Gotta See Jane

Lyrics

Red light, green light 
Speeding though the dark night 
Driving through the pounding rain 
I gotta see Jane 

Windshield wiper splishing splashing 
Calling out her name 
Just gotta see Jane 

I left her arms to find my way 
To find a place for me in the world outside 
I wasn't alive, I could not survive 
The frantic pace
The constant chase 
To win the race
Turned my heart cold inside 
I gotta find what I left behind 

Red light, green light 
Speeding through the dark night 
Driving through the pounding rain 
I gotta see Jane 
Freeway, byway 
Tearing up the highway 
Running up a world insane 
Just gotta see Jane 

A town of steel that isn't real 
It could not feel what's in the heart of me 
I was so alone in a world of stone 
I missed her arms, that once held me 
That made me see, I was the lonely one 
But now and then I was running scared 
And I could feel the touch of time 
Turning the wheel of life to yesterday 
When love and happiness were mine 
I gotta find that world of Jane and me 
Liked it used to be 

Oh, I gotta see Jane 
Her love for me I pushed aside 
Walked out alone to face a world turned cold 
Although I tried I could not survive 
The frantic pace, the constant chase 
To win the race, it's not a part of me 
I've gotta find what I left behind 
Oh, I gotta see Jane 
I gotta see Jane 

Red light, green light 
Going through the dark night 
Going through the pouring rain 
I gotta see Jane 

Window wiper splishing splashing 
Calling out her name 
I gotta see Jane 

I left her arms to find my way 
To plough my place in a world outside 
I could not survive 
[ ]  

The constant chase 
To win the race 
It's not a part of me 
I've gotta find what I left behind 

Red light, green light 
Going through the dark night 
Steering through the pouring rain 
I gotta see Jane 

Byway, highway 
Going up the highway 
Going on a world insane 
I gotta see Jane 

A town of steel 
That did not feel 
That is surreal 
It's not a part of me 

I've gotta find what I left behind 

The constant chase 
To win the race 
The frantic pace 
It's not a part of me 

I've gotta find what I left behind 

And I can feel her arms around me 
Reminded me of yesterday 
When love and happiness were mine 

I gotta see Jane 
I gotta see Jane 
Uh 
I gotta see Jane 
Yeah 
I gotta see Jane 

This is the police [ ] 
Give yourself up 
[ ] 

Commentary

< Post in progress >

“Gotta See Jane” was co-written by R. Dean Taylor, Eddie Holland and Ron Miller. It was first released as a single on Tamla Motown in 1968, reaching #17 in the UK charts. It only managed to get to #41 when re-released in September 1974 off the back of the belated success of “Ghost in My House” (also covered by The Fall of course). See Official Charts: “Gotta See Jane” (1968) / Official Charts: “Gotta See Jane” (1974). “Ghost…” had not troubled the charts when first released in 1966 but peaked at #3 when re-released in May 1974 having become popular among Northern Soul clubbers. Taylor toured Britain in the summer of 1974, making an appearance at the Wigan Casino on Saturday 20 July.

On Tuesday 20 April 1999, Mark E. Smith appeared on The Breezeblock, a BBC Radio 1 show hosted by Mary Anne Hobbs. On the show, guests would play a kind of DJ mix of tracks of their choice. One of the songs Smith played was the original version of “Gotta See Jane”.

The Fall’s cover of “Gotta See Jane” appeared the 2001 album Are You Are Missing Winner. A version of the song forms part of the last track on the album, “Reprise: Jane – Prof Mick – Ey Bastardo“.

Live, “Gotta See Jane” was played on only three known occasions in October 2001: at Temple Bar Music Centre, Dublin, Ireland on 12 October; at the Bierkeller, Bristol, on 17 October; at VK, Brussels, Belgium on 19 October. Setlist information is lacking for some of the gigs during this period, so it may have been played more often than that.

Footnotes

1. Sometimes this line is transcribed as “Was deaf and blind”. This is wrong; I don’t know what it should be. ↩︎
2. These last few lines are delivered as though through a police loudhailer, an interpolation of the ending of R. Dean Taylor’s Bonnie and Clyde-inspired song “Indiana Wants Me” (1970). Some sources have the first line as “This is a barbaric crisis”, which isn’t right. I think it starts “This is the police”, but I don’t know how it ends. The final line is often rendered “Lackie”, but it is entirely unclear to my ears. ↩︎

Sources / Links

• Annotating The Fall: “Reprise: Jane – Prof Mick – Ey Bastardo”
• Mackay, Tommy (2018). 40 Odd Years of The Fall. Place of publication unknown: Greg Moodie.
• Pringle, Steve (2022). You Must Get Them All: The Fall on Record. [paperback edition]. Pontefract: Route Publishing Ltd. [Online store]
• Smith, Mark E. with Austin Collings (2009). Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith. London: Penguin. (Originally published by Viking, 2008). [Available online in the Internet Archive]
• The Track Record: “Gotta See Jane”
• Wikipedia: “Gotta See Jane”