Fall Monday Playlist #22 - It's The New Thing!

 

There are already a multitude of articles describing what a terrible year 2020 has been (who would have thought any year could have blown 2016 out the water for awfulness?) so I'm not going to add to the list of miserable reflections. Instead, I'm going to stick with what I know, which is writing about The Fall. As we head into a hopefully much-improved year, here are ten tracks that make some sort of reference to newness (a couple of them, I must confess, simply contain the word 'new' in the lyrics).

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It's The New Thing

The obvious place to start: released as a single in November 1978 (with the excellent 'Various Times' on the b-side), 'New Thing' was the first of Smith's frequent cynical swipes at the shallowness of the music business ('phoney advertising quotes that make you buy some').

The following year, MES used some of Ian Birch's Melody Maker review of the single ('it's little more than a big, thrashing beat with instruments colliding and everyone getting drunk') as part of the lyrics for 'Printhead'.

Assume

It's a weird new language innit?

A hefty riff, typical of Fall Heads Roll. It has been suggested that the tune is inspired by the theme to Supercar, a 60s TV show created by Gerry Anderson of Thunderbirds fame. In 2006, Smith 'explained' the lyrics: 'That was a random one, definitely… it’s about humans, and air flight, and um, rabbits, and um, things like that.' This version is from the group's 2006 session for Radio 3's 'Mixing It'.

I Feel Voxish

Those disgusting vegan new punks...

'Voxish' is driven by a high-register bass line and an almost off-hand descending guitar riff that had originally been concocted by Steve Hanley on the 1982 Australian tour. Karl Burns also plays bass, and there are some random and tuneless keyboard splashes that may well have been Smith’s work. This is an alternative version from the 1996 compilation Fiend With A Violin.

Bournemouth Runner

Have acquired new one...

Tells the story of the group’s performance at Bournemouth Town Hall on 23 October 1985, when fan Terry Stoate jumped on stage and stole the backdrop. There's more than a hint of 'Rock Lobster' about the keyboards in the closing couple of minutes.

New Formation Sermon

Originally intended (along with with 'Distilled Mug Art') to be part of an EP called The Present, 'New Formation Sermon' first appeared on 2002's live-studio hybrid 2G+2. It has a pleasingly laid-back hoe-down/honky-tonk vibe and features a slurred, enigmatic lyric: 'the arms outstretched / fearsome waist / elbows in triangle / the bracing chill of the market is no friend / like pictures of yours from the fifties'. 

Hard Life In Country

Nymphet new romantics come over the hill...

This version of one of Room To Live's most bleak and astringent moments is taken from In A Hole. Recorded on the 1982 Antipodean tour that saw the disintegration of Smith's relationship with Marc Riley, it finds MES snapping at the 'happy Fall guitarist' to 'turn it down Marc!' (Later in the same gig, Smith introduced another RTL track with 'if you look pretty close, Marc Riley has a joker hysterical face - he’s happy 'cos he’s good'.)

New Face In Hell

A classic moment from Grotesque, captured here in its Peel session form. The kazoo part may have been an attempt to recreate the theme from P.J., a 1968 crime mystery film starring George Peppard, which was released in the UK as New Face in Hell.

Notable for its compelling barrage of deftly delivered complex lyricism, Paul Hanley summarises it neatly: 

The wireless enthusiast hears an illicit broadcast, nips next door, spots his friend's body and gets arrested. Roll titles. But the fact that the government agent poisons the neighbour and frames the wireless enthusiast rather than simply killing him opens up a host of narrative possibilities, none of which Mark sees any need to explore - which inevitably forces listeners to fill in the rest of the story's detail for themselves.

Hilary

'New Faces' on Saturday at six brought you back to me / Hilary / I'm sure it was you in the new Audi outside Sainsbury's...

My wife has a colleague called Hilary; every time she mentions her in conversation, I chip in with 'where's the sixty quid she borrowed from me?' which, obviously, she finds consistently hilarious. This breathlessly pacey version is from the Live In Zagreb album that, in typical Fall fashion, was most likely not recorded in Zagreb at all.

I'm Into CB!

I should have listened to "New Face in Hell" 

A b-side, incredibly. Smith captures the mundanity and ridiculousness of early 80s teenage British life perfectly: using a CB without owning a car or ever having 'been near a lorry'; YTS schemes; your sister reading Smash Hits and listening to rubbish chart music; getting hammered in the park on martini (or whatever you could get your hands on). 

Gentleman's Agreement

Sticking his colours to whatever new mast there is / but our agreement is over...

Another track taken from the Fiend With A Violin compilation. This a live version of unknown origin: Craig Scanlon's guitar is woefully out of tune and Smith's vocal is distinctly wobbly, but somehow this just serves to give it a wonky charm.

As there are many references to them in MES lyrics, the first playlist of 2021 will have an insect theme.

So that's it for 2020, and good bloody riddance to it! Best wishes to you all - here's to a better 2021 for all of us!

Steve

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