Fall Monday Playlist #21 - It's Christmas!
Christmas is nearly upon us, so here's the inevitable festive collection...
Xmas With Simon
B-side of 'High Tension Line' and the only Fall track to begin with an 'X'. Simon Rogers received a writing credit for the song, despite having left the group three years earlier (he claimed he didn't even remember the song). One can’t help but wonder what committed Christians make of the notion that the messiah’s birth surrounded by animals led to ‘no set amount to the number of diseases’ or his death at 33 being ‘as good a time as any’.
Ludd Gang
The b-side to 'The Man Whose Head Expanded' saw MES express a surprising level of aggression at Shakin' Stevens, of all people: 'I hate the guts of Shakin' Stevens for what he has done - the massacre of "Blue Christmas"'. This was pretty hypocritical, given Smith's own tuneless mangling of the Elvis standard.
Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Has already appeared on the 'worst of' list (I've been trying not to use any songs more than once), but I could hardly not include it here...
No Xmas For John Quays
The Totale's version (probably recorded in Preston on 22 November 1979) where MES castigates the group for perceived self-indulgence: ‘will you f*ckin’ get it together instead of showing off?!?’
Fantastic Life
Another track that's already appeared on one of these playlists, but the line about the 'Siberian mushroom Santa' is an ideal excuse to pick this excellent song again.
Jingle Bell Rock
Recorded for The Fall's eighteenth Peel session, broadcast in December 1994, this was a cover of Bobby Helms' 1957 hit. Steve Hanley's account in The Big Midweek explains why it sounds like it does:
'It's my job to go into town and hunt down a copy of the original vinyl for us to work from, but I can only find a Chet Atkins version. When it's played in the studio, we realise I've gone and bought an instrumental. There's no lyrics at all except for the chorus, which is why Mark ends up singing that three times in a row. Somehow he manages to lace it with different nuances of meaning every time, until the last ten seconds when he can take no more and is forced into improvising lyrics about Brussels sprouts and green carrier bags on Oxford Street. Class. Just over a minute we manage to stretch it out to.'
Kicker Conspiracy
A little tenuous, this one, but I had to find an excuse to include this song at some point.
'Football fan at the bus stop / stretched on the balls of his feet / in the Christmas rush / had in his hands, two lager cans.'
(We Wish You) A Protein Christmas
A reworking of 'Proteinprotection' from The Real New Fall LP..., it was released as a single in December 2003. Much more understated than the LP version, it lacks the taut ferocity of the original, but is still worth a listen.
Amorator!
The most tenuous entry here, but I've been looking for an excuse to include this fractured, scrabbling piece of frantic psychobilly (from The Remainderer) on a playlist. It makes it onto this one by dint of its frequent references to frost: 'The frost covers up what the summer men made / the frost covers up what the sloth bird brought'. An interesting alternative version, with Eleni playing a much more prominent role, appeared on 2014's Live Uurop VIII-XII Places In Sun & Winter, Son.
Christmastide
A remix of 'Xmas With Simon', it appeared on a bonus CD that was included on a limited edition version of Levitate. 'Ho ho', says MES in conclusion.
I'll be back next week with - inevitably - a new year-themed list. Until then, stay safe and have as good a Christmas as you can under the circumstances.
Nadolig Llawen!
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