Fall Monday Playlist #20 - Hit The North!
'I’ve never looked at The Fall as a Northern group', MES declared in a 2015 interview. This was, of course, Smith fulfilling his role as curmudgeonly, contrarian interviewee; there is perhaps no other group that was more definitively Northern than The Fall, even when they were staffed by Californian 'dudes' and a Greek keyboard player. This is a selection of ten songs that are rooted, one way or another, in The Fall's Northerness...
Hit The North
I couldn't really start anywhere else, could I? The song's origins lie in a dislike of the South as much as a love of the North: the genesis of the lyric was Smith’s distain for Norwich – complaining on the way back from a gig there that he couldn’t wait until they 'hit the north'. The promotional video features some funky dancing (and even funkier shirt) from MES, and bemused but enthusiastic participation from the patrons of a Blackpool working men’s club.
This version, from Live In Zagreb, sees MES exhorting the group to pick up the pace - 'faster, faster!'
Lucifer Over Lancashire
The b-side to 'Mr Pharmacist' opens with Craig Scanlon discussing the existence of God on an American radio phone-in: 'What I'm saying to you really, is that the training that you must have in discussion at your own level regarding the existence of God is far greater than everybody that's ringing you tonight.'
Cheetham Hill
A tawdry tale of kerb-crawling and soliciting (‘only way you stop is for passion at the station / why you cruising? / to be unfaithful’) featuring Mike Bennett on vocals. Smith's enunciation of 'Manchester' is a particular treat.
That Man
An outtake from the 'Fiery Jack' sessions that appeared on Totale's Turns, 'That Man' is a discordant and angular take (with added kazoo) on The Beatles circa 1963. The man in question 'came down from Accrington', from 'Hovis Land'.
City Hobgoblins
B-side of 'How I Wrote "Elastic Man"' - contains the memorable line 'Queen Victoria is a large black slug in Piccadilly, Manchester'.
Lie Dream Of Casino Soul
The first recorded output of the Burns / Hanley dual drummer line-up. It paints a grim picture of northern life, the protagonist – who lives in a 'slum canyon' – describing down and outs 'sleeping in outside bogs'. This excellently bracing version comes from one of the best Fall live albums, Live To Air In Melbourne '82.
Crap Rap 2 / Like To Blow
'We are the Fall: Northern white crap that talks back.'
Leave The Capitol
Like 'Hit The North', not so much a pro-North song as an anti-South one. Although the cover of Slates claimed that the song referred to 'any capital', there’s a clear sense of Smith’s oft-repeated disdain for London. A track that formed the blueprint for Pavement’s entire career.
North West Fashion Show
Only really makes it onto the list for having 'North' in the title and referencing Bolton and Whitefield (in the early 90s, I visited an old friend who'd recently moved to Whitefield - it was a bit of a sh*thole, frankly). There’s a potentially decent riff lurking in there somewhere, but whilst it’s not as banal and pointless as, say, 'Crew Filth', it does have a similar level of self-indulgence and laddish 'humour'.
The N.W.R.A.
Just as I couldn't really open with anything other than 'Hit The North', it would be unthinkable to conclude with anything but Grotesque's epic climax. Blogger and cultural theorist Mark Fisher considered the song to be a 'masterpiece':
'The story is told episodically, from multiple points of views, using a heteroglossic riot of styles and tones (comic, journalistic, satirical, novelistic): like ‘Call of Cthulhu’ re-written by the Joyce of Ulysses and compressed into ten minutes.'
Smith felt that many misinterpreted the song: 'Here we go again - Smith talking about flat caps and all that clichéd rubbish. Actually, the message in it is that if the north did rise again, they would fuck it up.' Which is indeed exactly what the song does say: 'the North has rose again / but it will turn out wrong'.
This is arguably the definitive version: recorded at Tuts in Chicago on 16 July, it was the opening track on A Part Of America Therein, 1981. 'From the riot-torn streets of Manchester, England…'
As it's that time of year, we shall have a festive playlist next week. Stay safe, and I'll see you then!
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