POO -- The Fall

It opens with 'The X in Xmas is a substitute crucifix for Christ', stops in the middle for a brief rendition of Good King Wenceslas before descending into horrendously atonal 'ahhhhh, ah-ah ah AHHHHHHH's for pretty much for the rest of the song, and because the (possibly aforementioned) live version features Mess shouting 'CANYERFUCKINGEDDIT T'GETHER INSTEAD'OSHOWINOFF' at the bassist for pissing about too much.

It will not drag me down
I will leave this ten times town
I will leave this fucking dump
One room, one room
Hotel maids smile in unison
Then you know in your brain
You know in your brain
LEAVE THE CAPITOL
EXIT THIS ROMAN SHELL

I have since bought Grotesque. I would probably go with "Pay Your Rates" now, but that 2nd unnamed track on my CD copy of Grotesque is great, too. I am so clueless on the Fall that I don't even know what the song is called.

I had heard and loved "Totally Wired" before I bought Grotesque, but on the album it fairly pales next to "How I Wrote Elastic Man". What a fecking great album.

Second choice: "Mr.Pharmacist".

Or you can make a choice that seems all wrong by the above criterion, but which in the concealed, outlawed context makes the only kind of coherent sense.

So I'm picking a bloody cover version of all things.

'I'm Going To Spain'

At the moment, for song alone, I'd say 'Tempo House'. That rhythm kicks my arse, and the lyrics are great; "Winston Churchill had a speech imp-p-pedament, and look what he did; erased half of London..." "Hooray hooray". At one stage though, I used to dance around my room in my underwear doing air guitar to 'Hip Priest'.

I'm also about to revisit Grotesque after not hearing it for a very long time. Not necessarily one of my favourite Fall albums, but it should be fun nonetheless. I can't wait to refamiliarize myself. I do recall Stop Mithering and J. Temperance with affection.

Oh, and the best video clip is "Eat Y'rself Fitter." It has Brix dancing AND MES dancing. And it acts out the lyrics.

Is it possible to truly love this band despite having virtually no clue what the hell MES is going on about 90% of the time?

Code Selfish and Levitate are my favorite 90s fall, followed by Infotainment Scan

Disc 1 of A World Bewitched is ridiculously essential as well

damn, haven't been watching the Fall discography since MES' death, but I count 24 live sets plus a 10 show/11 CD set released since 2018? any recommendations from that flood?

The 1982 box is great stuff
I’m not sure about all the other live releases, some of them have certainly looked pretty half assed. Clitheroe Castle is a great concert but shitty sound

There's some excitement on the Fall Forum about two recently discovered archival recordings: the full Electric Circus gig (along with all the other bands' EC gigs recorded by Virgin), as well as what's purportedly the first or second Fall gig, recorded to a reel-to-reel.

yeah I would avoid the live cash-ins, except for the St. Helens 1981 set on Castle Face which iirc is the only legit one?m also very good.

have been spending some time with middle-class revolt recently. pretty unloved album i gather but i saw them around that time and thought it was really great - this very gig in fact

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rx2Y956Oq0

reckoning, m5, hey student, 15 ways, behind the counter - they’re pretty good! maybe bad fall songs? I dunno i am no fall scholar clearly

(I also saw them sometime in the 2010s and thought it was pretty awful)

Always and forever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzNe1NeFzRE

I defy Anyone (that’s Anyone) who hates, or is indifferent, or the rest of us, yeah?, to not acknowledge that this is brilliant!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIZ7AhqflYM

Never liked "No Bulbs" much and that long version has always tested my patience (though Wonderful and Frightening is one of my favorite Fall albums).

Oh the long version is one of my favorite tracks evah!!

The extra long No Bulbs is the Fall’s own Marquee Moon

Wow

have been spending some time with middle-class revolt recently. pretty unloved album i gather but i saw them around that time and thought it was really great - this very gig in fact

📹

reckoning, m5, hey student, 15 ways, behind the counter - they’re pretty good! maybe bad fall songs? I dunno i am no fall scholar clearly

(I also saw them sometime in the 2010s and thought it was pretty awful)

I'd say MES had already gotten pretty personal on the Fontana albums (Bill Is Dead, Edinburgh Man).

MCR is a weird one in that about half of it is really good, or at least fun, but as a whole it just kind of drags. Infotainment is one of the most consistently excellent Fall albums, but it almost goes down too smooth. (Their lone top 10 album!)

I think I agree with that, I don't dislike MCR by any means but it's uneven

that live version of "War" from the Phoenix set linked above is really good

I always took Bill is Dead as kind of ironic and, due to the unavailability of the other Fontana albums in the uUS never heard Edinburgh Man until years later— and I didn’t even know until he’d died that he had relocated there briefly.

Is this the best Fall thread?

Just found this footage of them playing Beefheart's "Dropout Boogie" in 2015 and had to share.

Youtube link - track starts around 28:30 if the timing doesn't work.