yes

Anyone read The Fallen: Searching for the Missing Members of The Fall by Dave Simpson? In this apparently upsetting work, ex-Fall member after ex-Fall member after ex-Fall number describes life under Mark E. Smith as an abusive living hell.

Seeing that every day would indeed be an abusive living hell.

I like Paris. I dunno why. She's so ugly she's pretty to me..

'

Again, though, his wife is amongst the 10 most beautiful women I've ever seen in my life...

I don't like girls like her, and in fact there's absolutely nothing exceptional about her. But there IS ... something special about her. I can't put my finger on it or in it.

this is pretty damn amazing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP_Dk81f9fg

does MES actually like Patti Smith, though? doesn't seem like he would.

That video is awesome haha.

and she is dead nice person.. i met her a couple of years back.. she has "that voice" yknow!

Fall sound.

Man, I love "wings". I heard once it was about Mark E. Smith getting raped by a guard in jail and then going back and killing the officer who raped him.

Man, I love "cruisers creek". I heard this song was about the gas being left on in a party so everyone could get high and then someone lit a cigarette and the place blew up.

I was listening to This Nation's Saving Grace recently. The riff in Spoilt Victorian Child is one of my favourite riffs ever.

I have. It was fucking bleak. Left me feeling all anxious for about a week. I wouldn't recommend it really.

Who tells you what
To tape on your vid. chip
How do you know the progs you miss
Are worse than those you single out?
And what'll you do when the rental's up?
And your bottom rack is full of vids
Of programs you will nay look at
The way they act is, oh, sheer delight
Cardboard copyright
Make it right

Every Fall documentary I've seen ends up a bit like that. There isn't a happy ending to The Fall, in fact there isn't an ending at all.

there should have been an ending to them, in about 1983

no.

Man, I have a hard time ever figuring out what the hell any of the songs are "about". When i read the explanation of jawbone rifle something or other from hex enduction hour i was like wtf? Its tough for me to discern a narrative in fall tunes.

I think there's a definite sense in which any attempt to nail a canonical interpretation of a Fall song misses quite a lot of the point. I think MES is one of the few people who took that rule of poetry that says 'evoke in as many directions as you can' and ran with it.

I'd assumed ASP was taking the piss in the above-quoted post.

i guess the piss taking went under my radar because ive read ridiculous explanations of fall songs in liner notes and whatnot before...so what he said doesnt seem that far from a possible truth...anyways...millie's cobweb eyes etc etc

you stupid fuck.

Yeah, I know what you're saying. To be honest, I'm always astonished that Americans 'get' the Fall. They seem incredibly English, incredibly Mancunian even. But, y'know, you can't stop people enjoying things that are better than everything else.

i'm astonished that anyone truly 'gets' the fall, period.

(not that they're even remotely bad or anything, they're just so... well, y'know.)

THE COMPLETE PEEL SESSIONS (6 disc set) is the best.

Say have you ever have a chance to meet fat Captain Beefheart imitators with zits?

I like The Fall. I'm not sure that I get them, though.

It's just a bunch of simple (but cool as shit) riffs and melodies, repeated over and over and over and over again, with a guy drunkenly talking over top with no rhythm at all and no singing ability, and making noises. That's pretty much every Fall song, give or take. And it's awesome. I will agree, there is something otherworldly about them that's a bit unexplainable. I don't know what makes their music so captivating. I think it's because they're deceptively simple, in a "Pink Flag" kinda way. Sure, the riffs and the chord changes and all that are simple, anyone can play that kinda stuff... but the structures of the song are so brilliant. They usually never go on too long, and when the songs change (if they do) is usually what's most striking. Take a song like "totally wired", when the bass changes up ever so slightly about halfway through the song, it's the most amazing thing ever. Just one slight little bass, uh, "fill", I guess. Or how about "the man whose head expanded" when the entire song slows down suddenly? Just all these amazing little moments. Great lyrics. I dunno. Just a great band.

i pretty much listen to the bass player most of the time im listening to them...maybe thats why i have no idea what me.s is blathering on about

there is nothing to "get" about the fall..........

they are the fall...thats all there is to get about them....

True, totally wired makes alot of sense though, especially for our generation. That's the one song I truly get, becuase to be honest glice nailed it, for my teeny american brain....that alot of it is really english, and I'm not that savvy.

Some songs I think I get well, but I won't dare to try and describe it to a bunch of brits and Atsonicpark.

haha.


Some songs of theirs are unnerving to drive to, kinda like the first time I heard Sy's Evol and was driving and wanted to pull over, in a good way.

That's why I fell....for the fall....because then english scheme came on and was like...happy happy joy joy...haha

I got his Autobiography on Monday, its out in paperback for a fiver in HMV. It reads like he's dictating it to you directly from the pub, starting out with a denouncement of the last incarnaation of the band that all quit on tour in America, then describing his childhood and what he did when he left school.
Not revelatory thus far but its enjoyable enough

mp3s for all the gigs at the bottom of this page: http://www.derekerdman.com/fall/fall.htm

JB's, Dudley UK 09/01/1979
Before the Moon Falls
Rowche Rumble
Flat of Angles
Rebellious Jukebox
2nd Dark Age
Stepping Out
Muzorewi's Daughter
Fiery Jack
No Xmas for John Quays
In My Area
A Figure Walks

Anti Club LA, CA 12/14/1979
Psykick Dancehall
Rowche Rumble
Flat of Angles
Rebellious Jukebox
Various Times
Stepping Out
Your Heart Out
Dice Man
Spectre vs. Rector
Choc-Stock
Muzorewi's Daughter
Interview

Electric Ballroom, London 04/17/1980
Intro
English Scheme
Fiery Jack
Totally Wired
City Hobgoblins
Flat of Angles
How I Wrote Elastic Man
Rowche Rumble
Impression of J. Temperance
Your Heart Out
Cary Grant's Wedding
Dice Man
In My Area
Repetition

MES On "Music View" NYC Radio 1981
Interview June 1981

City Gardens, NJ 06/12/1981
Impression of J. Temperance
Deer Park, Leave the Capitol
Fortress / Totally Wired
Hip Priest
2nd Dark Age
Fantastic Life
Lie Dream of a Casino Soul
Fit and Working Again
Jawbone and the Air Rifle
Session Musician
Container Drivers
Middle Mass
Prole Art Threat

Victoria University, NZ 9/8/1982
The Classical
Hard Life In The Country
Mere Pseud Mag. Ed.
Marquis Cha-Cha
Tempo House
Fantastic Life
Middle Mass
Who Makes The Nazis?
I Feel Voxish
Man Whose Head Expanded
Backdrop

Arena, Rotterdam 02/12/1983
Room to Live
Words of Expectation
Wings
Mere Pseud Mag Ed
And This Day
Hexen Definitive-Strife Knot
I Feel Voxish
Ludd Gang
Garden
Kicker Conspiracy
Backdrop

Concord Bar, Brighton 10/27/1983
Hexen Definitive
I Feel Voxish
Pat Trip Dispenser
Mere Pseud Mag Ed
Garden
English Scheme
Words of Expectation
Wings
2 x 4
C.R.E.E.P.
Backdrop
Kicker Conspiracy
Ludd Gang

Madison, Middlesborough 11/01/1983
Words of Expectation
Ludd Gang
Eat Y'self Fitter
2 x 4
Tempo House
Hexen Definitive-Strife Knot
The Man Whose Head Expanded
Wings
Oh Brother
CREEP
Backdrop
Kicker Conspiracy
Mere Pseud Mag Ed

St. Germans, Cornwall 07/29/1984
Smile
Lie Dream of a Casino Soul
C.R.E.E.P.
Elves
Hexen Definitive-Strife Knot / 2 x 4
No Bulbs
Joker Hysterical Face
Lay of the Land
Kicker Conspiracy
Oh! Brother
Totally Wired

Columbus, Ohio 04/01/1985
Copped It
Fortress
Disney's Dream Debased
Couldn't Get Ahead
Elves
Clear Off
2 x 4
Slang King
Barmy
God Box
Wings
Lay of the Land

daaaaaaamn

No. Must own really but Witchtrails or Prevented stay the best for me.

Roll call for the london show on wednesday?

well, I guess the Fall has had about 20 bass-players since 1977...

all great ones then..

no one knows what mark is blathering on about but then how many people really really understand ulysees , not claim to, really understand it?

This has me wondering... hang on a sec...