Music and lyrics
The lyrics were written by Fall vocalist Mark E. Smith. They describe Suzuki's personality, stage presence and at times mimic his singing style. Smith had earlier said that Suzuki's surrealistic lyrics and tendency abandon language, and even have his vocals played backwards in the final mix (as on "Oh Yeah") was a major influence on his writing and delivery style. Smith's opening lyrics: "Generous of lyric / Jehovah's Witness / Stands in Cologne Marktplatz / drums come in / When the drums come in fast / Drums to shock, into brass evil", evoke both his admiration for the older singer and the aggressive style of Can's drummer Jaki Liebezeit.[7] Other lyrics such as "who is "Mr. Herr Stockhausen / Introduce me / I'm Damo Suzuki" indicate how listening to Can had broadened Smith's musical taste,[7] while the word "What have you got in that paper bag? / Is it a dose of Vitamin C?" reference the Can song Vitamin C, while the carrying sack was later evoked in the 1988 Fall song "Carrier Bag Man" from The Frenz Experiment album.
The band recorded two separate takes during the sessions for This Nation's Saving Grace, but Smith and producer John Leckie could not agree on which one to use. The vocalist preferred the band sound on the first take, and his vocal delivery on the second. As a solution Leckie spliced parts of the vocals from the second onto first. He said "the two takes had different arrangements, like the verse and chorus came in at different times, so the whole thing gives the impression of being completely random".[8] Because Smith was standing next to Burns during the recording of the vocals, there was inevitably sound leakage when the tapes were merged. According to Leckie, "the drums [were] coming through the vocal mix and every time the drums stop on the first take you can hear these ambient drums going on from the vocal mix on the second take and I thought it was fantastic and so did everyone else, but a totally unconventional way of doing it."[8]
The rhythm-heavy music was written by guitarist Brix Smith and drummer Karl Burns.[9][10] The descending riff is based on the end section of "Bel Air" from the Can album Future Days, while Burns' drum pattern is based on "Oh Yeah" from Can's 1971 Tago Mago album.[11][12] Brix said in 2017 that while it is one of her favourite songs she wrote for The Fall, "when I listen to it now I can hear my then technical weaknesses as a player, but in saying that I can also hear complete freedom and a certain creativity that might not have been captured had I played it perfectly".[9]
