I did once read that Rod Stewart used Totally Wired as an intro/warm up over the PA on one of his US Tours around about 81/82! Not sure it is true or not.
'Totally Wired' was the first Fall song I heard, on the radio, late at night. It was instantly mysterious and rivetting. It actually got a bit of airplay on some stations in New Zealand at the time. I think it was even a top 50 hit ('Lie Dream of a Casino Soul' hit the top 20 soon after). It was the roughest recording I'd ever heard, and I got the false impression (I don't know if this was purely from my imagination or if the DJ was spinning a line) that the song was recorded on a single mic. I also have a VERY vague memory of seeing a video for the song on our local alternative music programme, Radio with Pictures. Very raw video: black and white, the band playing in a rather cramped room lit by a central light. As far as I know there was no official video shot for the song. Maybe this was a sequence from a UK music show? Maybe it was a video for a different Fall song? Maybe it was a video for a different band entirely? Maybe I dreamt the whole thing? At any rate, it was a song that haunted my subconscious for a very many years. Even after I forgot the name of the song, I still remembered the 'rawest recording ever' impression and it served as a benchmark for many years. Then I rediscovered The Fall in the late eighties - and a whole lot of other music that made 'Totally Wired' sound like a Brian Wilson production! I just checked: 'Totally Wired' was indeed a number 25 hit in New Zealand. EDIT: Actually, the video I saw might have been this live one from 1981: I don't remember there being an audience, but it's cramped, the lighting in minimal and it's partially black and white. Anyway, it's a great performance.
Off topic, but the early eighties New Zealand charts were often unexpectedly cool as well as being startlingly uncool. From memory (with a little wikipedia back-up) - On the 'cool side': - Joy Division were superstars, hitting number one with both 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' and 'Atmosphere' (and both re-charted in the top five later in the decade). 'Transmission' only made it to number 2, but it stayed there for weeks and weeks. (Later on, 'Blue Monday' stayed at number two for about six months, and was still in the top ten the following year, but that was a sizeable hit all over.) - Dead Kennedys 'Too Drunk to ****' stayed in the top ten for an embarrassingly long time. Embarrassing, because it couldn't be played on the radio, not even on the weekly top ten countdown show, and they couldn't even say the name of the song (which was shortened to "Too Drunk" for official purposes). It's the only local hit I never heard until I bought it on album years later. - Reggae was king. Bob Marley was a regular top ten fixture ('One Love', 'Is This Love?', 'Could You Be Loved?', 'Buffalo Soldier'), and Toots and the Maytals' 'Beautiful Woman' had an iron grip on the top of the charts in 1982. - A local punk / new wave band (Screaming Meemees) had such a fervent following that they managed to debut at number one with their very first single ('See Me Go'). Unfortunately, their indie label was so small that those first week sales just about exhausted the entire pressing, and the single rapidly plummeted out of the charts after that! - 'The Message' hit number two (its highest chart placing anywhere). - Lots of Flying Nun bands in the charts. They weren't alternative over here: they were mainstream. - The Fall were a chart act! On the 'uncool' side: - Ghastly novelty acts could park their one feeble hit at the top of the chart for months on end. Do you remember Taco's remake of 'Puttin on the Ritz'? Ottowan's 'Hands Up'? Joe Dolce's 'Shaddap You Face'? I wish I didn't. - Just about any act specifically targetting geriatrics could be guaranteed a number one hit that would last for at least a month. There are a number of local, terrible examples (e.g. a live recording of the hymn 'How Great Thou Art'), but the indelible international instance is Foster and Allen with the syrupy 'Maggie', which was our best-selling single of 1983 after sitting at number one for a couple of months. - The dark side of 'reggae was king' was that bad reggae was also king, and UB40 were massive from the very start of their career (though, to be fair, even I didn't suspect, on the strength of 'Food for Thought', just how ghastly the band would become).
Grotesque (After The Gramme) First released 17 November 1980 on Rough Trade LP: ROUGH18 01. Pay Your Rates (Smith) 2:58 02. English Scheme (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 2:06 03. New Face In Hell (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 5:40 04. C'n'C-S Mithering (Smith/Hanley, S/Riley/Scanlon) 7:35 05. The Container Drivers (Smith/Riley/Scanlon/Hanley, S) 3:08 06. Impression Of J. Temperance (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 4:19 07. In The Park (Smith) 1:43 08. W.M.C. - Blob 59 (Smith) 1:19 09. Gramme Friday (Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 3:19 10. The N.W.R.A. (Smith/Scanlon/Hanley, S) 9:10 Mark E Smith - vocals, kazoo, tapes Marc Riley - guitar, vocals Craig Scanlon - guitar Steve Hanley - bass Paul Hanley – drums Produced by: The Fall, Grant Showbiz, Mayo Thompson and Geoff Travis Grotesque is the first classic Fall album, and one of their best. It’s probably the one Fall album which best encapsulates the variety of everything they represent, both musically and lyrically. A wide range of subjects and a wide variety of sounds. There is a more relaxed, open and varied feel, the music seems to breath, where on Dragnet everything sounded congested and claustrophobic. MES is on top form, like he realises he has almost by accident stumbled on the best band in the world and his delivery is full of a kind of confidence inspired by this. MES seems in total control throughout and really for the first time we get the whole range of his vocal quirks and voice manipulations, yelps and whatever. Rarely on any of the tracks does he deliver anything just straight, there is always something interesting going on with the vocals. And the band are just on top form, which is amazing given their age and how long they had been together. Lyrically on a very obvious level the album is full of dense, rich lyrics, an encyclopaedia of MES’s pet obsessions and rants. I have not actually counted but I wouldn’t be surprised if Grotesque contained the most words on any Fall album. The album starts in frantic form with Pay Your Rates. It’s the perfect way to open the album and grab your attention, as it speeds up, slows down and is stretched to breaking point but the band just hold it together. English Scheme – a key track. It starts with some almost Shakespearian poetry, and then continues to describe the English class system as seen through the eyes of MES – the working class, hippy middle class and upper class, in the three ‘sections’ of the song. A brilliant lyric and great music, I love how the vocals get pushed forward on the line ‘Like your psychotic big brother’. New Face In Hell – another key track and a Fall classic. MES narrates a story of espionage and intrigue and government scandal over a rolling melody and the greatest use of a kazoo in a pop song, while squealing out the title in the chorus. It’s just all works so perfectly. C'n'C-S Mithering – the killer pace of the opening three tracks is slowed down temporarily for 7 odd minutes of a glimpse inside MES’s mind as he rambles and wanders all over the place in brilliant fashion and namechecks Herb Albert, Johnny Rotten and Gary Bushell (Bushell was a very prominent figure in the early 80’s, a working class music journalist who is most famous for launching the whole Oi movement through the pages of Sounds magazine, which at its worst was dumb skinhead rock music for racists. I can imagine Bushell would have hated The Fall with a passion, and vice versa). Great lines just spew out seemingly at ease. And side 1 finishes with the wonderful The Container Divers. Musically it’s actually a 12-bar blues, cunningly disguised, and the lyric is obviously inspired by MES’s time as a clerk at the docks. All the tracks on side 1 have become fan favourites. Side 2 is the more experimental I guess. The side starts very impressively with Impression of J. Temperance, all angular guitars and a solid bass and drums, it points very clearly to the sound they would employ over the next few years. Great lyrics as well, a weird bestiality horror story of a hideous replica produced it seems as a result of Mr J. Temperance and a dog finding love together? The middle three tracks are all solid but perhaps the weakest songs on the album, they are all fine but they suffer in comparison maybe to the other tracks, the short In The Park is either a tale of young teenage sexual fumbling’s or a pre-cog of the dogging craze, I’m not quite sure W.M.C. Blob 59 is perhaps not an ideal song to introduce someone to the Fall but again it fits in well and part of the group’s charm that they would just include something like this on an album, which sounds like a badly recorded conversation MES is having with someone on the phone at a VU gig. Gramme Friday is again a nice little track. And the album ends with the epic The N.W.R.A. (the North will rise again!), which explores themes found on many Fall records, like Crap Rap and Hit The North. Unfortunately the MES pre-cog was of here as the North had a bleak few years ahead of it under the Thatcher Government. I don’t know how well non UK Fall fans are familiar with the North/South divide and the decline of the North in the 20th Century, which looms very large in the music of the Fall and other bands from the North like Joy Division (albeit in a more internalised way). But it is a constant theme throughout the history of the Fall, MES (clearly) being a very proud Northerner. The North, and especially Lancashire, was the industrial heart of the UK during the industrial revolution and in to the 19th Century, rich industrialists in every town, big factories, dark satanic mills etc, just look at the number of Football teams in and around the area, a bigger concentration than anywhere in the world I would guess (and in Rugby the North break away from the southern dominated Union and form their own league and code, which persists to this day) Those in the North resented the power held in the South in London, big cultural differences emerge over time, hence a North/South divide. Then the North enters a period of great decline as the traditional industries die out and large areas become quite run down and derelict and bleak, hence the perfect setting for bands like the Fall and Joy Division. Culturally I guess the UK has been dominated by the class system and the North/South divide and it plays such a huge part either consciously or subconsciously. Still to this day if you look at the voting patterns it is essentially the Labour party in the North and the Tories in the South. This really got bad in the 1980’s, as the Thatcher Government seem to wage war on the North, for example closing the coal mines which were nearly all in the North and Wales. This would feed very strongly into the music of the Fall. The expanded edition of Grotesque also includes the last two singles and b-sides and an interview with MES. It’s really with this material that the Fall become not just another post-punk band or whatever but something quite unique and apart from almost all the other groups of the time. It became pointless to even try to compare them to other bands.
Jim, that's a brilliant assessment of Grotesque. I really couldn't say anything that would add to what you have already said. Excellent contextualizing piece too; on the political and cultural landscape of the UK at the time. As noted, that clearly inspired a large amount of M.E.S lyrics contained therein. A situation that 35 years later hasn't really changed much. Grotesque is as vital now in 2016 as it was in 1980 and you don't have to be "a look back bore" to appreciate that. Pretty much a flawless album and their first true masterpiece in that format. The only very slight critique that I can muster is that the Peel Session version of 'New Face in Hell' is even better than the one on the album. I think we can safely roll out that much overused epithet "Genuis" here; without risk of contradiction.
Thanks Yes, that's a great Peel session, all four tracks, probably my second favourite after the 'Perverted by Language' era one.
Wasn't at all familiar with the band before seeing this thread, so I went out and got 458489 A Sides. Really interesting stuff! Where to go from here?
Get everything that came before that compilation first.. Then if you're addicted, get everything that came after..
Yes that has their first 3 singles and some other stuff. Much rawer garage punk sound to the Beggars Banquet year on your comp; so prepare for that. However if you like The Fall, you like The Fall, that's what i say. Or as John Peel put it "The Fall...always different, always the same."
or Live To Air In Melbourne '82! The Fall rock Australia! Seriously, although that's an excellent live album, as jmczaja says really. If you want an album proper then either Grotesque, Hex Induction Hour or This Nation's Saving Grace.
Those are the 3 best Fall albums right there. Bend Sinister is also a personal favourite. TNSG is closest to the Singles comp you have, as it was one of their mid 80's Beggars albums. It's perhaps my personal favourite too, although on another day I could say Hex...
Bushell didn't like the Fall. Remember that MES has earlier taunted Bushell in a letter to Sounds by questioning the latter's masculinity, to which Bushell predictably reacted with a "I'm 6ft 2in, wear Doc Martens and have tattoos" type swagger. I think this was reproduced in one of the CD booklets, wasn't it? The key point is that Bushell was a professional Southerner...
This is a page from UK Magazine Smash Hits (not sure of the date, I cut it out at the time). It was quite amazing to see The Fall in Smash Hits, which was a pop magazine aimed at young teens, it's main thing was it printed the lyrics to songs in the charts, plus some interviews. The thing was by about 1979 they released the kids wanted to read about all the punk and new wave bands, so they started to feature them heavily. So on the front you would see The Clash, Jam, Blondie, Specials, Police etc. I loved it, used to buy it every week, all my favourite bands were in it. Used to cut out all the pictures and put them on my wall. They took a step even further into the unkown by starting an 'Indie' feature every week, which featured the Indie charts, some reviews and in the issue above the lyrics to New Face In Hell (great pic as well). (5 points if you can tell me what Fall song mentions Smash Hits, without googling)
I can't add much more than Jim did in his sum-up of "Grotesque"... Definitely one of my top 2-3 Fall album favorites. I will say that as much as I appreciate The Fall, I would have a deeper understanding of the lyrics if I were about 10 years older and from Northern England rather than New England...
Jim - any way you can add "Beatles" to the thread title so we get a few more posts in the thread? Maybe something like "Since the Fall discography is about 10X larger than the Beatles, are they 10X better?"...
Although I haven't participated in this thread, I've enjoyed following along and relistening to my the Fall collection! Thank you!
Well, I didn't have the older problem but I had the New England one. I didn't need to know what all the words meant (or even hear them all) to know "he means it, man", though. I listened to this record endlessly for months.
I love this album and consider it a top 5 of the all late 70s, early 80s punk albums coming from the UK.
You guys should worry - I'm only four years younger than MES, have the same family name on my mother's side, and hail from even further North in Lancashire than The Fall do, and I can't understand all the lyrics either. If it's any consolation I've seen The Fall play in grim Northern towns on about 10 occasions between 1979 and 1981 and they were always wonderful.
It's not just the words, it's the cultural references (which can be a bit strange at times, my favourite 'Benny's Cobweb Eyes!) and that fact he just throws random things in because they sound good, goes off at tangents, are surreal, mix fact and fiction, time travel etc. All that combined can be quite hard to fathom, but it's also why I love the Fall so much and keep coming back to these records again and again, it's like one each lyric is a wonderful puzzle you enjoy trying to work out.
Hey Jim - yes that is my problem - the cultural references are the main thing I'd like to have a deeper understanding of...
There is a mind blowing brilliant labour of love website that analyses ever lyric brilliantly - The Annotated Fall.
Live In London 1980 - The Legendary Chaos Tape Recorded live at the Acklam Hall London on 11 December 1980. Mark E Smith - vocals Marc Riley - guitar, vocals Craig Scanlon - guitar Steve Hanley - bass Paul Hanley - drums 01. Middle Mass(Smith/Hanley, S/Riley/Scanlon) 2:36 02. English Scheme(Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 2:11 03. New Face In Hell(Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 7:02 04. That Man(Riley/Scanlon/Smith) 2:02 05. An Older Lover etc(Smith/Hanley, S/Hanley, P/Riley/Scanlon) 6:31 06. Slates, Slags etc.(Smith/Hanley, S/Hanley, P/Riley/Scanlon) 4:24 07. Prole Art Threat(Smith/Riley) 2:27 08. Container Drivers(Smith/Riley/Scanlon/Hanley, S) 3:27 09. Jawbone And The Air Rifle(Hanley, S/Riley/Scanlon/Smith) 4:03 10. In The Park(Smith) 2:04 11. Leave The Capitol(Smith/Riley/Scanlon/Hanley, S) 4:17 12. Spectre Vs. Rector(The Fall) 9:48 13. Pay Your Rates(Smith) 3:28 14. Impression Of J. Temperance(Smith/Riley/Scanlon) 4:54 The racks of your local record shop, if you are lucky enough to have one, are probably full of live Fall CD’s. There was a time when there were more live albums in the racks than studio albums, many of which were of dubious origin. The ‘From The Vaults’ series still makes me smile, as if there would be a vault somewhere, anywhere, with dodgy Fall bootlegs stored for prosperity. The ‘Vault’ was probably a box under Mr Smith’s bed. Anyway, getting back to the point, there was a time where Fall live albums were in fact very good and interesting. There are a few early ones that are very much part of the Fall ‘story’ and although these were often released a year or two after they were actually recorded I thought it made much more sense to include them in the timeline when they were recorded, starting with the Chaos tape. ‘Chaos Tapes’ were a label that released live cassettes of UK bands. I have a few of these, often the tape was just a normal TDK tape with a photocopied inlay, very low budget. They seemed to specialise in the new Punk bands of the time – Vice Squad, Chron Gen, Discharge – and I guess the arrangement was they taped a show at the band’s approval and released it on tape and the band got some percentage of the profits. Some sound better than others (some sound really rough like a bad bootleg). For some reason Chaos did a Fall live tape, which seemed a bit unusual given their normal punk stuff. What is good about the Fall tape is that it is very good quality, with the vocals loud and clear and a decent mix for the music, most likely a soundboard recording. MES is quoted as saying that they recorded two nights, one better than the other, but for some reason Chaos released the other night. Bootleg tapes were very popular around this time and I guess the Fall’s motivation in allowing this release was that they would at least make something from it rather than fans buying some other tape at Camden Market at the weekend. Around 4000 copies were released, which went quickly given the Fall’s following at that point, and it became quite a collector’s item until it was released in various CD versions much later. The current version on Sanctuary includes 3 additional bonus tracks recorded around the same time. It’s a good snapshot of the Fall circa late 1980, not the best gig I have heard from this period (it doesn’t really capture how good they were live) but still very enjoyable, featuring 6 tracks from the recently released Grotesque, 4 from the soon to come Slates and another 4 odds and sods, including Jawbone and the Air Rifle which was in the Fall set for quite some time before eventually getting released in studio form on Hex. The Fall live around this period is an interesting listen as MES adds to and changes lyrics. Not an essential album I guess, but one for the hardcore fan or the curious.
