The Fall have been around for a long time and Mark E Smith has been the one
constant of the group for more than thirty-three years; a remarkable
achievement in the world of pop music. Their career roughly coincides with
my own growth from young man to middle age and throughout this time there
has always been at least one Fall album in my collection. Looking back from
the year 2010 it is convenient to divide their career into four distinct
periods that I shall call ‘early’, ‘middle’, ‘the nineties’ and the ‘contemporary’ or ’late’ or ’modern’ period.
I was too young to see The Fall when they first came to New Zealand in 1982 and besides that, I had not heard of them at that stage. A friend who owned copies of In A Hole, Perverted By Language and Hex Induction Hour
first introduced me to them in either late 1983 or early 1984. The music
struck me as interesting and quite different from anything I heard before,
but it did not light a fire under my belly, so to speak. Mark E Smith’s
vocals were distinctive and somewhat abrasive, a mix not exactly suited to
the world of easily consumable pop stars. However, as the months progressed I came into contact with their other early albums like Live At The Witch
Trials, Grotesque, The Wonderful and Frightening World of… and an
increasing number of singles released by The Fall since 1979; songs like
"Totally Wired", "Lie Dream of a Casino Soul" and "The Man Whose Head
Expanded". These were fine examples of the 3-minute pop song and I soon
began to appreciate The Fall as one of the most important groups in my young
life.
Then in 1985 they released the album
This Nation’s Saving Grace. This was
certainly a lot slicker than anything that had come before and its broad
appeal witnessed The Fall become ‘mainstream’ for the first time. Songs like "I am Damo Suzuki" with its hypnotic drums introduced a new generation to the music of obscure German band
Can. (Smith can take some credit for
their revived popularity amongst those in the ‘alternative’ scene of the
mid-eighties. The mere fact that he name-dropped their lead singer into one
of his own songs was enough for several of my friends – including myself –
to seek out Can’s back catalogue.) This song was preceded by
Paintwork and
My New House and these three together are a trio of songs unlikely to
bettered.
With the release of this album The Fall began to take pride of place in my
music collection and I hungrily acquired anything and everything to do with
them that I could get my hands on, which included the EP
Room To Live
(with the fantastic ‘Solicitor In Studio’) and the EP of the first of many
of the band’s appearances at John Peel’s BBC studio.
One of The Fall’s great strengths was the fact that Smith did not sing about
the things that you heard on the pop charts on a daily basis. The subject
matter was usually serious and quixotic. His observations about ordinary
life were conveyed with insight and wit. He frequently alluded to
contemporary events with his own unique slant. Of course, the meaning of
these lyrics is a very subjective matter and in interviews MES himself does
little to make it any clearer. Like all good authors, he would rather keep
the public guessing – or rather he would prefer for people get their own
meanings from them. Many of his references are to events in Manchester and
England that are unfamiliar to someone like myself at the bottom of the
world, but that doesn’t mean that I cannot get satisfaction from the clever
and erudite use of language. It is easy to recognise an independent mind at
work in The Fall’s lyrics.
With the release of
Nations we enter The Fall’s ‘middle’ period that saw
the release of
Bend Sinister,
The Frenz Experiment,
Extricate and
I
Am Kurious Oranj. These four albums along with
Nations all received
regular play in my house during this time. It is, and was, too hard to
separate one from the other: each album has its moments and at certain times
some get played more than others.
I Am Kurious Oranj was a soundtrack
album that accompanied a Michael Clark modern ballet, and it was an
indication of Smith’s desire to take pop music into new directions. After
all, what modern pop group has ever devoted a whole album into the
investigation of a British Monarch’s psyche? This ‘concept’ was an
indication that Smith likes to reach into the past for material and put a
peculiarly modern slant on its understanding.
Not that I knew this at the time, I just enjoyed the music for what it was.
How could one not? There are so many brilliant tracks to be heard from those
five albums; "Oswald Defence Lawyer" and "Bremen Nacht" from the Frenz
album are two of the standouts for me. (German words and phrases are used
regularly in Fall songs and always with good effect. My knowledge of German
vocabulary has increased ten-fold since I began listening to The Fall! There
is something about the phonetics of German that Smith enjoys and obviously
his fans do too.)
This was the period when the group also had some of their best successes
with singles like "Hit The North", "Victoria" and "Mr Pharmacist", although
I must add that they did not chart here in NZ to the extent that they did in
Britain, so it was really only a Fall-fan’s own commitment to the band that
kept us buying their records. The supply here was rather limited; they
released a lot of material that had an existence beyond the realms of the
studio album. There were many different songs, different versions and covers
of songs available only on single or EP release. This meant that for NZ they
were an import and not widely available, or if they were, they were horribly
expensive.
Then in 1989, the band released their singles on full-length albums – the A
Sides and the B Sides albums were the singles from the eighties, and Early Years contained the singles from the seventies. This was the first
time I had heard many of those songs; including ones like "Australians in
Europe" (which has a superior ‘Peel Session’ version), "Tuff Life Boogie"
and "No Bulbs". I would recommend for any newcomer to The Fall to start with
these three albums. They offer a brilliant cross-section of songs from the
sugar-pop "C.R.E.E.P" to the fantastic and dark "Sleep Debt Snatches". Once
this broad array of music and sounds assaults your senses and has you hooked
and your curiosity aroused then you can delve into the more serious stuff,
like the ten minutes of "Garden", the seven minutes of Smith’s signature
song "Hip Priest", or the nine of "Backdrop" (the only version of which is
available on the Chris Knox recorded "In A Hole".)
The third stage of fallmusic for me begins with the album Shiftwork. This
was another departure from form. It sounded nothing like what we were used
to from the gruppe. There was an outcry from hardcore fans but I appreciated
it for what it was; easy listening – comparatively speaking. Further proof,
if any were needed, to show that The Fall catalogue includes something for
everyone.
It was during the nineties that American fans were at their most
enthusiastic for The Fall. The cover of Sister Sledge’s "Lost In Music"
ensured the album The Infotainment Scan became their biggest seller to
date. Almost twenty years since the band first formed Smith was still
penning chart-worthy songs. These continued successes have been underpinned
by Smith’s hard work and unstinting devotion to his craft. Even in the
noughties The Fall still manage to produce an album every couple of years.
Two years ago, on Imperial Wax Solvent Smith celebrated his fiftieth year
with the growl “I’m a fifty-year old man, and I like it" and one gets the
feeling he is enjoying his work now more than ever.
There have been twenty-nine studio albums (or is it thirty? It is hard to
keep track of them all) and at least as many other releases of live material
and compilations, including the magnificent Peel Sessions Box Set – this is
another good starting point for beginners. I haven’t always paid attention
to The Fall; when marriage and fatherhood came along I found there were
other priorities in life. However, with the advent of the internet and music
blog sites I have been able to re-connect with The Fall, finding like-minded
fans all over the world. One of its great advantages is the Fall Lyrics
Parade where the words to practically every song sung by Smith can be found
and one is finally able to hear what he has been saying for all these years.
On the Fall Forum there is a thread called ‘Mis-heard lyrics’ where people
can post what they thought Smith to be saying and compare it to what was
actually said – it is actually very funny.
At the beginning of the nineties, the band paid their second visit to these
shores, this time only playing in Auckland. Everyone I knew that liked them
was going to the gig. Sadly, I could not. There were mixed reports about it;
some good, some not so. It seems that only rarely do The Fall play for
longer than one hour – but that is in Britain where playing is more of a
‘circuit’ than it is here - which are unique, ‘one-off’ events. I can only
hope after travelling from all parts of NZ that fans are treated to a show
worthy of a band hailed as ‘seminal’ and ‘legendary’.
G A M van Dyk
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