Annotating The Fall

Songs by The Fall – Annotated!

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Annotating The Fall

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Albums (and Slates)
Live at the Witch Trials
Dragnet
Grotesque (After the Gramme)
Slates
Hex Enduction Hour
Room to Live
Perverted by Language
The Wonderful and Frightening World of…
This Nation’s Saving Grace
Bend Sinister
The Frenz Experiment
Bremen Nacht Run Out 7″
The Frenz Experiment – Cassette/CD bonus tracks
I am Kurious Oranj
I am Kurious Oranj – Cassette/CD bonus tracks
Extricate
Extricate – Cassette/CD bonus tracks
Shift-Work
Shift-Work – Cassette/CD bonus tracks
Code: Selfish
The Infotainment Scan
The Infotainment Scan – CD bonus tracks
Middle Class Revolt
Cerebral Caustic
The Light User Syndrome
Levitate
Limited Edition Bonus CD
The Marshall Suite
Limited Edition LP bonus track
The Unutterable
The Unutterable – CD2: Testa Rossa Monitor Mixes
Are You Are Missing Winner
AYAMW 2006 Sanctuary Reissue – bonus tracks
The Real New Fall LP
The Real New Fall LP (Narnack US edition)
Country on the Click (Original Version)
Fall Heads Roll
Reformation! Post TLC
Reformation! Post TLC – Slogan/Sanctuary UK edition
Reformation Post TLC – Narnack US edition
Reformation! Post TLC – expanded Digipak edition Disc 2
Reformation! Post TLC – expanded Digipak edition Disc 3: Early Rough Mixes 2006
Imperial Wax Solvent
Imperial Wax Solvent – Britannia Row Recordings
Your Future Our Clutter
Your Future Our Clutter – LP bonus tracks
Ersatz GB
Re-Mit
Sub-Lingual Tablet
New Facts Emerge
Singles and EPs
Bingo-Master’s Break-Out
It’s the New Thing
Rowche Rumble
Fiery Jack
How I Wrote ‘Elastic Man’
Totally Wired
Lie Dream of a Casino Soul
Look, Know
The Man Whose Head Expanded
Kicker Conspiracy / Wings
Marquis Cha-Cha
Oh! Brother
c.r.e.e.p.
Call for Escape Route
Couldn’t Get Ahead / Rollin’ Dany
Cruiser’s Creek
Living Too Late
Mr. Pharmacist
Hey! Luciani
There’s a Ghost in My House
The Peel Sessions EP
Hit the North
Victoria
Jerusalem/Big New Prinz
Cab It Up
Telephone Thing
Popcorn Double Feature
Popcorn Double Feature – Limited Edition
White Lightning
The Dredger EP
High Tension Line
Free Range
Ed’s Babe
Kimble
Why Are People Grudgeful?
Behind the Counter
Behind the Counter, part 1
Behind the Counter, part 2
15 Ways
The Chiselers
Masquerade
Masquerade CD One
Masquerade CD Two
Masquerade 10″
Touch Sensitive
F-‘oldin’ Money
F-‘oldin’ Money – CD #1
F-‘oldin’ Money – CD #2
Rude (All the Time) 7″
The Fall vs. 2003
(We Wish You) A Protein Christmas
Theme from Sparta F.C. #2
Theme from Sparta F.C. #2 – Enhanced CD
2 Librans
Blind Man
Rude (All the Time) EP
I Can Hear the Grass Grow
I Can Hear the Grass Grow – Slogan/Sanctuary 7″
I Can Hear the Grass Grow – Narnack US CD edition
Fall Sound
Reformation! The Single
Slippy Floor
Bury!
Laptop Dog
Night of the Humerons
Sir William Wray
The Remainderer
Wise Ol’ Man
Masquerade (2017 Record Store Day 7″)
O-Mit
Live/Studio Hybrid
Totale’s Turns (It’s Now or Never)
Seminal Live
Seminal Live – Cassette/CD bonus tracks
The Twenty-Seven Points
2G+2
Interim
Live Uurop VIII-XII Places in Sun And Winter, Son
Covers
Instrumentals
Peel Sessions
1978-May-30
Mark E. Smith – solo/spoken word
The Post Nearly Man
Pander! Panda! Panzer!
    Mark E. Smith – Collaborations and Guest Vocals
    Von Südenfed
      etc
        Posts in modified date order (last 15)
        Posts in progress
        Posts with annotations

        Couldn’t Get Ahead

        Categories: , , , , ,
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        Table of Contents

          Lyrics

          Couldn't get ahead
          I just couldn't get ahead
          Couldn't get ahead
          Just couldn't get ahead

          Come out of pub, the shop is closed
          Come out of pub, Harry wants to know when the next bus is
          I said five or ten minutes
          I had my change in my hands
          The bus flashes past, my hands are caught

          Just couldn't get ahead
          I just couldn't get ahead
          Couldn't get ahead
          Just couldn't get ahead

          In a week, earned money for a month
          Got all my jobs done
          My eyelids were sick of it
          Gist was I could sleep for a day
          But bad bills have no respect for a decent man's rest
          Flopping on the doorstep, outlined in colour red

          I just couldn't get ahead
          I just couldn't get ahead
          Couldn't get ahead
          I just couldn't get ahead

          On an Asiatic plane with wings not of the grain
          Toilet queue was endless
          Couldn't get a beer
          The hostesses were Muslims
          When I get in toilet, light flashes, "return to seat"
          I feared withdrawal, and I feared beer was making sludge of my head

          I just couldn't get ahead
          I just couldn't get ahead
          Couldn't get ahead
          I just couldn't get ahead

          Now my problems are solved
          It's a remedy of old
          I pretend I'm blind you see
          Put on some Armani clothes and act like E.T. 
          Where I'm at is a cabbage patch no longer strewn with weeds
          Have a Gandhi at me
          Colour mags wish me well
          No more, no get ahead

          I couldn't get ahead
          I just couldn't get ahead
          Couldn't get ahead
          I just couldn't get ahead

          Commentary

          < Post in progress >

          Footnotes

          Sources / Links

          • The Annotated Fall: “Couldn’t Get Ahead” [Archived]
          • Ford, Simon (2003). Hip Priest: the story of Mark E Smith and The Fall. London: Quartet Books.
          • 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. (1985). The Fall Lyrik & Texte Von Mark E. Smith. In Deutsch & Englisch. With Drawings by Brix. Berlin: The Lough Press. [AKA The Orange Book. Available online in The Internet Archive]
          • Smith, Mark E. (2008). vII. The Lough Press & AMarquisManipulationProductions. [AKA the Blue Lyrics Book]
          • Smith Start, Brix (2016). The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise. London: Faber & Faber. [Text available online in archive.org]
          • The Track Record: “Couldn’t Get Ahead”
          • Wolstencroft, Simon (2014). You Can Drum But You Can’t Hide: a memoir. Trowbridge: Strata Books. (2nd edition published by Route Publishing, 2017).
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