The Fall

["David Hanson" <david_and_sarah@ho...com>]

To me, The Fall are an interesting band. A lot of people I know absolutely 
hate them. It's tempting to say that they are a band that you either love or 
hate. I think the problem is that they have had a very long, and extremely 
patchy, career. I tend to like lots of Fall songs from one album and hate 
nearly all from another album.
I can understand thse who say The Fall remind them of the BAs - due in part 
to the frontman-being-the-only-constant-member syndrome - But also Cat-Scan 
Hist'ry just sounds like it should be a Fall song. Actually, come to think 
of it, didn't the Jazz Butcher write a song called Southern Mark Smith that 
was supposed to be about Gerard?
Talking about the number of members that have been in the band. There was an 
article in The Guardian last week Called "Excuse me, weren't you in The 
Fall?" It listed 43 members who had at one time been in the band. It reminds 
me of the BAs t-shirt - Are you, or have you ever been a member of the Blue 
Aeroplanes... I've never actualy seen the t-shirt, just heard about it. Out 
of interest, how many people have actually been in the BAs? Has anybody got 
the definitive list? In fact, has anybody got a picture of the t-shirt so we 
can see it in all its glory?
Anyway, I'm digressing a bit. if it's a list of 10 songs to listen to by The 
Fall I'll give it a shot:
I'll do it album by album

The Frenz Experiment:

1. Victoria. Cover of the Kinks' song - nice poppy intro to get you used to 
Mark E's northern drawl.
2. Bremen Nacht

Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall:

3. Lay of the Land.
4. Elves. Sounds like "I Wanna be your Dog" by Iggy and the Stooges - no bad 
thing really.
> From Hex Induction Hour
5.The Classical
6. Jawbone and the Air Rifle.

> From Perverted by Language
7. Wings
8. Eat Y'self Fitter

> From Extricate:
9. Telephone Thing
10. Popcorn Double Feature

Actually this is really hard to do and I'm missing songs from Grotesque 
(Impression Of J Temperance, How I Wrote Elastic Man) This Nation's Saving 
Grace (LA, Cruiser's Creek)  Palace of Swords Reversed (Man whose Had 
expanded) , Code: Selfish. Shiftwork etc etc...
Look at this for a discography: 
http://www.freedonia.com/~jeff/fall/discog.html
Come to think of it I've missed LOADS of great Fall songs out - I don't 
think it's possible to whittle it down to 10 songs from 25 years and 26 
albums to get an idea of The Fall's career. I suppose if you can get one or 
two records that you like and try the albums - Hex Enduction Hour is my 
favourite. The Frenz Experiment or Extricate which are possibly two of the 
more accessible albums.
I'm just looked at the list for the Peel Sessions boxed set and I'd say that 
is definitely not the place to start. There are lots of 'difficult' songs on 
there. You could cherry-pick the following:
Industrial Estate
Jawbone and the Air Rifle
Hip Priest
Eat Y'self Fitter
2x4
Creep
Cruiser's Creek
LA
Man Whose Head Expanded
ROD
Guest Informant
Kurious Oranj
Wrong Place Right Time

However, I'm not familiar with the Peel Sessions versions. Only the studio 
album versions so the quality might be an issue.
Anyway, that's enough from me - I'd better get some work done.

Thanks,

David.



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