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 

Footnotes

1. Overdue bills or invoices often have red wording on the envelope. ↩︎
2. “The grain” might refer to the cereal grains used in the production of beer, whiskey, vodka, gin etc. “Wings not of the grain” would then (and the context supports this interpretation) be a “dry” airline (one on which alcohol is not served). ↩︎
3. Georgio Armani (1934 – 2025) was an Italian fashion designer. “E.T.” is a reference to the alien who is stranded on Earth and befriends a boy called Elliott in Steven Spielberg’s film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). ↩︎
4. “Gander” is a slang term for a look or a glance: “have a gander at this.” “Gandhi”, if that’s what it is, might just be a jokey play on words. ↩︎

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).