105: The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace (1985)
This Halloween we’re celebrating FALLoween, as we hit the north and take on the Mighty Fall! Other than a few singles that barely scraped the UK top 40, the Fall never achieved commercial success, but they built a large cult following due in large part to the personality and antics of their difficult, irascible, intelligent, and borderline unintelligible bandleader, Mark E. Smith. But what we hope to emphasize in this episode is that despite Smith’s outsized influence over the Fall, and his tendency to fire members on a whim, the Fall was always a band. Smith’s ideas formed the bedrock of their songs, but their music was always the product of a back-and-forth between him and incredibly talented musicians who added their own distinctive stamp to every iteration of the Fall. Their discography can be large and intimidating to new listeners, so we’ve chosen their 1985 opus This Nation’s Saving Grace, which is relatively accessible, but also a legit candidate for their greatest album. So even if you don’t come away from this episode as the Fall’s 50,001st fan, we hope you’ll at least understand why anyone would willingly listen to this band.
Miscellany
An important figure from the Fall’s early days who we neglected to mention was Kay Carroll, the band’s manager and Mark E. Smith’s partner. Carroll, who passed away in 2020, played a huge role in keeping the band from falling apart amid the grind of recording and touring, and her departure in 1983 left a power vacuum that Mark E. Smith immediately stepped up to fill.
After parting ways with the Fall, John Leckie went on to produce critically acclaimed albums such as the self-titled debut by the Stone Roses, The Bends by Radiohead, and Origin of Symmetry by Muse. Whether the Fall could have achieved the same success under his wing is anyone’s guess.
The clip we played to illustrate the reverb-heavy bass style of L.A. session musician collective The Wrecking Crew was “The Searchers” by Carol Kaye. Kaye is one of the all-time-great bass players, and very likely a huge influence on Brix Smith, as a Los Angeles native herself.
If you need even more writing about the Fall, we recommend Bob Stanley’s 2021 book Excavate! The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall, a wide-ranging collection of previously unseen artwork, rare ephemera and handwritten material, accompanied by essays from fans.
Mike found a 10-minute live version of “I Am Damo Suzuki” from 1987 that is much more to his liking. And in case anyone was wondering, here is the setlist from the show John saw in 2003.
We tend to retro-engineer a lot of music into being prog, so let us say definitively: The Fall are not prog. The entire concept of progression is antithetical to the Mark E. Smith ethos.
Other links
Brix Smith Start's The Rise, the Fall, and the Rise (Amazon)
Steve Hanley’s The Big Midweek: Life Inside the Fall (Route Publishing)
The Annotated Fall (annotatedfall.doomby.com)
Mark E. Smith on the Adam and Joe Show’s “Vinyl Justice” (YouTube)
Mark Prindle interviews Mark E. Smith in 1994 (markprindle.com)
“Hit the North” music video (YouTube)
“Cruiser’s Creek” music video (YouTube)
Discord & Rhyme’s This Nation’s Saving Grace playlist (Spotify)
Discord & Rhyme Roll Call
Mike DeFabio (moderator)
Rich Bunnell
Dan Watkins
This Nation’s Saving Grace tracklist
Mansion
Bombast
Barmy
What You Need
Spoilt Victorian Child
L.A.
Vixen (bonus)
Couldn’t Get Ahead (bonus)
Gut of the Quantifier
My New House
Paintwork
I Am Damo Suzuki
To Nk Roachment: Yarbles
Petty (Thief) Lout (bonus)
Rollin’ Dany (bonus)
Cruiser’s Creek (bonus)
Other clips used
The Fall:
No Xmas for John Quays
Spectre vs. Rector
Impression of J. Temperance
Prole Art Threat
And This Day
Eat Y'self Fitter
Ladybird (Green Grass) (The Twenty-Seven Points version)
New Face in Hell
On My Own
A Figure Walks
Hit the North Part 1
Frightened
Hip Priest
Pay Your Rates
Disney’s Dream Debased
Totally Wired
Winter (Hostel-Maxi)
Lay of the Land
The N.W.R.A.
Choc-Stock
Elves
Athlete Cured
Gut of the Quantifier (Peel session)
There’s a Ghost in My House
Victoria
Theme from Sparta F.C. #2
Slates, Slags, Etc.
The Man Whose Head Expanded
Bury Pts. 1 + 3
Wolf Kidult Man
Mr. Pharmacist
Others:
Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean and Migos - Slide
The Melomen - Grim Grinning Ghosts
The Monkees - Valleri
Pavement - Fame Throwa
Carol Kaye - The Searchers
Blur - Parklife
The Cramps - The Way I Walk
X - The Hungry Wolf
Sister Sledge - Frankie
The Doors - The Changeling
Jr. Walker & the All-Stars - Shotgun
The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog
Spinal Tap - Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight
Joy Division - No Love Lost
Lipps, Inc. - Funkytown
Sonic Youth - My New House
Ween - Pollo Asado
Can - Oh Yeah
LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge
Arthur Alexander - Every Day I Have to Cry Some
Gene Vincent - Rollin’ Dany
Band/album personnel
Mark E. Smith – vocals, violin (14), guitar, harmonica (9)
Brix Smith – guitar, vocals
Steve Hanley – bass guitar, backing vocals
Craig Scanlon – guitar, backing vocals
Karl Burns – drums, backing vocals
Simon Rogers – keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, drum machine, backing vocals
John Leckie – production, engineering
Joe Gillingham – engineering
Credits
“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
The Fall - Mansion (this episode only)
You can buy or stream This Nation’s Saving Grace and other albums by the Fall at your local record store, discogs.com, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich Bunnell, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and keep as cool as you can.