70s Cup Round 1 Match 13 *kath 15- Loki 23*

[Osgood]

Fine, a filler from Exile that would have deserved being left out of the album vs. a dratf of an amateur song sung by a tone-deaf tone with somebody who picked a guitar for the first time the week before. Here's to Bobby Keys and Mick Taylor

A

[Polishgirl]

Not for either.

[Loki]

I don't dislike A, but I've been over the Blues for a long time.

B is a favourite.

[Jumper K]

Nothing worse than MES in his Bontempi phase. 5 minutes of rubbish. That should be the duration of an entire Fall album.
Hang on! Its the Stones. I've found something worse.
B.

[Moleskin]

A.

[Darkness_Fish]

A reminds me of those slow Birthday Party tracks where Nick Cave droned on in a much more aggressive manner, but you still couldn't wait for the bugger to end. I guess it's trying to sound sleazy, but it's more stodgy, lacking in swing and swagger, it'd be a complete write-off if it wasn't for the piano player desperately trying to make something interesting emerge from the treacle. Is it meant to end like that? Why are there three minutes of silence. How avant-garde, it could win them the tie.

The Fall are one of my pet peeves, a kind of edgy outsider band for people who don't like edgy outsider music. But then sometimes I quite like what they do, which makes me even more annoyed. I'm rarely convinced his lyrics are that clever or evocative, I sometimes wonder if it's like Ian Macmillan, he's like a performing northerner for the home counties. More so in his sad decline years, anyway. All of which was negative, and there isn't much of a song here, as G rightly points out. But it's quite appealing in it's mordant, miserabilist atmosphere. I parked my car just on the far side of the MEN Arena the other week, an area that feels like it's beyond some invisible boundary line which isn't allowed any of the money flowing into Manchester these days. It seems strange that there are still areas that look like this song sounds.

B

[naughty boy]

Nice little reference to his old drug buddy Cope in 'Two Steps Back':

Julian said 'how was the gear?' / they don't sell things to you over here

[echolalia]

I dunno – surely there’s a better 70s pick from the Fall than this one! It feels kind of “for the sake of it”. A is one of my least favourite tracks off of Exile.

B

[fange]

Both are filler rather than killer for me, but enjoyable as i love the albums they come from. "Personal faves" territory again.
Comes down to which i'd rather hear most these days, and it's B.


B

[trans-chigley express]

I'm not a big fan of Exile and I'm never too keen on Stones in full on blues mode but it still beats the hell out of B with its yobbish vocals and awful Fisher Price keyboards.

A

[WG Kaspar]

A

[Samoan]

A

[Ranking Ted]

I like the slack, barely fucked vibe of Exile... more than most it seems - it’s not the dark, dangerous Stones of even a few years earlier, but that record set the benchmark for a style of loose, fuzzy rock that they - or very few of their progeny - never got near again. I enjoy getting lost In it from time to time. This is indeed filler - or more accurately, part of the dank backdrop to the more obvious moments of focus - and doesn’t really stand up on its own. Still, I take it over that clattering but fairly minor example of the early Fall doing their early Fall thing. They did better.

A

[algroth]

B walks over, to be honest. Whether there is or isn't much of a track in the Fall's work, there's at least a sound that is more interesting and engaging than A's rehashed blues (even if it kind of is rehashed kraut in its own fashion).

[Hightea]

Horrid Stones song against an okay Fall song.

B

[Neige]

Interesting match, the slide sounds very similar.

I don't like either much, mind.

B

[Sneelock]

...and then there's the crackpot theory that "Exile" is brimming with great tunes.
it's a theory!
A

[toomanyhatz]

I'd be more impressed if A picked something from Goat's Head Soup. Or even Black and Blue, which I don't much care for. Taking anything from Exile is just too easy. Might as well throw darts at the cover and pick whichever title it comes closest to.

Not that I'm the biggest Fall fan either, but at least I can listen and learn something new. I know what Exile sounds like, thanks.

OK, Coan - I'm voting for B.

[never/ever]

Both tracks are not keeping my attention for the full duration but The Fall at least managed to keep it interesting for most of the time.

B

[Rayge]

a - I never bought Exile, although I was passing fond of several that preceded it, and the dozen or so times I listened to it left me unable to tell any of the tracks apart. The whole thing sounded flatter than Norfolk, without the haystacks. I'm far from being a knee-jerk hater of this period of the Stones, or indeed of the blues, but this has very little going for it beyond the odd flourish from Mick Taylor and a bit of a tinkle on the Joanna. Uninspiring and undistinguished. 4 / 10
b - I did buy Live at the Witch Trials (and indeed pretty much everything the Fall put out, single or album, until Brix left), but I never saw them live, nor gave many plays to the albums. They were essentially a singles band to me. For me, the spidery stylings of Martin Bramah's guitar were the highlight of this incarnation of the band, although this track also has some basic interplay between Lard and Karl Burns that I find quite charming. And of course Mark is just Mark, as constant as the Manchester rain and just as cheery. No trees uprooted, but good enough to swat aside the dinosaurs. 5 /10

B