The Fall

Hex Enduction Hour kicks off with probably the best run of Fall songs. "The Classical" is probably their best song, "Hip Priest" their most notorious, and all the other songs range from good to very good to excellent.

This Nation's Saving Grace is very good. Room To Live is no slouch either. Other than that, I find a lot of their albums uneven. The best-of collection (50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong) does a good job of covering the best of their entire career, including great early singles that were never on an album proper.

Start here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cllq6QYnP0s

It was literally years before I noticed Hex Enduction Hour wasn't actually called Hex Education Hour as I'd always taken for granted.

I'm not particularly well versed in their catalogue but The Real New Fall LP / Country On The Click seems to be the best regarded of their modern run of albums. It's certainly the most immediately accessible Fall album I've heard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m35sl4yyUqw

Seems I wasn't alone:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...meta=&aq=f&oq=

Right.

There are at least 5 bands that have been called "The Fall", the only common factor being that Mark E Smith sang and wrote the lyrics in all of them.

There's definitely a lot to recommend from all eras of their career, so as Parker mentioned, 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong is probably the best place to start as it contains most of their best known songs chronologically. From there you can get a rough idea of which eras - if any - you prefer.

As Parker also mentioned, the early - mid 80s run of albums from The Hex Enducation Hour through to Bend Sinister is probably the most widely respected. The Hex Enducation Hour is - if I'm in the right mood - probably my favourite album ever and This Nation's Saving Grace is also up there, but I'd definitely recommend Bend Sinister and - especially - The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall as other albums to check out.

Of the later era stuff, I really enjoyed Fall Heads Roll as well as Country on the Click.

And if you really, *really* like what you hear from all that lot, there's a 5-disc collection of all the radio sessions that they recorded for John Peel's Radio 1 show that contains the definitive versions of a lot of their tracks and which is generally great.

...And I also thought that the album was called the Hex Education Hour for ages.

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I only just found it and the fall are my alltime favourite band.

have to disagree with you vern, there has only been one Fall and MES has been it since inception in 1976. The lineup has changed massively over the years, featuring around 100 different "permanent" members (i.e. not just a guest star). I've seen them play over 50 times and they always blow me away - even the time at sankeys where mark spent the whole gig in the parking lot singing without a microphone (this was practically an instrumental show).

Nevertheless as a body of work they are unsurpassed and if you 'get' what mark's going on about - you'll really find a new appreciation for the work.

Personally i would suggest:

the are generally 4 eras of the fall- I will pick my 2 favourite from each era,

Early "punk"

Live at the witch trials (no-one mentioned this yet?)
Grotesque (after the gramme)

the Beggars Banquet pop Years

Bend Sinister
458489 (a best of collection- also 458489B a collection of B-sides)

Post Beggar's

Infotainment Scan
Cerebral Caustic

More Recent Stuff

Fall heads roll
Cowntry on the click (AKA TRNFA)

But i agree with vern, if you want to get one thing - would get the fall peel sessions, it's a fantastic item, a 2nd hand copy can be had for less than $40 and for what it is- it's a joy - it's mostly what i listen to now it's a great little snapshot of what the band were up to at each session except for that weird 5 year period when they weren't brought in for a session (and smithy lost his fucking mind) . A great tribute to the band and peel.


"Futures And Pasts"
"Mother-Sister!"
"Rebellious Jukebox"
"Industrial Estate"
"Put Away"
"Mess Of My"
"No Xmas For John Quays"
"Like To Blow"
"Container Drivers"
"Jawbone And The Air-Rifle"
"New Puritan"
"New Face In Hell"
"Middlemass"
"Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul"
"Hip Priest"
"C'n'C - Hassle Schmuck"
Deer Park"
"Look, Know"
"Winter"
"Who Makes The Nazis?"
"Smile"
"Garden"
"Hexen Definitive - Strife Knot"
"Eat Y'Self Fitter"
"Pat Trip Dispenser"
"2 × 4"
"Words Of Expectation"
"C.R.E.E.P."
"Cruiser's Creek"
"Couldn't Get Ahead"
"Spoilt Victorian Child"
"Gut Of The Quantifier"
"L.A."
"The Man Whose Head Expanded"
"What You Need"
"Faust Banana"
"Hot Aftershave Bop"
"R.O.D."
"Gross Chapel - GB Grenadiers"
"US 80's-90's"
"Athlete Cured"
"Australians In Europe"
"Twister"
"Guest Informant"
"Deadbeat Descendant"
"Cab It Up"
"Squid Lord"
"Kurious Oranj"
"Chicago Now"
"Black Monk Theme"
"Hilary"
"Whizz Bang"
"The War Against Intelligence"
"Idiot Joy Showland"
"A Lot Of Wind"
"The Mixer"
"Free Range"
"Kimble"
"Immortality"
"Return"
"Ladybird (Green Grass)"
"Strychnine"
"Service"
"Paranoia Man In Cheap Sh*t Room"
"M5"
"Behind The Counter"
"Reckoning"
"Hey! Student"
"Glam Racket - Star"
"Jingle Bell Rock", with substantially different lyrics to the original 1957 song
"Hark The Herald Angels Sing"
"Numb At The Lodge"
"He Pep!"
"Oleano"
"Chilinist"
"The City Never Sleeps"
"D.I.Y. Meat"
"Spinetrak"
"Spencer"
"Beatle Bones 'N' Smokin' Stones"
"Calendar"
"Touch Senstive"
"Masquerade"
"Jungle Rock"
"Bound Soul One"
"Antidotes"
"Shake-Off"
"This Perfect Day"
"Theme From Sparta F.C."
"Contraflow"
"Groovin' With Mr Bloe - Green-Eyed Loco Man"
"Mere Pseud Mag. Ed."
"Clasp Hands"
"Blindness"
"What About Us?"
"Wrong Place, Right Time"/"I Can Hear The Grass Grow"

hard to argue with that, and worth $40 of anyone's money.

I'm with you on this, actually. I was trying to get across the idea of various eras but it was a bit poorly worded. I mean, in once sense, "Telephone Thing" doesn't sound much like "Repetition" but, then in another way, it totally does.

"Always different, yet always the same." is what John Peel used to say, eh?

I saw a Von Sudenfed gig a couple of years back where MES sang most of his parts from the dressing room while the two guys from Mouse on Mars peered through the stage door in confusion every few minutes to see if he'd come back out again. He didn't. It was fabbo.


Funnily enough, I noticed that this and the Fall Box Set (which is also great) were something like £15 each in Fopp Records over here the other day. It's almost worth getting a flight over to the UK to buy one. Almost.