Stepping Out

(1)

I used to believe everything I read 
But that's all changed and now I'm stepping out
That's all changed and now I'm
Stepping out 

I used to stay in the house and never go out
But now I'm stepping out, stepping out
I used to stay in the house and never go out
But now I'm stepping out, stepping out, stepping out

I used to stay on my feet all 24 hours
But now I'm stepping out, stepping out
The light'd be on 24 hours   (2)
But now I'm stepping out, stepping out, stepping out

So people get ready, strip down your houses (3)
Cause I'm stepping out, stepping out
So people get ready, strip down your houses
Cause I'm stepping out, stepping out, stepping out

I used to believe everything I read 
But that's all changed 'cause now I'm stepping out
That's all changed cause now I'm
Stepping out 

Stepping out  (4)

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1. This is one of MES's most straightforward lyrics. The contemporaneous "Last Orders" is perhaps its only competition in that department, and those lyrics were mostly written by Tony Friel...

From Martin:

"It may be interesting that, in the (officially released) gig at the Tower Club, Oldham (21 August 1978) MES says between Frightened and this song: 'This next one is a sequel to the last one.' Whether this was just a throwaway comment on the night or if MES himself saw 'Stepping Out' as the answer to the fears expressed in 'Frightened,' or indeed if 'Stepping Out' was written after 'Frightened,' are questions probably hard to determine but for me nonetheless worth asking.

According to ex-worker man:

The Live 77 CD version has an extra verse;

I'm not frightened any more 
Now I'm stepping out (x 2)

He also reports that "both Live 77 and Liverpool 78 CD versions have the occasional 'Stretching out' in place of a 'stepping out.'"

Dan submits:

From Friends of Mine: Punk in Manchester, 1976-1978 by Martin Ryan (who was editor of fanzine "Ghast Up"! with Mick Middles):
 

Of the current breed Smith described The Adverts as "psychedelic", the Pistols' "Holidays In The Sun" as having great lyrics but no tune, noting "I wish I could write lyrics like that" and The Damned's version of "I Feel Alright" as being vastly inferior to the Stooges original. A point raised when he conceded the likeness of the recurrent riff of "I Feel Alright" to that used in The Fall's "Stepping Out". Borrowing a riff was okay but covering The Stooges was better left well alone as Smith illustrated with The Vibrators' reading of "No Fun".

Dan reports that "Steppin' Out" was the title of Sounds magazine's gig listings columns through 1977.

In his autopbiography Head-On, Julian Cope says "Read it in Books" was written off this (thanks to pale):

We played each other's songs or beat new ones together. Mac started playing 'Stepping Out' by The
Fall. I improvised a melody for it. Next day, Mac had written words. "It's called 'I've Read It in
Books'," he said. Shit, we thought, this is easy.

Paul Revere And The Raiders have a song called "Steppin' Out." The lyrics use "Steppin' Out" in the sense of a cheating lover.

Dan:

On 17 March 2020, at 10:17am, Una Baines posted a youtube link for this song to her Facebook page.

Facebook user John Howard asked at 12:39PM:
 

I have always loved the Paul Revere and the Raiders reference in the title, Una. Were you guys fans of theirs?

(referring of course to the fact that Paul Revere had a song also called Steppin' Out)

At 4:48PM, Martin Bramah replied:
 

nope!

... which strikes me as ambiguous. Is it only a denial that they were fans of Paul Revere and the Raiders, or is it also a denial that the reference is intentional?

^

2. Live 77: "The brain was switched off 24 hours."

^

3. This seems to quote "People Get Ready," the 1965 hit single by The Impressions. The lyrics use common tropes from Gospel train songs (Wikipedia mentions "Wade in the Water," "The Gospel Train," and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and also see, for instance, "This Train"); often these songs are thought to alude to the Underground Railroad, and the song's author, Curtis Mayfield, has said that the song is about oppression. Dan remarks that, i this light,

 "lines like this:

"I used to stay on my feet all 24 hours
But now I'm stepping out, stepping out
The light'd be on 24 hours
But now I'm stepping out, stepping out, stepping out"

look a bit different. I've always thought of it in terms of amphetamine-driven benders. But maybe, given the Impressions' song draws on the experience of black escapees from slavery, we should be seeing these lines as literally being about having to work all day."

^

4. On Liverpool 78 (August 22, 1978) this ends "Our affections are turning grey." See "Music Scene," where the line ended up.

^

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Stepping Out: Fall Tracks A-Z