I was very late coming to the party as far as The Fall were concerned.
The only album by them that I have is 50.000 Fall Fans Cant be Wrong which I suspect is anathema to diehard fans.
I also have a copy of The Complete Peel Sessions which I gave to my pal Gordon for his 40th. He was a bigger fan than me and we twice went to see them play at the Renfrew Ferry. The first time was excellent and the second time awful which I have come to realise is something that was probably par for the course.
A couple of weeks ago I stuck on the headphones (to avoid Mrs CC shouting for me to turn it down/off) and listened to the Disc 2 in its entiriy. It was terrific.
I need to give the Peel Sessions an airing.
As a latecomer to The Fall you've got plenty of back catalogue to work through - good luck with that! Here's a spoiler - not every Fall track is a killer like Touch Sensitive. I know, I've done the hard miles on that! I always have a chuckle to myself when I hear people (hipsters?) eulogising them and realise that The Fall are one of those bands that it's cool to like, John Peel blah blah blah. If I was coming at them fresh now I'd probably be thinking they're not an easy band to like and turn my attention elsewhere. God, cynicism is ugly sometimes isn't it.
ReplyDeleteI'm a horrific hipster and I love The Fall but I didn't like them at all until the waxy moustached barrista at my local turmeric and rosemary latte serving coffee bar told me it was cool to like them. Swc.
ReplyDeleteThe 50,000 Fans compilation is a great place to start.
ReplyDeleteThe Peel Sessions boxset is a mighty tome - there's quite a few occasions when the session versions proved superior to the studio versions (very possibly the subject of a future series on TVV) - and there's a few of the more 'difficult' songs to get to grips with.
One thing for sure, it'll be a great adventure getting to grips with the back catalogue.