Jim; Just wanted to say thanks for the heads up on that site... I was actually looking at it a few minutes before your post, getting some insight in to a few of the tracks on Grotesque...
SLATES 01. Middle Mass(Smith/Hanley, S/Riley/Scanlon) 3:35 02. An Older Lover etc.(Smith/Hanley, S/Hanley, P/Riley/Scanlon) 4:38 03. Prole Art Threat(Smith/Riley) 1:57 04. Fit And Working Again(Smith/Riley/Hanley, S/Hanley, P) 3:00 05. Slates, Slags etc.(Smith/Hanley, S/Hanley, P/Riley/Scanlon) 6:33 06. Leave The Capitol(Smith/Riley/Scanlon/Hanley, S) 4:04 Mark E Smith - vocals, kazoo, tapes Marc Riley - guitar, keyboards, vocals Craig Scanlon - guitar, keyboards Steve Hanley - bass, vocals Paul Hanley - drums With: Dave Tucker - clarinet, vocals Kay Carroll - vocals, kazoo Released April 1981 on Rough Trade, RT071 As well as the usual Peel session the current CD also adds the outtake ‘Medical Acceptance Gate’. Slates is perhaps the most consistent LP/Mini LP the group ever released, as all of its six tracks are brilliant, not a wasted note or line anywhere, very varied across the album, and one of the highlights of the entire discography and a firm favourite amongst the fans. The Fall distilled to its best. Almost like each song is one of the six archetypal Fall songs (the fast one, the dense repetitive mad one and so on). Three of the tracks would later be included on the key In Palace of Swords Reversed compilation (four on the CD version) and you could really choose any three tracks at random as they all deserved to be included the quality is so high. It’s the same band as on Grotesque but clearly much tighter due to having some time together, and more focussed, not to diminish the preceding album, but it’s clear the group were learning fast, musically it’s just more interesting, the melodies and riffs are better. Middle Mass kicks things of in great style. Quite a complex lyric, Marc Riley thought it was a dig at him, but then it’s impossible to say. Cult British dub reggae producer Adrian Sherwood shares production credits, perhaps he’s responsible for the lovely second part. I would imagine MES was a fan of the records Sherwood was putting out on his On-U Sound label at the time An Older Lover etc. – love the way the song starts slow and build up and slows down and weaves in and out. As a young man looking for advice in these types of matters at the time I was never sure if I should find an older lover or not, “You'd better take an older lover, You'll soon get tired of her”. What I was not aware of at the time was the fact that MES was in a relationship at the time with Kay Carroll, Fall manager and occasional kazoo player, who was in fact quite a bit older than MES. I can’t imagine she would have been too happy with the lyric, and she was a pretty formidable figure by all accounts, perhaps MES was putting in song what he couldn’t say in person!. Prole Art Threat – “I'm riding third class on a one-class train. I 'm cranked at nought like a wimpey crane” - a big favourite of mine, quite a ‘fun’ song, always bring a smile to my face. The short fast one on the album. I love how the description on the back cover reads “Starring ‘gent’ and ‘man’ in Asda mix-up spy thriller” like that helps! The lyrics are printed in full on the back cover in the style of a transcript of some form of surveillance tape it seems. Genius all round! Fit And Working Again kicks off side 2, another great track which highlights the development of the group musically. A bit of a shock lyrically that the protagonist is fit and healthly in a Fall song. Slates, Slags etc. – An awesome powerhouse musically with a hint of the VU. Much discussion still as to the meaning of the lyrics as MES obviously uses terms with a number of definitions and proceeds to confuse matters throughout by referring to the different definitions, in typical MES fashion, but it all sounds fantastic whatever the meaning! Leave The Capitol – Another big fan favourite, in the 2007 ‘Fall Song Cup’ (run by the Fall Forum) this actually won the whole thing, which was a bit of a surprise. I do not hold it in quite as high regard as some Fall fans (and I think the album would sound better with the last two tracks swapped around) but it is still a really great track. The song seems like a fairly straightforward typical MES rant against London at first inspection, dig a bit deeper and you discover it is heavily influenced by the work of one of his ‘heroes’ Arthur Machen. By now in the Fall discography it is very apparent that horror plays a very important lyrical theme in many songs. Horror as in the British sense, a bit twisted and weird and unnerving, rather than the rather narrow definition of horror that passes for mainstream Hollywood entertainment these days. Growing up in the 70’s in the UK there were some very scary horror TV shows and films, like the Wicker Man, horror anthology films like Asylum and the TV series Beasts, the types of things that the League of Gentlemen would draw on later. MES was obviously a big horror fan and a huge fan of Arthur Machen, one of the fathers of British horror, who was active in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, as a number of Fall songs allude to his works. Leave the Capitol pretty obviously references ‘The Great God Pan’ by Arthur Machen (Stephen King called this book ‘one of the best horror stories ever written. Maybe the best in the English language’). A writer worth exploring if you are a Fall fan! A brilliant and essential part of the Fall discography.
When this came in it supplanted "Grotesque" as the record I was playing all the time, although once I heard the one I wanted to put on the other. Thanks for the Sherwood interview, from it: Not to get ahead of ourselves, but I've been ranting for years to anyone who will listen that in the current Fall MES's position is actually curator. He (and likely only he) knows what Fall records are supposed to sound like, and he makes them. Quite often, he's right. Hiding under a chair - I think he could forego performing on them now, and they'd be just as good.
A Part Of America Therein, 1981 01. The N.W.R.A.(Smith/Scanlon/Hanley, S) 10:57 02. Hip Priest(Hanley, S/Riley/Scanlon/Smith) 7:58 03. Totally Wired(Scanlon/Riley/Smith) 4:06 04. Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul(Smith/Riley/Scanlon/Hanley, P) 2:57 05. Cash 'n' Carry(Smith/Hanley, S/Riley/Scanlon) 6:42 06. An Older Lover(Smith/Hanley, S/Hanley, P/Riley/Scanlon) 6:50 07. Deer Park(Burns/Riley/Scanlon/Smith) 4:30 08. Winter(Scanlon/Smith) 7:35 Mark E Smith - vocals Marc Riley - guitar, vocals Craig Scanlon - guitar Steve Hanley - bass Karl Burns - drums Recorded shortly after the release of Slates, on their US tour in June and July 1981. Released the following year as an LP on Cottage Records, then released on CD in 1992 coupled with Slates and in 1998, again coupled with Slates. Given the date of the recording, and the fact for many years it was combined with Slates on CD, the two records became somewhat linked. A stand-alone release was finally issued as part of the Sanctuary Fall reissue program, and this one was beefed up with four additional tracks recorded on the same tour: 09. Middle Mass (The Fall) 3:51 10. The Container Drivers (Scanlon/Riley/Smith) 3:49 11. Session Musician (Smith/Scanlon/Hanley, S) 8:53 12. Your Heart Out (Smith/Scanlon/Hanley, S) 8:53 Karl Burns is back on drums – Paul Hanley was too young to play the gigs, as many of them were in 21 and over bars, so I presume they asked Karl to fill in, which would in turn lead to the mighty two drum line-up employed for the next few releases as Karl stayed on. The album starts with a US announcer declaring ‘From the riot hit streets of Manchester…’ which is quite an introduction to a live album. The early 80’s was a bleak time for young people in the UK, with youth unemployment at record levels and a Government that didn’t care (all of which would fuel many Fall songs to come, and records like Ghost Town by the Specials). Things were especially bad in the North of England and especially so if you were an ethnic minority, thanks to a largely justified distrust of the Police. All this tension came to a head in the summer of 1981 with riots in several major English cities (London, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool) and from 8th July to 11th July in the Moss Side area of Manchester. The Chicago gig the introduction comes from was a week later on the 16th July so although a little over the top it gives a real sense of the time and mood of the era. Interesting Fall note is that the head of Greater Manchester Police, a pretty divisive figure to say the least, who clamped down on the rioters in no uncertain terms, was the infamous James Anderton, ‘God’s Cop’, who would crop up in the lyrics to Hit The North as well as the Happy Monday’s song ‘God’s Cop’. Anyway, I digress. Another essential Fall live album. Quality varies a little with the different recording locations, but is generally pretty good, the band sound on great form, and as is usual with recordings from this period the real interest is the lyrical variations MES introduces to the songs live. After the release of Slates in April it appears the Fall decided to conquer the world, embarking on a tour of Holland, Belgium and Germany in May, a lengthy 30 odd date tour of the US in June and July and finishing with a few dates in Iceland in September. These travels would inspire Fall songs to come.
First side of this is really good, unfortunately the sound quality gets worse and worse by the end. Should've just released the whole Chicago show, but then of course in the (Wonderful and Frightening) World of The Fall nothing is ever that straightforward. Also, Steve Hanley does give an interesting account of this tour in his book (which you absolutely should read in case you still haven't).
Early Years 77-79 01. Repetition 4:59 02. Bingo Master's Break-Out! 2:25 03. Psycho Mafia 2:15 04. Various Times 5:16 05. It's The New Thing 3:28 06. Rowche Rumble 4:03 07. In My Area 4:07 08. Dice Man 1:44 09. Psykick Dancehall No. 2 3:37 10. Second Dark Age 2:00 11. Fiery Jack 4:43 Released September 1981 on Step Forward records, SFLP6. There are what seems like an endless number of Fall compilations, some of very dubious nature, and many recycle the same material over and over again. In the 80’s however there were three absolutely essential Fall compilations – this one, In Palace of Swords Reversed and Hip Priests and Kamerads, - each one collecting material from previous labels (Step Forward, Rough Trade and Kamera). All three were essential at the time, as due to the fact that the group seemed to swap labels very quickly, Kamera going bust and the fact that independent singles in the UK didn’t stay in print for long meant that Fall fans couldn’t get hold of these singles, practically all of which were brilliant and up to that point the group made a point of not putting singles on albums. So if you wanted these songs in your collection it was a difficult task trying to find them second hand at a decent price and condition. Which is why the three compilations were so essential at the time. Early Years is fairly straightforward, all the Step Forward singles A’s and B’s plus Dice Man from Dragnet. As such it is an amazing album start to finish. It’s largely irrelevant now, due to the expanded albums and various other compilation albums, but it holds a special place in the hearts of fans who bought it at the time, as it’s so good and actually plays like an album in its own right. Step Forward was a nice little record label with some great singles, I believe it was owned and run by Miles Copeland, brother of the Police drummer and also their manager. They never released much, apart from the Fall I have some Chelsea records and a great single by Chron Gen on the label, there was also some interesting singles by the Models, Cortinas and so on, probably around 30 odd releases in total. Alas the label stop functioning around 1983, which meant of course that this essential album ironically went out of print and the music was again unavailable for some time. The two Fall albums proper were re-released again in the early 90’s via EMI (who had acquired IRS, Step Forward’s parent company) but Early Years for some reason was missed and we would have to wait until 2000 for a new (CD) version.
A used import copy of this bought somewhere in Boston in 1984 or '85 was my introduction to the early Step Forward singles. "Repetition" was played repeatedly..... L.
All I can add is that this thread has prompted me to pull out my copy of "Early Years" and give it a thorough cleaning. Haven't had a chance to spin it yet, though!
I first heard The Fall in 1984 and HATED them! They just didn't make sense to my new wave loving ears. Fast forward a decade and a friend made me a tape of the 8489 A Sides and I just kept going back to it until it hooked me in. But I was still unsure about their earlier material - until she made me a tape of Palace Of Swords Reversed. That was the clincher, there was no turning back. I'll have more to add when we get farther down the road. I must point out, though, that the Chaos Tape has the best Spectre Vs Rector. What an amazing piece of story telling music. Also note that MES is a huge Twilight Zone fan, references to which come up often in his work.
Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul Released November 1981 on Kamera Records, ERA001 01. Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul(Smith/Riley/Scanlon/Hanley, P) 3:12 02. Fantastic Life(Smith/Riley/Scanlon/Hanley, P) 5:25 Mark E Smith - vocals Marc Riley - keyboards Craig Scanlon - guitar Steve Hanley - bass Paul Hanley - drums, vocals Karl Burns - drums With: Richard Mazda – saxophone The Mighty Fall get Mightier with a two drummer line-up! Rather by accident the group found themselves with two drummers, as MES invited Karl Burns to stay on following his temporary stint as cover for Paul Hanley on the US tour. A rather odd choice it seemed, there are other examples of two drummers in bands, but in the UK at that time the most obvious example was the then huge Adam and the Antz. In the 70’s it was the Glitter Band. The Fall would utilise the two drum line-up in more subtle and interesting ways (a highlight for me is the live performance of Smile on the TV show The Tube where the two drummers are just brilliant). Lie Dream of a Casino Soul is another candidate for best Fall single ever, and it’s B-side Fantastic Life a very strong candidate for best B-side ever, so all in all another astounding release. It’s a high water mark in terms of both the brilliant MES lyric and the equally impressive music (and a brilliant arrangement) which complement each other perfectly. One of my all-time Fall songs without any question, I just love the lyrics. The song is about the Northern Soul scene in the North of England; early versions substituted Wigan instead of Casino (Wigan Casino being probably the centre of the Northern Soul world in the mid 70’s, around 20 odd miles to the west of Manchester). Arguably Northern Soul was born in the Twisted Wheel nightclub in Manchester, but that closed in 71 so before MES’s time. Northern Soul was very much in the blood of many people from Manchester and the surrounding areas, and MES was obviously a fan of the music and the dominant drug of the scene, speed, which allowed patrons to ‘dance ‘til dawn’ at the famous all-nighters. The song starts with the two drummers playing a mock Motown beat which rapidly becomes ‘The Fall’ once the bass, guitar and organ come in, MES seems to lament the rise of the ‘soulless’ German influenced synthesizer bands and laments the decline of the Northern Soul Scene, which had somewhat lost its way by the early 80’s from its heyday in the 70’s. Classic Fall. Fantastic Life is a brilliant B-side which speeds along beautifully with a hint of the VU present thanks to the organ. This was the first Fall release on their new label, Kamera. MES had decided to leave Rough Trade, not happy with the way they were operating, from what I have read he was hugely disappointed in them not promoting Slates as well as they could, which MES clearly (rightly) thought was such a great record. Kamera was another indie label set up in the early 80’s due to explosion of talent and interest following the punk and post-punk scenes. Like many it sadly didn’t last very long (which meant the records were impossible to find later on, although the German ‘Line’ label seemed to have some licensing deal in place and was able to issue the Kamera Fall records later, which was a godsend at the time). The Fall were the best and most well-known band on the label, which focused on a mixture of punk, post-punk and early ‘Goth’ (or ‘Positive Punk’ as the NME called it at the time) bands. Quite a rag-bag bunch of bands – I have a few records by Charge which I liked, and a band called Blood and Roses who showed some promise, and the second album by the Au Pairs was on Kamera.
That was a good write up (again) on 'Slates'. It's probably the most concise, focused and downright essential Fall release in their vast discography. Those 6 songs are the band at their best and Smith at the absolute peak of his lyrical and vocal powers. Stinging invective laced with wry humour combined with the most clever wordplay you will find on any post punk record. The music is driving, knotty, varied, urgent and insistent by turns. They may not have been the most skilled musicians, but familiarity and a common sense of purpose allowed them to create something unique and special. Middle Mass is nagging and tense, Smith hectoring the listener, demanding your attention over the see-saw rhythm, their peculiar Northern Groove. An Older Lover dark and spiteful, Smith sounding ever more demented towards the end. Slags, Slates motors along on an insistent momentum, not a note wasted. Prole Art Threat is so in your face it is not true. It is like some demented Union Steward railing at his management in a vicious tirade as the band hammer it home in some kind of barely controlled rowdy support. Leave The Capitol is a classic, bitingly satirical, a possible riposte to the London centric music scene. Haven't even mentioned Fit And Working Again, it is almost jaunty in terms of the music, but Smith sounds sardonic and lashes on the irony and sarcasm. It's a brilliant work and needs to be heard by anyone that just sees MES as a cartoon drunken lunatic nowadays.
That's an excellent summary, spot on. Re your last line - did you see the Channel 4 news the other week? They filmed for an hour by all accounts, and then cut it down to the 4 minutes they showed, which I guess was the controversial bits. Buy him drinks in a pub and wait until he says something slightly controversial.
Yes I saw it, it was the usual let's all laugh at the mad drunkard. You'd never know it was one of this country's greatest and most fearless lyricists and literary minds. He's a shell of what he was. It least he hadn't pissed his trousers like the awful BBC Glasto footage.
"An Older Lover" = real Bert Finn stuff, according the sleeve. This is a reference to Salford actor Albert Finney who in his most iconic role in the film Saturday Night And Sunday Morning has an affair with an older woman (played by Rachel Roberts). The line "Doctor, Annabel lies" challenges the women's magazine of the 1970s-1980s.
"Prole Art Threat" just about blew my head off when I first heard it. One of the most abrasive things they ever put on tape, and Hanley's bass line is so brilliantly ugly. I find it impossible to not nod my head/get into it, etc. One of my favorite songs ever. "Lie Dream" is another great single, so perversely catchy like most of this era's stuff, with its horrible saxophone and seasick chorus, and those handclaps sweeping you along. I mentioned in another thread that I think the Riley/Scanlon guitar team is one of the more underappreciated of the 1980s. Their interweaving on things like "An Older Lover" from A Part of America Therein gives me goosebumps. I've been wanting to join the thread for a while; I've loved everyone's input so far!
Finally got around to listening to 'A Part Of America Therein' again. That was one I could never find on vinyl back in the day, due to it being a semi-legit USA import. Their 'Kamera' and 'Rough Trade' releases were hard enough to track down in 1986/87, never mind albums like this. I do remember having this on the twofer cd with 'Slates' when it first was re-issued on digital format, but it fell through the cracks a bit probably due to there being so many Fall live releases flung out in the 90's due to M.E.S' need for cash and the dubious licensing deals he signed (probably in the pub with any passing crook) when he was on 'Permanent Records'. It also seems somewhat in the shadows of the other well known semi-bootleg Fall import live album from the early 80's 'In A Hole' (which I guess will arrive on this thread soon). Nevertheless listening to the most recent standalone cd issue of this, it is a very strong document of a crucial time for the band. I agree with a post above that the version of 'The NWRA' on this is definitive. The band, despite all the travails of this tour detailed in S.Hanley's book, are incredibly tight and focused on stage. Karl Burns, for all his eccentricities and unpleasant character traits, was always a brilliant drummer and you can hear it here very clearly. They sound like a demented garage punk Van Der Graaf Generator with a crazed genius Northern Poet shoving Peter Hammil off the mic. Totally Wired seems to be the same version on Speed Trials and the Perverted By Language BIS vhs video. Again, definitive, although it is a close run thing with the original 7". M.E.S quotes Hunter S Thompson in the lyrics too on this live version, which is interesting. The preceding track Hip Priest is also essential. It is one of their signature tunes and at the time they seemed to be able to nail it on every live recording I have subsequently heard on said myriad contemporaneous releases licensed out by Smith years later. This version is no different. I have been listening to their new 12" 'Wise Old Man' this week and whilst enjoyable; hearing M.E.S' effortless command of his vocal delivery and lyrics here on Hip Priest, highlights just how much years of heavy alcohol and speed abuse has blunted his rapier like edge. He sounds so focused and alive. The sound quality does start to dip on some of the later tracks but the echoey lo fi ambience on C'N'C really works as it actually makes the instruments start to sound like clanging machinery as The Fall emulate the heavy industry of Northern England. You really do get the spleen at 5.15 here! A really essential live document of The Fall at the top of their game.
I've missed the first parts of this thread, but some notes necessary on songwriting! Part of Martin Bramah's departure had to do with being cheated out of songwriting credits. He wrote all the music for "Various Times," which may be the unheralded classic of the early era, but MES gave credit to the whole band, who themselves admit Mark wrote it. Similarly, there was dissent in the band over Mark's desire to record mostly "old" material for Live At The Witch Trials, instead of a newer batch of songs the band had been working on, some of which was lost. But some of it was later recorded on Dragnet - at least five or six sons that Bramah wrote the music for, but you won't see his name on any of the credits. Additionally, not one of the early members of the band (aside from MES) receive any performance royalties at all for the early stuff, which seems criminal to me . . . simply not fair. It's sold well over the past 35+ years, you'd think they'd get something, but no . . .
Hex Enduction Hour First released 8 March 1982 on Kamera LP: KAM005 01. The Classical (Burns/Hanley, S/Hanley, P/Riley/Scanlon/Smith) 5:17 02. Jawbone And The Air-Rifle (Hanley, S/Riley/Scanlon/Smith) 3:43 03. Hip Priest(Hanley, S/Riley/Scanlon/Smith) 7:44 04. Fortress/Deer Park(Burns/Riley/Scanlon/Smith) 6:39 05. Mere Pseud Mag. Ed.(Smith) 2:48 06. Winter (Hostel-Maxi)(Scanlon/Smith) 4:24 07. Winter 2(Scanlon/Smith) 4:29 08. Just Step S'ways(The Fall) 3:21 09. Who Makes The Nazis?(Smith) 4:27 10. Iceland(Hanley, S/Riley/Scanlon/Smith) 6:41 11. And This Day(Hanley, S/Riley/Smith) 10:22 Mark E Smith - vocals, tapes, guitar Marc Riley - guitar, keyboards Craig Scanlon - guitar, vocals, keyboards Steve Hanley - bass, vocals Paul Hanley - drums, guitar Karl Burns - drums, vocals, tapes With: Kay Carroll - vocals, percussion Produced by: Richard Mazda and Mark E Smith Engineered by: Tony Sutcliffe Hip Priest and Iceland were recorded in a studio in Iceland during their brief time there after the US tour, the rest of the tracks recorded in December 1981 in a cinema in Hitchin. MES wanted the album to last exactly one hour, so the final track was trimmed to fit the timing. Depending on what you read MES meant this to be the last Fall album, having grown increasingly frustrated by the whole business, and saw Hex as a huge F-Off to the entire business. In this vein it sounds deliberately low-fi and many critics criticised the so-called ‘poor production’, what MES called at the time ‘Well produced noise’, no doubt aided by the unusual recording locations. I think Hex is the Fall’s masterpiece and their greatest album (not to diminish in anyway a number of other brilliant albums, in a discography full of highlights). But Hex for me just pips a number of other albums. The quality of the songs, the scope of the music, the cohesion of the album as a whole, the ‘depth’ in general of the words and music which means it is an album you can come back to again and again and discover new things. I don’t think I could ever get bored of Hex. When I first heard the album on release I did find it quite a shock. The Fall up to that point had produced a number of quite well produced (by Fall standards) singles that, without ever being ‘commercial’ in the usual sense of the word, were certainly catchy. Listen to Hex now it just sounds like a great post-punk/indie/low-fi/whatever record, but at the time it seemed dense and abrasive and hard to love initially (it didn’t help that each side was 30 minutes long either, with the subsequent deterioration in sound quality). It seemed that with every new release by any band the rough edges were smoothed away, the sound became mellower and more commercial. This was a band getting harder and less commercial. I think it was certainly an album that was ahead of its time, whether by accident or design. Once I got into the album I just fell in love with the whole thing. I find most of it now insanely catchy, the songs seem almost effortlessly brilliant, like everything they touched seemed to turn to gold, every little guitar riff and lead just fits perfectly. And I love the production. To me it doesn’t sound ‘bad’ at all, sonically it sounds perfect. I can understand people saying it is poorly produced, and with Dragnet that was true and had a negative effect on the songs and album as a whole, but with Hex the production is not muddy or lacking in bite in anyway, and fits the songs perfectly. I wouldn’t change a thing production wise. The album kicks off with The Classical, which is pretty much in your face lyrically and musically, a wall of noise. Almost a free form jazz track, the instruments are just going everywhere, like different members are playing different songs at the same time, the only thing that just barely holds it all together is Hanley’s bass. MES at his most angry. A perfect opener. There has been much discussion and debate about certain lyrics on this album. All I will say is that MES is a lyrical genius IMO and apart from the humour and storytelling and the insight, what sets MES apart from other great lyricists like Byrne, Morrissey, Costello and McGowan is his ability to combine first, second and third character narratives, often in the same song and sometimes in the same verse, his use of such narrative devices such as the unreliable narrative voice and epistolary narrative voice, his confusing of narrative time (past, present and future), his perversion of the normal rules of syntax and his choice to just use certain words and lines for sonic rather than narrative effect. He is also extremely sarcastic. Combine all those things, sometimes all in one song, and it seems a little meaningless to pull out words at random for scrutiny when only MES really knows why they are there. Jawbone and the Air-Rifle maintains the momentum and increases the speed. This is the oldest song on the album I think, being played live as far back as September 1980, and being featured on the third Peel Session the same month, what was really the ‘Grotesque’ Peel session with three tracks from that album and this one. So around a year and a half later Fall fans would get the studio version, and it was a wise decision to hold it back as the earlier versions didn’t seem to be fully there, by now they had perfected the song and it’s another Fall classic, a fairly straightforward horror narrative backed by a blistering backing track. Celebrity Fall fan Frank Skinner used to have his house band play the song on his TV show. Hip Priest is the third iconic track in a row. Again a track familiar to Fall fans as it had featured on Peel Session 4 a year earlier and entered the live repertoire around the same time. MES’s signature tune if you like, MES is the Hip Priest, and the theme would continue for decades (yikes) to come with the remake/remodel Big New Prinz/Priest later on in the decade. Fun fact is that it is probably the Fall song most people have heard (although they wouldn’t be aware of it) as it featured in the climax to the film Silence of the Lambs, as Clarice confronts Buffalo Bill in the basement. It’s a brilliant track, a lesson in subtlety, restraint, dynamics and tension building. Fortress/Deer Park – these had been two distinct songs and were played separately live, Fortress being longer, but MES decided to combine them, it made sense in a way as both deal with trips to London, perhaps both songs were inspired by the same trip. Fortress is just a great tune with a clever arrangement, for me it doesn’t go on long enough. Inspired by a trip to the BBC (‘Boiled Beef and Carrots’) to participate in some ‘youth’ themed talk show. The ‘room’ in the song may well be the same one that George Orwell based Room 101 on in 1984, as that was inspired by a room at the BBC that Orwell attended meetings in. Deer Park then takes over with another great riff and seems like it could go on forever. Mere Pseud Mag. Ed. – for me the only weak spot on side 1, the song never really did much for me, at least it’s short. Winter is split up on the album as the last track on side 1 and the first track on side 2, but is just one song, it was always one song live. I don’t know if the unedited complete version exists anywhere, given the history of Fall master tapes (my first official CD version of the album was mastered from vinyl) I very much doubt it. I guess everyone is used to the fade now anyway and would miss it. I have always loved Winter. Some of the longer Fall songs outstay their welcome, I guess it all depends on how much you like the particular groove they are in, but Winter works brilliantly for me the length it is, it never feels too long or gets boring. The lyrics are very amusing and the band add subtle variations throughout the song to keep it interesting. It’s also the Fall song that sounds most like the VU (musically), with the hypnotic guitar and especially the organ. Just Step S’ways acts to snap us out of the hypnotic spell Winter has cast over the past 9 minutes in superb fashion, another great track, and we learn that the Eastern Bloc rocks to Elton John, which always amused me. The first three tracks on side 2 really demonstrate how good this band were in their scope and inventiveness. Who Make The Nazi’s, another highlight on an album of highlights. I think the drums are the key to this track, how they build up, and the guitar work is again superb. Scanlon and Riley always seemed to know what was needed on a song. Scanlon in particular seemed to reach a level around this time of being completely original and as far from any ‘normal’ way of playing the guitar you could get. I’m not sure we are any wiser as to who does make the Nazi’s by the end of the track. I always loved the shouted line ‘Benny’s Cobweb Eye’s’ and pondered its meaning for years until I discovered some while back that it’s a reference to an episode of the UK soap Crossroads, where Benny goes blind and says all he can see is cobwebs, which is classic MES reference dropping. Iceland – not a song I paid a great deal of attention to initially and for many years, I kind of dismissed it as a bit of a novelty (and it’s kind of overshadowed by its noisier neighbours). But I have grown to like it very much, it’s got a nice groove that patiently builds throughout the song and there are lots of interesting noises going on, like a folk band playing Can. And This Day – The Fall’s Sister Ray? It divides opinion amongst Fall fans pretty much straight down the middle between loving and hating it. I must confess I am not a big fan, I normally turn it off before it gets to the end, unlike say Winter, I just don’t like the basic riff that much and find it boring. It actually works far better on the live versions where they introduce more variation, and the ‘jam’ nature of the song works better on a good night when the band hit their stride (the studio version is more one-dimensional). Sacrilege I know but I think they could have left it off the album, reduced the running time to 50 minutes (which would still be long by any standard) and made the sound quality of the vinyl better. The song was cut to just over ten minutes to make the album last one hour, live it’s longer still, depending on the performance (it’s heard best on the live version on Hip Priests and Kamerads). If there were still any doubts that the Fall really existed in a world completely of their own (rather than being seen as just a post-punk band with an eccentric singer) then this album really banishes such doubts. It is almost, as I have said before on this board, that whereas you can compare various bands and see common themes and music etc, the Fall by now were something unique almost outside of the rest of (popular) music. The current in print CD adds the following on a second disc, two tracks from a Peel session, I’m Into C.B. from the next single (but no Look, Know…we will cover this later) and some live cuts: 01. Deer Park (Burns/Riley/Scanlon/Smith) 4:26 02. Who Makes The Nazis? (Smith) 2:56 03. I'm Into C.B. (Smith) 6:30 04. Session Musician (Bierkeller, Leeds 5 November 1981) (Smith/Riley/Scanlon/Hanley, S) 9:11 05. Jazzed Up Punk **** (666 Club, Manchester 15 May 1982) (Scanlon/Riley/Hanley, S/Smith) 4:10 06. I'm Into C.B. (Stars On 45 Version) (Fagins, Manchester 30 September 1981) (Carroll/Scanlon/Smith) 3:13 07. And This Day (Mainstreet, Auckland, NZ soundcheck 20 August 1982) (Smith/The Fall)) 6:13 08. Deer Park (Mainstreet, Auckland, NZ 20 August 1982) (Burns/Riley/Scanlon/Smith) 9:34 09. And This Day (Revisted) (Astoria 2, London 26 February 1997) (Smith/The Fall) 5:24
Would love to see a decent, affordable vinyl reissue of Hex. By the way, I see above that the Early Years LP is referred to as irrelevent with all the CD reissues and bonus tracks but it is still pretty indispensable if you are looking for the band on vinyl. Plus it's a terrific listen from start to finish.
This is a great paragraph! Really hits the nail on the head. Hex is a great record but I actually prefer the singles compilations until we get to Saving Grace.
Hex was the holy grail for the first couple of years after I got seriously into The Fall (post Cruisers Creek, late 1985 into 86). It was mentioned as a masterpiece in interviews and the closest you could get to it were old cassettes of Peel Sessions I got from the local market and the Hip Priests And Kamerads compilation. I didn't actually get to hear the album proper until 1990 when I got a cd player and managed to get my hands on the German Line cd import. There was no ebay then and the long deleted Kamera vinyl never showed up second hand in Glasgow. What a day that was when I finally heard it. I will go into more detail when I have time in the next few days but suffice to say along with This Nations Saving Grace this is their twin masterpiece. I do agree with Jim though regarding And This Day. I find it a bit tiresome too and the album could have lost it without any detrimental effect. There's 45 minutes of genius here easily.
