Lyrics
I'm fit and working again
Walk down the road in the sun
I make a path through a forty strong gang
But I'm fit and working again
My sick, think I've seen the tail end
I'm fit and working again
I used to hang like a chandelier
My lungs encrusted in blood
But the flex is now cut clear
I'm fit and working, dear
Took me ten years to write this song
I'm fit and working again
I'm fit and working again
I used to think this bog was the domain
Fit and working again
Opinion is at most one stimulus reason
If you've got the most with the true precis
Analysis is academic
Some thoughts can get nauseous
Sat opposite a freak on a train
Warts on his head and chin
Boy, was I getting so vain
I saw the recession round Victoria Station 1
And now I'm fit and working again
Gimme, gimme, U.G. medicine
I'm fit and working again
And I feel like Alan Minter 2
I just ate eight sheets of blotting paper
And I chucked out the Alka-Seltzer
'Cos I'm fit and working again
I'm fit and working again
'Cos I'm fit and working again
Don't you know that was the tail end
I'm fit and working again
I'm fit and working again
I'm fit and working again
I'm fit and working again
I'm fit and working again
I'm fit and working again
Commentary
< Post in progress >
Footnotes
- The Victoria Station referred to here is probably the one in Manchester (see Wikipedia) rather than the perhaps more well-known one in London (see Wikipedia). Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels used to meet at Chetham’s Library, Manchester, a five minute walk from Manchester Victoria. ↩︎
- Alan Minter (1951-2020) was a British professional boxer. Active in competition between 1972 and 1981, he was the undisputed middleweight champion of the world for, er, a few months in 1980, having retained three titles (WBA, WBC and The Ring) by beating Vito Antuofermo for a second time at a rematch at Wembley Arena in June 1980. However, he lost to Marvin Hagler in September 1980 (see Wikipedia). Minter’s autobiography was published the same month, apparently timed to coincide with the Hagler fight (Minter and Duval, 1980). ↩︎
Sources / Links
- The Annotated Fall: “Fit and Working Again” [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.
- Minter, Alan with Duval, Claude (1980). Minter: an autobiography. London: Queen Anne Press/Macdonald Futura Publishers.
- 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: “Fit and Working Again”
- Wikipedia: Alan Minter
- Wolstencroft, Simon (2014). You Can Drum But You Can’t Hide: a memoir. Trowbridge: Strata Books. (2nd edition published by Route Publishing, 2017).
Views: 1
According to Paul Hanley (in Have a Bleeding Guess, footnote 82, it is ‘gimme gimme U.G. medicin’
Thanks for pointing that out. It’s a change that had been made years ago at annotatedfall.doomby.com, but not been updated in my offline texts which I’m using in the first instance here as it’s quicker. There will be many examples of this kind of thing, hopefully I will catch them all as I work through finalising song entries. But very welcome to have the comments too.