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Curiosities of The Fall - No 10 of 15(ish) - Blindness

"Blindness"? A curiosity? For sure it is…

It’s less a song than a bass riff and, as Jim Watts later admitted, said riff is copped from “Witness (1 Hope)” by Roots Manuva. The Fall pitch it down a semitone and sharpen the note at the 7th beat, thus avoiding a lawsuit and adding a sense of menace their inspiration lacked.

The version given here is from “Interim” and sounds as if it has a synth bassline, thus connecting it even more closely to “Witness” - it’s a loose dubwise thing, speculative but exploratory. It’s a good lead into the classic recording of the song, made for their 24th (and sadly final) Peel Session. The song has no structure as such - the same 8 bar measure is simply repeated throughout but the arrangement is what makes this the essential cut. Taken at a light skip, Spencer Birtwistle’s drumming is magnificent, his cymbals a dramatic device, his toms deployed to add weight and density (ie. at 1m 37s). Steve Trafford keep the bass fuzzy and dark, dropping out completely at 2m 28s only to roar back in 20 seconds later to superb effect. Watts persues a mock-backwards e-Bow guitar line which allows Ben Pritchard to do what he does best, chug away tightly to the left of the sound picture, just out of the spotlight. If there are any keyboards on the track, they are mixed so low as to be  inaudible to me. Anyway, presented with such an impressively dense brew, Smith brings his game, running his trusty tape machine around the group to brilliantly disorientating effect and providing a lengthy, winding, curious lyric, full of knots and side-references (“from Narnack Records it came”). His performance is superb, especially where he meets the group as theycoming out of one of Birtwistle’s tom-dominated sections at 4m 10s, wherupon Smith ramps up the tension with a panicky, high-pitched verse which is absolutely thrilling. It was rightly picked out as the highlight of the session and as proof that The Fall were fit and working again. The news - and indeed mp3s - spread quickly and the group’s rehabilitation continued.

It would be over a year before the song made its way to an album “proper” and this is where “Blindness” becomes a curiosity. The rendition on “Fall Heads Roll” falls completely flat. The sound is too empty, the arrangement too sparse, totally lacking all those character touches that made the Peel take such a joy. Smith has pared his lyric back to a few disconnected phrases with only the observation that “99 percent of non-smokers die” raising even so much as a vague chuckle. Watts, of course, is gone with Elena Poulou taking over his lead line on synth but it doesn’t quite connect in the same way. Smith left his tape machine at home too. They sound, well, a bit bored. And I suspect this is the problem - Peel 24 catches the song new, fresh, evolving, open. By the time we come to “Fall Heads Roll”, they know the form that bit too well and result feels like Take 159, like hard work, a chore. An alternate take on the US vinyl LP fares a little better with an extra guitar adding some crunch and noise but it still doesn’t quite catch light. Smith complained in a contemporaneous interview that he was being pressurised into releasing “Blindness” as a single. He didn’t sabotage it on purpose, did he?

New Puritan (Peel Session, 1980) (Youtube)

I think this may be my favourite Fall song. I usually listen to it when I’m two pints down — and out on the streets, heading towards my next one.

This is the Grim Reefer The smack at the end of the straw

The optimum level of alcohol flowing through my veins gives me a new energy and purpose, with almost supernatural walking speed and a gleeful disregard of any grotesque peasants who might get in my way. These others aren’t like me. I’m in the right and I have the right of way. I have fire crackling along my nerves and sparking out of my fingertips. The glow comes from within, like I’ve been eating my fucking Reddy Brek.

The conventional is now experimental The experimental is now conventional

I become consumed by uncontrollable Akira-like power, stomping all over Neo-Tokyo’s new Olympic stadium* in a righteous maelstrom. My booze-fuelled determination is focused on one goal: Go directly to pub, do not pass go.

All hardcore fiends will guide by me Our decadent sins will reap discipline

I find the propulsive effect of that never-resolving riff works best on long straight roads, free of shoppers or tourists and with few junctions that require pausing, preferably downhill for extra magical momentum: City Road = yes, Oxford Street = no.

Occasionally I will time it just right, so that the furious climax of the song coincides with my arrival at the pub, so I can tear my headphones from my ears and greet my fellow drinkers with a hearty “I CURSE YOUR SELF COPULATION! OF YOUR LOUSY RECORD COLLECTION!" It then takes me several minutes to calm down.

Basically, I am a bit of a dickhead when I’m pissed, but when I listen to “New Puritan”, at least I have something to blame it on.

Thank you, Dayna!

Next week, we’ll talk about the Mark E Smith-led English post-punkers The Fall, and the highlights & the legacy of the band’s long and prolific career.

The week’s guest blogger is Kat Stevens, who tumblrs at The Vids Are Alright, and is a contributor to FreakyTrigger and The Singles Jukebox.

She also previously appeared on this blog writing about Elastica.

See you tomorrow!

Ellen Willis, “The Velvet Underground” (from Out of the Vinyl Deeps)

(via airgordon)

reblogging self in light of today