Noel's Chemical Effluence



Noel's chemical effluence
Noel's chemical effluence (2)

We were going right through the Alps
when we picked up this fabulous scent
Of Noel's Chemical Effluence

Noel's chemical effluence

Noel's chemical effluence

There was a fuss about the elements
waiting for the keyboards as ever
The firmament
The firmament of it is going out the exit
Hats on...

Noel's chemical effluence
Noel's chemical effluence
Noel's chemical effluence

There's an inherent disease

Goes with an inbalance of the juices in the brain
That in transit causes one to envisage white faces,
As if spiked by mescaline

Noel's chemcal effluence
Noel's chemical effluence

And we're going right through the Alps
Look what happened at the lodge
Look what happened at the castle
Look at the red-purple vomit stream
From the bed, angled
Right into the bathroom

Noel's chemical effluence
Noel's chemical effluence

On the finger of your banker mind
And when all else fails
We can always blow  the whistle (3)

Noel's chemical effluence
Noel's chemical effluence
Noel's chemical effluence

Noel's chemical effluence

In work, in pleasure, I'll come for you
The abdominizer
In excellence (4)


1. The song begins with two notes that sound like horns but are apparently played on a synthesizer. The first song on Robert Calvert's Lucky Leif and the Longships begin with the same two notes; or, rather, they are in a different key, but the same interval. Calvert is credited with, among other things, playing a "fjord horn" on the album...I haven't been able to find any other reference to such a thing. Conceptually, it seems to herald the arrival of some Vikings.


2. According to Conway on the Fall online forum:

I would place it earlier than [Cerebral Caustic]. I have the full unedited version (a couple of minutes longer than the edit on 27 Points) on a CD with Code:Selfish demos & rough mixes.  ...

When I was working on the red box set additional sleeve notes to go with Daryl Easlea's song-by-song commentary, I asked Dave Bush about this song. He said Noel was the group's tour bus driver and the song was about the chemical toilet on the bus (that Noel had to clean out).

According to Steve Hanley, at the Louder Than Words festival in Manchester in 2013, the song was actually recorded in the chemical toilet, as the bus was traveling down the highway (Hanley spoke on a panel called "How to Write About the Fall" with his brother Paul, Simon Wolestencroft, and Dave Simpson, author of The Fallen). 


3. From Reformation:

The lyrics are very cryptic and difficult to decipher, although with the references to "waiting for the keyboards, as ever" and whistles (a sample of a whistle being played appears immediately after MES utters the line at 5:08), it may well be that the song is at least in part about Dave Bush - he used to blow a whistle at live gigs during some tracks (e.g. "Behind The Counter", the studio version of which also features a whistle or a sample of one).


4. An "abdominizer" is a machine that exercises the muscles of the abdomen. The word also appears in "The Past #2."  





Comments (11)

  • 1. dannyno | 04/04/2013
So it seems my interpretation that the song was about Noel Edmonds, whose TV programmes often involved dumping coloured gunge on audience members/show participants, was wrong!
  • 2. Martin | 21/04/2013
In the longer, unreleased version of the song, there are references to a Swiss journalist and an SS castle.:

By the way, should "banker [bound]" be "banker band"? Not sure...
  • 3. dannyno | 22/04/2014
Missing lyrics.

There's "Noel's chemical effluence" x2 after "angled right into the bathroom", and "Noel's chemical effluence" x4 after "blow your whistle".

And I'm hearing "your banker mind", though it's very indistinct.
  • 4. bzfgt | 23/04/2014
OK, I've got this fixed up now. I am pretty sure it's "banker mind," it sounds like that to me and also MES likes the word "mind" and "your ___ mind" is a construction that appears more than once elsewhere--Danny's site has "your insect mind" and "your ugly mind," as well as "fragile rejected backward mind" without the "your". "Your ugly mind" is from "You Don't Turn Me On," which isn't thought to be written by MES. In any case, however, the phrase has the ring of MES about it to my ears, and it sounds right.
  • 5. dannyno | 24/04/2014
Bear in mind that my concordance currently reflects the texts before the current revisionist attacks, ie. probably more or less as the Lyrics Parade had them.
  • 6. dannyno | 24/04/2014
Oh, I see what you mean, on reading that again.
  • 7. dannyno | 09/03/2017
Typo alert: "chemcial"

Just once, I think.
  • 8. bzfgt (link) | 19/03/2017
I wonder if that was me or if it came over with the Lyrics Parade. I hope no one misinterprets this, we are standing on the shoulders of giants, but we've come a long way beyond the LP after four years. It is a worthy task we have undertaken, we must be sure to be worthy of it...
  • 9. Basmikel | 20/06/2018
Banker might be rhyming slang for fingerer not uncommon in tour loos.
  • 10. bzfgt (link) | 15/07/2018
Fingerer as in rat fink? What does "banker" rhyme with in this case?
  • 11. bzfgt (link) | 15/07/2018
Oh you mean wanker, like in masturbation?

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