The Fall online - Discography

Dragnet

Original UK release

First released 26 October 1979 on Step Forward Records: SFLP4

01. Psykick Dancehall (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 3:51

Is there anybody there?
Yeah!

Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock

Rocky! Rocky!
Is quester psykick dance-hall
Step forward for
ESP medium discord

My garden is made of stone
There's a computer center over the road
I saw a monster on the roof
Its colors glowed on the roof

Round the corner
Is quester psykick dancehall
Step forward for
ESP medium discord

Here they have no records
They know your questions about no words
Just bumble stumble to the waves
Twitching out to the waves

Clock it! Clock it!
It's quester psykick dance-hall
Never bored with
ESP medium discord

When I'm dead and gone
My vibrations will live on
In vibes on vinyl through the years
People will dance to my waves

Rock it! Rock it!
It's quester psykick dance-hall
Step aboard for
ESP medium discord
You gotta come
For a mental orgasm

02. A Figure Walks (Smith) 6:13

A figure walks behind you
A figure walks behind you
A shadow walks behind you
A figure walks behind you

Days of booze and roses
Shine on us, free us all
Who is not irascible
He is no genius

A figure walks behind you
A figure walks behind you
A shadow walks behind you
A figure walks behind you

The old golden savages
Killed their philosophers
Thought brought the drought about
Something followed me out
Goes out again

A figure walks behind you
A shadow walks behind you
A figure walks behind you
A shadow walks behind you

And if it grabs my coat tail
I will turn and hit it
It may remove the pegs
Keeping my eyes open

A figure walks behind you
A shadow walks behind you
A figure walks behind you
A shadow walks behind you

It's got eyes of brown, watery
Nails of pointed yellow
Hands of black carpet
It's a quick trip to the ice house
A quick trip to the ice house X 3

A figure walks behind you
A shadow walks behind you
A figure walks behind you
A shadow walks behind you
You X 7

A figure walks behind you
A shadow walks behind you
A figure walks behind you
A shadow walks behind you

You X 3

And tales of terror
Which my father told me
They never scared me
But not only is it the blind
Who cannot see
That figure behind you
Behind you x 2
You x 2

That figure kept on walking
Behind you

There's a man on my trail X 4
He's also behind you
Behind you X 4

That figure kept on walking X 4
Behind you X3

A figure walks X3

03. Printhead (Smith) 3:17

Hey badges tinkle
T-shirts mingle

Hey you horror-face!

I'm a printhead
I go to pieces
I'm a printhead
I go to pieces yeah

End of catch-line
End of hook-line

We had a two page
It's what we needed
I'm an ill head
My face increases
How my head increases
Real problems, biz

So how is it, yeah
That I've reached here
I thought this game
Would do me good

How could printed vinyl bring you out to here?

We laughed with them
When it was take-the-piss time
I'm no egghead
But I'm an ex-worker man
W.C.-hero friend - and not water closet!

There's a barrier between writer and singer
Uh-huh he's a good man
Although a lazy one
The singer is a neurotic drinker
The band little more than a big crashing beat.
Instruments collide and we all get drunk

The last two lines
Were a quote, yeah
When we read them
We went to pieces

We went to pieces, yeah
We went to pieces, yeah
Regularly

One day a week
I'm a printhead, yeah
Twenty pence a week
Dirty fingers

Printhead X 3

With print you substitute an ear
For an extra useless eye

04. Dice Man (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 1:46

I am the dice man
And I take a chance, huh
Do you take a chance, huh?

Where you two going?
Where you two going?
Is this a branch on the tree of showbusiness?

Do all these musicians
Have a social conscience?
Well, only in their front rooms

But I am the dice man
And I take a chance man
Do you take a chance, huh?

They stay with the masses
Don't take any chances
End up emptying ashtrays

But I push, push, push, push
Throw the bones and the poison dice
No time for small moralists

Cos I am the dice man
And I take a chance, huh
Do you take a chance, fan?

They say music should be fun
Like reading a story of love
But I wanna read a horror story
Where are you people going?
Where are you people going?
Is this a branch on the tree of showbusiness?

But I am the dice man
A balls-on-the-line man
Do you take a chance, baby?

Note: Dice Man refers to the novel by the same name by Luke Rhinehart

05. Before The Moon Falls (The Fall) 4:34

Shhhh

We are private detectives onward back from a musical pilgrimage
We work under the name of the Fall.
Who would suspect this?
It is too obvious.
Our office is secluded.
Those there to suspect
Would not see the wood for the trees
We were six like dice but we're back to five
Up here in the North there are no wage packet jobs for us
Thank Christ
While young married couples discuss the poverties
Of their self-built traps
And the junior clergy demand more cash
We spit in their plate and wait for the ice to melt

I must create a new regime
Or live by another man's
Before the moon falls
I must create a new scheme
And get out of others' hands
Before the moon falls

I could use some pure criminals
And get my hands on some royalties
Before the moon falls

A problem of this new scheme
Is answering obscene phone calls
Before the moon falls

Gotta stop drifting around
Kill this ugly duckling
We've got the power
And must not misuse it
Cos life is short and full of thought
I use the power

And will forever end this reign of terror
Before the moon falls
Before the tide subsides
Before the moon falls for the fifth time
Before The Fall swoons

06. Your Heart Out (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 3:07

Just take for instance
a time of great depression
Fade out of reason
bad time's in season

Don't shut your heart out
Don't cry your eyes out

Don't cry for me, Mexico
Or Savage Pencil
I'm nearly healthy

And they try to take my eyes out
Friends try to work my soul out
But I don't sing, I just shout
Heavy clout, heart out

Now here's a joke
to cheer you up:
Old times no surgeon
Just magicians and dungeons
There they take your heart out
with a sharp knife
It wasn't fake
They had no anesthetic.
That joke's pathetic.

Just look at me
Too much speed
But very plain
You're lucky, friend.

You've got one to take out
You know what I'm talking about!
I don't sing I just shout
All on one note.
Sing, sing, sing, sing
Look at me, I just ding
Heart is out, out, it's out

07. Muzorewi's Daughter (Smith/Carroll) 3:44

Get that spot, put it in the pot for me
Cos I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter

I was Muzorewi's daughter
I've been in the pot too long
Too hot in the pot too long
I'm Muzorewi's daughter
Muzorewi's daughter
[African call love]
[Genteel laws love]
I'm Muzorewi's daughter

Left wing hot properties
Out of the closet and sheet
Arose Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter

I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter

The trees are reeds with evil seeds for me
Cos' I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter

[African call love]
[Genteel laws love]
I'm Muzorewi's daughter
[I blow a wall] love
I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter

I'm too long in the pot
I'm too long in the mouth
I'm too long in the pot
I'm too long in the nips
I'm too long in the tits
I'm too long in the mitts

I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter
I'm Muzorewi's daughter
Muzorewi's daughter
Muzorewi's daughter

08. Flat Of Angles (The Fall) 4:58

Dragnet for gun-blast man
The papers had a father
Holding up a picture
His son-in-law killed her

Yes he killed his wife
She was wasting his life
His veins are full of evil serum
But what's done is done

Now he's trapped in flat of Angles
Hiding in flat of Angles
Right down to its gables

And sometimes bell bust under
The rings from many callers
Coupon and gas-board man
Dragnet for gun-blast man

Who's trapped in flat of Angles
Rented cage is flat of Angles
Right down to its gables

And first he started on the floorboards
120 degrees from window
Doors open to specification
And keeps out stupid neighbours

Very safe is flat of Angles
Cheap rent too his flat of Angles
Down to its gables

Here he fights to type
Story of murder in his life
Or soap operas all day
In rooms of dirty laundry

But I'm in flat of Angles
Hiding in flat of Angles
Right down to its gables

And the sun dragged him out one day
From his laundry
He saw mercenary eyes
The streets are full of mercenary eyes

Well stretched in flat of Angles
Not long left in flat of Angles
Down to the gables

There's a big reward for gun-blast man
A big reward for gun-blast man
A big reward for gun-blast man

Let us go up and [..] write stories

Dragnet
Phone in for the Dragnet man

09. Choc-Stock (Scanlon/Smith) 2:40

Pop-stock, mix my pop-stock
Pop-stock, mix my pop-stock
Pop-stock, mix my pop-stock

We like pop-stik stickers
We like weak TV
We like chocolate animals
We eat [porky] piggies

Pop stock, mix my pop-stock
Pop-stock, mix my pop-stock
Pop-stock, try my pop-stock
Pop-stock, buy my pop-stock

Now all the bourgeoisie
They hate our crazy scene
'cause we dig pop-stik stickers
We like weaker tea

But they're the product of the same systems
Beyond their control
They stayed on at school
And tolerate bad manners

Pop stock, mix my pop-stock
Pop-stock, mix my pop-stock
Pop-stock, try my pop-stock
Pop-stock, buy my pop-stock

Now come on kids
Lets get this thing together
Lets get this thing together
And make it bad
We don't need these three chords
and big boots or this cosmic crap..uh..
He's bust his guitar

Lets get this thing together
Forget Lee Cooper
Lets get this thing together

Why are you smiling
Why are you laughing
At or with this song
It's not like your scene, your scene

Pop stock, mix my pop-stock
Pop-stock, mix my pop-stock
Pop-stock, try my pop-stock
Pop-stock, buy my pop-stock

10. Spectre vs. Rector (The Fall) 7:57

MR James be born be born
Yog Sothoth rape me lord
Sludge hai choi [blah blah]
MR James be born be born
Yog Sothoth rape me lord
Van Greenway [blah blah]
Sludge hai choi [blah blah]
Part one: spectre versus rector
The rector lived in Hampshire
The spectre was from Chorazina
Inevil dust in the air
The rector locked his doors
Part two: detective drives through Hampshire
Stops because of the fog there
And thinks a visit to the rector
And meanwhile and meanwhile
Spectre possesses rector
Rector becomes spectre
Sludge hai choi [blah blah]
Sludge hai choi [blah blah]
Enter inspector
Even as he spoke a dust devil suddenly arose and struck him
Part four: detective versus rector
Detective versus rector possessed by spectre
Spectre blows him against the wall
Says "Die latin this is your fall
I've waited since Caesar for this
Damn Latin my hate is crisp
I'll rip your fat body to pieces
MR James be born be born
Yog Sothoth rape me lord
Van Greenway [blah blab]
Scene five, scene five
Comes a hero
Soul possessed a thousand times
Only he could rescue rector
Only he could save inspector
And this hero was a strange man
"Those flowers, take them away" he said
"They're only funeral decorations
And oh this is a drudge nation
A nation of no imagination
A stupid man is their ideal
They shun me and think me unclean,
unclean"

I have saved a thousand souls
They cannot even save their own
I'm soaked in blood but always good
It's like I drunk myself sober
I get better as I get older
MR James be born be born
Yog Sothoth rape me lord
Van Greenway [blah blah]
Sludge hai choi [blah blah]
Sludge hai choi [blah blah]
Part six:
That was his kick from life
That's how he pads out his life
Selling his soul to the devil
And the spectre enters hero
But the possession is ineffectual
But the possession is ineffectual
And the possession is ineffectual
And MR James be born be born
Yog Sothoth rape me lord
Van Greenway [blah blah]
Sludge hai choi [blah blah]
Sludge hai choi [blah blah]
I said Sludge hai choi [blah blah]
Last scene:
Hero and inspector walk from the scene
Is the spectre banished forever?
The inspector is half insane
The hero runs back into the mountains
The hero goes back into the mountains
He was an exorcist but he was exhausted
An exorcist but he was exhausted
He racked on his bed all night long
MR James be born be born
Yog Sothoth rape me lord
Van Greenway [blah blah]
Sludge hai choi [blah blah]
Sludge hai choi [blah blah]
[chorus ad lib]

Note: M.R. James was a 19th Century ghost story writer. Yog Sogoth is a character in H.P. Lovecraft's horror stories. Demon possession is a common theme in Fall songs - see Lay Of The Land, Impression Of J Temperance, Jaw Bone And The Air Rifle, Elves, Bug Day

11. Put Away (Smith) 3:26

Ba da ba da ba da ba daaa!
Late 20th Century was late and just said yes or no
And was mistaken for sarcasm, even belligerent
Now to fight!

They're 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 boo ba ba boo ba ba bow..
Verse second

[Peel session:
I thought I would follow a friend
Red banner, split end
Follow a friend or some local men
I used to drink a bottle of vodka a day]

They rang and rang but I never went down
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

And my night sight's gone but it won't be long
I see see 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 boo ba ba.......
Put the heat on

Putting me away

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

MES: You make it [..]
Riley: That'll be right then

(LP side 1: tracks 1-6; LP side 2: tracks 7-11)

Credits

Mark E Smith - vocals, keyboards, kazoo, tapes
Marc Riley - guitar, vocals
Craig Scanlon - guitar, keyboards
Steve Hanley - bass, vocals
Mike Leigh - drums
With:
Kay Carroll - vocals

Produced by: Grant Showbiz
Engineered by: John Brierley
Cover artwork: Tina Prior

Recording info & notes

Recorded at Cargo Studios, Rochdale 2-4 August 1979.

1990 IRS reissue

Reissued in 1990 on IRS Records LP: SFAL4; and CD: SFLPCD4 with the original tracklisting and cover.

1999 Voiceprint reissue

Reissued in March 1999 on Cog Sinister via Voiceprint, CD: COGVP113CD with the original tracklisting and cover.

2002 Turning Point vinyl reissue

Reissued in August 2002 on Turning Point (Italy) LP: TPM02209 with the original tracklisting and cover. A 180gm vinyl pressing.

2002 Voiceprint "+" reissue

Reissued on 11 November 2002 on Cog Sinister via Voiceprint, CD: COGVP140CD with the original tracklisting plus bonus tracks:

12. Rowche Rumble (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 3:59
13. In My Area (Smith/Riley/Pawlett/Scanlon) 4:00
14. Fiery Jack (Smith/The Fall) 4:46
15. 2nd Dark Age (The Fall) 2:00
16. Psykick Dancehall No.2 (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 3:36

Bonus tracks 12-13 taken from the Rowche Rumble single; tracks 14-16 from the Fiery Jack single. Released as Dragnet+, with a white + symbol added to the cover artwork (see image gallery). 24 bit remastered from the 1990 IRS CD.

2004 Sanctuary reissue

Reissued on 26 January 2004 on Castle, a label of Sanctuary Records Group, CD: CMRCD848 with the original tracklisting plus bonus tracks:

12. Rowche Rumble (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 3:59
13. In My Area (Smith/Riley/Pawlett/Scanlon) 4:00
14. Fiery Jack (Smith/The Fall) 4:46
15. 2nd Dark Age (The Fall) 2:00
16. Psykick Dancehall No.2 (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 3:36
17. Rowche Rumble Take 2 (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 4:05
18. Rowche Rumble Take 3 (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 0:33
19. Rowche Rumble Take 4 (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 3:53
20. Rowche Rumble Take 5 (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 1:35
21. In My Area Take 1 (Smith/Riley/Pawlett/Scanlon) 0:48
22. In My Area Take 2 (Smith/Riley/Pawlett/Scanlon) 5:06

Bonus tracks 12-13 taken from the Rowche Rumble single; tracks 14-16 from the Fiery Jack single; tracks 17-22 alternate takes from the recording session of the Rowche Rumble single. Remastered from the original master tapes, which had been recently discovered in the vaults at EMI. First pressing came in a cardboard slipcase (see image gallery).

2004 Earmark vinyl reissue

Reissued on 5 July 2004 on Earmark (Italy) LP: EAR40036LP (2 LPs) with the same tracklisting as the 2004 Sanctuary reissue. A 180gm vinyl pressing. Earmark is a joint venture between Sanctuary Records Group and Get Back Records of Italy.