Thanks to Adam R, Steve N, Peter T-M, Dr D, John A, Nick B, Rich P, Matt L and Dave T for their transcription contributions. This page originally published on 15 March 2022.
Much guessing in the spellings of the names of course, but otherwise a pretty straightforward transcription. Earlier live versions of the songs had some differences…
15 March 2022
Markw
I thought it was ‘Hello Mamma, Alabama’.
15 March 2022
dr Desperate
‘Yellow Mama’ is name of the electric chair at Kilby State Prison in Montgomery, Alabama, used by the state for executions from 1927 to 2002 (when the option of lethal injection was introduced). The name arose when the chair was brightened up with highway-line paint. It was built by Ed Mason, a British master carpenter who was serving 60 years at the prison for theft and grand larceny. It remains in storage at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, in the event that a future death row inmate chooses to have their sentence carried out by electrocution rather than injection.
15 March 2022
John Anderson
Any ideas on what Tucker’s drain refers to?
15 March 2022
I, problem chimp
My only thought on ‘Tucker’s drain’ was that it was a nod to the serial killer disposing of the bodies of his victims via the waste system à la Dennis Nilsen… Fantastic misheard lyric on this from one the kids who’s been singing ‘I’m getting Frazzles in the morning, so get me to the shop on time’! A maize-based snack as his last meal, perhaps?
15 March 2022
dr Desperate
MoaCAs (Mancs of a Certain Age) may still be trying to forget The Punktures, the spoof punk band featuring Sid Backaxle, Jack Crosspiece and the disarmingly talented Gervais Trumpet, who appeared on Phil Wood’s Piccadilly Radio shows in the 70s (tagline “The Wood, The Wireless, The World”).
One of their non-hits had a similar title to this song, and went: “We’re gettin’ buried in the mornin’ Ding-dong, the bells are gonna chime We are The Punktures We throw up our lunches So get us to the crem on time”.
15 March 2022
murderous giraffe
Phil Wood, now there’s a blast from the past. “How dare thee mither me, mush, while there’s groovin’ to be done with the Wood on the wireless…”
15 March 2022
woodnoggin
I slightly prefer Merriweather to Merryweather – more search results for the former (and the latter gets a squiggly red underlining when you write it in this forum).
15 March 2022
Pirx The Purist
Not being a Manc, but being of a certain age and preferring Piccadilly to City in the late 70s, I have memories of Phil Wood as well.
One of his little tricks was to append the suffix ‘a-rooney’ to words, such as in, say, “…there’s a nice little disc-a-rooney for you”.
I remember listening to a late night show on Piccadilly in about the early 80s where the two presenters (I don’t remember the main one, but I’m sure the late Tim Grundy was the other one) were taking calls from listeners. A woman in Wythenshawe phoned in, and the three of them were chatting away when one of the DJs asked her, “And what’s your name?”“Linda Rooney”, came the reply. The presenters both pissed themselves laughing, with one of them saying, “Does Phil Wood know about you?”
Wood also did a small-hours-of-the-morning show at one stage where, once a week, he would be joined by a self-styled ‘psychic’ called (I think) Anthony Shafer. Listening to them in the depths of the night going on about ghosts, hauntings and suchlike was not always a comforting experience.
15 March 2022
dr Desperate
I was a regular listener to the ‘Wood for Breakfast’ show on Piccadilly. PW borrowed that “a-rooney” suffix from the hipster lingo ‘Vout-o-Reenee’, invented and compiled into a dictionary in the 1930s by the jazzer Slim Gaillard. I now listen to R4’s ‘Farming Today’ in the hope that the programme will have been produced in Bristol by Rebecca Rooney.
15 March 2022
Cody jarrett
Don’t want to cause a stir, but surely “causing somewhat of a scare” should be “causing somewhat of a stir” ?
15 March 2022
AMOCO CADIZ
Don’t want to cause a stir or a scare but I had thought it was ‘somewhat of a stare’…as in the electric shock effect
15 March 2022
third rate les
I love the punchy tune of this one, I love the delightfully weird opening line (I heard it as Joe Gevanny, but have no grounds to argue) and there are a couple of good laughs, but it’s a weirdly grim topic to make a joke out of and I haven’t really bonded with this one. But I also like the way some songs clearly spring from a single amusing line and I suppose well done for crafting a story out of that belter.
15 March 2022
dr Desperate
I had ‘stir’ (because it is).
16 March 2022
EXXO
Indeed. By the way the vivid detail of “mowed his lawn” (shaving his head and maybe elsewhere before attaching the cap with the electrodes) is well … pretty flipping vivid.
16 March 2022
murderous giraffe
I had “stir” but wasn’t going to rock the boat.
16 March 2022
Chris The Siteowner
As ever, I try not to impose my own thoughts on the transcriptions; from those submitted, all three stir/stare/scare suggestions were made, and I went with the most popular. So rather than have a load of one-word comments here, let’s have a Twitter poll. Sorry if you’re not on Twitter, but it’s easy for me to do, and will give us a reasonable sample of people’s thoughts. Vote here.
16 March 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
I went for “stir” in my transcript, although it sounds more like “stare” I was thinking that NB was drawling the word out like he does with some others in the song. I’m not on Twitter so can someone vote by proxy for me?
16 March 2022
EXXO
I will reluctantly enter the twittersphere in the manner of Norfolk smashing into the Lancastrian right at Towton, but I am very preoccupied with Cheltenham, so will only do so if informed that the Stir-ists are not carrying the day. Otherwise I will be as stand-offish as Stanley at Bosworth. Hurrah for teh the stir-ists though!
16 March 2022
EXXO
Lancastrian left I suppose, but history then tends to be imagined from the victor’s point of view.
16 March 2022
dr Desperate
Far be it from me to pontificate on the Birkenhead accent, but according to the Pronunciation Studio website, ‘stir’ and ‘stare’ are homophones in Mersyside English, both being pronounced [stœː].
16 March 2022
transit full of keith
There’s a small group of songs I like less on this album and out of the songs I like less, this is the one I like most.
16 March 2022
EXXO
Certainly homophones, although there are three ways of pronouncing both in a Merseyside accent – all rhyming with “chair.” But it’s still definitely “stir.” in this song Nigel pronounces “chair” as as a conventional /ʧeə/ (with a /r/ cos followed by the vowel of “on,” so same as RP but with a Merseyside accent, and so pronounces “stir” to rhyme.
16 March 2022
BATWALKER
Didn’t know about Yellow Mama being the nickname of the chair, but “Yellowhammer Alabama” is part of a chant by fans of Alabama University (American) football team. I have a Facebook friend from Alabama, and she regularly posts the whole chant when cheering on her team.
16 March 2022
EXXO
“The whole chant?” we cry. You can’t tease us like that so I looked it up. But this version is so shit it can’t possibly be quite right.
“Hey [insert rival college name ]! Hey [name again]! We Just Beat the Hell Outta You! Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer! Give ‘em Hell, Alabama!”
Interestingly, and probably with a political connection, the yellowhammer (not at all the same as the European yellowhammer by the way) became the state bird of Alabama in the same year (1927) as Yellow Mama’s first use.
16 March 2022
dr Desperate
The Yellowhammer Woodpecker (Colaptes auratus) or Northern Flicker has been the official state bird of Alabama since 1927. This was the same year that Yellow Mama was built, so the two facts may be linked.
16 March 2022
dr Desperate
Sorry for cross-posting there, @Exxo, I thought you’d be in William Hill’s waiting for them to weigh in for the 4:50. More military than political, I think, as Civil War regiments from Alabama were nicknamed Yellowhammers after their grey and yellow uniforms.
16 March 2022
EXXO
Nothing more political than naming things in the 20th century after confederate military people. Would be interesting whether it coincided with a swing from fa-far ultra right governorship to something considerably less liberal.
[it’s easy to racing, betting & various boards or forums at the same time, but twitter is way too four-dimensional]
16 March 2022
paul f
Yellowhammer is also the Alabama state nickname.
16 March 2022
BATWALKER
@Exxo I couldn’t actually remember the whole thing, and also couldn’t be arsed to scroll through my Facebook wall looking for it, but it is pretty nonsensical. Your version looks right to me.
16 March 2022
BATWALKER
OK, I’ve just spent far too long scrolling my friend’s Facebook profile, and her version just goes “Rammer jammer yellowhammer! Roll tide!”. No idea, sorry.
16 March 2022
EXXO
Just remembered once knew someone who was known as The Alabama Slammer (which was a nickname) but that’s an altogether different story.
16 March 2022
BATWALKER
Talking of American football, I Googled the name Corey Fuller and the first result that came up was the name of a player from Florida. Coincidence?
16 March 2022
dr Desperate
They got a name for the winners in the world I want a name when I lose They call Alabama (college football team) the Crimson Tide Call me Deacon Blues.
Definitely “stir” and I love the idea that someone guilty of (multiple) murder could be described as “causing somewhat of a stir”. Classic piece of HMHB understatement.
16 March 2022
EXXO
Ditto the effect of 2,000 volts of electricity, and the fact that it often didn’t kill for up to 20 minutes, and the fact that it caused decades of controversy.
Not just two lines with double meaning, but two that tell different stages of the same story in parallel detail. Utterly exceptional writing.
16 March 2022
Dull Head Del
I sometimes hear ‘parcelled up inside a case’ rather than ‘cage’
Cage will be right (it rhymes with gauge) but just thought parceled up inside a case brings to mind body parts being ‘relocated’.
16 March 2022
POP-TART MARK
Agreed that ‘cage’ is there for the rhyme, though it’s a nice twisted detail. But whether he sent a case or a cage to West Berlin in his parcel, they were relocated. If he’d sent them in trunk a to West Virginia they’d still have been relocated.
Anyway how big does the case have to be to contain at least three bodies?
16 March 2022
JIM IN THE ANTIPODES
Pop Tart Mark – given your sobriquet, I would have thought the answer was just a phone call to that Belgian clean-up team away?
17 March 2022
Dull Head Del
You’d be surprised how much you can get into a case : )
I do wonder about Nigel with his murder and necrophile references in songs.
Excavating Rita and Tommy Walsh’s Eco House.
17 March 2022
dr Desperate
In 2009 Welsh blogger Steven Francis wrote about ‘Executions in Wales’, beginning his piece about Thomas Allen (executed 10th April 1889): “This execution caused somewhat of a stir in Swansea, due in part to the nature of the crime and partly due to the fact that the condemned man was a Zulu from South Africa.”
17 March 2022
Chris The Siteowner
Over 120 votes on the Twitter poll, and ‘stir’ has got over 50% of them, so our own VAR has spoken.
17 March 2022
Spiltdown MAN
The more I hear it the more I’m getting ‘stare’
17 March 2022
EXXO
As mentioned above, “stare” is a homophone with “stir” for most Merseyside speakers/singers, although there are inconsistencies, because really there are three different Merseyside accents and a lot of folks switch between them. So we have to go by meaning, especially the double meaning of those two lines – two types of mowing his lawn, two types of switch getting flicked, two types of stir: the stir when he butchered people and the stir when he gets frazzled.
If you want to know three types of Merseyside pron for ‘stir,’ ‘stare,’ ‘scare’ and ‘chair’, they are approximately:
(i) Cilla Black or the Beatles with an near-brummy /œː/ So “her hair” can be /hœː hœː/
(ii) modern strong scouse something between the /ɪə/ of “here” in RP and the /eə/ of “there” in RP
Both (i) (ii) are outside the range of sounds produced by RP speakers.
(iii) standard northern English /eə/ – the RP way of pronouncing “stare,” “scare,” “air,” “chair” “fair” etc but applied to “her” “stir” (and sometimes even “fur” as well, though most Merseysiders would probably revert to pronunciation (i) for “fur”). and pronounced with a Merseyside accent on the word but without giving any special Merseyside variation to the /eə/ vowel sound itself. This is what NB does in this song.
17 March 2022
SpiltdoWn MAN
My reasoning is that every Scouser I know says stir to rhyme with ‘Stair’. This lyric seems to be delivered more to rhyme with ‘stayer’ (subtle difference) which I wouldn’t associate with a Scouse ‘stir’.
It would be nice to ask the band for confirmation on these sorts of ambiguity, but I imagine they’d be utterly bemused by the over-earnest concern of a load of Awkward Seans/Men Of Constant Sorrows even caring about this level of minutiae of their art. They might even write a song about it.
‘Earnest Exxo and His Phonetic Alphabet’ would make a great opener on the next LP 😉
17 March 2022
Hedgecutter
Looks like the Stir-ists aren’t irked now.
17 March 2022
EXXO
@Spiltdown Man – Well funnily enough, when were struggling on this project in 2008/2009 for some of the lyrics to ‘Bubblewrap,’ Mr. B (who has known me for about 26 years at gigs) noticed it, leant down from the stage in Sheffield and whisperered it in my ear, starting off a whole series of clarifications over cuppas every now and then. Very caring about the fans as it happens, though not that arsed about being misunderstood.
17 March 2022
Chemtrail brian
Some fantastically dark humour here. In particular the “in a while necrophile” line – it’s like he’s already got someone lined up!
18 March 2022
gipton teenager
I’m hearing “get me THROUGH the chair on time” on the 1st, 3rd and 4th time it’s sung. It’s probably just my old ears though.
21 March 2022
Darwin
It all seems very clear now. Thanks to the decipherers!
21 March 2022
Poloneckjean
Just been listening with some nice new headphones, heard for the first time the (I think) ‘you alright ?’ ‘yeah’ at 2.28. Or should I write them down for the nurse?
This song reminds me of nick cave’s fantastic tale of a young serial killer, the curse of millhaven, with ‘find them all in tucker’s drain’ having the same flippant feel as Loretta’s ‘Well, they’re underneath the house where I do quite a bit of stowing’. She of course ends up medicated in an asylum. In fact the whole album has something of a murder balladsiness to it
31 March 2022
dr desperate
‘Murderpedia’, the go-to site for anybody with an interest in mass slaughter, has details of seven male murderers with the surname Tucker, and one female. There’s also a book called ‘The Serial Killer Diaries’ by a Brian Lee Tucker. I really have no inclination to discover more about any of them.
A very straightforward song. It’s actually very much a sister song to Psycho by Jack Kittel – he didn’t write it (Leon Payne did) but that’s the best version of it. Hearing Jack Kittel doing it definitely influenced I’m Getting Buried.
Regarding the names (Joel Devaney, Corey Fuller, Sarah Merryweather, Saul O’Hanlon) – Merryweather I’m having it as a “y” not an “i” – and they are all made-up names which just fit the song (and, in this case, they’re slightly American). It just happens (the choice of names) when you’re constructing the song, so it easily flows when you’re singing them.
“Tucker’s drain”? – Tucker’s one of the neighbours, probably a farmer up the road and no one would notice if you bunged bodies in his drain. The lines “Mowed his lawn and then a switch got flicked/Causing something of a stir” – I had been thinking of ending that bit “Sending him to Delaware” but this didn’t fit because the word “sending” doesn’t stretch to the melody very well whereas the word “causing” does. “Sending him to Delaware” conjures up a more interesting vision perhaps, as it would have been a euphemism for “going ballistic”.
In Psycho the greatest line is near the end where he sings “…and then my mind just walked away…”
4 May 2022
dr Desperate
At this point I’d normally say, “Ah yes, ‘Psycho’: written by Leon Payne, first recorded by Eddie Noake, but Elvis Costello’s version is by far the best”. However, I must admit I’ve only just discovered that the Birkenhead-christened one recorded it, (as the B-side of ‘Sweet Dreams’, completists). It’s on the deluxe edition of the ‘Almost Blue’ CD, and on a tremendous-looking 1989 compilation on Blackmail called ‘From Hell to Obscurity’, which I’ve just ordered second-hand as it also includes songs by Loudon Wainwright III and T-Bone Burnett (both solo and with EC as The Coward Brothers). Unfortunately it has only one song by Philip Chevron, otherwise Elvis might have been… you can guess the rest.
5 May 2022
Jeff DREADNOUGHT
I’d been wondering what year I’m Getting Buried was set – the reference to “beatnik chums” suggested the crimes were committed in the 50s or 60s. Leon Payne wrote Psycho in 1968, so maybe it was around then.
5 May 2022
dr Desperate
The song was based on a conversation Payne had with his steel guitar player, concerning the Richard Speck student nurse murders in 1966. Speck’s original death sentence was commuted to eight consecutive terms of life imprisonment (of which he managed to complete only one).
5 May 2022
EXXO
To me the Elvis Costello recording just seems like a run-through of something they thought they’d come back to and do properly later, or dismissed doing again ‘cos it would be too much effort to time and mix the vocals properly against the pedal steel whine. I’m not saying he couldn’t have done it better if he’s wanted. But he didn’t.
Here’s a lovely version by an Ozzie outfit who kind of emerged to with that Nick Cave and the Triffids wave. I remember recording it off John Peel in 1985. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk7pxBGLqaM
5 May 2022
EXXO
Here’s a version of ‘Psycho’ for those inspired to take up the uke by NB’s fulsome endorsement for the instrument’s recent rise in popularity.
These are fab Exxo, ta. I’ve never heard this song before. Love the Beasts of Bourbon video and I reckon the West Wickhams have a bit of that Amanda Palmer vibe going on in their stage performance.
5 May 2022
Jeff Dreadnought
Thanks for putting those versions up. Superb stuff from the Beasts of Bourbon in particular
Chris The Siteowner
Much guessing in the spellings of the names of course, but otherwise a pretty straightforward transcription. Earlier live versions of the songs had some differences…
15 March 2022
Markw
I thought it was ‘Hello Mamma, Alabama’.
15 March 2022
dr Desperate
‘Yellow Mama’ is name of the electric chair at Kilby State Prison in Montgomery, Alabama, used by the state for executions from 1927 to 2002 (when the option of lethal injection was introduced). The name arose when the chair was brightened up with highway-line paint. It was built by Ed Mason, a British master carpenter who was serving 60 years at the prison for theft and grand larceny.
It remains in storage at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, in the event that a future death row inmate chooses to have their sentence carried out by electrocution rather than injection.
15 March 2022
John Anderson
Any ideas on what Tucker’s drain refers to?
15 March 2022
I, problem chimp
My only thought on ‘Tucker’s drain’ was that it was a nod to the serial killer disposing of the bodies of his victims via the waste system à la Dennis Nilsen…
Fantastic misheard lyric on this from one the kids who’s been singing ‘I’m getting Frazzles in the morning, so get me to the shop on time’! A maize-based snack as his last meal, perhaps?
15 March 2022
dr Desperate
MoaCAs (Mancs of a Certain Age) may still be trying to forget The Punktures, the spoof punk band featuring Sid Backaxle, Jack Crosspiece and the disarmingly talented Gervais Trumpet, who appeared on Phil Wood’s Piccadilly Radio shows in the 70s (tagline “The Wood, The Wireless, The World”).
One of their non-hits had a similar title to this song, and went:
“We’re gettin’ buried in the mornin’
Ding-dong, the bells are gonna chime
We are The Punktures
We throw up our lunches
So get us to the crem on time”.
15 March 2022
murderous giraffe
Phil Wood, now there’s a blast from the past. “How dare thee mither me, mush, while there’s groovin’ to be done with the Wood on the wireless…”
15 March 2022
woodnoggin
I slightly prefer Merriweather to Merryweather – more search results for the former (and the latter gets a squiggly red underlining when you write it in this forum).
15 March 2022
Pirx The Purist
Not being a Manc, but being of a certain age and preferring Piccadilly to City in the late 70s, I have memories of Phil Wood as well.
One of his little tricks was to append the suffix ‘a-rooney’ to words, such as in, say, “…there’s a nice little disc-a-rooney for you”.
I remember listening to a late night show on Piccadilly in about the early 80s where the two presenters (I don’t remember the main one, but I’m sure the late Tim Grundy was the other one) were taking calls from listeners. A woman in Wythenshawe phoned in, and the three of them were chatting away when one of the DJs asked her, “And what’s your name?” “Linda Rooney”, came the reply. The presenters both pissed themselves laughing, with one of them saying, “Does Phil Wood know about you?”
Wood also did a small-hours-of-the-morning show at one stage where, once a week, he would be joined by a self-styled ‘psychic’ called (I think) Anthony Shafer. Listening to them in the depths of the night going on about ghosts, hauntings and suchlike was not always a comforting experience.
15 March 2022
dr Desperate
I was a regular listener to the ‘Wood for Breakfast’ show on Piccadilly. PW borrowed that “a-rooney” suffix from the hipster lingo ‘Vout-o-Reenee’, invented and compiled into a dictionary in the 1930s by the jazzer Slim Gaillard.
I now listen to R4’s ‘Farming Today’ in the hope that the programme will have been produced in Bristol by Rebecca Rooney.
15 March 2022
Cody jarrett
Don’t want to cause a stir, but surely “causing somewhat of a scare” should be “causing somewhat of a stir” ?
15 March 2022
AMOCO CADIZ
Don’t want to cause a stir or a scare but I had thought it was ‘somewhat of a stare’…as in the electric shock effect
15 March 2022
third rate les
I love the punchy tune of this one, I love the delightfully weird opening line (I heard it as Joe Gevanny, but have no grounds to argue) and there are a couple of good laughs, but it’s a weirdly grim topic to make a joke out of and I haven’t really bonded with this one.
But I also like the way some songs clearly spring from a single amusing line and I suppose well done for crafting a story out of that belter.
15 March 2022
dr Desperate
I had ‘stir’ (because it is).
16 March 2022
EXXO
Indeed. By the way the vivid detail of “mowed his lawn” (shaving his head and maybe elsewhere before attaching the cap with the electrodes) is well … pretty flipping vivid.
16 March 2022
murderous giraffe
I had “stir” but wasn’t going to rock the boat.
16 March 2022
Chris The Siteowner
As ever, I try not to impose my own thoughts on the transcriptions; from those submitted, all three stir/stare/scare suggestions were made, and I went with the most popular. So rather than have a load of one-word comments here, let’s have a Twitter poll. Sorry if you’re not on Twitter, but it’s easy for me to do, and will give us a reasonable sample of people’s thoughts. Vote here.
16 March 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
I went for “stir” in my transcript, although it sounds more like “stare” I was thinking that NB was drawling the word out like he does with some others in the song. I’m not on Twitter so can someone vote by proxy for me?
16 March 2022
EXXO
I will reluctantly enter the twittersphere in the manner of Norfolk smashing into the Lancastrian right at Towton, but I am very preoccupied with Cheltenham, so will only do so if informed that the Stir-ists are not carrying the day. Otherwise I will be as stand-offish as Stanley at Bosworth. Hurrah for teh the stir-ists though!
16 March 2022
EXXO
Lancastrian left I suppose, but history then tends to be imagined from the victor’s point of view.
16 March 2022
dr Desperate
Far be it from me to pontificate on the Birkenhead accent, but according to the Pronunciation Studio website, ‘stir’ and ‘stare’ are homophones in Mersyside English, both being pronounced [stœː].
16 March 2022
transit full of keith
There’s a small group of songs I like less on this album and out of the songs I like less, this is the one I like most.
16 March 2022
EXXO
Certainly homophones, although there are three ways of pronouncing both in a Merseyside accent – all rhyming with “chair.” But it’s still definitely “stir.” in this song Nigel pronounces “chair” as as a conventional /ʧeə/ (with a /r/ cos followed by the vowel of “on,” so same as RP but with a Merseyside accent, and so pronounces “stir” to rhyme.
16 March 2022
BATWALKER
Didn’t know about Yellow Mama being the nickname of the chair, but “Yellowhammer Alabama” is part of a chant by fans of Alabama University (American) football team. I have a Facebook friend from Alabama, and she regularly posts the whole chant when cheering on her team.
16 March 2022
EXXO
“The whole chant?” we cry. You can’t tease us like that so I looked it up. But this version is so shit it can’t possibly be quite right.
“Hey [insert rival college name ]! Hey [name again]!
We Just Beat the Hell Outta You!
Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer!
Give ‘em Hell, Alabama!”
Interestingly, and probably with a political connection, the yellowhammer (not at all the same as the European yellowhammer by the way) became the state bird of Alabama in the same year (1927) as Yellow Mama’s first use.
16 March 2022
dr Desperate
The Yellowhammer Woodpecker (Colaptes auratus) or Northern Flicker has been the official state bird of Alabama since 1927. This was the same year that Yellow Mama was built, so the two facts may be linked.
16 March 2022
dr Desperate
Sorry for cross-posting there, @Exxo, I thought you’d be in William Hill’s waiting for them to weigh in for the 4:50. More military than political, I think, as Civil War regiments from Alabama were nicknamed Yellowhammers after their grey and yellow uniforms.
16 March 2022
EXXO
Nothing more political than naming things in the 20th century after confederate military people. Would be interesting whether it coincided with a swing from fa-far ultra right governorship to something considerably less liberal.
[it’s easy to racing, betting & various boards or forums at the same time, but twitter is way too four-dimensional]
16 March 2022
paul f
Yellowhammer is also the Alabama state nickname.
16 March 2022
BATWALKER
@Exxo I couldn’t actually remember the whole thing, and also couldn’t be arsed to scroll through my Facebook wall looking for it, but it is pretty nonsensical. Your version looks right to me.
16 March 2022
BATWALKER
OK, I’ve just spent far too long scrolling my friend’s Facebook profile, and her version just goes “Rammer jammer yellowhammer! Roll tide!”. No idea, sorry.
16 March 2022
EXXO
Just remembered once knew someone who was known as The Alabama Slammer (which was a nickname) but that’s an altogether different story.
16 March 2022
BATWALKER
Talking of American football, I Googled the name Corey Fuller and the first result that came up was the name of a player from Florida. Coincidence?
16 March 2022
dr Desperate
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama (college football team) the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues.
Go Bama! Roll Tide!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YyJOqpx1M8
16 March 2022
Beltane beard
Definitely “stir” and I love the idea that someone guilty of (multiple) murder could be described as “causing somewhat of a stir”. Classic piece of HMHB understatement.
16 March 2022
EXXO
Ditto the effect of 2,000 volts of electricity, and the fact that it often didn’t kill for up to 20 minutes, and the fact that it caused decades of controversy.
Not just two lines with double meaning, but two that tell different stages of the same story in parallel detail. Utterly exceptional writing.
16 March 2022
Dull Head Del
I sometimes hear ‘parcelled up inside a case’ rather than ‘cage’
Cage will be right (it rhymes with gauge) but just thought parceled up inside a case brings to mind body parts being ‘relocated’.
16 March 2022
POP-TART MARK
Agreed that ‘cage’ is there for the rhyme, though it’s a nice twisted detail. But whether he sent a case or a cage to West Berlin in his parcel, they were relocated. If he’d sent them in trunk a to West Virginia they’d still have been relocated.
Anyway how big does the case have to be to contain at least three bodies?
16 March 2022
JIM IN THE ANTIPODES
Pop Tart Mark – given your sobriquet, I would have thought the answer was just a phone call to that Belgian clean-up team away?
17 March 2022
Dull Head Del
You’d be surprised how much you can get into a case : )
I do wonder about Nigel with his murder and necrophile references in songs.
Excavating Rita and Tommy Walsh’s Eco House.
17 March 2022
dr Desperate
In 2009 Welsh blogger Steven Francis wrote about ‘Executions in Wales’, beginning his piece about Thomas Allen (executed 10th April 1889):
“This execution caused somewhat of a stir in Swansea, due in part to the nature of the crime and partly due to the fact that the condemned man was a Zulu from South Africa.”
17 March 2022
Chris The Siteowner
Over 120 votes on the Twitter poll, and ‘stir’ has got over 50% of them, so our own VAR has spoken.
17 March 2022
Spiltdown MAN
The more I hear it the more I’m getting ‘stare’
17 March 2022
EXXO
As mentioned above, “stare” is a homophone with “stir” for most Merseyside speakers/singers, although there are inconsistencies, because really there are three different Merseyside accents and a lot of folks switch between them. So we have to go by meaning, especially the double meaning of those two lines – two types of mowing his lawn, two types of switch getting flicked, two types of stir: the stir when he butchered people and the stir when he gets frazzled.
If you want to know three types of Merseyside pron for ‘stir,’ ‘stare,’ ‘scare’ and ‘chair’, they are approximately:
(i) Cilla Black or the Beatles with an near-brummy /œː/ So “her hair” can be /hœː hœː/
(ii) modern strong scouse something between the /ɪə/ of “here” in RP and the /eə/ of “there” in RP
Both (i) (ii) are outside the range of sounds produced by RP speakers.
(iii) standard northern English /eə/ – the RP way of pronouncing “stare,” “scare,” “air,” “chair” “fair” etc but applied to “her” “stir” (and sometimes even “fur” as well, though most Merseysiders would probably revert to pronunciation (i) for “fur”). and pronounced with a Merseyside accent on the word but without giving any special Merseyside variation to the /eə/ vowel sound itself. This is what NB does in this song.
17 March 2022
SpiltdoWn MAN
My reasoning is that every Scouser I know says stir to rhyme with ‘Stair’. This lyric seems to be delivered more to rhyme with ‘stayer’ (subtle difference) which I wouldn’t associate with a Scouse ‘stir’.
It would be nice to ask the band for confirmation on these sorts of ambiguity, but I imagine they’d be utterly bemused by the over-earnest concern of a load of Awkward Seans/Men Of Constant Sorrows even caring about this level of minutiae of their art. They might even write a song about it.
‘Earnest Exxo and His Phonetic Alphabet’ would make a great opener on the next LP 😉
17 March 2022
Hedgecutter
Looks like the Stir-ists aren’t irked now.
17 March 2022
EXXO
@Spiltdown Man – Well funnily enough, when were struggling on this project in 2008/2009 for some of the lyrics to ‘Bubblewrap,’ Mr. B (who has known me for about 26 years at gigs) noticed it, leant down from the stage in Sheffield and whisperered it in my ear, starting off a whole series of clarifications over cuppas every now and then. Very caring about the fans as it happens, though not that arsed about being misunderstood.
17 March 2022
Chemtrail brian
Some fantastically dark humour here. In particular the “in a while necrophile” line – it’s like he’s already got someone lined up!
18 March 2022
gipton teenager
I’m hearing “get me THROUGH the chair on time” on the 1st, 3rd and 4th time it’s sung. It’s probably just my old ears though.
21 March 2022
Darwin
It all seems very clear now. Thanks to the decipherers!
21 March 2022
Poloneckjean
Just been listening with some nice new headphones, heard for the first time the (I think) ‘you alright ?’ ‘yeah’ at 2.28.
Or should I write them down for the nurse?
23 March 2022
Mick Macve
Ulrich Tucher was a German executioner in the 16th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_executioners
30 March 2022
Chesneywold
This song reminds me of nick cave’s fantastic tale of a young serial killer, the curse of millhaven, with ‘find them all in tucker’s drain’ having the same flippant feel as Loretta’s ‘Well, they’re underneath the house where I do quite a bit of stowing’. She of course ends up medicated in an asylum. In fact the whole album has something of a murder balladsiness to it
31 March 2022
dr desperate
‘Murderpedia’, the go-to site for anybody with an interest in mass slaughter, has details of seven male murderers with the surname Tucker, and one female. There’s also a book called ‘The Serial Killer Diaries’ by a Brian Lee Tucker. I really have no inclination to discover more about any of them.
31 March 2022
Chris The Siteowner
Notes from Paddy Shennan’s interview with NB10:
A very straightforward song. It’s actually very much a sister song to Psycho by Jack Kittel – he didn’t write it (Leon Payne did) but that’s the best version of it. Hearing Jack Kittel doing it definitely influenced I’m Getting Buried.
Regarding the names (Joel Devaney, Corey Fuller, Sarah Merryweather, Saul O’Hanlon) – Merryweather I’m having it as a “y” not an “i” – and they are all made-up names which just fit the song (and, in this case, they’re slightly American). It just happens (the choice of names) when you’re constructing the song, so it easily flows when you’re singing them.
“Tucker’s drain”? – Tucker’s one of the neighbours, probably a farmer up the road and no one would notice if you bunged bodies in his drain. The lines “Mowed his lawn and then a switch got flicked/Causing something of a stir” – I had been thinking of ending that bit “Sending him to Delaware” but this didn’t fit because the word “sending” doesn’t stretch to the melody very well whereas the word “causing” does. “Sending him to Delaware” conjures up a more interesting vision perhaps, as it would have been a euphemism for “going ballistic”.
In Psycho the greatest line is near the end where he sings “…and then my mind just walked away…”
4 May 2022
dr Desperate
At this point I’d normally say, “Ah yes, ‘Psycho’: written by Leon Payne, first recorded by Eddie Noake, but Elvis Costello’s version is by far the best”. However, I must admit I’ve only just discovered that the Birkenhead-christened one recorded it, (as the B-side of ‘Sweet Dreams’, completists).
It’s on the deluxe edition of the ‘Almost Blue’ CD, and on a tremendous-looking 1989 compilation on Blackmail called ‘From Hell to Obscurity’, which I’ve just ordered second-hand as it also includes songs by Loudon Wainwright III and T-Bone Burnett (both solo and with EC as The Coward Brothers). Unfortunately it has only one song by Philip Chevron, otherwise Elvis might have been… you can guess the rest.
5 May 2022
Jeff DREADNOUGHT
I’d been wondering what year I’m Getting Buried was set – the reference to “beatnik chums” suggested the crimes were committed in the 50s or 60s. Leon Payne wrote Psycho in 1968, so maybe it was around then.
5 May 2022
dr Desperate
The song was based on a conversation Payne had with his steel guitar player, concerning the Richard Speck student nurse murders in 1966. Speck’s original death sentence was commuted to eight consecutive terms of life imprisonment (of which he managed to complete only one).
5 May 2022
EXXO
To me the Elvis Costello recording just seems like a run-through of something they thought they’d come back to and do properly later, or dismissed doing again ‘cos it would be too much effort to time and mix the vocals properly against the pedal steel whine. I’m not saying he couldn’t have done it better if he’s wanted. But he didn’t.
Here’s a lovely version by an Ozzie outfit who kind of emerged to with that Nick Cave and the Triffids wave. I remember recording it off John Peel in 1985.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk7pxBGLqaM
5 May 2022
EXXO
Here’s a version of ‘Psycho’ for those inspired to take up the uke by NB’s fulsome endorsement for the instrument’s recent rise in popularity.
Amanda Palmer look like she knows she’s next on Neil Gaiman’s list
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r56Mqzp6d58
5 May 2022
dr Desperate
Yeah, it’s not one of Declan’s finest. The Gaiman’s good, but here’s the best version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk7pxBGLqaM
5 May 2022
dr Desperate
Oops, double-posted there.
5 May 2022
Phyllis Triggs
These are fab Exxo, ta. I’ve never heard this song before. Love the Beasts of Bourbon video and I reckon the West Wickhams have a bit of that Amanda Palmer vibe going on in their stage performance.
5 May 2022
Jeff Dreadnought
Thanks for putting those versions up. Superb stuff from the Beasts of Bourbon in particular
5 May 2022