The punchy 1982 soundbomb from The Fall...

the title track. Ace :lol:

Solicitor In Studio is a work of pure genius.

It starts off with Craig playing two chords on his guitar.

There seems to be two basses on it and I think the main bass played by Steve is carrying the melodic bass line while the 2nd bass (played by K Burns?) does little accents and noise bursts. The guitar primarily continues to play just those same two chords rhythmically while a little keyboard part punctuates chords within the tune. So it's kind of like one of those signature Fall touches where they reverse rock tradition and let the guitar be the rhythm instrument and the bass carries the melody, instead of the (usual-typical) other way around. The drums are keeping a steady pace, with a couple of little drumrolls thrown in. There's nothing better than when they get into what I call the "slow pogo" part (because it seems the perfect spot to do a pogo dance) right when Mark E. sings "He inadvertantly proved the point...that his proffession was rot!" Then it returns to the main melody again.

The bass line is SO great. It's like this..

"BUM budda BAH DAH buh dum. Buh dadda dadda dadda... BUM budda BAH DAH buh dum"

And the keyboard goes "eeh EH-EH UH UH" in between each one.

Then...After the 2nd time the pogo part comes in ( Mark sings "Young and Oh Oh old dicks..make Tee eee ee Vee") the song returns to the main melody again and it really drives it with more intensity than before, and meanwhile Mark hoots "Whoo hoo hoo hoo!" Like he knows the song is really driving now and he's just having a blast!

Then it concludes with this awesome atonal little three note tune...first it's played by that distorto 2nd bass...then it's echoed by distorted atonal keyboard.

Then whole thing ends with a cool upwards finger up Steve's bass fretboard.


I tell you...this is one of the greatest Fall songs....EVER! :applaud: Only a FOOL could hate that song.

I once played that song for someone and said "this is the greatest" and he told he he HATES the song.

FOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :banghead:

"Look at yourself as a man
The valley rings with ice-cream vans"


There are few greater lyrics than this.

who needs the record eh!!????
p'raps we could just do our own weird written transcriptions of the music of fall songs (for those unable to listen at work....) - but sure we would disagree on exactly what the transcriptions should be :rolleyes: as usual on this msgboard!

D I

solicitor in studio is one of the greatest fall songs. everything about it is perfect.

a mighty squall.

Marquis Cha Cha so much going on in that song almost caotic

Papal Visit is the best thing here, though Hard Life In Country comes close.

A most underrated album. Detective instinct, Solicitor in Studio...great stuff. The music is very unusual all the way through...I'm no musician, but there seem to be a lot of different tempos. Rough and ready, but essential listening.

Not by me, it's not.
I think it has just always been shadowed by Hex Enduction Hour.

But two great albums in 1982 shows what an incredibly creative period this was for the band.

hard life in country.... cos i reckon it describes where i grew up! :huh:

n i love the 'vvvvvvvillagers....r surrounding the house' bit.....

This bit of the song also seems quite appropriate to you, Generalist:

"Your body gets pulled right back
You get a terrible urge to drink"

:whistle:

u r not wrong...... ;)

Hard Life In Country would be my choice--with Marquis Cha Cha being a close second.

Which one of these lyrical gems best sums up living in the country then?

1. Nymphette new romantics come over the hill
2. Old ladies confiscate your gate railings
3. D. Bowie look-alikes permeate car parks
4. Hedgehogs skirt around your leathered soles

Or:

5. At three a.m. the stick people recede
The locals get up your nose and leather soles stick on cobble stones

5

So you were never a Nymphette new romantic on a hill or a D. Bowie lookalike?

probably both - which is why i'm tryin to forget it :lol:

Better than being a hedgehog, I suppose...

I like the versions of many of these songs on the Melbourne live album.

I think the important part of that line is "Nymphette new romantics come over the hill...it gets a bit dee-press-ing!"

I can just picture it.

Does anyone here think Contraflow is sort of like Hard Life In Country part two?

Contraflow is surely M5 part 2!

This LP gets better and better with time.

The drumming when MES sings "Hey rosso rosso's over there.."!! Fuckin' unbelievable!!!

I went for "Room To Live", but it was such a hard choice because I think I could've voted for any of these songs depending on my frame of mind at the time. I also have a real soft spot for "Detective Instinct". Very atmospheric.

The album as a whole is really good. Sometimes though, very much like TWAFWOTF, I think it seems to be lacking something. Not sure what though, because when I look at the track-list I can't see a duff song! <_<

'room' was when i started to think of the fall as a secret gang
i know now a lot of people have said something similer often since then
i used to wash dishes in a resturant in kensington for a living in '82 and one of the chefs there was into the fall i was surprised at the time as it seemed a strange obsession baking cakes for rich punters and liking the fall he used to mutter selections from 'room' as wandered around the kitchen he later sold me a pair of nice boots . Hanleys basslines seemed to come from another planet its easy now to become a 'look back bore' and crack on about their early lps 'grotesque' kills me every time - so much in it
'slates' pushing the boat out even further and 'room' lyrically near perfect that opening 'steptoe and son' theme tune that turned into
'joker hysterical' is hard too beat on any given day and forgive my lack of musicology but the twiddly bits , weird nuances gut reaction humerous pronouncements and uncontrived melodies that made them such a force ' the magic band ' are an obvious reference but im grateful for a british band that play as well as a cult american band
heres to the future eg rocket science and another peel session
weve only just begun.....

This poll has made me realize that Room To Live is my favorite Fall record. Eat that, Hex and Slates fans.

Room to Live, ah. The most obscure album by a generally obscure band. The album I forget about all the time.

This one sounds like leftovers to me. Strong leftovers, but leftovers. All the Fall LPs of this time period have a very distinct sound and feeling... this one instead feels like a bunch of tracks they'd worked on live for a while that didn't have a home elsewhere. I mean, nothing *new* is introduced on this LP, and it's not as atmospheric, powerful, or refined as Hex. It's a very rootsy record with a bit of the dirging that would dominate the tail end of Perverted by Language the following year.

Having said all that, the record is still special. Joker is a very strong beginning, Marquis is a great, silly single, Hard Life builds into a frenzy at a less than frenzied tempo, Room to Live is punchy.

I voted for Detective Instinct, though, and I see now that I'm one of the minority, definitely. This song is so minimal -- and I really love minimal. It's a change of pace from the "Look at our big band!" feeling of Hex and the singles at this time. Fans of Hanley's bass really should love this one -- it's a simple bass line, but it dominates everything, and never really sounds like it's repeating itself even though it constantly does. As the song progresses, more additional sounds are occasionally thrown into the mix (you can hear the bloody space invader for a bit at about the 3:30 mark), the guitar and the percussion both sound like they are trying to mold the bassline like clay, to change its shape, and they often succeed. Mark's lyrics aren't all that important here. It's a beautiful change of pace, and the only moment on the record, for me, that sounds like nothing else the Fall ever did. A whole album of *this* kind of song would have been cool, because the Fall have never really done minimal and quiet, a sculpting of space.

Solicitor Studio takes a close second, though... again with the bassline, it's almost a dance song. But it sounds a bit similar to Joker or a slower Mere Pseud Mag Ed. Not as unique to me.

Papal Visit is the kind of whacked out shit that I tend to enjoy, almost completely avant, but unfortunately its experimentation doesn't produce any kind of song to hold the elements together, and thus it sounds like filler. It is closest in spirit to Detective Instinct, but without the simple melodic elements to act as a canvas.

Side One-good and necessary
Side two- shite, indulgent.

I think this is a startling LP, and one which I could listen to again and again. Very little here is obvious...a song like Detective Instinct to different to anything else I've ever heard. Marquis Cha Cha too improves with age, though live versions are often better. Only Papal Visit disappoints, but as an experiment, it too has its moments.

room to live is excellent.... the tracks each conjure up really vivid pictures for me... (always a good sign)...

Could this be the best Fall album? It has few tracks, but five of them are magificent: Joker, Solicitor, RTL, Hard Life and Mqus Cha Cha. How many albums (Fall or otherwise) have that many indispensible tracks?

Joker Hysterical Face

A riff for the ages.

I voted for Solicitor In Studio but I love every track on this record. Mark E Smith (my hero) is possibly the finest violinist this country has ever produced.

I would add Detective Instinct to your list. It's magnificently understated and atmospheric, and has fun lyrics.

When this LP came out, I had just moved from one of the largest towns in the country to 'The Best Kept Village in Yorkshire'. So Hard Life In The Country was a favourite track.

There weren't actually too many real vvvvvillagers there - mostly executives and business types. They gave our house a wide berth. Plenty of D Bowie lookalikes were around at the time though.

Joker Hysterical Face for me

When I first heard this live I was transfixed

Smith was full of bitterness and bile and the band was stunningly tight

The riff is superb rolling. loping

The lyrics are a brilliant characterisation - they are cruel but stunning