Rebellious Jukebox: The Music of The Fall & Show # 709

Article Written by Adam Peltier & Dave Konstantino

“Always different, always the same” - John Peel on The Fall

“It could be worse; you could be the singer of The Fall” - Tony Wilson on Mark E. Smith

“People only need me when they’re down and gone to seed” - Mark E. Smith, “Hip Priest”

Mark E. Smith was one of post-punk’s great deconstructionist agitators. In his forty year career with The Fall, Smith didn’t so much act as a band leader as much as a sonic provoker. While The Fall has literally hundreds of tracks to its name, the compositions arranged by Mark E. Smith and his ever-rotating roster of musical accomplices rarely felt like songs in the traditional sense. The angular and abrasive music made by the band, led by Smith’s idiosyncratic style of spoken/sung fractured rambling, felt more like odd aural experiments, strange tone poems, and at its most extremes, broadcasts from some alien radio station. Smith, while lazily attributed the status of rock-poet, hardly used language to elucidate or beautify. Smith’s strength was in demonstrating the malleability of language, fracturing familiar phrases, garbling syllables, and patch-working words to create a seemingly new variant of English. If anything, Smith showed the arbitrariness of spoken language, taking a piss of the idea of the songwriter/poet, while paradoxically demonstrating astonishing creativity in his heedlessly irreverent compositions. It makes sense he titled an album Perverted by Language. He saw conventional language as bondage, a form of restriction that he rallied against throughout his artistic career. To be blunt, Mark E. Smith was the great anti-poet of post-punk, holding more in common with the likes of William S. Burroughs and Thomas Pynchon, kindred souls who also saw language as bondage and art as an exercise of escaping these bonds.

The Fall’s career was an interesting one to say the least. The band’s first EP, Bingo Master’s Break-Out! was released in 1978 and featured three songs. Of these songs, “Bingo Master”, seemed like a character sketch out of some short story about a dejected bingo caller. “Psycho Mafia”, is a song that seems to reference the then rabid, audience of the late 70s punk scene, who also would spit on bands in a disgusting display of admiration and “Repetition” operates like a band ethos, as the lyrics attack the listener on a different level altogether. As stated earlier the lyrics of The Fall, played with language, but were also cryptic in some ways. Mark E. Smith never liked to discuss the meanings behind his songs or lyrics, he left it open to interpretation. Live At Witch Trials was The Fall’s full-length debut album. The debut featured an altered line up from their first EP. This is something that would happen often within The Fall, they would over the years have 66 different band members in the group with Mark E. Smith remaining the only constant member. Despite its title, Live At Witch Trials was not a live album. It displayed an energetic focus and was at the same time rough sounding. With songs such as “Rebellious Jukebox”, “No Xmas For John Quays” and “Industrial Estate”, The Fall set their own path. Lyrically and musically, The Fall seemed to come from a different place.

There are many different eras of The Fall that could be looked at. They released 31 studio albums in their lifetime. There were 32 live albums and that’s not counting singles and EPs. With the line up changes often came a change in sound. Going back to John Peel’s quote, they were “Always different, always the same”. Brix Smith was part the band from 1983-1989 and helped to shape the sound of The Fall during this time period. It should also be noted that bassist Steve Hanley played bass with The Fall from 1979-1998 and there are many other band members that were with the band for extended periods of time, but there are far too many to name. The sound during the Brix Smith era of The Fall adopted more of a conventional approach, often adding pop hooks to the Fall’s already established sound. A string of critically acclaimed albums and singles followed such as This Nation’s Saving Grace (1985), Bend Sinister (1986), The Frenz Experiment (1988) and I Am Kurious, Oranj (1988), which was the product of a collaboration of Smith and dancer Michael Clark, for the ballet. These are just some of the examples of music that was released from the band’s long career that even featured an album in 2017 called New Facts Emerge. It would prove to be The Fall’s last full-length album released during Mark E. Smith’s lifetime.

As admirable an artist that he was, Smith was far from a flawless human being. Smith endured a life of substance abuse, frayed friendships, and failing health. The Manchurian musician passed away too young, at the age of sixty, undoubtedly the suddenness of his passing exacerbated by the lifestyle he lived. While Smith was not a perfect man, he was one who forever changed the way a lot of us saw what music was and how it could be made. In a statement made by the musician’s ex-wife and former band member Brix Smith, she stated that “He never once compromised...how many others can leave this life with such a singularity of vision?” It's hard to think of very few others. Nobody can say exactly what legacy the future will hold for Smith and The Fall, but perhaps it is much like the alienated young people who find solace in reading Naked Lunch or The Crying of Lot 49, that same type of person will find solace and inspiration in records like Perverted by Language, Hex Enduction Hour, and This Nation’s Saving Grace. For how he changed that way we listened to music and what we thought was possible for a singer to do, all we can say is thank you Mark E. Smith. RIP

The Fall Play List:

1. The Fall - Bingo Master (Bingo Master's Break-Out! - 1978)
2. The Fall - Industrial Estate (Peel Session - May 30, 1978) (The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004 - 2005)
3. The Fall - Rebellious Jukebox (Live At Witch Trials - 1979)
4. The Fall - A Figure Walks (Dragnet - 1979)
5. The Fall - I Feel Voxish (Perverted By Language - 1983)
6. The Fall - Coach And Horses (Reformation Post TLC - 2007)
7. The Fall - Funnel Of Love (Your Future Our Clutter - 2010)
8. The Fall - Theme From Sparta F.C.#2 (The Real New Fall LP - 2003)
9. The Fall - There's A Ghost In My House (The Frenz Experiment - 1988)
10. The Fall - C.R.E.E.P. (C.R.E.E.P. Single - 1984)
11. The Fall - Kinder of Spine (Re-Mit - 2013)
12. The Fall - Fol De Rol (New Facts Emerge - 2017)
13. The Fall - Strychnine (Peel Session - February 28, 1993) (The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004 - 2005)
14. The Fall - Victoria (The Frenz Experiment - 1988)
15. The Fall - Mr. Pharmacist (Bend Sinister - 1986)
16. The Fall - Cruisers Creek (This Nation's Saving Grace - 1985)
17. The Fall - New Big Prinz (I Am Kurious, Oranj - 1988)
18. The Fall - Hip Priest (Hex Enduction Hour - 1982)
19. The Fall - How I Wrote Elastic Man (Grotesque - 1980)
20. The Fall - Totally Wired (Totally Wired Single - 1980)
21. The Fall - What You Need (This Nation's Saving Grace - 1985)
22. The Fall - Stepping Out (Live) (77 - The Early Years - 79 - 1981)
23. The Fall - Psycho Mafia (Bingo Master's Break-Out! - 1978)
24. The Fall - Repetition (Bingo Master's Break-Out! - 1978)

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for February 17.

On February 10th, a previous episode of Revolution Rock aired due to weather conditions. That episode was a repeat of a Black History Month episode from 2017's theme month programming. That show can be downloaded here (Show # 708) and the play list can be found here.

Coming Up on Revolution Rock in 2018!

It’s February which means that throughout this month Revolution Rock will devote each episode that airs in February to theme based programming. Dave and co-host Adam have special programming lined up ranging from jazz, punk, post-punk, garage, country, folk and surf. This year’s themed month programming starts off on February 3rd with a program focusing on jazz musician Miles Davis. Revolution Rock airs every Saturday from 7-9 PM on CJAM 99.1 FM in Windsor/Detroit. It can be streamed via cjam.ca and be downloaded via the very same website afterwards.

Revolution Jazz. The Music of Miles Davis
Saturday February 3rd
7-9 PM
CJAM 99.1 FM (www.cjam.ca)

Miles Davis was a pioneer, not only of jazz music, but also of 20th century music in general. The man has played a crucial role in almost every major development in jazz since the 1940’s. He treated the genre not as a set of parameters to follow, but a fluid forum to explore an infinity of possibilities. To appraise the legacy of Miles Davis, it would be too restrictive to simply focus on one album or even a single era of his career. His exercises in “cool jazz” (see Birth of the Cool) from the 1950’s marked a major shift in post-bebop jazz, introducing a range of classical music techniques into both Davis’ sound and the genre itself. ‘Round About Midnight defined the hard bop subgenre, along with the works of fellow legends like Coltrane and Rollins. Kind of Blue not only changed the landscape of jazz again through its use of modality (using musical modes as opposed to standard chord progressions), but the record also remains the best selling jazz album of all time.

His late 1960’s collaborations with producer Teo Macero (In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, and A Tribute to Jack Johnson) not only invented jazz fusion, but also caused an uproar amongst fans equal to the controversy of Dylan’s “electric era”. Then there are his later era experiments in augmenting jazz and electronic music, resulting in groundbreaking and boundary defying records like On the Corner and Doo-Bop. To say the least, it’s hard to pin Davis down as simply a musician of one movement or style. His music was always in flux, never static, never the same. Like the compositions he poured so much energy into, he refused to travel the safe road or follow the path expected of him. Davis was a musical subversive, never resting on his laurels and never satisfied with repeating himself. To celebrate Black History Month, Revolution Rock will feature a program devoted to the music of Miles Davis. This episode will focus on a selection of his recordings throughout his long career.

Rebellious Jukebox: The Music of The Fall and Mark E. Smith
Saturday February 17th
7-9 PM
CJAM 99.1 FM (www.cjam.ca)

Mark E. Smith was one of post-punk’s great deconstructionist agitators. In his forty year career with The Fall, Smith didn’t so much act as a band leader as much as a sonic provoker. While The Fall has literally hundreds of tracks to its name, the compositions arranged by Mark E. Smith and his ever-rotating roster of musical accomplices rarely felt like songs in the traditional sense. The angular and abrasive music made by the band, led by Smith’s idiosyncratic style of spoken/sung fractured rambling, felt more like odd aural experiments, strange tone poems, and at its most extremes, broadcasts from some alien radio station. Smith, while lazily attributed the status of rock-poet, hardly used language to elucidate or beautify. Smith’s strength was in demonstrating the malleability of language, fracturing familiar phrases, garbling syllables, and patch-working words to create a seemingly new variant of English. If anything, Smith showed the arbitrariness of spoken language, taking a piss of the idea of the songwriter/poet, while paradoxically demonstrating astonishing creativity in his heedlessly irreverent compositions. The Fall have released 31 full-length albums, 32 live albums, 40 compilation albums, and many other variants on the recorded album format. This show will feature a selection of songs from The Fall’s prolific, daunting discography.

Northern Passages: The Sadies Radio Special & An Interview With Travis Good
February 24th, 2017
7-9 PM
CJAM 99.1 FM (www.cjam.ca)

Meet The Teardrops....The Story of The Teardrops..Show # 316

The Teardrops were a very short lived New Wave band that formed in Manchester, England in 1978. The band was assembled by Steve Garvey, who was at the time playing bass in another Manchester based band Buzzcocks. The band initially consisted of Steve Garvey (bass/vocals), Trevor Wain (guitar/vocals), John Key (guitar/vocals), Dave Brisbane (guitar), and John Donelly on drums. With this line up, a four song EP was recorded and released in 1978 by Bent Records entitled In and Out of Fashion. Shortly after the release of this EP, the line up of the band changed to include Tony Friel and Karl Burns, both were previously in the band The Fall. Another EP was released in the same year titled Leave Me No Choice that had the exact same tracklisting as the In and Out of Fashion EP. It seems that the EP was re-recorded with the new band members.

In 1979, a single was released titled Seeing Double. This 7 inch single may or may not have Steve Garvey on it. According to the Buzzcocks discography he does play on it, but it is believed that he did not participate on this single. By 1980, the band had almost run its course. With a few new members (Helen Barbrook, Trev Wain, and Dave Price) the band recorded and released its only full length album that was titled Final Vinyl. Released in January of 1980, the album featured some re-recordings of previous Teardrops songs "Teardrops and Heartaches", was now known as "Everything's O.K" it was originally a B-side on the Seeing Double single. "Teenage Vice" was also on this album, it was previously on the In and Out of Fashion EP and the Leave No Choice EP. The music on this album is for the most part experimental. There are elements of 70s Punk and New Wave on Final Vinyl, at times sounding like a mix between Buzzcocks and The Fall. The band essentially dissolved by 1981. In 1980 a compilation featuring Manchester bands called Identity Parade was released, it featured a song by The Teardrops called "Colours". A very short lived band emerged following The Teardrops called Bok Bok. They released one single in 1980 called Come Back To Me.

While information on this band is scarce, they have released several recordings, that are by now impossible to find (White Dopes on Punk, a compilation released by Castle in 2005 featured two songs by The Teardrops). In 2010, a collection of tapes from sessions that the band did at Graveyard Studios in Prestwich, where the band recorded their final album were found and restored by Blind Eye Records. A series of 7 inch vinyls are set to be released in early 2011.


The Play List:

1. The Libertines - I Get Along
2. The Demics - The Grey and The Black
4. Livid Scaries - Oh Well
5. Pink Cadilac Scat Cats - New York City (Acoustic)
6. Shaky Jack Whiteside - I Won't See You No More
7. Seven Story Redhead - Don't Wanna Know
8. West Coast Pop Experiment Band - If You Want This Love
9. The Music Machine - The People In Me
10. Hollywood Brats - Sick On You
11. The Count Bishops - Teenage Letter
12. White Stripes - Jolene (Live)
13. Fitz & The Tantrums - Breakin' The Chains of Love
14. David Bowie - Move
15. Sheep Look Up - Jumper
16. The Teardrops - Leave Me No Choice
17. The Teardrops - Everythings O.K.
18. The Teardrops - Meet the Teardrops
19. Undertones - Girls That Don't Talk (Demo)
20. Magic Hall of Mirrors - Rosewater Harpsichord
21. Young Rival - Search & Destroy (Live @ Phog Phest 2010)
22. The Pagans - Not Now, No Way
23. Pearl Jam - I Got Shit (Live JonesBeach, New York, August 24, 2000)
24. Radio 4 - Enemies Like This
25. The Hives - Fall is Just Something Grown Ups Invented

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for September 7th. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.