Hymn From A Village

Hymn From A Village was the lead track on the James II single in 1985 and the subsequent Village Fire EP compilation of their first two Factory singles.

It also features on the band’s 1998 Best Of, the only song from the pre-Mercury era to feature on the record.

A live version recorded at Manchester Apollo in 1989 appears as a b-side to the How Was It For You? single in 1990. A Glastonbury 1990 BBC recording features on the live disc of The Gathering Sound boxset from 2012 and it also features on the Getting Away With Live CD released in 2002 and recorded at Manchester Arena on their December 2001 farewell tour.

Hymn From A Village was featured along with Stutter on the 1982 demo circulated to record companies and was first aired to a mass audience in a 1983 Peel Session. An even earlier version entitled Say It With Flowers appeared on the studio disc of The Gathering Sound boxset in 2012.

Its lyrics take a swipe at the weak lyrical content of his contemporaries.

It was also the track that convinced Larry that his guitar students did have a special talent and that he should join the band. In the 1991 tour programme, Jim named it as the one James song that he would want to survive if all but one were accidentally erased.

It was remastered for the Factory Palatine collection in 1992 and was released on a four track sampler with Cath Carroll, Marcel King and Joy Division. As copies of it “were selling for a hundred pounds” (quote Saul Davies ermmm), it was included as the final track of the Best Of.

It has featured regularly in live sets since the band reformed in 2007.

Details

LyricsListenReleaseAvailable OnGigsGuitar Tabs

This songs made up, made second rate
Cosmetic music, powderpuff
Pop tunes, false rhymes, all lightweight bluffs
Second-hand ideas, no soul, no hate
Wasn't mean to be
Built on complacency
The nightmares ride away
When you refuse to play
Oh go and read a book
It's so much more worth while
Being a song-smith crook
Study death in style
Death in style

This language used is all worn out
A walking corpse that won't play dead
Disease dragged on from bed to bed
Pay for your twist, paid for shout
Wasn't meant to be
Built on complacency
Open your eyes and see
That lie is not for we

Raise a rope and a knife
Cut it out - the lie
I don't want to decay
Take the short cut away
Oh go and read a book
It's so much more worthwhile
Being a song-smith crook
Study death in style
Study death in style

Heard you calling through the drumbeat
Answered with sticks and bones
Scream, shout, and dance about the campfire
You can hear the question, can you feel the reply?

Heard you calling through the drumbeat
Heard you calling through the drumbeat
Can you hear the question, feel the reply?
Can you hear the question, feel the reply?
Hymn from a village
The hymn from a village