Probably almost as tough to answer as 'what's your favourite Fall song?'.

For those interested, this thread was inspired by Pumpkin Soup & Mashed Potatoes. That is all.







Will change tomorrow. :)

The scientifically proven answer was Happy Holiday, provided by a fellow poster who listed EVERY Fall song EVER in order of greatness.
Nobody argued with Happy Holiday being the absolute bottom of the pile, although I think i could make a good case for Hands Up Billy, personally.

I bought the Unutterable the other day, and think there are worse songs on the album than Hands Up Billy. Not a big fan of the dodgy keyboard flanger thing.

Yeah... maybe you're right about Hands Up Billy. Although all Smith seemed to want to contribute towards it was

AAEEEEEEEEEYYYYYUUU duh duh duh duh duh-duh duuuh
Hands Up Billy

Believe it or not, Pumpkin Soup and Mashed Potato (although crap) does actually grow on you a bit.

What you thinking of buying next, Fall-wise?

I dunno. It dawned on me a while ago that I actually own most of the Fall's albums, and got compilations which cover lots of the in between bits. Maybe Room To Live, though I'm bit worried it's gonna be a bit of a shoddy recording like Totales Turns.

What was at the top of this guy's barrel, incidentally?

Room to Live is fantastic!!!

Sorry to keep repeating myself on this theme, but I would wait for Sanctuary to reissue Room to Live. It'd be nice if the master tapes show up soon....

Pumpkin Soup & Mashed Potatoes is slightly corny and that is why I love it.

Ah, this one is soooo familiar; like falling off a cloud s,matter of fact.

Worst Fall song hands down, Billy, is......BILL IS DEAD

On the hand, Billy, a TRULY FINE song (from the spotty, overlong UNUTTERABLE) is HANDS UP BILLY.

Rockabilly is verrry gooood! Obscure Rockabilly is life blood.

And please know that
Tommy Blake's original of F-Oldin Money is far superior

Get A Hotel by a wide margin--pretty much kills, at least temporarily, the momentum on The Frenz Experiment.

But like favorite songs by the group, my choice is subject to change at any moment.

:applaud: Hahaha. Pretty much agree with everything there. Changed my mind: Bill Is Dead is the worst Fall song ever (I am anticipating a backlash, Neutrino - let's brace ourselves).

Hands Up Billy is a good song.

As for Get A Hotel, it's great. Do not understand why people dislike this when it's just Carry Bag Man without the rubbish chorus.

some of those corny songs like pumpkin soup are good for the wee one, like the beatles' psychadelia doube entendre works LSD yellow submarine not to mention march of the blue meanies.

worst song? Ludd Gang-boring vox delivery from memory

north west fashion show the one with sample from russian radio? prolapse did something similar-who copied who?

Fead f***in' right. Bill is the pits - no problem, there's plenty of ace stuff to over-compensate ludicrously. Can't imagine why people like the godawful dirge. Billy's OK, though... about 70-80% of the way down an ace album ain't bad :)

What???

Ludd Gang is marvellous. So many bands trying to copy that one note, repetition-ah thang unsuccessfully. It's got everything - perfect time changes, perfect bassline, drums. Wonderful song.

Also in my view, JBC, LUDD GANG is a very fine slice of pie.

The "hate the guts of Shakin' Stevens..." line always made me smile.

Sound like a man of taste. Great minds etc. None of this Bill Is Dead malarkey.

Vivat! Thanks. Bill ain't just merely dead -- he's decomposed!

g'nite

Pearl City is abysmal.

Apart from the "I live on snacks, potatos in packs" line I have really found that Like To Blow is now unlistenable.

Colliseum has little going for it, plus the length of thing compounds its misery.

Long twangy ones can get a bit boring - Pearl City, Rainmaster, Riddler, Bournemouth Runner, Hollow Mind etc.

I like Hands Up Billy.

Assuming ignore Italeano, I vote for Ballard as meadering nonsense.

I also hate the muck-about-in-studio gags, like Filth & Bastardo, but this has been well documented...

"Get A Hotel..Get A Hotel"--duff lyrics, indifferently delivered, sounds thrown together.

But I've changed my mind. My least favorite is now the title track from Extricate, a tune which gives new meaning to the word "filler."

Remember a thread from a while ago, in which somebody reckoned that for every Fall song you hate - like, really hate - somebody out there is bound to like it?

Well, I can see flames of debate being rekindled! I love Get A Hotel, but hate Pumpkin Soup and Mashed Potatoes.

Over to you, eatandolph







Hopefully we can keep this thread going on forever.... :banghead: :D

well "bill is dead" is close to being crap, but i would have said "edinburgh man"... anyway MES shouldn't try to sing properly, it's just terrible

Bill is Dead is great. Edinburgh Man is well overrated.

oh and how about "british people in hot weather"? so much bad taste in only one song... although i have to admit it's kinda catchy...

Mmmmm. Not sure I can think of a worst one. There are many I don't like as much as others of course, but I don't think I've ever heard a Fall song that made me say "Bah! This is unredeemable total garbage!"

Then again, there are still a few Fall albums I've yet to hear, including the oft-maligned Shift Work, Code:Selfish and Cerebral Caustic, so who knows what that may yield.

I do not want to veer into slobbering fan-boy territory, but I have a suspicion that the "worst" fall song is STILL superior to the best of what 85% of the bands currently in operation produce.

That also says it for me. Oh yessss, the other other duff cut in my opinion that comes to mind is EDINBURGH MAN. Sweet Jane.

You're truly a lucky man. Code:Sluggish and Shite-Work are LOADED with lameness. Still don't get the allure of the going nowhere "Birmingham School..." and "Gentlemens Agreement." Shift-Work has some real clams, like "Rose"...possibly the worst tune by the Fall. Even makes "Crew Filth" seem like a kick in the pants.
And I will defend "Ludd Gang" with my life, right alongside another of their A+ material: "Putta Block."

More crap? How about "Music Scene," or "WMC Blob 59," "Tragic Days," "North West Fashion Show," "Pine Leaves," "$500 Bottle of Wine," "Athlete Cured" (and not just because it IS "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You"), "The War Against Intelligence," "Medical Acceptance Gate," "Married, 2 Kids," "CLoud of Black"...
Really, the list goes on.
But seriously, the Shakin' Stevens line in "Ludd Gang" is a keeper.

Ah, come on. Music Scene's good. Agree with the rest though.

JBC you are once again on the money. And chinmusic I'd agree the rest are modest and/or slight. Perhaps we are essentially fans of OLD FALL to borrow the phraseology of reactionary crits who once drew a figurative line in sand when Brix came on board.

Married Two Kids, though -- It has some great lines despite its squarely refried boogie shufflle.

"After -shave like mustard; two pints of lager do me in"
and "have a peculiar goatish smell; am long-winded article.

a nicely put whiff of middle age - and, ahem, being married with two kids.

It was the Beggars Banquet stuff I first heard, and am still a big fan of. I am in a bit of a Slates/Hex mood at the mo tho. It's the early 90s stuff - by and large - that i just can't bear. Am trying to think of a non early 90s turd...

-_-

Here we go - the real new fall shit list

#1 Pumpkin Soup and Mashed Potatoes (see above)
#2 Bill is dead (see a million other threads)

and....

#3 Rollin' Dany

Any others?

Most of Kurious Oranj gets on my tits too - overture, the title track, CD win fall, etc, though i stand by Big New Prinz, cos it's great.

'Pumpkin Soup...' is great, as is 'Hands Up Billy'.

'The Steak Place'...now THAT'S shite!

I like The Steak Place. Am also quick to defend Oh Brother!, don't understand why people hate it so much.

I'll tell yer what isshite though, that He Pep! Why does everybody like it so much?

My bottom 10:

Xmas With Simon Horrible, half-assed and cheesy.
Haf Found Bormann 4 minutes of Brix shouting "Haf! FOUND... Bormann!" to the accompaniment of Rolf Harris's wobble board.
Pumpkin Soup And Mashed Potatoes The only good Fall song with "Pumpkin" in the title is Pumpkin Head Xscapes.
Idiot Joy Showland Too clean, too slow, too obvious.
In These Times Aieee! Those synthesised trumpets!
Das Katerer Not ANOTHER version of Free Range!
Mother-Sister This one always bores me for some reason.
Immortality - album version. A vast disappointment over the amazing session version.
Xandra Pointless.
The Aphid Even more pointless.

Nick W

what's with you guys and Bill is Dead? that's a great song. Rose too.

my personal worst fall song might be Spoilt Victorian Child. That or Lie Dream of a Casino Soul. too broad strokes for MES. Bill is Dead is broad strokes but they are so intimate that I just don't care. maybe they are SO broad that I just don't care. Child and Dream just seem like cheezy poetical constructions/metaphors/whatever. I don't know the proper term. but whatever they are they are cheezy.

there's a couple of stinkers on Levitate, too, but I can't remember them well enough to dislike them.

and the greatness of Marshall/Unuterable/AYAMW/TRNFAFKACOTC or whatever it's called now was enough to erase everything but Dr. Shanley from my memory.

NEW THREAD NEW THREADS:::: does anyone else think Dr. Shanley is an echo of Cripple Creek Ferry??? that's just one reason I like it, me.
-s

This is mental-speak! SVC and LDOACS are marvellous songs, mainly cos they both have great riffs. There are also some great vocals from MES to be found on both, namely in Lie Dream's fantastic chorus and the "encrusted green unwild/ you know you are a spoilt Victorian child" spoken bit at the end of SVC. Great songs.

well is there another kind?

I always wind up fighting with the email fall people about those two songs. it's just my personal thing or something. they seem crude to me. they bug me. lots of other people like them. apparently including you.

I would throw in the intro to Just Step Sideways as well. and it's on one of my all-time favorite albums by anyone.

I have a personal dislike for "Don't Call me Darling", It's Brix's vocals they grate on me :rant:

If this is your bottom 10 please please please don't say you've listened carefully to all the bloody tracks and rated them you need a hobby, an outside interest-anything!!!!!!!!!! :banghead: (You even have the cheek to include "Immortality") personally except for one or two real "personal" dogs my taste in songs change almost daily, it's all part of the joy of Fall songs :rant: