The Fall - What do I have?

[TG]

I tried to do this some months back and got tossed off the board because of a word in a song title. It goes like this - I’m going through several boxes of 45s that haven’t been sorted or even listened to yet. Among them are several Fall 45s/EPS (w/pic sleeves!). To the best of my knowledge I’ve never knowingly heard the Fall. Friends and my brother swear I must have but I can’t remember ever hearing them. Same friends and brother say I would probably like them. As I have tons of other stuff to listen to I’m going to throw this one out to the board.

Is this good Fall? Great Fall? Have they hit their stride yet? Will I be amazed or is this their bad streak/heroin period/questionable lineup? This is what I have -

1980
A-Fiery Jack
B-2nd Dark Age/Psykick Dancehall #2

A-How I Wrote Elastic Man
B-City Hobgoblins

A-Totally Wired
B-Putta Block

1981
A-Lie Dream of a Cass/Eno Soul
B-Fantastic Life

1983 - Double Single
A-Kicker Conspiracy
B-Wings
C-Container Drivers
D-New Puritan
The last 2 tracks seemingly from 1980 and maybe from a BBC broadcast?

1985
A-Couldn’t Get Ahead
B-Rollin’ Dany

That’s all of it. So, what am I in for?

[trans-chigley express]

So, what am I in for?

A bad time would be my guess

[jimboo]

It's good Fall , you are going to love it.

[Deebank]

All pretty good but Totally Wird and Fantastic Life are the standouts.

[Nervous Ned]

This is my era of The Fall. If you don’t like this lot they are probably not for you. Lie Dream/Fantastic Life is one of the finest singles of all time. Elastic Man is a masterpiece.
Great stuff.

[Darkness_Fish]

I'm no fan of The Fall at all, but "How I Wrote Elastic Man" and "Totally Wired" are great songs. If you only listened to those, you'd be doing yourself a favour. [/deliberately ambiguous]

[naughty boy]

Yeah, it's peak Fall - you're in for a treat.

I'd single out 'City Hobgoblins' too - beautiful big thumping thing, one of my very favourites.


('Cass/Eno Soul'? is that what it says?)

[Deebank]

On the subject of elasticity, I reckon The Man Whose Head Expanded is about as good as they got in this era.

I find How I Wrote Elastic Man a bit rinky dinky

[TG]

('Cass/Eno Soul'? is that what it says?)

No. That’s my replacement for the word that got me thrown off the board by the spam filter.

[Deebank]

('Cass/Eno Soul'? is that what it says?)

No. That’s my replacement for the word that got me thrown off the board by the spam filter.

I just suppose it goes to show ... (ah)

[Pool Hall Richard]

I've got the Bingo Masters Breakout debut on 7". An old boss of mine sold it to me for a couple of quid, he was in a band in the late 70's, he was a bit unsure about selling it, thought i might be conning him. Its mint and i think the recent record collector had it listed as worth £20-25 so i'm more than happy. Also have Fiery Jack 7".

Beyond that im into cd territory and VHS also, that tape which has Elastic Man and the wonderous Kicker Conspiracy, best song ever about footy.

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

I've got the Bingo Masters Breakout debut on 7". An old boss of mine sold it to me for a couple of quid, he was in a band in the late 70's, he was a bit unsure about selling it, thought i might be conning him. Its mint and i think the recent record collector had it listed as worth £20-25 so i'm more than happy.

So he was right, you did con him yeah?

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

Those singles you’ve listed are from my fave Fall years, now get the Slates 10”.

[the masked man]

Elastic Man and Totally Wired are as good as The Fall got. However, I do find early Fall to be hit and miss. They were far more consistent in the mid 80s, particularly on This Nation's Saving Grace. Oddly, the higher production values (John Leckie was producing them at the time) actually suited a band whose charm often rests on their ramshackle nature.

[Pool Hall Richard]

I've got the Bingo Masters Breakout debut on 7". An old boss of mine sold it to me for a couple of quid, he was in a band in the late 70's, he was a bit unsure about selling it, thought i might be conning him. Its mint and i think the recent record collector had it listed as worth £20-25 so i'm more than happy.

So he was right, you did con him yeah?

Bought it 25 years back so back then not so much, now? Of course.

[TG]

I guess I don’t like The Fall. The wife and I sat down and started playing through stacks of 45s that needed to be played and filed or played and gotten rid of. We played some Soul Coughing, The Styrenes, The Eels, Dee Dee Sharp, Snow Patrol, Jon Auer, The Bevis Frond, Wednesday Week. Some good, some bad, some go by barely noticed.
Then we get to The Fall. I’m really looking forward to it. We go through them chronologically.

1) Totally Wired-I did expect some kind of raucous punk rock. This is a slightly more punk B-52s. Single note guitar lines abound. And apparently he’s Totally Wired. Not digging it but it’s early in their career and in the evening.

2) How I Wrote Elastic Man-A few seconds in the wife asks if they have a wind up monkey playing the drums. I said I didn’t think so. Probably going for a Mo Tucker minimalist thing. Same basic hook as the first song-just keep repeating the title. It saves the cost of a rhyming dictionary. Not much of a song here. Does he ever tell us how he did it?

3) Fiery Jack-There’s no convincing her it’s not a wind up monkey drummer after this song.

4) Did they ever find a guitarist who knew any chords? It’s all single notes and there’s not much power behind any of this. Art school types? Who knows? It really isn’t very punk rock. It’s more aggressive New Wave, perhaps. From this point forward Cath is ending all words with a resounding “Uh”. These-uh guys-uh suck-uh. Ya gotta love her.

5) Kicker Conspiracy-Someone said it’s the best song about football. I can only conclude there aren’t that many.

6) Couldn’t Get Ahead-Again with the B-52-isms.

I don’t know what I expected but it certainly wasn’t this. I’m not a fan of genres or bands or record labels or decades or whatever. I buy rock and pop and jazz and C&W and Zydeco and, and, and... What I really like is songs and there really aren’t any here. There are no memorable hooks. Well, there are but they are memorable in the same way as a crazy person on the subway repeating the same phrase over and over is. So many folks here and in the real world love ‘em and I really thought I might too. I can’t imagine playing any of these ever again.

Thanks to all who played along and sorry it took me so long to get around to hearing them. Talk about not one’s cup of tea, though...

[Matt Wilson]

They're (or rather 'he' is) terrible, Tom. Pseudo music for pseuds. Like a cockney cat in a bag fighting to get out, proclaimed by snobs as 'Britain's poet laureate,' or some such nonsense. It has nothing to do with anything other than nostalgia for those 'who where there.'

[Tom Waits For No One]

I guess I don’t like The Fall. The wife and I sat down and started playing through stacks of 45s that needed to be played and filed or played and gotten rid of. We played some Soul Coughing, The Styrenes, The Eels, Dee Dee Sharp, Snow Patrol, Jon Auer, The Bevis Frond, Wednesday Week. Some good, some bad, some go by barely noticed.
Then we get to The Fall. I’m really looking forward to it. We go through them chronologically.

1) Totally Wired-I did expect some kind of raucous punk rock. This is a slightly more punk B-52s. Single note guitar lines abound. And apparently he’s Totally Wired. Not digging it but it’s early in their career and in the evening.

2) How I Wrote Elastic Man-A few seconds in the wife asks if they have a wind up monkey playing the drums. I said I didn’t think so. Probably going for a Mo Tucker minimalist thing. Same basic hook as the first song-just keep repeating the title. It saves the cost of a rhyming dictionary. Not much of a song here. Does he ever tell us how he did it?

3) Fiery Jack-There’s no convincing her it’s not a wind up monkey drummer after this song.

4) Did they ever find a guitarist who knew any chords? It’s all single notes and there’s not much power behind any of this. Art school types? Who knows? It really isn’t very punk rock. It’s more aggressive New Wave, perhaps. From this point forward Cath is ending all words with a resounding “Uh”. These-uh guys-uh suck-uh. Ya gotta love her.

5) Kicker Conspiracy-Someone said it’s the best song about football. I can only conclude there aren’t that many.

6) Couldn’t Get Ahead-Again with the B-52-isms.

I don’t know what I expected but it certainly wasn’t this. I’m not a fan of genres or bands or record labels or decades or whatever. I buy rock and pop and jazz and C&W and Zydeco and, and, and... What I really like is songs and there really aren’t any here. There are no memorable hooks. Well, there are but they are memorable in the same way as a crazy person on the subway repeating the same phrase over and over is. So many folks here and in the real world love ‘em and I really thought I might too. I can’t imagine playing any of these ever again.

Thanks to all who played along and sorry it took me so long to get around to hearing them. Talk about not one’s cup of tea, though...

I'll take them off your hands.

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

[quote="Matt Wilson”]It has nothing to do with anything other than nostalgia for those 'who where there.'[/quote]

Aah Matt, that’s a load of tosh mate...I wasn’t ‘there’, I didn’t really hear The Fall until their later poppier late ‘80s stuff (which I was so-so about) and only got around to hearing these early releases in the last 10 years. Hearing stuff like Fiery Jack, Slates EP, Grotesque and Hex Enduction Hour, I haven’t enjoyed any other band as much in years. The combination of almost skiffle-like rockabilly with post punk edginess and krautrock influences sounds wickedly fun to me.

On the other hand, I can live without a lot of their early canon...e.g. i don’t like Bingo Masters Breakout or How I Wrote Elastic Man nearly as much and find Live at the Witch Trials a bit scrappy and dour.

I’d suggest there’s simply a massive cultural distance between what comes ranting out of Smith’s mouth and most American minds, if that wasn’t so dangerously reductive a generalisation. But I grew up in Dublin and London in the ‘70s, not San Francisco or Austin, and I wonder if that makes a pivotal difference in how I receive and connect with these songs.

People say that Smith sounds like a drunk dosser but his lyrics are like a mix of arcane literature and pub arguments, which can't be a bad thing.

[TG]

They're (or rather 'he' is) terrible, Tom. Pseudo music for pseuds. Like a cockney cat in a bag fighting to get out, proclaimed by snobs as 'Britain's poet laureate,' or some such nonsense. It has nothing to do with anything other than nostalgia for those 'who where there.'

I’ll go along with you regarding the band and their music. Not so much about their fans, though. People like what they like. Who cares?