Half Man Half Biscuit Half Hearted

Half Man Half Biscuit Half Hearted

Ah yes. Why spend time typing up the lyrics to Half Man Half Biscuit songs? Because they are gems like no other. We celebrate British bands and artists for seminal musical works (think Bowie or Elvis Costello) and, unless you happen to know the late John Peel's inside leg measurement or you were enlightened as a student, the majesty, wit and sheer intelligence of the HMHB opus is ignored. Shame, shame, shame.


Over the years a number of web sites have recorded some lyrics and a multitude of research notes for the songs [see the excellent www.hmhb.co.uk]. The latter are invaluable to understanding the wide ranging and often obscure historical references. The former are a mixed bag, with only a few songs listed.


So what started out as a full hearted attempt by me to record the lyrics so my sister could understand the songs has developed into a blog post and a project to educate the half-hearted masses and to provide a definitive song list with lyrics.

They'll be other crap on here too such as my own songs "Progressive Dads", "People called Wilson", "Blog-proof iPod", "Armchair Expert" and "Holistically Challenged"- I need to finish writing them first :)

"...Baby I'm from the Wirral Peninsula.
A merciless despot with nothing to lose"

Monkey Man, June 2007

Please note that all lyrics are mostly my interpretation and are presented here to assist you in understanding the songs. They are the copyright of others.

You should also pay a visit to www.chrisrand.com/hmhb/ for HMHB lyrics - a superb site with a superb range of listings

Saturday 30 June 2007

Another stint over!

Yeee-haaaaa

Another stint over and that marks another album's worth of lyrics listed - in this case McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt.

Many, many thanks to KPXX for sending me the lyrics. It was good timing as I was struggling with some of the songs.

:)

Monkey Man

Everything's A.O.R. [McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt]

Bubble perm
Ever since your bubble perm
I've gone ex-directory
just in case you need me

Swivelchair
In your leather swivelchair
You can turn your back on me
Leave me in the out-tray

She's the main man in
the office in the city
And she treats me like I'm just another lackey
But I can put a tennis racket up against my face
And pretend that I'm Kendo Nagasaki

Executive
think you're all executive
But I could still upset you with
Milligan and Nesbit

Acumen
Loads of business acumen
But can you remember when
You would die for Flintlock

Mary oh Mary
Quite ordinary
Tell me how does your CD collection grow
With Sade and Whitney
Van Dross and TPau
Everything's AOR

She's the main man in the office in the city
And she treats me like I'm just another lackey
But I can put a tennis racket up against my face
And pretend that I'm Kendo Nagasaki

She's the main man in the office in the city
I remember her when she was reading Jackie
And I can put a tennis racket up against my face
And pretend that I'm Kendo Nagasaki


Notes taken from www.hmhb.co.uk

Kendo Nagasaki Pseudo-Japanese wrestler. Always wears a mask, probably to remain anonymous and thus never have to retire.
Millican & Nesbit 1970's two hit wonders. The Singing Miners. I kid you not. Won Opportunity Knocks for about nineteen decades running, probably because they were bribing Hughie Green. Sung sentimental songs about dead miners, pit disasters etc. and were thoroughly appalling.
Flintlock Another awful seventies teenage lust band, one hit, "Dawn" in 1976. A sort of toned-down Bay City Rollers. Really. The drummer out of Flintlock became one of the original Tomorrow People which shows you just how good they really are.
Sade, Whitney (Houston), (Luther) Vandross, T'Pau All too AOR (Adult-orientated rock for the uninitiated)
Jackie Mag for teeny girlies. I think it's a D C Thompson job. No mention of zits, tampax or boys in it.

Girlfriend's Finished With Him [McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt]

The difference between us and all the other bands
Is that we're different
You can tell by the way we do our interviews
That we are different

Underneath the underlying tones and dizzy melodies
Next to the intelligent guitars
You'll find frailty, beauty,
sex as art and something
or other about dolphins

Parlourmaids, dandelions things ' bout my mind
And a dead girl's soul that lives inside me
And we don't really know what it's meant to be
But it's an absolute depth of intensity
But at the end of the night
when the rider has been ridden
We claim our fee and we get back in the van again

Inspired by no one other groups bore us
How can you say we sound like Frasier Chorus
Cos at the end of the night you claim your poke
You get back in to the Vim Van Hanegan

A Rock-a-Billy Jim from the pub quiz team
Told me something more interesting than your songs ever could

Telly Savalas is set to spearhead
An 'Oi' revival down Whitechapel Way
Telly Savalas is set to spearhead
An ‘Oi' revival down Whitechapel Way

Alt Television is set to spearhead
An ‘Oi' revival down Whitechapel Way

Who loves yer Costermonger?


Notes taken from www.hmhb.co.uk

The Frazier Chorus British pop band, '89-'91-ish. "Dream Kitchen" was probably their 'best' known song
Wim Van Hanegem Dutch footballer
Telly Savalas Baldy actor, Kojak catchphrase "Who love's ya, baby" Should be remembered for playing the platoon sergeant in almost every sixties war film, not Kojak [if you are a sad film buff - PJF]. Oh and he also did a terrible rendition of "If (a picture paints a thousand words)".
Oi! revival Oi! was 80's skinhead music with unsavoury reputation for racism
costermongers Can be found in Whitechapel. Apparently relates to a bald Liverpool market trader (i.e. a costermonger). I believe he was quite well-known in his time, but may have retired/moved/died by now.

Our Tune [McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt]

Said you'd find me helpless on the A47
Shouting at the passers-by that Alan Brazil
Seems to be the singer in The Goombay Dance Band
And now you want to put me in the ambulance
But I don't want to go in the ambulance

I asked if you would like to go along to
see The Rocky Horror Picture Show
You said you'd love to so I murdered your family
Cause I hate The Rocky Horror Picture Show
And besides I'm going browsing round hardware shops

You'll find me dying casually on the 14th fairway
Trying in vain to wave a fore ball through
I'll understand if you shouldwalk straight past me
Ideally though I hope you call an ambulance

Unless of course you're
Sampling Alessi at St. Neots
Or chasing Bunty James round Hilton Park
Oh Oh Lori at St. Neots
Is this me or is this Dead Shot Keen?

Hello this is Joanie
This plectrum once belonged to you know who
Grocer Jack Grocer Jack
Get off your back go into town

Notes taken from www.hmhb.co.uk

Our Tune was a stomach churning spot on Radio 1, Simon Bates' programme. Now not there. Boo hoo. "and the baby died. So let's play The Power Of Love..."
A47 Road that runs from Leicester to Great Yarmouth, passing by/through such East Anglian delights as Wisbech, Kings Lynn, Swaffham and Norwich. As well as bloody Peterborough United.
Alan Brazil Ex Ipswich, Spurs & Man. Utd. striker. Appears in slightly more portly guise these days on Sky Sports.
Rocky Horror Picture Show Musical film/play about transvestite aliens by Richard O'Brien, who went on to do C4 Crystal maze.
Goombay Dance Band Had a no1 disco hit with "Seven Tears". Utter crap.
"Sampling Alessi in St. Neots" Alessi were a US pop duo (twins). St. Neots is a town in Cambridgeshire, where Greene King apparently have a monopoly on the pubs. Scary.
Bunty James One of the presenters of "How!" Not as useless as Fred Dinenage, not as old as Jack Hargreaves (RIP!), and not as dull as the guy who was professor of mechanical engineering at Southampton University whose name I can't remember (Jon Miller, actually). I can't forgive them for bringing HOW back.
Hilton Park M6 Service station or perhaps Leigh Rugby League ground.
"Oh Oh Lori in St. Neots" Oh Lori was a/the Alessi hit.
Dead-Shot Keen Striker from a footy comic, owner of quality footwear.
"Hello, This is Joanie" From a song by Paul Evans in 1978, title the same with "(The Telephone Answering Machine Song)" at the end. It must be American if they need to have it explained that it is an answering machine.
Grocer Jack From a 60s song called "Excerpt from a Teenage Opera" by Keith West.

A Lilac Harry Quinn [McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt]

In this sumptuous hacienda
Where I weigh things up
As they're on the way down
From beneath your Reverend Jim Jones bedspread
I watch the angels look down onto your sweet brow

If God had meant for us to work
Then I'm sure he would've given us jobs
Six weeks to live but at least
I'm not in Journey
Sign on you crazy diamond

It didn't take much time convincing her
"Baby I'm from the Wirral Peninsula
A merciless despot with nothing to lose
In my Dick Quax running shoes"

Underneath the shade of the average tree where
They handed out mediocrity
I saw you with Alchemy under your arm
Standing in the middle of a long queue

I saw the Goodyear Airship sail over your head
I saw the joke I told you fly over your head

Why don't they have any Badminton Courts in the jungle?
Because there isn't the demand
Oh let me take you by the hand

Sturmey-Archer Capagnolo
Sturmey-Archer Capagnolo
on my mind


Notes taken from www.hmhb.co.uk Harry Quinn A type of bike. HQ had a cycle shop in Liverpool (Harry Quinn Cycles, strangely enough). Reverend Jim Jones was leader of the religious cult whose members (977 of them) committed mass suicide in Guyana in about 1979. They all died at Jonestown. Journey Why don't these MOR bands ever get run over by a big lorry? "Sign on you Crazy Diamond" Pink Floyd reference. Wirral Peninsula The posh bit next to Liverpool, separated by the Mersey. Well, as posh as it gets around there. HMHB come from there. Alchemy Dire Straits double live album. Goodyear airship duuuh, an... airship... with.... Goodyear written on it. Presumably if people see an airship in the sky they will buy more tyres. Or something like that. The average tree A line from Waltzing Matilda goes "Underneath the shade of the coolibah tree" Maybe something more specific. Dick Quax Mid 70's New Zealand middle distance runner. 5000m silver medal at 1976 Olympics, set world records at distances from 1500m to the marathon. Sturmey-Archer el-cheapo British three-speed [also 5] hub bike gears as found on sit-up-and-beg Raleighs and the like. Also the likes of the Chopper and Grifter. They are neat bits of engineering, but all of the cogs in the hub make them a bit inefficient. They are safer than external (derailleur) gears as you can't wrap the hub around your spokes. Campagnolo Italian bicycle components, built like a Ferrari gearbox, and dead expensive. Kids with Campagnolos were richer than kids with Sturmey Archers. The rear axle of my spare wheel is a 7-speed Campagnolo Corsa Record. My only claim to having a top of the range component on my bike (and even then, only when I'm using my spare wheel). I try to avoid Shimano, but it isn't easy.

Hedley Verityesque [McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt]

Found a nice little cove where nobody else goes
Took a trip 'round the caves at Drac and said
"It's good to explore the more cultural aspects"

Hedley Verityesque
she passed into folklore
Trod on lines in the pavement and said
"There's no room for enigmas in built up areas"

Sweats who think they're hard
My head no end do in

Brakes fail in the rain
Down Memory Lane
Come relive my paper round with me

But I don't see any more
pent up Alsatians
They used to wait by the door and say
"It's nice to know you're here
It's nice to know you're here"

But I don't want anymore
stark German film noirs
And I could well do without
The hand-clapping sequence at the end of Blockbusters

You were in my hall
Now you're on my wall
Peter Sarstedt Mr Irony
Get in the hole
In some warm lagoon
I'll be with Aysha soon
Brakes fail in the rain

Down Memory Lane
Come relive my paper round with me
But I don't see any more
big mad Alsatians
They used to wait by the door and sing
"It's nice to know you're here
It's nice to know you're here"

And I don't need any more stark German film noirs
And I could well do without
The hand-clapping sequence at the end of Blockbusters
Where all of the audience try to convince themselves that what
they are doing is silly but acceptable
and the only thing I can say is
"Oh Kip Keino"

Notes taken from www.hmhb.co.uk

Hedley Verity Yorkshire left-arm spinner, died in the Second World War. Famed for the least expensive ten wicket analysis in first-class cricket against Notts in 1932: 19.4-16-10-10, ending the innings with 7 wickets in 15 balls. So now you know. He also took 144 wickets for England at around 24 apiece.
Caves of Drac Caves on the east coast of Majorca, away from the mass of pissed teenagers on heat.
"Sweats who think they're hard, my head no end do in" Sweats being cockney rhyming slang for Scots persons (sweats = sweaty socks = jocks). Many of who think a good night out consists of drinking 2 gallons of beer until 3am and then getting into a brawl. Except those from Edinburgh of course.
pent-up alsatians… often found on the sort of council estates that look like Beirut with Morris Marinas. You know the sort of places, all the men are wandering around with four-packs of cheap lager wearing their vests, the women are all no tights, cellulite and white stilettos, kids with crew cuts and a satellite dish on every house. AAAAAAArgh.
…who sing "It's nice to know you're here…"another footy song, sung by home fans to the away fans: "It's nice to know you're 'ere, it's nice to know you're 'ere, it's nice to know you're 'ere, F*CK OFF!", to the tune of "On Ilkley Moor bar t'at".
stark German film noirs Not enough of them on the telly, I think. [Well, maybe too many - PJF]
Blockbusters Schoolkids quiz show "Can we have a pee Bob?"
Peter Sarstedt 60's (maybe 70's) singer of the dreadful "Where do you go to my lovely" Only other hit was "Frozen Orange Juice", the follow-up. And pseudo-sophisticated drivel "I want to get inside your head". I can't bear to say any more apart from the fact that I think he's still alive. Robin Sarstedt ("My Resistance is Low") was his brother, as was Eden Kane.
Ayshea [Brough] An Anglo-Asian woman who had her own TV show on ITV at 4.20 one week-day in the 70's called "Lift Off With Ayshea". It was basically a pop programme.
Kip Keino A long distance runner from Kenya in the 70's. His son is a bit of a star runner these days.

Let's Not [McIntyre, Dreadmore and Davitt]

Me and my motor neurone
We just want to be on our own
Without Ian ‘Sludge' Lees

Let's not go out tonight
There's a great film on tonight
About a couple on a caravan holiday
With Peter Grummitas an acid casualty
It's set in Norfolk and it's called
"Godzilla eats Diss"

Don't know much about the Highway Code
And I've never read 'On The Road'
I don't read I just memorise names
So I can stagger through bohemian games

And I'm going nowhere really slow
The last man who went to mow- oh

Come on into my world
Where everything is done without Carla Lane
Come into my world where Vanburn Holder
joins a local grindcore outfit

All my dreams are nondescript
In nothing-much-next-to-sea
I saw Jesus but he didn't see me
If looks could kill I'd be alright
Oh let there be light

Come on into my world
Where everything is done without Carla Lane
Come on into my world
Where Vanburn Holder
joins a local grindcore outfit

Come on into my world (x4)

Where Vanburn Holder
joins
a local grindcore outfit
Where everything is done without Carla Lane
A world in which Grant Baynham
burns in front of his children

Come on into my world
Come on into my world

Where everything is done without Carta Lane

Come on into my world
Where Vanburn Holder joins
a local grindcore outfit


Notes taken from www.hmhb.co.uk

motor neurone as immortalized in Motor Neurone Disease which is what killed David Niven you know!
Ian "Sludge" Lees A terrible comic who appeared on "Tiswas" several times, with huge Afro hairdo.
Peter Grummit Well travelled 70's goalie, played for Sheff Wed and Grimsby Town amongst others.
Diss Norfolk town (on the A47, no less). Their footy team won the FA Vase in the not-too-distant past.
Highway Code a wish-fulfilment statement by the Department of Transport.
On The Road Hip novel about taking drugs and driving around the USA in the 50's, by Jack Kerouac.
"... man who went to mow" from nursery rhyme/song "One man and his dog".
Carla Lane Once upon a time a housewife from Liverpool started writing sit-coms. She wrote The Liver Birds, which was patchy but had its moments (see I Hate Nerys Hughes). She wrote Butterflies which was drippy but quite funny. Then she wrote sentimental and unfunny todge like Solo, Screaming, The Mistress and particularly the appallingly unfunny Bread and the frankly shite Luv.
Vanburn Holder Mid-70's West Indian medium-fast bowler, now an umpire.
Grant Baynham Bespectacled presenter of That's Life for 4 years.
Nothing-much-next-the-Sea Play on Wells-next-the-sea, Clay-next-the-sea, Norfolk seaside resorts. Probably highly descriptive of the places.