Well I've never had a car
Never been near a lorry
Got a nasty habit of scratching my nose
My codename's Happy Harry
I'm Into CB
I've done loads of jobs
For very minute lolly
Creation schemes
So I suppose I was lucky
And the money it took
To buy a CB set
Put lines on my belly
My codename's Cedar Plank
I'm Into CB
I'm Into CB
At 16 I drank cheap sherry
Got plastered in the
stations of Swinn Park
Off my mother I stole some money
Had a treat with a bottle of Martini
So sick I couldn't walk or sit
Since then I've not touched that shit
I won't bore you with
tales of being greedy
I'm just into CB
I'm into CB
My family's a weird lot
My stepsister's got a horrible growth
Listens to all this muzak shit
Reads Smash Hits while
she's eating her tea
To me it sounds like bad CB
My father's not bad really
He got me these wires and bits
Apart from that he talks to me hardly
I'm just into CB
This is Happy Harry Plank
from the land of waving palms
calling out to Cedar Plank
477 CC Res O Code 13
In the home of chocolate city
I'm having trouble with that terminology
But I'm into CB
I've got the letter before me
it's marked with a confidential seal
I'd better open it
It's a fine and a formal threat
I should of listened to New Face in Hell
The date expired last week
Up here I don't know what time it is
It says you're going to go when you go
Or else you're for it boy
That's what you get for having a hobby
Next mail you get will be mail in jail
That's what you get for having a hobby
Next year mail in jail
That's what you get for having a hobby
Next time I'm out I'll tie your wires
That's the last you'll hear for me
Keep clear of CB
Keep clear of CB
The Fall: 'I'm Into C.B' (1982)
Yay! There's *masses* of hauntological bits and bobs in The Fall universe. I'm tempted to do a post on This Nation's Saving Grace, and my theory that it's all inspired by daytime telly (and Telly for Schools and Colleges in particular).
ReplyDeleteBut I'm kicking myself now for not getting that Guide to CB Radio I found in the 2nd-hand book shop the other day. I knew I would.
I think The Fall are the most hauntological of all non-hauntological groups - their obsession with history, and sci fi, and sticking the two together, as well as their evocation of times gone past by reference to trash culture are absolutely perfect for the 'genre'.
ReplyDeleteYou should do that 'TNSG' piece, definitely - if only to make up for not buying that CB book - what were you thinking?
I'm ashamed. I should of listened to I'm Into CB!
ReplyDeleteSpot on re: The Fall. There's also the refs to the mundane: Nord West Gas, local parks, councils, BT etc.
"You wont find anything more ridiculous, than this new profile
ReplyDeleteRazor unit, made with the highest British attention to the
Wrong detail"
There is certainly a rich vein to mine in Mark E Smith's lyrics: another very explicitly hauntological song is 'Wings', with its repeated phrase of:
ReplyDelete"A small alteration of the past.
Can turn time into space.
Small touches can alter more than a mere decade."
But the killer line in this context has to be:
'But, when I got back.
The place I made the purchase, no longer exists'.
Bollops - you should do definitely do your piece on TNSG.