Katy

Many many years ago in the depth of the Reagan years I worked briefly with a punk rock chick named Katy. We worked at a sandwich shop and would play homemade mix tapes for our own amusement and the consternation of the customers. On one of her tapes she put a song called "Johnny's Got a Problem" that I took a fancy to. So I bought the album.

 

Horse Bites Dog Cries (1985)

 

I remember Katy as a very sweet girl. One time former television movie critic and gossip columnist Rex Reed came into the restaurant and yelled at her and made her cry.
Rex Reed is a dick.

Eventually, Katy went to too many free vegetarian meals as a poor punk rocker and ended up quitting and becoming a Hari Krshna. After that I never ran into her again.
I don't listen to this record very often, but when I do I wonder whatever happened to her. 

I hope it all worked out for the better.

 

 

 

*Also of note is that the end of Side One has a backwards bit. I tacked the track going forwards at the end of the file here for your enjoyment and erudition. Unfortunately it's not a satanic call for the blood of the newly born, but just some silliness from the band. Apply with caution anyway.

The X in Xmas is a substitute cross for Christ...

So apparently it's Christmas. I'll be working. It's Ok, I get paid double for it.

But what did I get you for this holiday?

A post that isn't even remotely related to the Fall, that's what.
You're welcome.

Kevin Dunn & the Regiment of Women (1981)

So during that whole period of time I was spamming my own crap b(l)og with posts by Mark E and the not even slightly Funky Bunch, I sought to utilize that time to try and catch up the digitizing of 12" vinyl to where I'd left off with the 7". So you have a number of Lp rarities to look forward to in the coming months. Lucky you.

This is one of them and perhaps the best thing I didn't realize I had. I'd picked it up a while ago and stuck it in the pile and kind of forgot about it. It sat there languishing for a few months until I got the hankering to hit the Lp stack and get caught up and realized that I'd been unwittingly depriving myself of this gem this whole time. How could I have been so foolish.

The gist of  it is that this is a solo Lp by one of the members of the Fans, a then popular Athens, Georgia band that was part of the scene that gave the rest of us the B-52's and REM. It's fabulous New Wave synth pop. But not the hot pink pants and wraparound sunglasses kind that wants to dance. It's a thinking man's synth pop. You can dance to it, but there's something more that meets the ear going on. It's the good good stuff that I'm baffled I hadn't been exposed to earlier in my life.

So here you go. I especially like this one. Learn from my mistakes and listen to this before it's too late. Life is too short not to.

Entrances uncovered

Here is a street sign you never saw for the final nail in the coffin of Autumn courtesy Winter.

So I was digging around looking for a different thing and came across this little Fall promotional gem again to put the proverbial cap on this extended exercise in self indulgence and the excess of being a fanboy. It's pretty rare, I suppose, all things considered. But still only likely to set you back ten bucks on Discogs.

 Selections from 'The Infotainment Scan' plus Crash Course '84-'92 (1992)

It's a promo disc of various tracks by the Fall from releases going back some seven or so years and chosen in a seemingly dart board fashion. These were somebody's favorites and certainly not the obvious choices that anybody actually avidly familiar with the  Fall's output might choose, but there you  have it. Decisions were made. And somebody thought them appropriate to attempt to generate some measure of excitement for "Infotainment Scan" which was in itself and to my mind not a particularly exciting Fall long player to begin with.

What makes it worth the digging that I did to score this gem is that there's an otherwise unavailable live recording of ""Rowche Rumble" as performed by the 1984 version of the band.

Perhaps you were there.

I'm pretty sure that this is the only place that's ever been heard. This show didn't show up in the dodgy series of live Fall releases. God knows how deep that well goes. (I suspect that the true number of existent live Fall recordings could rival the Grateful Dead without being a quarter so tedious.)


Life changing? Probably not. But not everybody's heard it or ever will. So it's got that going for  it

It's the penultimate post of Autumn.

Backdrop (1994)

Originating as a bootleg in 1994 this was a fucking wet dream for me as it was a compilation of a lot of those previously uncollected and unknown to me appearances by the Fall on odd records scattered across many years. Some of these things I still have yet to find or purchase, but thanks to Discogs are only a few mouseclicks from my possession should the mood strike me rather than having to spend years combing record bins in a search for an ever elusive copy.

I like living in the 21st Century.

Some stuff on here I've already posted because I had it. Other stuff not so. It's worth your time and an excellent capper on this silly bullshit that I've been foisting upon the world for the last three months.

Prepare yourself for actual Winter as set forth in the calendar

And take your fleecy jumper you won't need it anymore

So here too is where a couple of missing items that haven't exactly been burning a hole in my brain to fill, but are added to  my Discogs wantlist now, should go but aren't.

Someday, maybe....

Theme from Sparta F.C. (2004)

 A Football anthem for the ages. Somebody needs to start an actual Sparta F.C. just to use this song.

From the best Fall album of the 21st Century, so far. (the US version of "The Real New Fall Album (Formally 'Country on the Click', which is a superior remix of the UK version which in itself was a rerecording of the original lp "Country on the Click" which was scrapped for sucking.)

This also had a video file on it. You can watch it on Youtube. I don't feel like doing anymore uploading shit tonight.

How many of you are stable?

Rude All the Time (2001)

Originally released as a very limited 7" in 2001. Around the time of "Are You Missing Winner?" which was a pretty passable Fall release. (though not nearly as good as 2003's "The Real New Fall LP Formerly 'Country On The Click'" which is a stone cold Fall classic

This is the also limited Cd rerelease with a couple of extra tracks.

According to Discogs they are thus:

1	Distilled Mug Art (Mix 15)
2	"I Wake Up In The City" (Mix 5)
3	Where's The Fuckin Taxi? Cunt (Mix 17)
4	My Ex Classmates Kids (Mix 4)

If you smile you are a creep

Yeah, I know. It's not a compilation. 0 fucks to be had.

Touch Sensitive (1999)

The throbbing single from "Marshall  Suite" that failed to crack the Top 100 on the UK Charts (104) (though the lp itself made it to 59) I don't know, it's a pretty cracking song. There's no accounting for taste, I suppose.

If you’re dead so am I

It's 1999 and the final Fall lp of the 20th Century, "Marshall Suite"

F'Oldin' Money - blue (1999)

F'Oldin' Money - red (1999)

With the 20th Century drawing to a weary close and the Fall limping along with a completely different band for pretty much every release since 1995, MES prepared for the release of "Marshall Suite" with a pair of Cdeps based around (wait for it...) a cover of a song originally recorded by Tommy Blake for Sun Records in 1959. 

The red one would also include a bonus cover of "This Perfect Day" originally by Australian band, the Saints.

Also included were different mixes of "Marshall Suite" tracks including a "New Mix" of "Tom Ragazzi", a track that otherwise was only included in the original double lp vinyl version of the album (which is why I got it.) and which for some reason I can't quite fathom sellers on Discogs seem to feel is worth $200 or so. This one even got the triple disc reissue treatment in 2011.

I'm going to have to go back and listen to this one again a few times now... 

Ok, whatever.

Levitate bonus disc (1997)

Here it is anyway. I feel beneficent today.

The fifty percent interest Ran out today In Bolton

So there's a big jump in years here.
But there really wasn't much in terms of singles or Eps that were worth the time.
There was a 10" of three songs that were all on "Middle Class Revolt"
(a case could be made for 1996 single "The Chiselers" which was mixed into the much longer "Interlude/Chilinism" on Light User Syndrome, but I'm going to hold that in reserve should I need an extra post.)

Oh and in 1995 Mark E. shitcanned long time guitar player Craig Scanlon and while onstage in NYC in 1998 got into an onstage fist fight with equally long suffering drummer Karl Burns causing him, long standing bassist Steve Hanley  and guitarist Tommy Crooks to simultaneously quit and go home to London leaving MES to spend the night in jail after he got into an altercation with keyboard player Julia Nagle post-show.

Thanks to the wonders of the interwebs you can witness the event in question for yourself Live at Brownies, NYC, April 7, 1998 on the Youtubes. (Good times start around the 24 minute mark if you want to get to the incident in question.) In what speaks to the professionalism of the band, the still manage to come back on stage and seethe their way through the rest of the set before running out of fucks and leaving. Good on them.

So that leads us all the way up a few years to the very ass end of the 20th Century and 1998 with the forthcoming "Levitate"lp.

Masquerade cd one (1998)

Masquerade cd two (1998)

Here's the extra songs that will eventually make their way onto the Deluxe double disc reissue of "Levitate" should there ever be one.

 There may be, for some reason somebody thought enough of "Marshall Suite" to do one. (which boggles my mind a bit as I find it a rather weak Fall record).

 "Levitate" is certainly one of the better late 90's- early 00's Fall records so there is that.

Initial copies of "Levitate" also came with a bonus disc with some really odd things like an older live recording of a previously unreleased song called "Pilsner Trails" (ca. 1982) and yet another fucking Christmas fucking song.

If somebody asks nice, maybe I'll post that too.

(But nobody does, so I won't lose any sleep over it).

Stop eating all that chocolate Eat salad instead

Why are People Grudgeful? (1993)

Very strange sentiment from Mark E. who is not exactly widely known to be the forgive and forget type when it comes to people who he has feuded with. 

For a while the Fall were known to perform a song "Hey Marc Riley" after the former guitar player with whom he had a long standing mutual dislike. Each wrote nasty songs about the other with subsequent bands.

In 2007 the Fall released an album titled "Reformation Post TLC" in which the TLC stood for "traitors, liars and cunts..." in reference to the previous year's Fall band which had had enough of Mark E Smith's antics and quit mid-tour.

Maybe he was feeling a twinge or two at the time he wrote that (or at least trying hard to get the Fall a gig or two at some Rave Festival with Happy Mondays.)

Anyway. This little Ep (containing 0 covers!?) was released around the time of "Infotainment Scan" which I can honestly say is one of my least favorite Fall albums.

But I'm city born and bred. Too many car-fumes in my head

 Behind the Counter vol 1 (1993)

Behind the Counter vol 2 (1993)

A pair of Eps in anticipation of the upcoming "Middle Class Revolt" with a very stripped down Fall.

Volume One initially came in a double cd jewel case already set up so you would be able to easily slide in the second Volume when it came out a few weeks later. 

It may surprise you but there was a cover on it.

 "War" originally recorded by the avant-rock political group Henry Cow 

Plus you get another pleasant Fall Holiday Classic in "Happy Holiday" in what was becoming an incongruous and strange habit for someone so decidedly curmudgeonly as MES, but perhaps he was hoping to simply cash in on the season and make a bit of F'Oldin' Money or maybe he just loved Christmas and wanted to show it.

I feel it shouting at him from the flotarium and the cauldron or lectern of its love, baby

Volume 4 (1992)

Volume was a brief foray into an attempt to meld a Cd and and a Magazine. It would last 12 issues in this mixed format before becoming more or less an outlet for techno. This is the only issue I ever purchased. I wonder if you can figure out why.
Go ahead. I'll wait.

You guessed it, there's an exclusive Fall track on it called "Arid Al's Dream"
(The otherwise unavailable Pavement tune was just fucking gravy at the time.)

Otherwise it's a neat 1992 time capsule of the sounds bubbling under the surface of the mainstream which had finally discovered punk rock.

I'm a dippy dippy dippy dippy dooby man

Free Range (1992)

Here's that "Free Range" song again. Well, at least it's not another cover.

In "Everything Hurtz" he says:

"I got the disease tinnitus 
I'm speakin' like I've got Tourrette's
And everything hurts "

I didn't understand it at the time being still a relatively young buck, but damn I fully relate to it now another almost quarter century later.

 Everything does hurt.

We are not adults. We are crusty mystics

Ed's Babe (1992)

Apparently things had cooled down on the singles front for the Fall as there were neither any singles nor Eps for 1991. Perhaps everyone took an extended vacation or simply dark times and no cash to record. Both are equal possibilities, but I'm going to lean towards the latter.

So after a long bit of silence in Fall terms this came out.

I mean, with almost any other band if they didn't release anything for a year, nobody would think a thing of it, but the Fall had almost always had a brand new slab of hot wax, be it a full length, ep or merely a single to slap on your turntable every few months for the previous fifteen years. The neighbors were starting to talk.

Four songs No chaff.
One an alt mix of a song on the new forthcoming "Code Selfish" lp.

It was a good day.

Your brain splits each day from information anxiety

High Tension Line (1990)

The beginning of the much less verbose MES starts sometime here at the start of the 90's. He still commands a pretty imposing and formidable band, but he has a lot less verbiage to throw and more time to piss them all off individually by going around and messing with their shit on stage. (as witnessed more than once. Wander over to the guitar amp and randomly twiddle with knobs. Saunter behind the keyboards and elbow away Marcia Schofield and bang on them randomly for a little bit...)

But don't let that scare you away from this. It's got a terrible Christmas song on it! (and if you've been following along with me, you know how I feel about that).

Shitty holiday music aside, the contemporaneous Fall full length for this time period was "Shift-Work" which was probably the best record they'd done since "This Nation's Saving Grace"

Feel free to argue if you want. It won't change how wrong you are.

"High Tension Line" would have fit on "Shift-Work" pretty easy, but it's the flip that's the real winner despite the less than promising title of "Don't Take the Pizza". It's a really great lost Fall track.
It truly is.

And I'm destined for a bad end

The Dredger EP (1990)

Oh Boy! The Fall have a new EP and the first song is a COVER!!!!

Blah blah Big Bopper blah 

Blah BLAH BLAH! George fucking Jones! BLAH

This record in itself, despite the whole numbered limited edition hubub on the cover which got my youthful juices going as I all but ran to the counter with it is essentially the same as the "White Lightning" CdEp which was otherwise easily obtainable at the same time, cheaper. 

But it wasn't numbered and didn't come with a poster which graced my wall for many years. 

Nothing quite summed up my life at that point than MES's stern and disappointed glare upon me. The poster was like the 2nd father I never had and I was a disappointment to it to.

Dear crew. Try hard.

I'm Frank (1990)

An odd little promo only 12" featuring two tracks from "Extricate" ("I'm Frank" & Chicago, Now") with one song that appeared nowhere else entitled "Zandra"

All that aside.

Am I the only one who thinks that the cover girl on this rather unflattering cover painting bears no small resemblance to the MES's freshly ex-wife Brix?

  You can draw your own conclusions....

I'm very concerned about school buildings

Popcorn Double Feature (1989)

Hey! Look at this! It's the new Fall single and it's a cover! How novel!

This one was originally recorded by the Searchers in 1967 who are primarily only remembered for the song "Needles and Pins". (You can look that up if you don't already have it playing in your head)

B-side is "Butterflies 4 Brains". There. That's much better.

And your tendril ocean bed achievements does not justify your abuse of privacy piracy act

Telephone Thing (1989)

Freshly divorced from Brix and the Fall soldiered on with a slightly more keyboard oriented sound this time. The title track here a collaboration with Coldcut and from the forthcoming Lp "Extricate"

"Extricate" was a grower for me. It took me quite a while to warm up to it.

It's the little things like the awful late 80's keyboard sounds like on the b-side here "British People in Hot Weather" that are sometimes hard to overcome. I do like the song anyway.

Your business friend's Australian. And when he comes it's Götterdämerung!

Cab It Up (1989)

Yeah, that throbbing bass that propels the title track with that bloody blimey space invader keyboard riff. This is late 80's Fall at its best.

The annotated Fall has an interesting bit about the origins of B-side track "Dead Beat Descendent":

'The title of The Fall's Dead Beat Descendant is a Flintstones reference. From the "Long, Long, Long Weekend" episode (season 6). After Fred criticizes a novel about the future that Barney is reading, The Great Gazoo sends Fred, Barney, Betty, and Wilma into the 21st Century (Wilma and Betty will remember nothing when getting back). This happens during a four day weekend that Fred and Barney have off from work.'

So the future they go to is very Jetsons-like. Fred's company still exists and the owner looks just like Mr Slate. Fred asks some questions about the old company and it turns out the $4 Fred took as an advance has now ballooned to 23 million dollars owed. The George Slate the 8000th chases them out yelling, 'Come back here, you dead beat's descendent!' [Fred is pretending to be his own descendant]

Thus, Fall history was made."

This 12" is rounded out by another fucking live version of "Kurious Oranj" which some asshole must have fucking liked more than me. 

And a live "Hit the North" 

oh boy.

Welcome to my world

Live at the Channel 5.12.88


So I was at this show. If you knew what to listen for you could even pick me out in the audience cheering. I can be quite loud when I want to be. This was simulcast on the radio and my friend Mark taped it for me. I appreciated that and still do. This was my first time seeing the band live. It wasn't exactly an amazing show, but it was still the culmination of a long fucking wait for me.

Unfortunately this is a bit of a placeholder until I can track down the original cassette. It's only a 192k rip I made a number of years back and one that is probably in need of an upgrade. If I can figure out where I put the damn tape....

Of interest is their singular nod to the past. The Fall live usually only concentrate on the most recent record and newest songs. Mark E is not exactly one to go out and do a greatest hits show. But they will usually throw the audience a bone and surprise us with an oldie but goodie out of nowhere. In this case it was a version of "Pay Your Rates" from 1980's "Grotesque (after the Gramme)"

It almost makes up for the plodding and seemingly endless version of "Kurious Oranj". I still really don't like that fucking song.

A compilation for the 13th.

the Collection (1993)

A real mish-mosh from Castle Communications for this release containing tracks from the live "Totale's Turns" (1980) "Slates", various singles and misc up to 1983 & "Smile" from "Perverted by Language". I had all that shit to begin with.

I had to pick this up because of two other misc. tracks. The first is "Medical Acceptance Gate" which is an outtake from around the recording of "Slates etc" and the second is the Fall's recording of "A Day in the Life" from the compilation "Sgt. Pepper Knew my Father" which was a charity compilation of bands recording the entirety of the Sgt Pepper lp. I had owned it at one time, having purchased it on its release, but having long previous hit my saturation limit for all things Beatle and irritation at the growing religious movement based around their endless praise, I'd sold it.

I and you have it here now, should you ever feel the need to repel some dumbass Beatle cultist as they try to convert you to their beliefs with an endless tirade about Ringo's drumming prowess.

I'd rather become a fucking Scientologist.

I have to sing gothic, boo hoo

2B (1988)

If I may copy and paste directly from wikipedia:

I Am Kurious Oranj was intended as the soundtrack for the ballet I Am Curious, Orange, produced by contemporary dance group Michael Clark & Company, and loosely based on the 300th anniversary of William of Orange's accession to the English throne.

This is a double 7" box with a nice postcard of tracks and alternates from the "Kurious Oranj" lp the best of which "Big New Prinz" is a reworking of the old favorite "Hip Priest" from back in 1982 which was only 6 years previous, but which may as well have been another cover when it comes down to it. The Fall cover the Fall and make it a Fall cover.

The miserable Scottish hotel, Resembled a Genesis or Marillion, 1973 LP cover

Victoria (1988)

New year, new cover song 12" by the Fall. This time it's the Kinks who get the Fall treatment, which is nice. I'm sure Ray Davies could have used the money as this one rocketed to #30 on the UK charts.

The quality extends to the various extra tracks "Guest Informant" & "Tuff Life Boogie" and "Twister"

Truly these were otherwise magic times for the Fall and I'd finally get to witness them live in this year.

Vote, damn you, Vote!

I Don't Want to Be President (1979)

It's election day here in the good old US of A. While Curtiss A. has stood firm on his position regarding the presidency since 1979, there are as it stands several or more folks who would like the job. As well as a multitude of others standing by and hoping for a chance at one of many other elected positions on ballots across the country. Do your civic duty and vote. If you don't it still remains a mathematical possibility that Curtiss A. may be accidentally voted into office in a weird write-in campaign as yet unconceived in this reality. I've met the man. Nobody wants that to happen. 

So Vote, damn it.

My Cat says eeeee-ack

Hit the North 12" (1987)

Well, this one was Number 57 on the UK charts with a limp dart throw.

I can't say that it's my favorite song the Fall ever did, but I don't immediately reach over and advance anything when it comes on unlike say "Kurious Oranj" which is just a terrible fucking song.

On the 12" you get Pts 1 & 3 of "Hit the North" as well as "Australians in Europe"

Hit the North 7" (1987)

On the picture disc seven inch version you get Pts 1 & 2. 

And my personal, but very intense peeve that no matter how much you try it is physically impossible for the dartboards on the picture vinyl and the outer plastic sleeve to line up. I can only rage silently  and wish a terrible itchy rash upon the designer of this sleeve. You truly are a monster.


But with both of these at your disposal and if you're an enterprising person who is good with editing software you might be able to make a "Hit the North" megamix combining all three which could cause a serious disruption of the Space/Time Continuum and bring about Ragnarok and the end of all life from this particular Dimension all the way into the 23rd. 

I  mean, if you've got the time.

The crux pretty grasped, yet mostly misunderstood

There's a Ghost in my House (1987)

Another day, another kind of improbable cover by the Fall. In this case it's a Holland/Dozier/Holland tune originally recorded by R Dean Taylor on Motown. (Yeah, the Fall do Motown.) But it makes sense in that the song was apparently quite popular in the Northern Soul scene. It is a pretty damn good song and this also somehow improbably broke the Top 50 in the UK for the Fall.

The 7" version, well some of them anyway, featured a nice and nightmarish holographic picture on the front that was sure to confuse the unwary consumer as much as the more typical Fall material that graced the rest of the vinyl for this release.

I mean, the B-side for the single is "Haf Found Bormann" about finding Hitler's personal secretary in South  America which was unlikely to endear them to the unwashed masses who probably never found much reason to flip this record after a single spin. I'm sure there were plenty of "What the fuck is this shit" said in 1987 for the uninitiated.

 "Sleep Debt Snatches" a little number that starts with a jaunty little riff and Mark E. Smith rap about the sleep deprivation before going into a five minute long Fall avant-dub thing. Yeah, purchasers of the 12" version were also not spared.

The 12" also has "Mark'll Sink Us" which is a personal favorite. This one seems to be more or less MES making note of his own propensity for sabotaging the band. Especially noteworthy as this record was the their first taste of the next level of what passes for success.

However. I like all this stuff. But I'm one of those people.

Bits and Bobs

Vinyl Conflict 2 (1986)

An alternate recording of  "Lucifer Over Lancashire" that came on a 7" free with a copy of Melody Maker magazine. Also included are songs by Cocteau Twins, Hollywood Beyond and  Zodiac Mindwarp & the Love Reaction. You remember them, don't you?

 Sounds Showcase (1987)

This one came free with a copy of Sounds magazine and along with the original version of "Hey Luciani" has songs by the Cult, the Go-Betweens,

and the Adult Net who were Brix's other band at the time which included some members of the Fall who would subsequently drop out one by one with each release and whose sole Lp "Honey Tangle" (1989) featured the rhythm section from the by then defunct Smiths.
They actually weren't terrible.  

Try to wash crow's feet off my face but it's ingrained

Living Too Late (1986)


The approach of Middle Age can be a fucking bitch.

"Sometimes life is like a new bar
Plastic seats, beer below par
Food with no taste, music grates
I'm living too late"

I can relate.

They made out you were are an ultra nut

Hey Luciani (1986)

So along with everything else that Mark E. was doing with the Fall in 1986 he also took the time to write a play about the 33 day reign of Pope John Paul I in 1978. He took time out to even sit down with Jools Holland to discuss the whole thing. 

Unfortunately it appears to have been panned and closed in two weeks.

This 12" is related.

The flip has two of the most ear friendly Fall tunes up to this point. "Entitled" and the poppy bouncing "Shoulder Pads1b" which were the bane of many contemporary fashions.

Watch out makers of fads
It's MES in shoulder pads

And I really think this computer thing is getting out of hand

Mr. Pharmacist (1986)

Another year another 12" by the Fall with an obscure cover reworked by the Fall.

In this case it's a 1966 garage pounder originally recorded by the Other Half. The Fall do a respectfully bang up job remaking the song in their own image. Maybe it's that they both had a fondness for pharmaceutical enhancements.

Flip it over and there are two more songs. Listen like it's your birthday.

He scrutinised a little monster And disappeared through red door

Oh! Brother (1984)

Apparently a very early Fall song (live recordings go back to 1977) but revamped and reworked into this toe tapping little number now presented before you. Don't look at me sideways. Just fucking enjoy it.

B-side seems to be about falling asleep in front of the Tv as near as I've ever been able to glean.

 Been there. Done that.

Toilet queue was endless. Couldn't get a beer

the Fall (1985)

Well, actually this particular 12" was properly released in 1986 but the contents had been released on other records the year previous. It collects a B-side from the "Cruiser's Creek" 12" called "Vixen", the three songs from the Rollin' Dany 12" and adds a bonus track called "Barmy"

All stuff recorded in and around the Fall masterwork "This Nation's Saving Grace".

It also introduced the Fall as a covers band with their version of Gene Vincent's "Rollin' Danny" which in itself is not necessarily a favorite song of mine in either context. But it was something that moving forward into the blackness of the 80's would eventually bring some more mainstream success for the Fall. This was probably a good thing as it seems that Brix had taken over responsibilities for styling Mark E as his wardrobe seemed to vastly improve around this time.
No more sweater vests Nicer slacks and shinier shirts

And he wants world peace! He likes ABC!

C.R.E.E.P. (1984)

"The European tour manager's name was Scumech. He was a trendy and Mark referred to him as a 'dickhead'. For some reason, Mark took great offense at Scumech. Perhaps it was because he would keep the tour money in his briefcase and handcuff it to radiators. He was robotic, which also annoyed Mark, He had the facade of being hip, but was actually quite bureaucratic, in a German way."

 This 12" also has one of my all time favorite bits of Fall lyric on "Pat-Trip Dispenser" a song alleged to be about their  American tour manager from Hoboken, NJ

McGinty thought he could fool the Fall
With his imitation speed
But he had not accounted for the psychic nose
He did not know there are no big shots on the rock
And even if there were, McGinty would not be among them


Yeah that's the stuff.

Master bold morals get reptiles and ankles

 Call for Escape Route (1984)

 

So Brix Smith is in the band at last and the sound is evolving again. She brings with her a bubbly stage presence and a very strong pop influence to her new husband's band. For better or worse. Some of the harsher edges are sanded away and while lyrically nothing makes any more sense than it ever did without active listening, the Fall become something that can start to conceive of some kind of general sense of musical success as the pastel hell of the 80's grinds forward. They become at the  same time easier on the ears as well as the eyes in concert.

This is the incarnation that would produce "The Wonderful and Frightening World of"

Slang King (1984)

Initial releases of "Call for Escape Route" came with a bonus two song single included here with an alternate version of "No Bulbs" and an alternate version of the song "Slang King" which graced the current lp.

You're welcome