Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 19:14:52 -0400
From: Grindill@aol.com

{from CAKE, issue #27/28, 1994}

THE FALL: OR MAYBE HE THOUGHT I WAS A WANKER

Mark Smith is a slight black clad figure with the typical pale spotty
complexion of the English drinker. He's the singer, lyricist and controlling
figure of the Fall, who have been a constant feature on the British music
scene for the past 17 years. While their music has changed subtly over the
years, slyly trying on new identities, the lyrics have always been fashioned
in Smith's unique poetic verbal shorthand. Sung in his stentorian, yet nasal,
tones that sound like they were recorded throught a megaphone (and sometimes
have been), the lyrics take considerable effort to decipher. These lyrics
have remained the single most incisive, mordant commentary on global
(especially British, especially middle-class) society there is.

Social class, in fact is a central aspect of English life that is pretty
essential to an understanding of the Fall's lyrics. "There's a thread going
through every Fall LP," Smith says. "In Britain there are a lot of changes
going on. The middle classes are getting very harassed. They're paranoid of
crime and that, and they can't afford their homes any more. You've also got
these chat shows of TV and they're trying to be very American like that. But
the British people can't quite carry it off."

In a nutshell, Mark has described the themes of their last album THE
INFOTAINMENT SCAN and the new one MIDDLE CLASS REVOLT, but these hesitant
observations don't give justice to the way in which these issues are
described in the albums. The muffled quality of the vocals, coupled with
Smith's reluctance to supply printed lyrics, lead me to ask how Americans
cope with tyring to fathom them out, observing how in the U.S. there tends to
be a distinct group of Anglophile music fans who will spend hours dissecting
new albums by English indie rock bands. "Well, the only Americans I speak to
are Fall fans. They don't really tend to like other English bands..."

What about American bands I ask, thinking of the leagues of Fall soundalikes
(Pavement, Truman's Water, et al) that have recently spawned (to Smith's
disdain) "...or American bands. At least white American bands. They're into
rap music and that. When they listen to the lyrics they're guessing, they're
grasping, they're in a rush like you are now John," he says fixing me with an
old-fashioned look. Having put me off my guard, he relaxes and observes, "You
know, I spend a lot of time rewriting my lyrics. There must be something in
the fact that I keep losing my lyrics and screwing them up and rewriting
them." Maybe you rewrite them to fit the times, Mark. "Exactly."

In fact, a Fall album is a sort of cultural review of the past year or so,
isn't it? "I try to make the LPs topical. The thing that people have
difficulty with is that I have to make these albums, I make sure they come
out every year and it's relevant at the time. A lot of big bands still have
albums coming out telling about, you know, Greenpeace and the nuclear threat.
I can't work like that--I can't go and write a song about middle class revolt
or whatever and then fucking wait two years while the company decides about
their marketing strategy and when to release it. You've got the write it on
the spot and bring it out within six months or it's irrelevant. People now
are probably writing songs about soccer, the World Cup'll be fucking over by
the time the songs are out." The foregoing heartfelt rant is an observation
by Smith on the state of affairs with the two Fall albums before THE
INFOTAINMENT SCAM [sic], when the US record company (Polygram) declined to
release them and instead paid the band for not having released them.

The sheaf of press cuttings sent by the press officer portrays the image of a
cackling avatar of the Devil who'll sniff out any hint of uncertainty,
pretense, bogusness or what have you and relentlessly skewer you with it.
Fear-of-Mark stories abound--I was told of a friend of a friend who works in
college radio and is an avid fan of the Fall but turned down the chance to
talk to him in case Mark might take a dislike to him and therefore write a
song called "College Radio Fawner Prat" for the next album.

"Well, that's what the press officer'll give you," he observes about the
reaction he's reputed to inspire. But in reality while some of his remarks
come across as somewhat spikey the overwhelming impression he gives me is one
of overwhelming shyness, in contrast to his public image. Smith asks if he
can keep the press cuttings. "I don't read them usually, I just hear what
people tell me. I hear what the group tell me. They read the reviews and tell
me what's in them."

I note that Smith used the words "I have to make these albums" earlier--is
that how it feels, a duty? "Yes, definitely." Has he ever felt like saying
fuck it, let's give it up? "Yes, every week, but then things happen that you
have to write about."

--story by John Speakman