Read more "Mark E Smith / The Fall Special – Birthday Song"
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]]>Tribute from Scott Creney
Tribute from Nick Panagakos
Crowd Favorites! – in which we ask our readers to pick one definitive song by The Fall
Fall Song Title Generator – Twitter thread created by Gavin Hogg
Crossword in the I – via Chris Wright, an enthusiastic miserablist from Mancunia
Episode 158: Pay Your Rates – via Searching for a Thread
The Sunny Side of Mark E. Smith – via The Dowsers / Stuart Berman
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]]>Read more "Mark E Smith / The Fall Special – Crowd Favorites!"
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Artwork credit: Stanley Chow
Third and final part of a special/tribute dedicated to Mark E. Smith – read tributes by Nick Panagakos and Scott Creney. You can also head over to The Fall Online’s repository of links dedicated to MES.
We asked our readers/followers on Twitter to come up with their favorite Fall track – not an easy feat, by any means, given how huge and consistent the band’s discography is. Some went as far as picking multiple tracks at once – can’t say we blame them.
What’s your favorite Fall song?
Lets make a mix #ripmarkesmith#thefall
— IHeartNoise (@Iheartnoise) January 24, 2018
Cruisers Creek (off of 1985 This Nation’s Saving Grace) proved to be the most popular choice (picked by Noise for Zeros, Julius Orange, Patrick Hemingway and Lickluster.
Other popular choices include
Tempo House (picked by Dynamite Hemorrhage, Rostov’s Coffee)
Theme From Sparta FC (picked by Clemens Kurek, Pope Dan Gusset)
Deadbeat Descendant (picked by Auxiliary Out, Gerard Marshall)
Big New Prinz (picked by Pope Dan Gusset, Scott Briggs)
Worth mentioning again that its hard to pick just one definitive Fall favorite, so dive into the thread to find out more! Feel free to leave a comment about your favorite Fall track below as well.
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]]>Read more "Mark E Smith / The Fall Special – Hip Priest"
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]]>You never speak ill of the dead.
Mark E. Smith was a prick, but he was our prick. Selfishly, and probably to his own horror, he will remain a beloved figure of tour mythology and drunken folklore. Whether he was terrorizing an unprepared interviewer or firing different members of his band hours before a show, Mark E. Smith was anything but a dullard. He carried himself as a giant of nihilism who cared so much about the music of The Fall that everything else, including self-preservation, fell to the wayside. He was consistently unpredictable. Prone to fits of violent rage and acts of irregular kindness, Mark E. Smith fought vehemently against settling for anything less than what he would envision.
Spending the late 1970’s in a post-punk band out of Manchester wasn’t an unusual phenomenon. The Fall itself was an unusual phenomenon. With a catalogue of rotating members who never seemed to last more than a single album, The Fall kept their fans guessing for every show. How drunk would they be? Would there be a mid-song fist fight with Mark? Would they even play? No one could be sure what they were getting themselves into. The only certainty was that you would at least have a story.
My own introduction to The Fall was from a 1988 compilation called Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father. It was a collection of UK groups and, for some reason, Sonic Youth. The album is a track for track cover album of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper and the whole thing is very silly. The Sonic Youth track for Within You Without You is tight. Frank Sidebottom sings For the Benefit of Mr. Kite. Billy Bragg and Cara Tivey sing a duet for She’s Leaving Home, which is very endearing.
The whole thing ends with The Fall performing A Day in the Life and that was the song I listened to the most. Up till then I had only known The Fall as a band I should know. Once I did some digging, I couldn’t stop. With a 32 album discography, practically an album a year, there is plenty of Fall to go around.
Selfishly, I would have liked some more.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQGKyI3YP70]
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