Ol' Gang

(1)

Walking down the street
Just the other night
I turned the corner to a fist fight (2)
And I look a-
I look a-
I look around
Old Gang
Old Gang
Not around
Old Gang
Pretty short
Old Gang
Wants to get off home
Old Gang
Management
Programme
Old Gang
I was walking down the street (3)
Just the other night
Old Gang
Old Gang
Walking down the street
Give me small bottle
Went around the corner
Anyhow, Feeling pretty Manc
Where the God damn is the Old Gang?

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1. "Old Gang" is a common trope, perhaps most famously deployed in the barbershop song "Wedding Bells are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine," which was published in 1929, and which MES favorite Gene Vincent recorded in 1956. Here, the blandishments of a straight job ("management programme") rather than the lure of matrimony is blamed for breaking up the gang, but the basic idea is the same.  According to MES: "I call it 'married, two kids.' Got married, got a mortgage, can't afford to take risks. I've seen it in the Manchester scene, groups trying to do what someone else has done because it's safer."  See also "My Ex-Classmates' Kids."

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2. The previous song on the album is a cover of Hank Mizell's "Jungle Rock." That song begins:

I was walking through the jungle just the other night
A-well I heard a big a-rumble and I thought it was a fight

Jon Wayne's "Texas Funeral" also begins similarly:

"I went into a bar just the other night Boy, I got into one hell of a fight"
 

MES paraphrases Wayne's "But I've Got Texas" in "Greenway"  ("I had to jack off the dog just to feed the goddamn cat," only the animals switch positions the first time and "goddamn" becomes "fucking").

John Reardon submits:

"'Sunglasses After Dark' by the Cramps includes the lines: 'Went out last Saturday night/Got myself in a knife fight.' The pause before 'knife fight' is distinctly simillar to MES's before 'fist fight.' The Fall supported The Cramps for a couple of weeks on their 1980 UK tour so maybe this got lodged in MES's skull."

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3. This is a favorite line of MES's, who also uses it in "Blindness" and "Jerusalem," and variants pop up elsewhere. The following anecdote is told by Stewart Lee about seeing comedian Ted Chippington open for the Fall:

Ted took the stage to a crowd that weren't expecting him, rooted to the spot in Teddy Boy regalia, scowling and supping a beer. He spent half an hour delivering variations on the same joke, each of which began with the phrase "I was walking down this road the other day," in a flat Midlands monotone, interspersed with listless interpretations of pop hits. A typical joke would run like this "I was walking down the road the other day, this chap came up to me. I said to him, 'Haven't seen you for a while.' He said 'Well, I've just got back from Nam.' I said, 'What, you mean Vietnam?' He said 'No, mate, Chelt'nam.'"

According to Lee this happened on October 28th, 1984, at a place in Birmingham called the Powerhouse. The gigography confirms this date and time, and various sources on the web mention Chippington opening for the Fall. Anyway, it's possible MES's frequent use of the line is a kind of homage to Chippington.

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Ol' Gang: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 1997