RE: Mark Smith

many thanks to those of you who responded to the mark smith question. in defense of my ignorance, i actually played a couple of Fall songs as a dj on college radio in the mid-80's (partly because I knew I was "supposed" to like them) but in the end found them more tedious than enjoyable and as a result never bothered to remember or for that matter even pay attention to the name of their lead singer. call me a heretic; it's not a punk thing, because there are plenty of other punk bands that I still haven't outgrown, and it's not a maturity thing because I just now gave a renewed (virtual) spin to Cruiser's Creek and Oh Brother, and thought the latter...

the mini-barrage of emails on this topic led me to decide that in part of my memory I must be confusing The Fall with The Cult (who I like about as much, though it's obviously cooler to like The Fall than The Cult, so maybe I like The Cult less) and so I did some digging to sort it all out. That led me to this site: http://fall.cjb.net/ which I offer for those who need to know for sure how many albums / singles / other The Fall has actually released.

the suggestion that there was another Mark Smith from somewhere in the south of England who was part of an 80s alternative band led me first to think of Robert Smith of The Cure, which might have been close but no cigar, and then I did some research that landed on bassist Mark Smith of Pigbag (www.pigbag.com), whose 1981/82 James Brown-inspired (and more recently, Thunderpuss-revived) instrumental single "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" hit Smith does not, however, appear to have been a driving force in the group (to the extent the group was driven at all), so I'll vote for the Mark E. Smith / Gerard Langley theory, esp. since the Aeroplanes -- and presumably Langley himself -- are from Bristol.

i do regret that my question about the french joke in "La Mer" remains unresolved, but I'll live in hope.

thanks again (and yes, I sort of *do* have too much time on my hands, at least for the next day or so)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Knight H. Berman, Jr. [mailto:presto211@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Saturday, January 18, 2003 9:06 PM
> To: jbc-list@jazzbutcher.com
> Subject: Re: Mark Smith
>
>
> I know a guy who aims to be a Fall completist-ah, and
> last I heard he had well over 75 CDs by them...not to
> mention vinyl. They're an incredibly prolific band.
>
> I'd heard that Southern Mark Smith was aimed at Gerard
> of the Blue Aeroplanes too, though I don't know if it
> just kind of came to be about him or if the song was
> initially directed at him.
>
> The one time I saw the Fall, Mr. Smith spent the
> entire show walking around the stage, dragging his mic
> stand behind him as he sang-ah until one point when he
> stood for a few moments staring at the keyboard player
> (who was oblivious to Mark's nearness) and then -
> without warning - swung his mic stand around and
> beaned the guy right on the head...hard! The poor
> keyboard player fell back, startled, yelled some
> unintelligble curses, and then went back to playing
> the song as Smith went back about his surly lead
> singer business-ah. Mark E cha cha...
>
>
> --- dan bailey <dpbailey@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> > actually, i can think of at least 12 singles-&-such
> > collections (some
> > consist substantially of album tracks, b-sides,
> > alternate versions,
> > previously unreleased cuts, etc) -- early singles
> > (of which 3 versions exist
> > that i know of), palace of swords reversed, hip
> > priest & kamerads, the
> > collection, the 458489 a- & -b-sides collections,
> > the totally wired 2cd, the
> > high tension line 2cd, a past gone mad, a world
> > bewitched 2cd, psychotick
> > dance hall 3cd, & the new listening in collection of
> > early '90s b-sides &
> > such. jesus, i own something like 45 albums by these
> > guys (nearly half of
> > them pure studio efforts), & i think i'm just
> > scraping the surface, though
> > quite a few that i haven't got (& several, alas,
> > that i have) are
> > nonessential completist-only fare.
> >
> > dan
> >
> >
> >
> > >
> > >
> > >No 'fense, but if you don't know who the Fall and
> > Mark E Smith are/were,
> > >you're obviously............ a bit too young?
> > Guess we can't fault you for
> > >that.
> > >
> > >I dunno, I didn't become an alt-rocker till '83 or
> > so, but as hardcore punk
> > >kids we didn't much follow the Fall. Some great
> > stuff to discover though,
> > >even all these years later. I still love a dose of
> > "Cruiser's Creek" now
> > and
> > >then. Both of their CD singles collections are, I
> > think, still in print.
> > >
> > >PRS
> > >Boston MA
> >
>
>
> =====
> the marble tea webthing
> http://www.marbletea.com
>
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Received on Mon, 20 Jan 2003 02:29:59 -0500