Script For A Jester's Tear - Intro

Introduction: Script for a Jester's Tear was the first Marillion album and the only one to feature founding member Mick Pointer on drums. Many people have commented upon the naivety of the sound and this can be largely traced to the limitations of Pointer's drumming. Rothery's guitar is arguably at its most cutting on this album and Pete Trewavas' bass playing occasionally displays a slight reggae feel which disappeared on later albums.

Script for a Jester's Tear

Introduction: Fish's relationship with the real Kay soured before the release of the first album (they got back together in the Fugazi period, then split for good (see Kayleigh for more details). It could be even said that it was because of The Web: Fish had made the decision that trying to make a go of Marillion was more important than anything else, and his personal life suffered.

It is however true that Fish's decision to quit a secure life in the forestry commission, and the lyrics to The Web had been written some while earlier. I often wonder whether the 'love song with no validity' in Lords of the Backstage refers to Script rather than Kayleigh. Those two songs have an element of similarity in that Fish clearly blames himself for the breakdown of the relationship; 'The fool escaped from paradise' and 'Is it too late to say I'm sorry?'.

He Knows You Know

Writing in 1997 for the Script remaster, Fish called it "a song about drug abuse, the lyric originally written while suffering terrible stomach cramps on a desk in the [Unemployment Benefit Office]. My personal excesses and the unwanted advice they attracted from well-meaning people with no experience of the subject were documented and the first version of this song, one we thought was a possible single, was laid on tape."

The Web

Introduction: In the fourth edition of the Web fanzine, Fish wrote the following piece. It comes across as extremely reminiscent of Genesis-era Gabriel, and creates as many new questions as it answers. I had to transcribe this from a gif made from a photocopy and it is very hard to decipher certain parts.

I hope I got it right!

Garden Party

Introduction: Fish (The Funny Farm Interview - July '95, Dick Bros) said: "Diz and I moved down to Cambridge where I had a girl friend who was an archaeology student at the time. So we were actually living in this all female block down in Cambridge; I think it was Newlands College or something, having to sneak during the day through the windows because there were no males supposedly allowed in the college.

Chelsea Monday

Introduction: During an interview with Radio Forth in Scotland on 14^th September 1982, Fish said, "Chelsea Monday was written roundabout January or February this year. The lyric idea was spun by seeing a number of people walking about Chelsea on a very, very early Monday morning. And it was these sort of actors that you don't know their names... And they were going down buying the morning Daily Expresses, it was a ritual, and they were looking at themselves in the window, as if to buy the paper was actually a take, it was part of some formal play they were in.

Forgotten Sons

Introduction: In an interview entitled Fishy Tales published in Melody Maker 27 Nov 1982 Fish said, "Northern Ireland didn't mean a shit to me - that's the same for most people in this country nowadays - but when my cousin went across there for a while, we'd watch the news on TV every night, expecting things like blood to come pouring through the screen, expecting to hear so-and-so had been shot!

"Then, when I went to Aylesbury, I was working in the employment office, and a lot of blokes would come in saying, 'I'm only actually signing on for two months because I'm joining the army soon and going on my first training stint.

Charting The Single

'sugar daddy'
Brewer's: "An elderly wealthy man who lavishes gifts on a much younger woman. From US Slang."

Margaret

'Moira Anderson eat your heart out'
From Jeroen Schipper's FAQ: "Moira Anderson is a Scottish middle-of-the-road singer, who sings, among other things, cloyingly versions of Scottish traditional songs. Loch Lomond is exactly the sort of thing she would sing - hence Fish's comment."

The two traditional songs bastardised in Margaret are The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond and Mairi's Wedding (pronounced as 'Mah-ree' or 'Varry'; the name is a Gaelic spelling of Mary or Marie.) Here are the lyrics for both pieces in full, courtesy of www.contemplator.com/folk/: