or, It's no longer classified, is it?
by John Fell Ryan, Excepter
Asked by Body Space Portugal to list 'Favorite Fall Tunes' for you = Not easy task
Narrowed it down to an essential 108 and that was even avoiding the 'obvious shit'
Better for just a rough tour through the Post-Classical …
Neighborhood of Infinity
Who applied cut-up technique literally to himself? “Alastair touched off the tragedy”
ref. Crowley's Qabbalistic innovation of switching the Emperor and the Star, fallen king below and the galaxy above? Is Link Ray on Satyrday the connection between Great God Pan and the Star Gate? We are The Fall.
Wings
ref: Backdrop
Elevation as key to moral vision? “Took to doing some hovering” vis a vis “Here is a list of incorrect things.” Descent is encoded in ascent as debt paid to lower beings (“some gremlins”) brings down the hero (“stuffing loss made me hit a time lock”). A theme played out again and again in Fall lyrics, Fall music, Fall lives. The last frame of the video version finds a bird's-eye-view of a pub seen from a dusty corner of said pub. Bonus points given to version on superb bootleg “Backdrop” for extra guitar parts, Brix vox, etc.
Elevation as key to moral vision? “Took to doing some hovering” vis a vis “Here is a list of incorrect things.” Descent is encoded in ascent as debt paid to lower beings (“some gremlins”) brings down the hero (“stuffing loss made me hit a time lock”). A theme played out again and again in Fall lyrics, Fall music, Fall lives. The last frame of the video version finds a bird's-eye-view of a pub seen from a dusty corner of said pub. Bonus points given to version on superb bootleg “Backdrop” for extra guitar parts, Brix vox, etc.
Eat Y'Self Fitter
ref: Perverted by Language
Operation Mind Control goes to the Hacienda for lickle enduction hour in which “too smart for here” apparently means lime green socks. Elevation comes in a trip “up the stairs, mister” to meet the Manager, who grants precog of info technology's ruination of the economy. “Your bottom rack is full of vids of programs you will nae look at” vis a vis “The powers that be will have to meet and have no choice but to eat each other.” Please note: Mark is dancing.
Hit the North (Part 1)
ref: The Frenz Experiment
Elevation comes from chorus direction: Hit the North! Genre-free dance music and pop detail disguise the “enduced call” hidden in the back. If MES commands The Fall, who commands MES? Is it he “manacled to the city?” Does the spirit of Salford rule its bard?
Excerpt From 'Hey Luciani' Play
ref: Box Set 1976-2007
Mark E. Smith: comedian (or …) modernist? Much like Finnegans Wake, shifting viewpoints and voices set up audience for piss-take epiphany punchline. People seem to laugh at laughter. The repetition of “Tudor, real Tudor” lays evident how historical periods enter “time lock” through recognition of architectural detail.
Sleep Debt Snatches
ref: B Sides 458489
And now my favorite, the trio of b-sides from the “There's a Ghost in My House” 12”. First, gather force from the paradox of the speed head at bed-time. “Close the hatches” on this submarine mission towards the electronic Fall, cuz this boy is like a tape-loop, sawing logs to taunt the hypnogogic state. Flashes of vision in the snatches? A “mark” on the head? Paid the cost to be the boss? A tough PIL to swallow ...
Mark'll Sink Us
ref: B Sides 458489
B-side #2 finds more of the more instrumental Fall, again reverse-vertically inclined. Recalling The Doors over even (cough) “Jane's Addiction” with dread piano jazz atmosphere. My wife earned big points during our courtship by picking this number out on a swimming hole adventure. I prefer this even to the similar “Hip Priest.” (appreciated)
HAF Found Bormann
ref: B Sides 458489
Number three finds the Jewish, female division of The Fall enacting the capture of famed escaped Nazi in South America. However, the details of this “transmission” reveal not the dog of “Boys From Brazil” but a more mysterious plot involving “false Aztecs,” “Sudanese agents,” P2, the Vatican and US rifles. Razors make another appearance, last heard being shilled by racist admen in “The Classical,” but here suggesting “Ancient Alien” theory or at least the kind of global psychic murder agents outlined by Burroughs in the Cities of Red Night, et al. The vid version above is sourced from German FM radio broadcast from '87.
Guest Informant
ref: Backdrop
Perhaps the most controversial Fall song in that no one seems to be able to listen to the words without checking the internet for “verification.” Maintain it's: “BAZDAD STATE COG ANALYST” (check last page tail end of Wings vid link above for drag hint at BAG/ZDAD genius G/Z switch mystery solution) as song seems to be tale of “Secret Masters” with crap gear auditioning low-level “cog” operatives who only “tapped the pillows” for higher-level work like the suave villain of the titular phrase. (rejected in the end) Yet another psychic spy shaggy dog story. Versions abound, but my fave remains the barnstorming Backdrop cut. (again)
Blindness (Alternate version)
ref: Box Set 1976-2007
You know why people kick you when you're down? Because it's so easy. Vertical primacy expressed in lyric “Flat of evil.” MES “only on one leg” ponders street scene in which a “blind man next to a poster” reading “DO YOU WORK HARD?” Never the message to get when you're laid up with injury. The admen again in the dark corners, securing sync rights to SUV sales, discouraging the down and out. Fave vers in on the “forgotten” box set with GI drum intro, but check out Robert Plant on hand claps in above vid link via “Jools Holland” UK broadcast (!!!)
Ol' Gang (Live)
ref: Masquerade [CD Single Disc 2]
Obscure of obscure, but what's the point of owning it all if there aren't gems for the obsessed? The protagonist done-in by hooligans in the absence of titular group. As this line-up of The Fall would be done-in touring this record, consider this recording the last blast of riff rave glory. “Ol' gang run away from me!” Precog blues! As MES' aunt would explain, “What's the point of knowing the bus will be late?”
Dr. Bucks' Letter
ref: The Unutterable
Part 3 list riff: “I lost my temper with a friend.” Bare comfort in the obvious “I was depressed.” Reading magazines … football results … it doesn't matter at this point: Mark E. Smith has found his Poet's Voice and DID YOU KNOW Dr. Bucks Letter is L$D backwards? “Tong” backwards is “gnot” … another mystic trick on the missing (sic)? Album title and boxing theme serve just to taunt the Kubrickians among us. Antidote to those that know. Miss em miss em miss em.
Crew Filth
ref: Code: Selfish
Laughed at as a piss track, observe: The impossible task of matching house beats with “rock guitar” dispensed with before the first minute. Then appears MES, sitting Indian style in back of tour van, curry chips forming a demi-circle around the cog swami, dispensing mystic put-downs of various Fall toadies. Semiotics please note the “crew filth” origins are uniformly “southern” ... Kiwis, bush babies, brown spectacles. Reminds one of recent MES tour tales of kibosh on viewing “Lord of the Rings” in hotel rooms – New Zealand (southern hemisphere), hobbit, dwarves, elves, little people. The eternal fear of the cost of small things remains – “You had to watch your wallet. That's why we kept our backs to the wall.” MES keeps his best in the back. “They had to do some work one night, and their hair turned white.” Amen.
Light/Fireworks
ref: The Infotainment Scan
Precog of the smoking ban as herald loud the Death of Man? The cold you can't control? This track reminds me of a scene in “The Right Stuff” with sparks from an OZ bonfire fading up to the spacecraft orbiting above. Insomniac meditations on cigarette ash prompting visionary satellite view? (Again, with the vertical shift.) Last line “fear craft” suggest something more sinister.
Noel's Chemical Effluence
ref: The Twenty-Seven Points
Elevation again as we find the band “going right through the Alps.” Familiar touring detail (“Waiting for the keyboards as ever”) mix with ruminations on chemical imbalances causing one to “envision white faces.” There's a renaissance feel to the track with Gabriel horns and all … the recoup of a mark's scent heralds the return of the “detective instinct” by verse three. “Look what happened at the Lodge.” How's Annie?
The Funeral Mix
ref: Listening In – Lost Singles Tracks 1990-92
The End (?)
NOTE: This article ended up un-published by Body Space, perhaps due to the extreme difficulties in translating the most English of artists into Portuguese. Who knows?
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