Shut Up!

Written by:

The Monks

Initial release:

Middle Class Revolt, Cog Sinister/Permanent; PERMLP16 LP; PERMMC16 Cassette; PERMCD16 CD [USA release: Matador Records OLE-095 1 LP; OLE-095 4 Cassette; OLE-095 2 CD; 25 July 1994]
Date:

3 May 1994

Subsequent releases:

Middle Class Revolt, Artful, ARTFULCD23; 5 July 1999
Middle Class Revolt, Castle/Sanctuary, CMQDD1226 CD; 13 March 2006

Group on initial recording:

Mark E Smith – vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass, Dave Bush – keyboards; Simon Wolstencroft – drums, keyboards; Karl Burns – drums

Commentary:

The third Monks track to be covered by The Fall (the first two, I Hate You and Oh How To Do Now had their titles changed to Black Monk Theme Part 1 and Black Monk Theme Part 11 respectively; this one kept the same title), all three coming from the 1966 album on Polydor Germany, Black Monk Time. A fairly lively interpretation with a lot of the melody of the original version left out in favour of rhythm.

The following analysis appeared in the series Gladys Winthorpe’s Emporium Of Particularly Underacknowledged Fall Compositions and was originally published in The Pseud Mag no. 9 (December 2005/January 2006)

“Line-up:

Smith, M E: vox
Hanley, S: bass
Scanlon, C: guitar
Bush, D: keyboards
Burns babe, K K: drums, vox (?), guitar (?)
Wolstencroft, S: drums

“Shut Up!” appeared as the closing track on 1994’s much maligned “Middle Class Revolt”. The original is by The Monks and appears on the 1966 album “Black Monk Time”.

In terms of the band’s line-up for this song, the Hanley/Scanlon/Bush axis is pretty evident. I think there’s 2 drummers too – if you listen closely at 0:17, there seems to be one drumkit doing the main rhythmic pattern (hi-hat and snare) and one providing a supporting role on tom-toms [12]. There are at least 3 guitars – a rhythmic line, panned right (sounding very much like Craig), a fuzz guitar, panned left and a 3rd one, panned centrally, sometimes picking out a tune of sorts, sometimes just “twanging” [13]. The predominant keyboard line mirrors the main riff (panned to the far right), but various other parts appear throughout the song (e.g. the keyboard “mangling” at 1:23).

The song has 2 different sections – verse and chorus, The former is heavily reliant on it’s strongly repetitive 3-note descending riff, which is played simultaneously by bass, guitar and keyboards. The chorus is essentially a distillation of the verse, squashed up into half the time whith a different rhythmic emphasis. Note also that the introduction is just a monochordal version of the chorus, so what you’re really getting is 3 different musical sections for the price of 1! And just 3 separate notes too! After the final repeat of the chorus at 3:19, the song ends with the same swirly noise as was faded in at the start, giving the song an overall “cyclical” feel.

As per “I’m A Mummy”, the vocals on this song are complicated and arranged in a seemingly unstructured way. There are a large number of different MES vocal parts, as signified by the multi-tracked rant of “Shut up! Don’t cry!” (and 2 other voices doing odd “Wow wow wow wow” noises) between 0:54 and 1:08. There’s another singing “Got a reason to live…” at 0:39 and one with an odd wobbly effect audible at 0:22. A different voice [14] also appears at various points, sometimes talking (e.g. “I know a sweater(?) when I see one” at 2:42) and somtimes doing the “Wow wow wow wow” vocal part (e.g. 2:28). Micro-Listening ™ students might have also noticed the following: a shouted “Got a reason to laugh”, panned far right at 0:32 and a high-pitched “Chh… chh… chh…” noise at 1:59. Phew! [15]

I think it’s somewhat of an understatement to say that the overall impression of the song’s sound-picture can be summed up as “dense”. There’s lots of stuff going on here and, as such, various things aren’t particarly prominent. For example, Doc Shanley’s bass is very low-key compared to what he’s like on other Fall songs – as well as just mirroring the main riff – and it’s quite difficult to hear what the central “twangy” guitar is doing for most of the time. The drums are low in the mix, too. Still, it’s a spirited remake, adding lots to the song’s themes rather than doing a straight transposition. The original is, inevitably, far sparser but does have some lovely vocals harmonies in the chorus which have been steamrollered flat here, of course. I enjoy The Fall’s version because of it’s atmosphere of inspired, grinning lunacy, admirably helped in no small part by the daft “Wow wow wow wow” vocals.

Notes:

[1] “Oh! Brother” is a good example of a similar style [1a].
[1a] When the band played “I’m A Mummy” live during 1997 and 1998, Karl actually replicated the “Oh! Brother” drum riff.
[2] That said, if you listen really carefully to the double snare hits, the second is a slightly different sound to the first. So perhaps there’s 2 drummers playing in unison after all?
[3] This section is useful in offering a regularly occurring contrast to the verse/chorus.
[4] I love the slightly discordant riff that Doc Shanley plays during the bridges at 0:24, 0:48, 1:12, etc.
[5] Favourite vocal: “I’m… hup!… a mummy!” at 1:26.
[6] MES mentions “fifth element” at 2:17 – possibly a reference to the film of the same name, which I think was released around the time of the album’s recording.
[7] Audible in various places, such as the pause at 0:35.
[8] E.g. “I’m A Mummy” at 0:23 and right at the end of the song.
[9] “Wot’s ‘appenin’ ‘ere?” at 2:04.
[10] This *may* be Andy Hackett… just guessing!
[11] Marked by simulataneous snare and cymbal crash at 2:31.
[12] Identical to the way the drums are used in “The Classical”.
[13] These latter 2 appear from nowhere at 0:32 after a brief 2 note prelude at 0:10.
[14] It’s possibly Karl providing these parts? Whoever he is, he sounds remarkably like the late, great John Peel at 2:09 (“Pain in the arse… every bugger’s got an opinion”).
[15] The first time I ever heard this song, I though the chorus was “Shut up! You’re crap!”. I wrote this onto a post-it note and had it proudly displayed on the top of my computer monitor until I realised what the real lyrics were…”