and gentlemen.

Run!
 
 
Seth
22:52 / 13.10.01
Hey: I saw this band in London last Wednesday. For the tenth time! So you'd better fucking run!

They didn't play Three Boats Down from the Candy .

But they were utterly brilliant. Best gig since Godspeed...! last year. This band has a back catalogue so vast, they could play a two-hour set of B-Sides and still bring the house down. They opened with an hour of set-closers, for God's sake - and still delivered two incredible encores. This band rules.
 
 
Ronald Thomas Clontle
00:31 / 14.10.01
Wow, I was so incredibly confused...I thought Ierne was quoting some Fugazi song that I couldn't place, but then I do the google search on that lyric and find the Marillion song... so then I did a search on Audiogalaxy, and downloaded the song...


I can't say I like it, to put it kindly...

[ 14-10-2001: Message edited by: Flux = VVX232 ]
 
 
Ierne
16:49 / 15.10.01
That's quite alright, Flux – It's an acquired taste.
 
 
Seth
20:57 / 15.10.01
Good job he didn't try to download Grendel.
 
 
Warrington Minge
09:17 / 16.10.01
so here i am once more....
 
 
Seth
09:38 / 16.10.01
quote:Originally posted by dark welchy:
so here i am once more....


Welchy: The game is over. Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye.

Are you following me?
 
 
Opalfruit
09:38 / 16.10.01
Edgy eggs and queuing cumbers
Rudely wakened from their slumbers
Time has come again for slaughter

....
 
 
deletia
09:38 / 16.10.01
Now that's what I call 6th form poetry.
 
 
Seth
17:23 / 16.10.01
You're not alone, Haus. Bit of a Peter Gabriel fixation.

He didn't really find his stride until Misplaced Childhood (and even then there were some stinkers). Mylo is one of my favorites.
 
 
Ierne
17:51 / 16.10.01
Must tell myself that I'm not here/
I'm drowning in a liquid fear/
Bottled in a strong compression/
My distortion shows obsession...
In the cave...
...oh wait, that's Genesis...

The sky was bible black in Lyon
When I met the Magdalene
She was paralyzed in a streetlight
She refused to give her name
And a ring of violet bruises
They were pinned upon her arm
Two hundred francs for sanctuary
and she led me by the hand
To a room of dancing shadows
where all the heartache disappears
And from glowing tongues of candles
I heard her whisper in my ear

J'entend ton coeur...
–Blue Angel

Not sure I agree about the Gabriel fixation. pg and Fish have rather different styles.
 
 
Warrington Minge
18:11 / 16.10.01
quote: ORIGINALLY POSTED BY SETH SAMUEL
Welchy: The game is over. Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye.

Are you following me?


My footlights are already dimming in reverence Seth!!
 
 
Seth
05:57 / 17.10.01
Gabriel aping was the most common accusation leveled at the band before the release of Misplaced Childhood. You can really see it in songs from Script for a Jester’s Tear, especially when looked at alongside albums like Selling England by the Pound.
 
 
Ierne
16:48 / 17.10.01
Gabriel aping was the most common accusation leveled at the band before the release of Misplaced Childhood. – expressionless

As I do recall! But their lyrical styles are really quite different. pg has always been more of a remote viewer, whereas Fish is more aggressive and emotional.

For example, if we take lyrics of a political bent:

I hear the directors of Genetic Control
have been buying all the properties that have recently been sold
taking risks oh so bold
It's said now that people will be shorter in height
they can fit twice as many in the same building site (they say it's alright...)
– Get 'Em Out By Friday (Foxtrot)


pg gets more concise as he gets older:

When I try to sleep at night
I can only dream in red
The outside world is black and white
With only one colour dead
–Biko (pg3)


Here's Fish:

We buy fresh bagels from the corner store
Where swastikas are spat from aerosols
I sit in the bar sipping iced White Russian
Trying to score but nobody's pushing
And everyone looks at everyone's faces
Searching for signs and praying for traces of a conscience in residence
Are we sitting on a barbed wire fence
Racing the clouds home...
– White Russian (Clutching at Straws)


The initial quote from Forgotten Sons that started this thread will suffice for an example of Fish's earlier style.

If we choose to get more personal, compare & contrast:

The wretched desert takes its form, the jackal proud and tight
In search of you, I feel my way, though the slowest heaving night
Whatever fear invents, I swear it make no sense
I reach through the border fence
Come down, come talk to me
– Come Talk to Me (US)


and

Your perimeter of courtiers jerk like celluloid puppets
As you stutter paralysed with rabbits eyes
searing the shadows, flooding the wings
to pluck elusive salvation from the understudy's lips
Retrieve the soliloquy, maintain the obituary
My cue line in the last act
and you wait in silent solitude
Waiting for the prompt...
– Incubus (Fugazi)


Just my opinion...
 
 
Jack Fear
16:58 / 17.10.01
Mmmmm... depends on which lines you choose by whom, dunnit? People write in different styles on different songs--sometimes within the same song.

Try this'n--

The earthly power sucks shadowed milk from sleeping tears undone
from nippled skin as smooth as silk the bugles blow as one


Call it in the air, kids: Peter Gabriel or Fish? (If you know, you can't play: I want to hear uninformed guesses only.)
 
 
Ierne
18:30 / 17.10.01
Mmmmm... depends on which lines you choose by whom, dunnit? – Jack Fear

Yes and no. Both lyricists have various ways and means of expressing themselves, and their styles have changed over the years – dramatically in the case of pg. (I confess I've lost touch with what Fish has been up to after Internal Exile.)

But I'm sticking to my guns!
 
 
Seth
07:07 / 18.10.01
Ierne: My original post was responding to Haus – I believed that he’d targeted Opalfruit’s fragment of Garden Party for his sixth-form poetry dig. The style of Garden Party, as well as much of Script for a Jester’s Tear is very Genesis. The resemblance fades along with the face paint – Fish becomes his own entity by the time they hit Misplaced Childhood. I think we both make the same point that their styles develop and become wholly distinct from each other. But I was only targeting lyrics from his early career – sorry if my posts weren’t clear.

Internal Exile was where I lost touch with Fish, too (although Jack the Bodiless has kept me vaguely up to date). However, I saw him play in a pub in Bristol in 1997, with a band made up of his favourite collaborators of his solo career, and it fucking rocked. One of the best gigs I’ve been to, the band sounding like Led Zep with Fish on top stand-up comic form. He noticed my Wu-Tang Clan top, too (it’s sad when you keep track of your hero’s record collections in the hope of impressing them amongst the Hawkwind t-shirts).

He’s got a new one out, came out a few months ago. Anyone heard it?
 
 
Jack The Bodiless
14:41 / 21.10.01
No... he lost me with Raingods With Zippos a few years back. Although the second half of that one, with the 'Plague Of Ghosts' suite, was some of the best solo stuff he's ever done. Very much like Misplaced Childhood brought bang up to date.

Still my favourite Fish lyric...

I was flicking through the channels on the TV
On a Sunday in Milwaukee in the rain
Trying to piece together conversations
Trying to find out where to lay the blame

But when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to pretend
And when it gets right down to it there's no one here that's left to blame
Blame it on me
You can blame it on me
We're just sugar mice in the rain
 
 
Seth
09:33 / 22.10.01
Jack: You're absolutely right about that being the best Fish lyric. It's also probably his simplest - funny how he misunderstood his own strengths of such a long time.

Lady Let it Lie has a fantastic lyric (don't know it off by heart, though). Credo and Internal Exile cut right to my heart.
 
  
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