OPO/POO: The Fall

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Pick Only from The Fall-uh.

I'm going with "Cruiser's Creek," as I've never shaken that signature riff from my head since I first heard it all those years ago.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey, where do I begin with the Fall? Their discography seems like such a muddled mess. I know I like them, but I only have Early Fall '77-78 and one from last year called You Are You Winning or something like that. What's THE Fall album to have/hear/hold?

but out of what I've heard: "Halifax" http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/377/fight_the_monster.html

― Horace Mann, Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, for a taster, maybe start with the singles compilation from 1990 titled 458489 A SIDES. Not quite a complete overview, but a handy representation of what they're capable of.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:23 (twenty-two years ago)

pick one song? winter (hostel maxi)

as for album, i'd disagree with alex here. well, it depends, horace, did you like the 77-78? i would suggest either:

hip priest & kamerads (a comp of 81-82 stuff)

totales turn (its now or never) - 1981

― gareth (gareth), Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:25 (twenty-two years ago)

"Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul"

― stevo (stevo), Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't say 458489 A SIDES was their best album (hell, it's not even an album -- merely a compilation), just a handy departure point for the uninitiated, so to speak.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I think we've done this before, but: you could do a LOT worse than the two-disc cheapie retrospective called _Totally Wired: The Anthology_ that came out a few months ago. My personal favorite record by them is probably _Slates_. Their discography is indeed a Godawful mess, but they are just about my favorite band in the world.

― Douglas (Douglas), Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I get the feeling that with the Fall, a little goes a long way. But that neither of the discs I have are representative of their best.
I'm really attracted to the thinness of the early stuff, as well as some of the sorta mock-disco (like mock chicken) on there. Out of the two, I prefer the early one, though the newish one has a cover of "Gotta See Jane" which counts as CanCon for my radio show. R Dean Taylor and Andy Kim forever!

― Horace Mann, Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I've found this Fall discography very useful.

If I had to pick one Fall song with which to smack non-initiates over the head it would be, "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'." But in another (fantasy) version of this game we get to pick one track from each major incarnation of the band.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:36 (twenty-two years ago)

As for album, I'd agree with Douglas, but if we're excluding compilations, then: Hex Enduction Hour.

By the way, if Mark E. Smith ever decides to give the Fall name a rest, who'd bet that they'd be candidates for this thread.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:40 (twenty-two years ago)

New Face in Hell

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Thursday, 2 January 2003 17:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Paint Work

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Thursday, 2 January 2003 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

anybody else think Room To Live is really underrated? I'd probably take Hex Enduction over it, but the horns and grooves on Room To Live are really nice, far too nice for the lukewarm write-ups it gets in album guides. Song is tough, and most of the great ones (Winter, Paintwork) are here...of what's not already here. I'd pick Mere Pseud Mag Ed. as my OPO.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 2 January 2003 17:12 (twenty-two years ago)

the classical, the classical

― dan (dan), Thursday, 2 January 2003 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Deer Park, because it rocks.

Horace--get Grotesque and Hex Enduction Hour.

― robertw, Thursday, 2 January 2003 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

"Paint Work" (from a non-Fall fan)*.

*--Which doesn't mean I still wouldn't rather hear them than most of what gets played on "modern rock" stations.

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 2 January 2003 17:45 (twenty-two years ago)

too damm many but I'll UUUUUUGH cough out and say "Hit The North" and take my place as an uncool Fall fan.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 2 January 2003 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Can I have one vote for pre-Brix and one for Brix&post?

if so: Various Times (pre)
Behind the Counter (post)

if not: Various Times.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 2 January 2003 18:35 (twenty-two years ago)

prole art threat

best fall record = hex enduction hour

― gygax!, Thursday, 2 January 2003 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

In terms of albums This Nations Saving Grace is also GREBT (and has my second favorite song in "Gut of The Quantifier")

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 2 January 2003 18:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Hit the North..
"Religioussssss"

― Aaron A., Thursday, 2 January 2003 18:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Putta Block

― christoff (christoff), Thursday, 2 January 2003 19:02 (twenty-two years ago)

gygax! beat me to it. Prole Art Threat. (now v. bitter)

― OleM (OleM), Thursday, 2 January 2003 19:02 (twenty-two years ago)

fave song : gARDEN, OFF pERVERTED BY LANGUAGE

fave album, :I'll say Grotesque (ATG), cause others are saying Hex Enduction Hour

― autovac, Thursday, 2 January 2003 20:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll say: Eat Y'self Fitter or The Man Whose Head Expanded or C.R.E.E.P. It's hard to pick just one...

― brg30 (brg30), Friday, 3 January 2003 00:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Track: New Puritan from Peel sesh circa '80 OR, of those not already mentioned, Spectre vs Rector.

Album: Slates

― Venga, Friday, 3 January 2003 00:32 (twenty-two years ago)

"It's hard to pick just one... "

Well, yeah, but that's the challenge, eh?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 3 January 2003 00:34 (twenty-two years ago)

No Xmas For John Quays (just ahead of Fiery Jack and Just Step S'Ways)

Fave album definitely Live At The Witch Trials

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 3 January 2003 11:55 (twenty-two years ago)

five months pass...

boing !

i go for 'cruiser's creek.

― piscesboy, Tuesday, 17 June 2003 16:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Gotta be "Hip Priest".

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

pay your rates!!!

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 23:25 (twenty-two years ago)

two months pass...

Smile

― Kent Burt (lingereffect), Monday, 18 August 2003 02:03 (twenty-one years ago)

fiery jack

― duane, Monday, 18 August 2003 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

no i mean various times

― duane, Monday, 18 August 2003 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

no wait, the north will rise again

― duane, Monday, 18 August 2003 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Guest Informant, I reckon

― gobemouche, Monday, 18 August 2003 08:19 (twenty-one years ago)

"Wings"

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Monday, 18 August 2003 09:21 (twenty-one years ago)

M5#1

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 18 August 2003 09:55 (twenty-one years ago)

BIG NEW PRINZ

― jed-e-3, Monday, 18 August 2003 10:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Another vote for Fortress/Deer Park, though in milder moods I could go for In My Area...

― Myron Kosloff, Monday, 18 August 2003 17:13 (twenty-one years ago)

"Hip Priest"

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 18 August 2003 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

A Fall POO is possibly the hardest pick-one-only that can be imagined yet the one that is most likely to yield a host of semi-forgotten delights. So let's have yers.

I posted my entry 18 months ago and am prepared to stick by it....so am exempt from answering the thread second/third time around. :-)

― Venga, Saturday, 4 September 2004 22:51 (twenty years ago)

Cruisers Creek (This Nat-ion's Saving Grace), ... or the frantic one-note riff on "Big New Prinz". They're part and parcel.

― 4 Tunna Brix (salim), Saturday, 4 September 2004 23:51 (twenty years ago)

Garden

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 4 September 2004 23:56 (twenty years ago)

C.R.E.E.P. (the version w/o the brixpoem about milk)

― artdamages (artdamages), Sunday, 5 September 2004 01:37 (twenty years ago)

Hmmm...this thread's been done before, and last time I decided that "Fortress/Deer Park" was just slightly better than "No Xmas For John Quays", so I'll reverse 'em now and choose Xmas. MES's Frankie Lymon "imitation" makes me wince with joy!

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Sunday, 5 September 2004 02:53 (twenty years ago)

I think Big New Prinz may have been recently supplanted by Mother-Sister!, because listening to it while wasted in a field it became apparent that the bit at the end where he goes 'WHY DID YOU PUT YOUR HEAD IN-uh, PYYYYLOOOOOOONARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH' is God.

― Fergal (Ferg), Sunday, 5 September 2004 14:45 (twenty years ago)

Too difficult, it'll have be one from each decade:

Frightened / Middle Mass / A Past Gone Mad / Mountain Energei

― neil tacus (tacit), Sunday, 5 September 2004 22:31 (twenty years ago)

good to see alot of love for "Garden"

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 5 September 2004 22:44 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

Leave The Capitol!

― holojames (holojames), Saturday, 25 September 2004 18:21 (twenty years ago)

WHO MAKES THE NAZIS?

(barm-barm-barm-barm....barmbarmbarmbarmbarmbarm)

― Crummy Fag, Saturday, 25 September 2004 18:44 (twenty years ago)

"Marquis Cha-Cha" (He can never go home, but it's alright with him.)

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 25 September 2004 19:28 (twenty years ago)

"Paintwork" - I thought I lived in England.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 25 September 2004 19:34 (twenty years ago)

Wings. Esp with video.

― gerardo francisco, Sunday, 26 September 2004 07:42 (twenty years ago)

on 32nd thought: the classical OR hard life in the country

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 26 September 2004 07:52 (twenty years ago)

I'M INTO CB!!

― Cripps Pink (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 26 September 2004 07:55 (twenty years ago)

the fall pick mcmxxxiii

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 26 September 2004 07:57 (twenty years ago)

Song: 'Room to Live' (or live; 'Music Scene' from Liverpool '78)

Album: Slates - it's perfect.

Comp: Hip Priest & Kamerads.

Rythym section: Hanley-Hanley-Burns

― Sasha (sgh), Sunday, 26 September 2004 23:28 (twenty years ago)

Tempo House

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 27 September 2004 01:06 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

I came here to say that after thinking about this very carefully I've decided "Various Times" is the one. But then I had to notice that Dan Selzer mentioned Tempo House and it makes me want to weep. Surely the best Fall song ever is definitely one of those two?

― Dugga Dugga Dugga (Bimble...), Thursday, 26 October 2006 01:38 (eighteen years ago)

my phone plays "spoilt victorian child" whenever my dad calls.

― geoff (gcannon), Thursday, 26 October 2006 03:31 (eighteen years ago)

Eat Y'Self Fitter. The Peel session version with 2 drummers.

― Bidfurd (Bidfurd), Thursday, 26 October 2006 07:52 (eighteen years ago)

Lay of the Land

― sjjd111 (sjjd111), Friday, 27 October 2006 03:27 (eighteen years ago)

Theme From Sparta FC

― zeus (zeus), Friday, 27 October 2006 09:06 (eighteen years ago)

Who Makes the Nazis?

― Neil Stewart (Neil Stewart), Friday, 27 October 2006 10:35 (eighteen years ago)

i think "Theme From Sparta FC" is way up there. some days that's the one.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 27 October 2006 11:04 (eighteen years ago)

Gut of the Quantifier

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Friday, 27 October 2006 13:20 (eighteen years ago)

Kick-uh Conspiracy. Great video too.

― Meg Busset (Mog), Friday, 27 October 2006 13:23 (eighteen years ago)

Wings

― Dr. Alicia D. Titsovich (sexyDancer), Friday, 27 October 2006 13:46 (eighteen years ago)

I gotta say I think this was a great idea for a thread. I mean I salute everyone here just for actually picking ONE out of that mountain of a discography. It's really extraordinary.

― An evening of fun in the metropolis of your dream (Bimble...), Saturday, 28 October 2006 01:38 (eighteen years ago)

No love for "I Am Damo Suzuki"? Or, though I suspect I'm alone in this, "To NK Roachment: Yarbles"?

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Saturday, 28 October 2006 03:33 (eighteen years ago)

i'm sure there's a lot of love for "I Am Damo Suzuki" but this is a OPO out of several hundred tracks.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 28 October 2006 12:25 (eighteen years ago)

Hey, how many Fall songs ARE there anyway? Can someone anal enough please count them all? Thanks.

― An evening of fun in the metropolis of your dream (Bimble...), Saturday, 28 October 2006 15:50 (eighteen years ago)

Also I stand by "Various Times" as the one. I've decided that just because "Tempo House" was the name of my radio show years ago and I used to start every show with it doesn't mean it should win.

― An evening of fun in the metropolis of your dream (Bimble...), Saturday, 28 October 2006 16:00 (eighteen years ago)

Also Various Times' lyrics are an amazing portrait of the ridiculous mundane idiocy of Nazi Germany. Just picture this teenage guy, right in 1940...no money. He knows nothing about what he's joining up for. He's completely young, stupid and ignorant. It's almost too real not to believe. "Don't think/ask him" everyone passes the buck. Brilliant.

― An evening of fun in the metropolis of your dream (Bimble...), Saturday, 28 October 2006 16:05 (eighteen years ago)

Man, what an impossible choice. I do think it's "Cruiser's Creek" for me, though.

― Django Blowhardt (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 28 October 2006 16:28 (eighteen years ago)

ten years pass...

"living too late"

― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, 6 January 2017 22:31 (eight years ago)

New Puritan

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Sunday, 8 January 2017 22:51 (eight years ago)

five years pass...

a figure walks

― brimstead, Wednesday, 23 March 2022 02:02 (three years ago)

yeah, "a figure walks" will do if i gotta have just 1

― unknown or illegal user (doo rag), Wednesday, 23 March 2022 03:14 (three years ago)

don't think I ever saw this thread before, but today it's "Various Times"

― thinkmanship (sleeve), Wednesday, 23 March 2022 03:23 (three years ago)

"Winter" (both parts) ... Just an amazingly beautiful and evocative track.

― Kim Kimberly, Wednesday, 23 March 2022 05:39 (three years ago)

'only pick one' by the fall ??? hahahahahahahahahahahahahhaahhaahahahahahahahahahahahah

― clouds (peanutbuttereverysingleday), Wednesday, 23 March 2022 09:12 (three years ago)

Prole art threat

― stranded, Wednesday, 23 March 2022 10:48 (three years ago)

New Face in Hell

― signe anderson (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, 23 March 2022 10:49 (three years ago)

Ludd Gang!!

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 23 March 2022 18:38 (three years ago)

The Classical

― Otto Insurance (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, 23 March 2022 20:28 (three years ago)

Frightened

― imago, Wednesday, 23 March 2022 21:52 (three years ago)

It may or may not be my OPO but the version of Hard Life in the Country on Live to Air in Melbourne '82 deserves more love

― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Thursday, 24 March 2022 03:31 (three years ago)

That disc in general deserves more love, it's a bloody long way from Manchester to Melbourne but venom travels well

― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Thursday, 24 March 2022 03:33 (three years ago)

it’s a really good live album.

i’ve just decided my answer to OPO is Middle Mass. I don’t know why it’s always in my head. I don’t think an answer to favourite? or best? would generate the same outcome.

but it’s always in my head. and i do think the Slates 10” is, as an overall object, one of the best things in the cosmos.

― Fizzles, Thursday, 24 March 2022 07:49 (three years ago)

Slates is great! I like the trebly sound of some of the tracks. Plus it has killer songs, kind of Fall in microcosm: some pop some noise, all fun.

― Otto Insurance (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 24 March 2022 12:40 (three years ago)

HA fizzles I noted this thread bump and thought hm... maybe Middle Mass!

Other candidates:
No Bulbs
Gut of the Quantifier
Impression of J Temperance
Kicker Conspiracy
Fantastic Life

― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 24 March 2022 15:26 (three years ago)

i just cheated sorry please FP me

― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 24 March 2022 15:26 (three years ago)

never

― thinkmanship (sleeve), Thursday, 24 March 2022 15:34 (three years ago)

also lol every time i think I have every Fall thread bookmarked more of them appear from the deeps. Two today!

― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 24 March 2022 15:35 (three years ago)

Winter
Garden
Fantastic Life from Fall in a Hole
Wings
New Puritan
N.W.R.A from A part of American Therein
Cab it up!

― a (waterface), Thursday, 24 March 2022 16:16 (three years ago)

wings

― woof, Thursday, 24 March 2022 16:47 (three years ago)

Only Pick Infinity

― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Friday, 25 March 2022 17:54 (three years ago)

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