Songs: The Merchant Ivory Punks

notes / gigs / releases

You're very lucky nowadays if you get to see them
Outside of the confines of a fashion musuem
Antique speed and classic glue
All dressed up in a period costume

Here they come - the Merchant Ivory Punks
Merchant Ivory Punks
The Merchant Ivory Punks

You're making a statement but no-one's listening
Playing Pretty Vacant at your daughter's christening
Sid Vicious died to put your face on a postcard
Looking like a reject from a seventies theme park

Here they come - the Merchant Ivory Punks
Merchant Ivory Punks
The Merchant Ivory Punks

With your archeological attitude
The world's moved on so why don't you?
Punk's not dead, but you're not needed
Ever felt cheated?

Here they come - the Merchant Ivory Punks
Merchant Ivory Punks
The Merchant Ivory Punks

Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing

Like Give Us A Kiss For Christmas, which comes before it on Milk & Baubles, this is a super-short song that tries to pack in as much as possible in under a minute, although it wasn't always meant to be so. It was written as a song to annoy Obnoxious Punks with - the sort of people who think it's somehow REBELLIOUS to dress like a punk circa 1970, when in FACT Morris Dancers are more up to date, rather than PROPER PUNKS who go out and do punk THINGS, rather than just assume the uniform - so I thought doing it in a really twee style would be more likely to wind them up. However The Validators LUNGED at it, seizing the changes to develop their inner PUNK, and it came out like this. When we played it live we'd try to see how fast we could play it: very fast indeed, was often the answer.