I've just been on a massive holiday - hence I'm somewhat behind with the Fall project (writing not listening though thankfully). But onwards to week 8, which is basically the New Zealand tour plus Room to Live. But with odds and sods this week added up to 5 hours of listening.
The Melbourne show is good, kicking off with a pre-Brix I feel voxish. I'm into CB is crackling - all tight drums and meandering vocals - and a live version of Solicitor In Studio, more together than the version of the album. Typical solid Fall performance - above standard for them and well recorded to boot.
Then an alarming reminder of And This Day thankfully cut short to a reasonable 5 minutes.
And then into In A Hole. Why Mark tried to squash this one is beyond me - it's a fantastic live album. I bought the german bootleg from Record Collector in Sheffield and it took me a while before realizing that they'd recorded a skip when transferring the record. The band are on top form - screaming through Prole Art Threat, drowning Mark out. The highlight of the whole thing is the ten minutes of Backdrop - a classic repeating Fall song, full of dense made up nonsense and crazy drumming. The reissue brings in crazy versions of Container Drivers, C 'n' C Mithering which cuts into Black Night by Deep Purple and an eight (eight) minute version of Who Makes The Nazis.
The only way to follow that up is with my favorite Fall LP of all time: Room To Live. The bible hints that this was poorly received and is still poorly thought of but for me it encapsulates why the Fall are so interesting as a band. The first side is pretty straight up Fall rockabilly stuff: "Her Back Head's full of Skriking Kids...Ted Rogers Brains Burn in Hell!", the aborting single of Marquis Cha Cha. Hard Life in The Country is the Fall capturing country living again and the title track is straight up Rockabilly.
But then on to the second side: Detective Instinct is wondrous - a baseline over which Mark talks about nothing in particular, punctuated with shouts of the title. Two thugs knock down a tree for an old ladies whim. Solicitor in Studio rolls with it and is again rockabilly style with a ton of fuzz. And then Papal Visit to end everything with violin and drums. It's probably about something but it's good and too dense to figure out.
The CD carries a superb live version of Detective Instinct - a brave one to try but so good as it works. And then some wrap up tracks which I'm not sure of the time period. An early version of Pilsner Trail which never really made it onto a record but is good (but not backdrop good which suffered a similar fate). From Fiend with a Violin: A straight up version of I feel voxish and a bonkers version of the Man Whose Head Expanded. A dodgy live version of Wings and from Cheetham Hill - a weirdo version of Eat Yourself Fitter. More of that later. Then a live version of Room to Live - never their best song, always their best album
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