The Fall: The Second Ten Singles POLL

I suspect that CC/L.A./Vixen might win this, but I'm going for 'Marquis Cha-Cha'/'Room To Live'. The latter has got to be one of the great M.E.S. cult of personality tracks.

"There's a Ghost in My House", not so much for the brilliant cover version but for the 3 brilliant-er originals.

'Pope of three-three days!'
Hey! Luciani here. One of my favourite pop-Fall moments + Vatican conspiracy lyric thrills. But only just ahead of Marquis Cha-Cha. Was listening to it the other day and just left wondering 'how the hell do you get to there?', I mean the whole tax-hating Englishman propaganda broadcaster for (Imaginary? Or Falklands-inspired?) Latin American dictatorship scenario. Smith at his height, really.
Amazing b-sides throughout, but not even Petty Thief Lout or Pat-Trip Dispenser enough to swing me (despite 'There are no big shots on the rock/And even if there were, McGinty would not be among them')

Millsner named both singles I'm stuck between.

They had a while where Mark E made lots of "Storytelling" type songs (Solicitor in Studio, Marquis Cha-Cha, Elastic man, Session Musician), but seemed to call a halt to that sort of thing. Probably came too easy to him.

Yeah, a lot of the narrative songs (Wings, especially) are among my favourites; I've always been a bit disappointed that they tail off – around Peverted by Language? They show a different part of his imagination at work, and are a good structure for the verbal inventiveness/ personality force projection.
Still, hasn't done too badly without them.

quiet day, today!

not to be all pedantic and whatnot, but didn't Marquis Cha-Cha come out in 82, before some of the singles in the first poll? I voted for it anyway, because I am a certified brix hater.

I used to be a Brix hater, but not anymore. Sure her voice isn't that great, but she's great on guitar.

I played Hot Aftershave Bop the other day because it was on my iPod and I couldn't remember how it went. Not a very good Fall song, that. I found a lot of their singles/b-sides from this period to be unremarkable, really. I'm going for Marquis here. I recently dug out Petty Thief Lout, though, and really enjoyed that. I've decided I really like Fall tracks like that with a slow burn to them.

partial to luciani

MARK WILL SINK US ... because it's a better vers of HIP PRIEST dread ambience

might vote for "couldn't get ahead" based on cover alone

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/couldntgetahead_lg.jpg

IIRC the letter on the desk is a cutoff notice from electric co

They had a while where Mark E made lots of "Storytelling" type songs (Solicitor in Studio, Marquis Cha-Cha, Elastic man, Session Musician), but seemed to call a halt to that sort of thing. Probably came too easy to him.

More to do with his writing talent waning, I believe. I don't think of "Marquis Cha-Cha" as a single. Voting for all the same.

Living Too Late, without even having to stop to consider.

I mean, I love all the Marquis Cha Cha love in here, but this is pretty much Escape Route all the way, right?

I mean 2(No Bulbs) + draygos guilt = towering above all else....

ESCAPE ROUTE! D.A.M on summa dat. also did the lastest 3, domesday triad shite

did=dig, dg

I understand you! I live in a town called......

Mmm.mmm.mmmmmmmm

I'm very tempted to go for the B-side gloom of A Ghost In My House - a song in itself that, for reasons now obscure to me, I became absolutely obsessed with at the back end of last year - regularly claiming it was one of The Fall's best.

And Petty (Thief) Lout and God Box would always be amongst my favourites - the first for containing the line 'Suburbia holds more than you'd care for' over that wonderful swinging beat, and the second for its science-fiction world of pernicious evangelism.

But it really has to be Marquis Cha-Cha, particularly since I think it was originally backed by Papal Visit, another of my favourites. Marquis Cha-Cha is just so out there, and with some great vocals as well - that 'BURRRRRRRR' sort of noise he makes after he's woken up to find a 'bayonet beside my head'.

'Football and beer much superior'

Voting for "No Bulbs," which I've always thought of as a single (though my copy of the 12-inch Call For Escape Route EP, presumably bought used, never contained the bonus 7-inch or whatever it was with those two extra songs.) Only real competition, songwise, would be "Room To Live," though I'm really sad I got rid of my "Couldn't Get Ahead" 7" anyway.

Surprised myself for voting Ghost in my House over Couldn't Get Ahead

Couldn't Get Ahead is great, but I like it more when it turns out to be Container Drivers instead...

'Call For Escape Route' is a desert island disc for me, so....

marquis cha cha/room to live. room to live = best fall lyrics ever

All great but "Cruiser's Creek" was the first Fall song I ever heard and gets stuck in my head all the time (not against my will).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Living Too Late / Hot Aftershave Bop / Living Too Long 1

OK, I feel lonely.

CC is a blast, though; I'm not fussed.

I am guilty of greatly underestimating "Mark'll Sink Us".

Sleep Debt Snatches is a favourite as well. Haf Found Bormann is terrible, though.

oh man, I must respectfully disagree.

I'd disrespectfully disagree if I could be bothered to summon the words - check out the brilliant session version (not Peel) with Brix's wonderful robotic delivery.

'TRANSMISSION END. TRANSMISSION END'

"Entitled" is a sleeper song that can sneak up on you.

these results are fucking disgraceful.

Hahaha. People appalled at poll results. Film at 11.

ENTITLED!!!!!

Oh my god, I love the Fall. Oh my fucking god, I love the Fall.

Third poll needs more love...

I'd forgotten (until just now when I was listening to it) how much I like the megaphone line

'In my house, I am helpless,
I make use of practice superstitious'

followed by the

'I hear footsteps on the stairs
When I know there's no one there'

all with that permanently descending guitar, in A Ghost in My House.

That is all.