Chords
Chords for You Caught Me Out, transcribed by John Meranda. Also check out John’s Easy Chords Page.
Lyrics
Just dropped in, I was driving past
You know I missed you since I saw you last
It gets lonely since you haven’t been around
Little things don’t make me cry
But still I think you could have told me why
You had to move out to the other side of town
Ah you caught me out
Ah you caught me out
But when I saw you walking out the door
You know I just couldn’t take any more
I started crying
Every night I lie awake
Afraid what shape my dreams might take
I call your name out but I never hear a sound
You could say there’s no love lost
But now I sit down and I count the cost
I wasn’t ready to surrender what I found
Ah you caught me out
Ah you caught me out
But when I saw you walking out the door
You know I just couldn’t take any more
I started crying
It doesn’t seem there’s any way
To say the things I wanna say
It’s too late for me to explain I love you
Ah you caught me out
Ah you caught me out
But when I saw you walking out the door
You know I just couldn’t take any more
I started crying
Ah you caught me out
I started crying
Commentary
Unfortunately, that bane of the independent record label, a distributors’ strike, put paid to Kirsty’s chances of converting its airplay hit status into real sales of ‘They Don’t Know’ as it languished in the warehouse, much sought-after but almost totally unobtainable. By the time copies did start leaking out, as both a regular 7-inch single, and a rarer picture disc, it was too late.
Worse was to come. A second single, ‘You Caught Me Out’, was produced, backed with ‘Boys’, which paired Kirsty with the Boomtown Rats. Shortly before its October 1979, release date, however, MacColl and Stiff parted company so the single was never pressed.
It was belatedly released on CD in 2004 with the ‘From Croydon to Cuba – an Anthology’ collection.
There’s a rather good alternate and slightly longer version from the same sessions with a clearer mix, and the song sounds like a closer cousin to ‘They Don’t Know’ than the eventually released version. There are actually a couple of finished mixes available.
According to Kirsty, the musicians on the track were Pete Briquette, Simon Crowe, Johnnie Fingers and Brinsley Schwartz.
Appearances on compilations
A slightly polished up remix appears on ‘The Big Stiff Box Set’
Cover Versions
Tracey Ullman’s version was the easiest way to hear this song for a long time, and here it is:
Australian singer Christie Allen also covered the song though in the early 80s on her ‘Detours’ album. She passed away in 2008.
