The Fall
- This article is about the English punk band. For the English title of the novel La Chute, by Albert Camus, see The Fall.
The Fall are a British rock music group, named after Albert Camus' novel.
Formed in Manchester in 1976 at the height of punk rock's rise, but never quite fitting into that movement or its post-punk/new wave offshoots, The Fall have continued for a quarter of a century to produce unpredictable and challenging music, varying richly in both character and quality, the abrasive lyrics and half-droned, half-ranted vocals of frontman Mark E. Smith providing the one constant note through more than two prolific decades of bewildering personnel changes. A May, 2004 interview with Smith reports "49 (band) members, 78 albums and 41 singles," and also records longtime supporter John Peel's opinion of The Fall: "They are always different, they are always the same."
From their first lineup of Smith, Martin Bramah (guitar), Tony Friel (bass), Una Baines (keyboards) and Karl Burns (drums) onward, the group produced a sound quite unlike anything else playing in the run-down dancehalls of northern England's new wave scene, drawing sometimes violent reactions from hardcore fans of uncomplicated punk guitar thrash. Their EP Bingo-Master's Break-out (1978), already minus Friel, and debut album Live at the Witch Trials (1979, and not, incidentally, a live album), now without Baines too, served up a caustic mix of belligerently provincial urban paranoia and scorn for cultural norms, atop a deceptively sophisticated musical arrangement.
With Craig Scanlon and recent bassist Marc Riley on guitar, Steve Hanley on bass and Mike Leigh on drums (subsequently to be replaced by Paul Hanley and then a two-drummer lineup with a returned Burns), late 1979's L.P. Dragnet signalled a sparser, still more jagged feel, which was to fill out into a more grinding, industrial sound though Grotesque (1980), the 10-inch Slates (1981), Hex Enduction Hour (1982) and Room to Live (1982).
The autumn of 1983 heralded another dramatic change, this time to a relatively more pop music-oriented sound, with the arrival of Smith's American girlfriend and later wife, Californian Brix Smith, as guitarist alongside Scanlon, giving the group their nearest approach to hit-single stardom as well as the highly acclaimed albums Perverted By Language (1983), The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall (1984), This Nation's Saving Grace (1985), the underrated Bend Sinister (1986), the less memorable The Frenz Experiment (1988) and I Am Kurious, Oranj (the fruit of a ballet project between Smith and dancer file sharing networks, followed in 2003, with a slightly different mix with some extra tracks was released in the US.
The Fall's sound has generally remained constant from the clanking, almost rockabilly guitars of their early work to the amphetamine-rush of the more recent digitized backing tracks. What unites them is the sound of Mark E. Smith's ranted lyrical poetry. His lyrics are sometimes indescipherable, usually caustic in their satire, wildly imaginative in their scope, embracing politics (e.g. 'Marquis Cha Cha'), magic and mythology ('Elves', 'Wings'), devastating critiques of passing fads (e.g. see 'C.R.E.E.P' and 'Hard Life in Country'), and some brutal ad hominem diatribes (e.g. 'Sing Harpy'). The Fall's influences are worn lightly, though Can, Captain Beefheart, and the more experimental work of The Velvet Underground are all evident. Smith is no singer, but his sense of rhythm and attack is second to none.
Trivia
- Former Black Flag singer and current Rollins Band leader Henry Rollins is an avid fan of The Fall, stating of Smith "after well over 27 albums the man still keeps spewing forth the highest quality vitriol. I never get tired of this guy. I have pretty much all those records. I like 'em a lot, and I wouldn't wanna be caught in an elevator with him when it wasn't working."
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