1979 - Spectre Vs Rector
16 March 1979: Album - Live at the Witch Trials
30 July 1979: Single - Rowche Rumble
26 October 1979: Album - Dragnet
Yep. Two albums in little over seven months. Live at the Witch Trials was recorded the previous December (in one day after Smith lost his voice ahead of the session) and is an energetic round-up of the group's early work. Songs about drugs ('Underground Medicin', 'No Xmas for John Quays', 'Like to Blow') appear and recur throughout Smith's work.
By the time of the excellent single Rowche Rumble in July Smith is the sole founding member remaining in the group. What started as a 'musician's collective' had already seen Smith take over as leader and the leaving, hiring and firing of group members that ran through the first 30 years of the Fall was under way.
This year also saw Steve Hanley join on bass and his playing would come to define many people's idea of the Fall sound. Following on from Rowche Rumble (a tale of the over-prescription of anti-depressants and their acceptance over street drugs like "speed and grass") comes the the first Fall album I bought, Dragnet.
Where Witch Trials was spiky, Dragnet develops that sound and creates more of a foreboding atmosphere in places. Songs like Printhead and Choc-Stock show a self-awareness of where Smith and the group fit in the music business. More importantly the album shows Smith moving from lyricist to storyteller - nowhere more than in my selection from this year, Spectre Vs Rector.
A tale of demonic possession in Hampshire the song draws on Smith's love of horror writing, particularly MR James and HP Lovecraft. The Annotated Fall page on Spectre Vs Rector goes into way more depth than I'm comfortable tackling here.
The other thing to talk about is the sound - oh, the sound! I'd have been about 16 when it came into my life. I'd never heard anything like it. Maybe there was nothing like it. Partly recorded in a 'disused warehouse'/rehearsal rooms it's the dawn of another Fall theme where a rough cut of a song, often recorded on a handheld cassette recorder, is mixed with a studio version.
Hanley's hammering bass pins the song to the foundations allowing guitarists Craig Scanlon and Marc Riley to set up the atmosphere for Smith's tale.
Enough rambling - listen to it. It's a masterpiece.
30 July 1979: Single - Rowche Rumble
26 October 1979: Album - Dragnet
"I get better as I get older"
Yep. Two albums in little over seven months. Live at the Witch Trials was recorded the previous December (in one day after Smith lost his voice ahead of the session) and is an energetic round-up of the group's early work. Songs about drugs ('Underground Medicin', 'No Xmas for John Quays', 'Like to Blow') appear and recur throughout Smith's work.
By the time of the excellent single Rowche Rumble in July Smith is the sole founding member remaining in the group. What started as a 'musician's collective' had already seen Smith take over as leader and the leaving, hiring and firing of group members that ran through the first 30 years of the Fall was under way.
This year also saw Steve Hanley join on bass and his playing would come to define many people's idea of the Fall sound. Following on from Rowche Rumble (a tale of the over-prescription of anti-depressants and their acceptance over street drugs like "speed and grass") comes the the first Fall album I bought, Dragnet.
Where Witch Trials was spiky, Dragnet develops that sound and creates more of a foreboding atmosphere in places. Songs like Printhead and Choc-Stock show a self-awareness of where Smith and the group fit in the music business. More importantly the album shows Smith moving from lyricist to storyteller - nowhere more than in my selection from this year, Spectre Vs Rector.
A tale of demonic possession in Hampshire the song draws on Smith's love of horror writing, particularly MR James and HP Lovecraft. The Annotated Fall page on Spectre Vs Rector goes into way more depth than I'm comfortable tackling here.
The other thing to talk about is the sound - oh, the sound! I'd have been about 16 when it came into my life. I'd never heard anything like it. Maybe there was nothing like it. Partly recorded in a 'disused warehouse'/rehearsal rooms it's the dawn of another Fall theme where a rough cut of a song, often recorded on a handheld cassette recorder, is mixed with a studio version.
Hanley's hammering bass pins the song to the foundations allowing guitarists Craig Scanlon and Marc Riley to set up the atmosphere for Smith's tale.
Enough rambling - listen to it. It's a masterpiece.
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