Put Away

Lyrics

Late twentieth century was late and just said "yes" or "no" 
I was mistaken for sarcasm, even belligerence
Noun, 'to fight' 

Putting me away but I'll be back someday 
Putting me away but I'll be back someday 
Prisoner for a year and a day 
Putting me away but I'll be back someday 

A bust doorbell sound and the door broken down 
A doorbell sound and the door broken down 
They rang and rang but I never went down 

And now they're putting me away but I'll be back someday 
Putting me away but I'll be back someday 

I thought it was a follower, friend, rent-man or split end 
Follower, friend or some local men 
I used to drink a bottle of vodka a day 

Well now they're putting me away and I'll be back someday 
Putting me away but I'll be back someday 

They rang and rang but I never went down 
When people ring I never go down 
All metal walls now I'm sent down 

And they're putting me away but I'll be back someday 
Putting me away but I'll be ba ba ba ba ba ba bow 
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba bow 

My nice side's gone 
My nice side gone but it won't be long 
Si-si long now it's gone 
Just two girls and a millionaire  

And they're putting me away but I'll be back someday 
Putting me away but I'll be back someday 

No sex or records for a year and a day 
They're putting me away but I'll be back someday 
Someday 

Ba da ba da ba da ba da! 
Late twentieth century was late and just said "yes" or "no" 
And was mistaken for sarcasm, even belligerent 
Noun, 'to fight' 

Putting me away but I'll be back someday 
Putting me away but I'll be back someday 
Prisoner for a year and a day 
Putting me away but I'll be back someday 

A bust doorbell sound and the door broken down 
A doorbell sound and the door broken down 
They rang and rang but I never went down 

And now they're putting me away but I'll be back someday 
Putting me away but I'll be ba ba ba ba ba ba bow 
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba bow 

They rang and rang but I never went down 
When people ring I never go down 
All metal walls now I'm sent down 

And they're putting me away but I'll be back someday 
Putting me away but I'll be back someday 

My nice side's gone but it won't be long 
Si-si long now it's gone 
Just two girls and a millionaire 
And they're putting me away but I'll be back someday 
Putting me away but I'll be ba ba ba ba ba ba bow 
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba bow 

No sex or records for a year and a day 
They're putting me away 

I've been bunged up, I've been banged up 
I've been moved up, I've been banged up 
I said ba da ba da ba da badaaaaa 

[ ] You make it [ ] 

That'll be right then 

Commentary

PUT AWAY (MES) …. In The Rack Under ‘F’ – A sort of sequel to “Angles”.

From the sleevenotes to Dragnet (1979).

Credited solely to Mark E. Smith, “Put Away” was first recorded on 27 November 1978 for The Fall’s second Peel Session, broadcast on 6 December the same year. The group at the time consisted of Martin Bramah, Karl Burns, Yvonne Pawlett, Marc Riley and Mark E. Smith. Bramah, Burns and Pawlett had all left The Fall by the time the group entered Cargo Studios in Rochdale to record Dragnet from 2 – 4 August 1979. The album version features Riley and Smith alongside new recruits Steve Hanley, Mike Leigh and Craig Scanlon. Lyrically there is little substantive difference between the Peel and Dragnet versions.

There are only nine documented performances of “Put Away”, all of them recorded from the audience. It seems likely that it was played at most of the other gigs during the November – February 1978 period as well, but we don’t have the setlists or recordings to prove it. After Bowdon Vale in early 1979, the evidence suggests the song was retired until the summer of 1979, perhaps as perparation for the recording of Dragnet. It wasn’t heard again, as far as we know, until an unexplained short revival in the autumn of 1981. Only two performances are documented, but it is possible that there were more – setlists don’t currently exist for some of the gigs at the time.

• 13 November 1978 – Carlton Club, Warrington
• 25 November 1978 – Prestwich Hospital Social Club, Prestwich
• 8 December 1978 – Teazers, Dundee
• 17 December 1978 – Marquee, London
• 14 February 1979 – Bowdon Vale Youth Club, Altrincham (early set)
• 14 February 1979 – Bowdon Vale Youth Club, Altrincham (late set)
• 19 July 1979 – Marquee, London
• 4 September 1981 – Phoenix Hall, Sheffield Polytechnic, Sheffield
• 1 November 1981 – Top Rank, Plymouth

“Put Away” and “Flat of Angles” as Diptych

Taking Dragnet’s sleevenotes at face value, and interpreting “Put Away” as a “sort of sequel” to “Flat of Angles”, it’s interesting that the latter lyric is mostly in the third person whereas “Put Away” is wholly in the first person.

Footnotes

1. There’s a Howlin’ Wolf song titled “I’ll Be Back Someday”. I only mention this because there are Howlin’ Wolf echoes in other songs. ↩︎
2. This echoes a line from “Flat of Angles“: “And sometimes bell busts under the rings from many callers”. ↩︎
3. The Lyrics Parade had “night-sight” instead of “nice side”, a reading The Fall Online has inherited. ↩︎
4. Two Girls and a Millionaire was a play written by the Oldham-born playwright Keith Dewhurst (1931 – 2025), and produced by ATV for the ITV network. It was first broadcast on Tuesday 17 October 1978 (including by M.E.S.’s local Granada channel), about a month before “Put Away”‘s live debut. Credit to The Annotated Fall commenter @Aubrey for pointing this out in a post dated 17 November 2020 on the old doomby.com site.
   
   Keith Dewhurst’s Papers are held by the library of the University of Sheffield, in their Special Collections and Archives Department (Link). On 19 April 2022 I visited by appointment and was able to consult Dewhurst’s exercise books which contained handwritten drafts of the screenplay, including authorial annotations, as well as a copy of the rehearsal script. As a result of this time-consuming research, I am able to report that the lyric owes nothing whatsoever to the text of the play, except that M.E.S. probably nicked the title. Great.
   
   ↩︎
5. A snippet of dialogue, spoken by Mark E. Smith. ↩︎
6. A snippet of dialogue, spoken by Mike Leigh. The old Lyrics Parade, now incorporated into the lyrics at The Fall Online, attribute the line to Marc Riley, but at the doomby.com iteration of The Annotated Fall, user @Bob commented on 11 June 2016 that Leigh had informed him that it was actually him (Leigh). ↩︎

Sources / Links

• The Annotated Fall: “Put Away” [Archived]
• British Film Institute: Two Girls and a Millionaire
• Dewhurst Papers. University of Sheffield Special Collections and Archives Repository. Box 13: Two Girls and a Millionaire c.1978. [Archive link: https://archives.shef.ac.uk/repositories/3/archival_objects/21556] (note that the archive record incorrectly states that the play was not produced).
• Ford, Simon (2003). Hip Priest: the story of Mark E Smith and The Fall. London: Quartet. pp.230-231.
• 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: “Put Away”