References to religion in Fall songs please. Will update list as we go along. If possible, supply quotes as well as song titles...

• Angels
- Yes, O Yes ("Angelic Devil sun")
- Pine Leaves ("Purcell appears in the form of an angel")

• Archbishops – Winter ("He had a parka on and a black cardboard Archbishop's hat")

• Armageddon – Lay Of The Land ("Armageddon. This beautiful tree. Boo hoo. Give up living")

• Baptists – My New House (“I bought it off the baptists. I get their bills”)

• Bible
- Lay Of The Land ("The good Book of John surrounds the son")
- (We Are) Mod Mock Goth ("Little (?) in the Bible")

• Chapel – Gross Chapel-British Grenadiers ("The dark gross chapel")

• Christianity – Hey! Luciani ("And had no time for your Christianity")

• Church
- Hard Life In Country ("Grab the churches while you can...")
- Hey! Luciani ("Meet the Church, Bank, S.A.")
- Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot ("Red church on a hill")
- Jerusalem ("dark satanic mills" = churches)
- Kurious Oranj ("They built church in one day, man, Amish")

• Clergy – Before the Moon Falls ("the junior clergy demand more pay")

• Devil – Yes, O Yes ("Angelic Devil sun")

• Easter – Tempo House ("Snow on Easter Sunday")

• God
- Garden ("The first god had in his garden..."
- God-Box ("Couldn't handle, had to be. I turned on US TV")
- Guide Me Soft ("God, guide me soft")
- Iceland ("last of the god-men")
- Jerusalem ("holy lamb of God")
- Yes, O Yes ("the God you reject"

• Great God Pan – Leave The Capitol ("I laughed at the great God Pan")

• Heaven – Crap Rap 2 ("We were spitting, we were snapping "Cop Out, Cop Out!" as if from heaven")

• Hell
- Iceland ("hair blonde as hell")
- Littlest Rebel ("she consigns them all to hell")
- New Face In Hell

• Holy ghost – Eat Y'self Fitter ("bought a computer, set it up in the home. Elusive big one. On the screen. Saw the Holy Ghost, I swear")

• Holy terror – Protein Protection ("No Hubbard or husbandry or freedom or the holy terror")

• Holy war – Ketamine Sun ("Life is like a holy war")

• Jehovah – Midnight In Aspen ("Ice mountain of Jehovah")

• Jesus Christ
- Hey Luciani ("Jesus has gone away")
- Slags, Slates, Etc. ("Don't start improvising, for Christ's sake")
- Tempo House ("Jesus Christ in reverse")
- (We Wish You A) Protein Christmas ("I see Christ's blood on the street... Why did I come back? I came back to Earth")
- Xmas With Simon ("Do not fret, rest your head, Jesus had no fear... Born in a barn. Surrounded by animals. No set amount to the number of diseases. Died at the age of 33. Which is as good a time as any")

• Jewish people
- Barmy ("pension for the Jews")
- Garden ("He's here! I saw him! I swear! A Jew on a motobike!")
- Kurious Oranj ("They made the Jews go to school")
- Second Dark Age ("a mediocre anti-Jew")
- Various Times ("An old Jew's face dripping red")

• the Lord
- Guide Me Soft ("Lord, guide me soft")
- Janet, Johnny + James ("Dearest Lord, hear me now")

• Lucifer – Lucifer Over Lancashire ("This demon is hip. The demon's grip. He took over everywhere")

• Mass
- Middle Mass [could be a different meaning of 'mass']
- New Puritan ("Ungodly mass, kick ass!)

• Methodists – Hard Life In Country (“Yellow cabins by methodist doors”)

• Missionaries – Kurious Oranj ("They sent missionary girls to Arab states")

• Monks
- Black Monk Theme parts 1 & 2 [more a reference to the band than to actual monks]
- Hotel Bloedel ("1,000 dead Thai monks in SS uniforms")

• Odinism – Immortality ("The Viking gods had it, Lord Odin had it")

• Pope
- Hey! Luciani
- Papal Visit ("Hosannah. Papal did visit")

• Priest
- Hip Priest ("He's gonna make an appearance...")
- Slags, Slates, Etc ("big priest, give us a break")

• Rector – Spectre Vs. Rector ("The rector lived in Hampshire...")

• Satan – Mike's Love Xexagon ("Satanic meditations")

• Transubstantiation (turning water into wine) – And Therein ("He turned the water ino wine, and then insisted that we eat swine"

• Vicars – Just Waiting ("Congregation is waitin' for the vicar, and the vicar is waitin' for the groom")

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Sleeve references:–

• Cerebral Caustic back cover shows Mark in Angel's wings
• How I Wrote 'Elastic Man' depicts a synagogue
• Perverted by Language has a preacher image on it and the slogan "religion costs much but irreligion costs more"



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Usual rules apply. Tracks must be released. All are original versions unless otherwise stated.

In Immortality, there is a reference to odinism:

The Viking gods had it, Lord Odin had it

Just Waiting has vicars in it:

Congregation is waitin' for the vicar
and the vicar is waitin' for the groom


Oh and does Lucifer over Lancashire count?

and yes, I am listening to Code:Selfish at the moment as it happens.

I know it's not in a song but there is a slogan on a sleeve - Perverted By Language I think, that says "religion costs much but irreligion costs more"

Before the Moon Falls - the junior clergy demand more pay

doesn't the holy ghost crop up in eat yerself fitter?

Perverted By Language seems to be the most religion-preoccupied of the albums. Any ideas why?

Weirdly enough, in the John Updike novel Roger's Version, a character thinks he sees God on a computer screen. Has J.U. been listening to Eat Y'self Fitter?

even the cover, crazed preacher...
no idea why.

most of these seem to refer somewhat to catholicism, could this mean that mes loves catholics. Maybe now I have a better chance of joining the fall.

Christ on a bike!!!!

Slates actually. Explanation( :blink: ) of Middlemass.

Hard Life in the Country: Grab the churches while you can....

"have mercy on me!" (blindness)

exactly what is a middle mass?

not too big, not too small....
like a Quatermass but different.

is this referring to weight?

oh n you got the "last of the god-men" in iceland as well as "hair blonde as hell" (one of my fave fall lines (for the record))

something far less tangible

then is it about sex?

Getting colder.


The evil is not in extremes
It's in the aftermath
The middle mass
After the fact
Vulturous in the aftermath

of course, I have absolutely no idea, but my instinct was always that evil can be banal & ordinary. Ordinary people do terrible things for no good reason.

He learned a word today
The word's misanthropy


Come into the back room Brian
And meet
The middle mass
The middle mass
Vulturous in the aftermath
Middle mass


I reckon Brian is not being invited for a cup of tea & a scone.

The pre-amble to Lucifer of Lancashire is something taped from a religious radio show.

Also, what about Jerusalem and also New Puritan? Is a puritan specifically religious?

Middlemass surely refers to everyone who isn't at the extremes - all the average people.

Hey Luciani, after all he was the first john paul 1.

and the second John Paul 1???

hey luciani also mentions christianity. mes does say you were the first john paul 1.

Well I appreciate the compliment, but I can assure you & all the other visitors here that I have at no time been head of the Holy See, nor was I bumped off with dodgy coffee as a result of me trying to sort out the corrupt practices of the Vatican financiers.
there are a few hindrances to this, firstly I'm not Catholic (or anything), I;m not celibate & really can't speak Latin.
Still, I might look good in purple.


the point was, there only was ever one JP1, the next was JP2.

"Ungodly mass, kick ass!"

My single favourite Fall line- knocks an entire genre (goth) into a cocked hat!

yes i know, one day i will meet the pope, which will then be pope john paul the 3rd, but i know there is 2, right now, as mes quotes him as john paul 1 though in hey luciani.

And Therein:

He turned the water into wine
And he insisted that we eat swine

And that's the sum of it
Why don't you come to grips?
Just take or leave it.

Lay Of The Land

Armageddon.. this beautiful tree...

The good Book of John
Surrounds the son
Sound of ordinary on the waves

The Devil - 2 x 4

Ol' Nick doesn't go from digs to digs no more
Hit him on the head with a 2 by 4
Nowadays he has a Georgian glazed porch

ketamine sun

life is like a holy war

Lucifer over Lanchanshire that deals with satan of course, unless i am wrong.

All references to the Devil, Lucifer or Satan should be there, as these are inventions of the Christian faith.

Actually the concept of the Devil goes back to Zoroastrianism, which posited two gods-- one wholly good, one wholly evil. The meeting up of Zoroastrian thought with Hebrew thought introduced the idea of the Devil into Judaism.

The jews referred to this deity as "Satan" which I believe means "obstacle" or "opponent".

Sorry, comparative religion is a hobby o' mine.

Am I right in saying though, GB, that Satan doesn't have the same significance in Judaism, particularly as the Christian concept of hell and damnation is theologically very different from Judaism? The Devil we know and love today was partly a product of the Christian church's demonisation of the cloven-hooved gods worshipped in the Old Religion - a Northern European take on Pan.

You are dead right.

wasn't there an actor called Frank Middlemas?

I just posted this on another thread. Quite a lot of references to Judaism,

Last line of "Hard Life in The Country" ("the locals have come for their Jew" depending on how you read it)

There's that, there's the "old Jew's face dripping red" in "Various Times", the "mediocre anti-Jew" in 2nd dark age, the snatch of Yiddish ("all you really need is a good schvartzer") in "It's a Curse", the synagogue the group lurks outside on the sleeve of "Elastic Man", "pension for the Jews" in "Barmy", "Jew on a motorbike" in "Garden"

doesnt hotel bloedel have a story behind it, like germans killed muslims or something like that?

"religion costs much but irreligion costs more"


Wasn't that on "Slates" sleeve notes under "Fit and Working again"

Guide Me Soft: "Lord guide me soft"; "God guide me soft"; "Pray guide me soft"

Yes O Yes: "The god you reject makes ours the best"; "Angelic devil sun"

Janet, Johnny + James: "Dearest Lord, hear me now"

From the same song - "1000 dead Thai monks in SS uniforms"

The Fall have also covered a couple of Monks songs.

This is getting a bit of a habit.