I thought of you tonight, Erik - while watching a bit of 'University Challenge'! There was a series of questions on 'popular music' - something of a rarity on there - in fact it was specifically on bands whose early exposure had come through John Peel. First off they played The Smiths, followed shortly after by The Fall. Those young uni kids identified The Smiths correctly but not The Fall (they answered, "Is it Wire?"!)
I mentioned this once on your piece...I was watching a BBC documentary on Andy Warhol. Brix Smith was brought in to talk about Warhol's fashion sense...not one word of her being in The Fall.
I have this blind spot when it comes to The Fall. Mark E Smith is T.S. Eliot and that band in the 80's was Bo Diddley. To think that Hex, Grotesque and Perverted By Language and everything in between were expressed in popular culture...they were records!!!...it's astounding. So...yeah how can people not know The Fall?
I have to confess I've been on an Echo and the Bunnymen binge the last couple of days...it was inevitable with all this talk of those 80's bands.
I can't let Wonderful and Frightening World or This Nations Saving Grace go unmentioned here...their output between 1980 to 86 is unmatched...full stop.
I thought of you tonight, Erik - while watching a bit of 'University Challenge'! There was a series of questions on 'popular music' - something of a rarity on there - in fact it was specifically on bands whose early exposure had come through John Peel. First off they played The Smiths, followed shortly after by The Fall. Those young uni kids identified The Smiths correctly but not The Fall (they answered, "Is it Wire?"!)
ReplyDelete(Of course I got them all right :-) )
Vey pleased to hear it.
DeleteI mentioned this once on your piece...I was watching a BBC documentary on Andy Warhol. Brix Smith was brought in to talk about Warhol's fashion sense...not one word of her being in The Fall.
I have this blind spot when it comes to The Fall. Mark E Smith is T.S. Eliot and that band in the 80's was Bo Diddley. To think that Hex, Grotesque and Perverted By Language and everything in between were expressed in popular culture...they were records!!!...it's astounding. So...yeah how can people not know The Fall?
I have to confess I've been on an Echo and the Bunnymen binge the last couple of days...it was inevitable with all this talk of those 80's bands.
Of course you did.
I can't let Wonderful and Frightening World or This Nations Saving Grace go unmentioned here...their output between 1980 to 86 is unmatched...full stop.
DeleteThe Fall. Always different, always the same.
ReplyDeleteUsually brilliant...they stomp a mud hole in it here. I close my eyes and imagine a world where the Beetles never happened.
Delete