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The Annotated Lyrics
- (Birtwistle's) Girl in Shop
- (Jung Nev's) Antidotes
- (We Are) Mod Mock Goth
- (We WIsh You) A Protein Christ
- 15 Ways
- 2 x 4
- 2nd Dark Age
- 4 1/2 Inch
- 50 Year Old Man
- 986 Generator
- A Figure Walks
- A Lot of Wind
- A Past Gone Mad
- Afternoon Disco
- Age of Chang
- All Leave Cancelled
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- Amorator!
- An Older Lover Etc.
- And Therein...
- And This Day
- Anecdotes+Antidotes in B#
- Arid Al's Dream
- Arms Control Poseur
- Assume
- Athlete Cured
- Australians in Europe
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- Before the Moon Falls
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- Bill is Dead
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- Birthday Song
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- Bound
- Bournemouth Runner
- Breaking the Rules
- Bremen Nacht
- Brillo De Facto
- British People in Hot Weather
- Bug Day
- Bury Pts. 1+3
- Butterflies 4 Brains
- C'n'C-S Mithering
- C.R.E.E.P.
- Cab It Up
- Calendar
- Can Can Summer
- Carry Bag Man
- Cary Grant's Wedding
- Cheetham Hill
- Chicago, Now!
- Chilinism
- Chino
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- City Dweller
- City Hobgoblins
- Clasp Hands
- Clear Off!
- Cloud of Black
- Coach and Horses
- Contraflow
- Copped It
- Cosmos 7
- Couldn't Get Ahead
- Couples vs Jobless Mid 30s
- Cowboy George
- Cowboy Gregori
- Crackhouse
- Craigness
- Crap Rap 2/Like to Blow
- Crew Filth
- Crop-Dust
- Cruiser's Creek
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- D.I.Y. Meat
- Das Boat
- Das Katerer
- Das Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wai
- Dead Beat Descendant
- Dedication Not Medication
- Deer Park
- Detective Instinct
- Devolute
- Dice Man
- Disney's Dream Debased
- Distilled Mug Art
- Dktr Faustus
- Dog is Life/Jerusalem
- Don't Call Me Darling
- Don't Take the Pizza
- Dr. Bucks' Letter
- Draygo's Guilt
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- Early Days of Channel Führer
- Eat Y'Self Fitter
- Ed's Babe
- Edinburgh Man
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- Elves
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- Entitled
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- Everything Hurtz
- Exploding Chimney
- Extricate
- Fall Sound
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- Feeling Numb
- Fibre Book Troll
- Fiery Jack
- First One Today
- Fit and Working Again
- Flat of Angles
- Fol de Rol
- Fortress
- Free Range
- Frenz
- Frightened
- Futures and Pasts
- Garden New
- Gentlemen's Agreement
- Get a Hotel
- Get A Summer Song Goin'
- Gibbus Gibson
- Glam-Racket
- God Box
- Gramme Friday
- Green Eyed Loco Man
- Greenway
- Gross Chapel-British Grenadier
- Groundsboy
- Guest Informant
- Guide Me Soft
- Gut of the Quantifier
- H.O.W.
- Haf Found Bormann
- Hands Up Billy
- Happi Song
- Happy Holiday
- Hard Life in Country
- He Pep!
- He Talks
- Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot
- Hey! Fascist
- Hey! Luciani
- Hey! Marc Riley
- Hey! Student
- High Tension Line
- Hilary
- Hip Priest
- Hit the North
- Hittite Man
- Hollow Mind
- Hostile
- Hot Aftershave Bop
- Hot Cake
- Hot Runes
- Hotel Bloedel
- How I Wrote Elastic Man
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- I African Mancunian
- I Am Damo Suzuki
- I Come and Stand At Your Door
- I Feel Voxish
- I Wake Up In The City
- I'm Frank
- I'm Into C.B.
- I've Been Duped
- I've Seen Them Come
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- Iceland
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- Immortality
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- In These Times
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- It's A Curse
- It's The New Thing
- Ivanhoe's Two Pence
- Jam Song
- Janet, Johnny + James
- Jawbone And The Air-Rifle
- Jazzed Up Punk Shit
- Jetplane
- Jim's "The Fall"
- Job Search
- Joker Hysterical Face
- Junger Cloth
- Just Step S'Ways
- Kick The Can
- Kicker Conspiracy
- Kinder of Spine
- Kurious Oranj
- L.A.
- Ladybird (Green Grass)
- Laptop Dog
- Last Commands of Xyralothep Vi
- Last Orders
- Latchkey Kid
- Lay of the Land
- Leave the Capitol
- Levitate
- Lie Dream of a Casino Soul
- Life Just Bounces
- Light/Fireworks
- Live at the Witch Trials
- Living Too Late
- Loadstones
- Look, Know
- Lucifer Over Lancashire
- Ludd Gang
- M5 #1
- Mad.Men-Eng.Dog
- Mark'll Sink Us
- Marquis Cha-Cha
- Married, Two Kids
- Mask Search
- Masquerade
- Medical Acceptance Gate
- Mere Pseud Mag. Ed.
- Mess of My
- Mexico Wax Solvent
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- Middle Mass
- Midnight in Aspen/Aspen Repris
- Midwatch 1953
- Mike's Love Xexagon
- Mister Rode
- Mollusc in Tyrol
- Monocard
- Mother-Sister
- Mountain Energei
- Music Scene
- Muzorewi's Daughter
- My Condition
- My Door Is Never
- My Ex-Classmates' Kids
- My New House
- Nate Will Not Return
- Neighbourhood of Infinity
- New Big Prinz
- New Face in Hell
- New Facts Emerge
- New Formation Sermon
- New Puritan
- Nine Out Of Ten
- No Bulbs
- No Respects Rev.
- No X-mas for John Quays
- Noel's Chemical Effluence
- Noise
- North West Fashion Show
- O! ZZTRRK Man
- O.F.Y.C. Showcase
- Octo Realm/Ketamine Sun
- Oh! Brother
- Ol' Gang
- Oleano
- On My Own
- One Day
- Open The Boxoctosis
- Oswald Defence Lawyer
- Over! Over!
- Overture From "I Am Curious, O
- Oxymoron
- Pacifying Joint
- Paintwork
- Papal Visit
- Paranoia Man/Cheap Sh*t Room
- Pat-Trip Dispenser
- Pay Your Rates
- Pearl City
- Perverted by Language
- Petty (Thief) Lout
- Pilsner Trail
- Pine Leaves
- Pittsville Direkt
- Pledge
- Plug Myself In
- Ponto
- Pop Stickers
- Portugal
- Powder Keg
- Pre-MDMA Years
- Printhead
- Prole Art Threat
- Proteinprotection
- Psycho Mafia
- Psykick Dancehall
- Psykick Dancehall #2
- Pumpkin Head Xscapes
- Pumpkin Soup and Mashed Potato
- Put Away
- Putta Block
- Quit iPhone
- R.O.D.
- Race Hatred
- Rainmaster
- Rebellious Jukebox
- Recipe for Fascism
- Recovery Kit
- Reece Stick
- Reformation!
- Rememberance R
- Repetition
- Reprise: Jane--Prof Mick--Ey B
- Return
- Riddler
- Ride Away
- Room to Live
- Rose
- Rowche Rumble
- Rude (All The Time)
- Scareball
- Scenario
- Secession Man
- Second House Now
- Segue
- Senior Twilight Stock Replacer
- Serum
- Service
- Session Musician
- Shake-Off
- Shift-Work
- Shoulder Pads
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- Sir William Wray
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- Slates, Slags, Etc.
- Sleep Debt Snatches
- Smile
- Smith and Mark
- Snazzy
- So What About It?
- So-Called Dangerous
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- Spectre vs. Rector
- Spencer Must Die
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- Stephen Song
- Stepping Out
- Stout Man
- Surmount All Obstacles
- Surrogate Mirage
- Susan vs. Youthclub
- Symbol of Mordgan
- Systematic Abuse
- Taking Off
- Telephone Thing
- Tempo House
- Ten Houses of Eve
- Terry Waite Sez
- That Man
- The 500 Dollar Bottle of Wine
- The Acute
- The Aphid
- The Ballard of J. Drummer
- The Book of Lies
- The Boss
- The Classical
- The Coliseum
- The Container Drivers
- The Crying Marshal
- The Joke
- The Knight, the Devil and Deat
- The League of Bald-Headed Men
- The Littlest Rebel
- The Man Whose Head Expanded
- The Mixer
- The N.W.R.A.
- The Past #2
- The Quartet of Doc Shanley
- The REAL Life of the Crying Ma
- The Reckoning
- The Remainderer
- The Steak Place
- The Usher
- The War Against Intelligence
- The Wright Stuff
- Theme From Error-Orrori
- Theme From Sparta F.C.
- Time Enough At Last
- To Nk Roachment: Yarbles
- Tom Raggazzi
- Tommy Shooter
- Totally Wired
- Touch Sensitive
- Touchy Pad
- Town Called Crappy
- Trust in Me
- Tuff Life Booogie
- Twister
- Two Face!
- Two Librans
- Two Steps Back
- U.S. 80s-90s
- Underground Medecin
- Unutterable
- Van Plague?
- Various Times
- Venice With The Girls
- Victoria Train Station Massacr
- Victrola Time
- Vixen
- W.B.
- W.M.C.--Blob 59
- Way Round
- Weather Report 2
- What About Us?
- What You Need
- Where's the F***in Taxi? C**t
- Whizz Bang
- Who Makes the Nazis?
- Win Fall CD 2088 AD
- Wings
- Winter (Hostel-Maxi)
- Wise Ol' Man
- Wolf Kidult Man
- Words of Expectation
- Wrong Place, Right Time
- Xmas With Simon
- Y.F.O.C./Slippy Floor
- Yes O Yes
- You Don't Turn Me On
- You Haven't Found It Yet
- You're Not Up To Much
- Your Heart Out
- Youwanner
- Zagreb
- Zandra
-
Arranged By Album
- Live at the Witch Trials
- Dragnet
- Grotesque (After the Gramme)
- Slates
- Hex Enduction Hour
- Room to Live
- Perverted by Language
- The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall
- This Nation's Saving Grace
- Bend Sinister
- The Frenz Experiment
- I Am Kurious, Oranj
- Extricate
- Shift-Work
- Code:Selfish
- The Infotainment Scan
- Middle Class Revolt
- Cerebral Caustic
- Light User Syndrome
- Levitate
- The Marshall Suite
- The Unutterable
- Are You Are Missing Winner
- The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country on the Click)
- Fall Heads Roll
- Reformation Post TLC
- Imperial Wax Solvent
- Your Future Our Clutter
- Ersatz G.B.
- Re-Mit
- The Remainderer
- Sub-Lingual Tablet
- Wise Ol' Man
- New Facts Emerge
- 2014
- O! ZZTRRK Man
- New Facts Emerge
- Segue
- Ponto
- Smith and Mark
- Afternoon Disco
- Reece Stick
- Home /
- The Annotated Lyrics /
- Two Steps Back
Two Steps Back
Lyrics
Everybody likes me
They think I'm crazy
Pull my string and I do my thing. (1)
Two Steps Back
I don't need the acid factories
I've got mushrooms in the fields (2)
Julian said "How was the gear?" (3)
They don't sell things to you over there
A cigarette goes out when you put it down. (4)
Two Steps Back
Had a look at the free festivals
They're like cinemas with no films
You could make a fire with the seats
You could boil up some cigar dimps (5)
Or get into the sound
Wait for the ice cream to come around.
Two Steps Back
Two Doors Down
I meet my old friends there
They queue up for cash there
They are part Irish
They have no conscience
They get threatened by the cracker factory. (6)
Two Steps Back
Cracker Factory:
A place where you get into the working routine again. (7)
Rehabs for no hopes
Prefab for jobless dopes.
Notes
1. Dan alerts us to "'Puppet Man,' co-written by Neil Sedaka and released by him in 1969. It was covered by The 5th Dimension in 1970, among others. Lyric: 'But if you wanna see me do my thing Baby pull my string,' etc."
2. This positive reference to hallucinogenic drugs is rare for the Fall. According to Simon Ford's Hip Priest, MES took quite a bit of acid with other band members in the early days. Maybe he had a mushroom phase after that.
From Pott on the Fall Online Forum:
"I reckon it's a reference to the sudden upsurge in the popularity of magic mushrooms after the police shut down the major acid factories in the Operation Julie raids of 1976."
Martin Bramah, in an interview with Simon Reynolds (thanks to Dan):
You can’t play down the influence of drugs on Blue Orchids and The Fall. The first drugs we got into was strong LSD. Pot smoking seemed lame back then--hippie guys who sat around stoned and did nothing. We were anti drugs at first and thought we could reach the psychedelic thing without the drugs. But in a club someone gave us some microdots, when we were about 16. The next day we went to Heaton Park and dropped it and spent the whole day on LSD. Heaton Park is a stately home, the nearest thing to a common in Manchester. And then we discovered psylocibin mushroom were growing in Heaton Park for free. Someone told us that there were fields of these mushrooms. So from that point we were kind of pickled in magic mushrooms and LSD. We just made it our own. It was a free source of entertainment. We’d be munching these things and sitting in pubs and seeing the world in a strange way and getting ideas for songs about our local environment. The Fall was like Coronation Street on acid.
3. This is generally thought to refer to Julian Cope, who was a Fall roadie before forming The Teardrop Explodes in 1978. Cope discusses the song here:
Were you once Mark E Smith's drug dealer?
Philip Harrison, Leeds
Well on the first Fall album there's a track called "Two Steps Back" with the lyric "Julian says/how was the gear/they don't sell things to you over here". People assume this is about me, because Mark and I were quite good friends at the time. He's only six months older than me and we used to write to each other a lot - Mark's letters were always highly illustrated. The thing was, although Mark and I talked a lot about drugs in a purely theoretical sense, I was actually very straight-edge at the time. So I never sold him anything. I'm sorry if that's disappointing.
The comment is a bit cagy, but elsewhere Cope affirms that the lyric (at least as far as he knows) is about him:
Cope, J, Head-on, HarperCollins Publishers, 2000.
"I got a name-check on The Fall album in a song called 'Two-Steps Back'. The lyric was a reference to
magic mushrooms:
"Julian said, how was the gear?
They don't sell things to you over here."
I was pleased as hell, but I was very anti-drugs at that time and could never remember any such
conversation."
4. This lyric is so straightforward that it's actually quite confusing. Martin correctly points out that this is more likely to be true of a rollie than a factory made...
6. "Cracker factory is slang for a mental hospital, and in context that seems the likely meaning...
Bobbins submits:
"Crumpsall is next door to Prestwich and the sight of the world-famous Co-op Biscuit Factory. Crumpsall Cream Crackers were exported all over the world and the factory was a huge local employer, from Victorian times till it closed in the 1980's. It was built to be an all-encompassing 'model' workplace - sports clubs, a library, social events etc - a whole pre-fabricated existence...Probably preferable to the other Cracker Factory though, Prestwich Mental Hospital, which was once the biggest asylum in Europe and a mythical place of fear to kids like me growing up in the area in the 70's.
Dan: "The Cracker Factory is also a 1977 novel by Joyce Rebeta-Burditt. It was well-received and was turned into a TV movie in 1979."
7. ...on the other hand, here it seems that it may be slang for a straight job in general.
Comments (20)
Man, commenting is great now I don't have to enter a bunch of shit...I can't believe it took us so long to figure it out. Actually, if it was just me I'd probably never have figured it out.
So. I draw the jury's attention to the song "Puppet Man", co-written by Neil Sedaka and released by him in 1969. It was covered by The 5th Dimension in 1970, among others.
Lyric:
etc.
"Just who's pulling the strings
I'm all tied up to you"
to Elvis Presley's song of the same title.
I think it's a fairly generic lyrical concept.
Re note 3 - given Julian Cope's subsequent behaviour, the motive for this particular "straight-edge" to discuss drugs is clear; he was really bloody fascinated, to the extent that he eventually abandoned straight-edge and did loads and loads of drugs.
Re note 4 - is there a metaphor here? Something to do with matters unattended going off the boil?
Re notes 6 & 7 - the Cracker Factory could be both things rolled together. That the song regards settling for a life of "working routine" as insanity.
"I got a name-check on The Fall album in a song called 'Two-Steps Back'. The lyric was a reference to
magic mushrooms:
"Julian said, how was the gear?
They don't sell things to you over here."
I was pleased as hell, but I was very anti-drugs at that time and could never remember any such
conversation."
Worth noting Bramah's comment in an interview with Simon Reynolds:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191225171415/http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2018/01/rip-mark-e-smith-me-and-others-on-fall.html
A cigarette goes out when you put it down"
Something specifically about the cigarettes "over there"? Any way to make this stand up?
https://www.internationaltimes.it/archive/index.php?year=1978&volume=IT-Volume-4&issue=4&item=IT_1978-04-01_H-IT-Volume-4_Iss-4_004-005
LSD Underground: Operation Julie, the Microdot Gang and the Brotherhood of Eternal Love
David Black
ISBN: 979-8435533651
See also this adaptation of a chapter from the book, published by the parapolitical Lobster magazine:
https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/article/issue/84/lsd-ira-david-solomon-james-joseph-mccann-and-operation-julie/
David Black available here:
https://thebarbarismofpureculture.co.uk/wp/preface-to-lsd-underground/