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First One Today Lyrics

(1)

He saunters into town
There stands the door
Within, a man
He shoots him down
It's his first one today
It's his first one today
Enters bar café,
Orders New c**e, latté (2)
Behold the man,
Shoots the waitress and pays (3)
It's his first girl today
It's his first girl today

If only he'd brought his film camera today
'Cause today is the day of a great centenary (4)

His social media psyche
well those were the days
His wine filled
Gone over
They were armed every day
They were armed every day

There lies the door
There lies the floor (5)
Notes

1. Thanks to the BEF for the initial transcription.

The mighty Reformation!, like me, is back in business now that there's a new album:
"This was originally entitled Bam, or Bam (Student Village) on setlists. BAM are a construction company currently building a Student Village on the corner of South Langworthy Road and Broadway close to Salford Media City - whether this is what Mr Smith is referring to is of course a matter of conjecture."

Like many of the new songs, this debuted in August 2014.

The lyrics seem to be partly inspired by "There Stands The Glass" by Webb Pierce:

There stands the glass that will ease all my pain
That will settle my brain, it's my first one today
There stands the glass that will hide all my tears
That will drown all my fear, brother I'm on my way

I'm wondering where you are tonight
I'm wondering if you are all right
I wonder if you think of me in my misery

There stands the glass, fill it up to the brim
Till my troubles grow dim, it's my first one today

I'm wondering where you are tonight
I'm wondering if you are all right
I wonder if you think of me in my misery
There stands the glass, fill it up to the brim
Till my troubles grow dim, it's my first one today

Wrayx8 speculates: "I'm now almost certain this is about a bloke going around taking photos of everything with his smartphone." I'm not sure if this is what it's all about but it's definitely one thing suggested by the song. I'm not sure why the protagonist regrets not bringing his "film camera," since he can just upload directly with the smartphone, can't he? The lyrics may in fact be inspired by the film Man b***s Dog. Check out comment 5 below, where Maldoror makes a convincing case to that effect.

^

2. A funny twist on "There Stands The Glass." Webb Pierce never says exactly what he has in that glass, but it's a safe bet it isn't a New c**e latté.

It sounds like "New c**e latté," without the comma, and this for some reason seems more like something MES would say. In lieu of a definite clue it somehow seems more conservative to separate them with a comma ("orders New c**e, latté"), so take my transcription with a grain of salt if you wish. And, as is so often the case, there is a non-trivial chance that he's saying something else entirely...

^

3. Ecce h*** is the t**le of Nietzsche's last book, and also a science fiction novel by Michael Moorcock. MES is known to admire Nietzsche's work. The t**le comes from a Bible verse which MES is probably also well aware of, and is a phrase said, of Jesus, to the crowd at the latter's trial and crucifixion.

Here we see that the protagonist isn't all bad.

^

4. On the album this sounds like it could be "satanery," as in, I guess, Satan.

^

5. The song ends dramatically and, I find myself thinking, somewhat comically on this last word. MES introduces the song on its BBC preview as "a bit of social commentary from the new Fall LP Sublingual Tablet." I think if we take it as entirely serious, it becomes ridiculous--a cursory, ominous reference to "social media," a sensational story line with a heavy-handed bit about someone wishing they had their camera, presumably so they can post the incident on Youtube. Fortunately for your Fall fan, MES isn't Bruce Springsteen, and the songs are not generally without humor. This seems no exception. It's not entirely clear to me what MES finds funny here, but like many really funny people one gets a kick out of him getting a kick out of it...
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