Lyrics

He said, why don't you tell me? 

Why don't you tell me? 
Next time you ring 
Why don't you tell me 
Next time you ring 
Why don't you tell me? 
All leave's cancelled again 

All leave cancelled! 

Why don't you tell me 
The next time you ring 
Why don't you tell me 
The next time you ring 
And, why can't you ring and tell me? 
Why can't you just ring and tell me? 
Disappearing glass 
Disappearing in the glass 
Ba ba ba ba 

Why can't you  
Why can't you ring and tell me? 
Why can't you ring and tell me? 
Why can't you ring and tell me? 

In the garden? 
Why don't you tell me 
The vacuum pack 
Isn't ready 
In the holy temple 
Of the Zweigeist 

Welcoming 
Dismenting 
Glasses 
Miniscule  

All leave cancelled 

Who can't be trusted 
With a one half bucket of whiskey 
Without injecting salad 
All leave's cancelled 
In eight minutes, fifty seconds 
It's really nice 
(All leave's cancelled) 
Gone, till 
Five minutes twenty seconds 
(All leave's cancelled) 
Title: 
"All leave X" 
(Wake up) 
Going on ten minutes, oh five seconds 
(And why can't you ring and tell me?) 
Arrow in green as used by the bandmates 
(Why can't you ring?) 
Straight on 
Resorting back 
To a seven twenty 
(Why can't you just ring and tell me) 
To eight fifty 
Why can't you wait for nine fifty 
Is your art so shallow? 
Do you have to abuse the indigenous 
Over the borders of M1 
With your savage puritan Polishness? 
Laughing at you 
As you go upstairs 
With your African friends 
To pitch against our goal 
(I can't!) 
All leave cancelled 
(Why?) 

Why don't you tell me next time 
All leave's cancelled again? 
Why don't you tell me 
Next time you ring
All leave's cancelled 
All leave's cancelled again? 
Why don't you tell me 
Next time you ring? 
Why don't you tell me 
Next time you ring? 

One day you're gonna be lonely 
But I don't know when just now 
Lies 

Footnotes

1. If “dismenting” is indeed what the lyric is, I don’t know what it means. ↩︎
2. The M1 is a 193 mile long motorway in England, connecting Leeds and London, but it doesn’t go past or through Manchester. “M1” in this context must refer to the Manchester city centre postcode area. Mark E. Smith lived in Prestwich for most of his life, which is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. Prestwich has never been part of Manchester for local government purposes and was a borough council in its own right from 1939 until it was subsumed into Bury in 1974, under the provisions of the 1972 Local Government Act. Bury is separate to the City of Manchester but part of Greater Manchester. The main postcode for Prestwich is M25. ↩︎
3. Reminiscent of the Kiss song, Nowhere to Run, one of four new songs recorded for their greatest hits compilation album, Killers (1982):
   
   Just pretend I’m only a friend and disappear from sight
   One day you’re gonna be lonely, wishing I was by your side ↩︎

Sources / Links

• The Annotated Fall: “All Leave Cancelled” [Archived]
• 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]
• The Track Record: “All Leave Cancelled”