This version of Backdrop is the greatest single live recording of the Fall ever. Discuss.

I prefer the version on Austerbae....thingy....

So far, the least balanced album poll!

me too... though I voted for it here anyway

I've polled that album separately.

That Backdrop is great, but I voted CLassical. Isn't it this LP with a really good verison, with extended 4 daoor saloon sales pitch? "You gadget minded cretin"?

If not, then I change my vote to Backdrop! :P

Please vote. It helps future generations.

Only 17 people have taken your advice, Martin. Not much hope for those people of the future then.

It's an impossible decision, that's why.

I mean, only *one*? Including bonus tracks?

Give me some time to listen to it more.

It is certainly up there! What a song... the way it keeps building up to a crescendo but then cheekily never quite making it... which maintains its tension all the way through. Unarguably The Fall at their best and something no other band would do!

I'm sure I voted for Backdrop too, when this poll first started. Though I do have some fondness for all the bonus tracks.... B)

It is a great compilation... I love all the bonus tracks too! The Slates songs are understandably a lot stronger on this then they are on, say, The Legendary Chaos Tape too.

It's good (someone can drudge up the old "Backdrop" thread to see my doubts about it after seeing it praised so much), but it's not *that* good. As great unrecorded Fall tracks go, "New Puritan" is much more impressive. I find "Backdrop" to be that whole Hex-era clutter thing taken to its logical and unfortunately unpleasant extreme. Hey, guys, just because you play a loud racket doesn't make it remarkable. They must have agreed, right??? Bigger is not necessarily better. :rant:

Sorry Rex have to disagree with you on this one

The visceral kick of seeing the Hex era band play "Backdrop" at the Band on the Wall and the Lesser Free Trade Hall is seered in my brain for ever as a great moment in music and the joy of finding "In a Hole" in a record shop in December of that fine year really made my Xmas

I agree its a racket - but its a damn good racket - and it takes the "Repetition" manifesto to another level. The riff is particularly good and I think there's a lot of tension in the structure of the song

It may be one of these "you had to be there" things but as much as I adore New Puritan I'm afraid Backdrop does it for me every time ;)

Voted for "Backdrop" too - the most Beefheart-like track I've heard by The Fall, but I like it independently of that.

Did MES know his geography in 1982? Cos for recordings made in Auckland and Chch he seems to make a helluva lot references to Australians and Australian cities. I mean most artists, when they play at a gig pass on compliments to the audience and to the city they're from - not MES tho', we can trust him to break the mold. He was obviously suffering under the commonly held delusion that Auckland is an island in Sydney Harbour. -_-

The incredible bonus version of Slags, Slates, etc. gave Backdrop a run for the money in my world . ..

Backdrop for me as well.
But a wild, noisy Fantastic Life was very, very close...

The wonderful & mighty double decker... As Backdrop has got the votes it deserves, I give mine to Hard Life In Country. That moment when the villagers are surrounding the house and the whole sound goes BOOMBAST! is fantastic.

Hard Life In Country was my favourite track on the original release as well. Even slightly superior to the studio version which actually appears to be so perfect that it can't be surpassed.

However the expanded edition offers Slags, Slates, Etc. as a bonus track. Probably the best performance I've ever heard of this song and I know at least two dozen.

"CAN YOU TURN IT DOWN, MARC?"

I like that bit.

It's a while since I played this LP, but when I scanned the list of songs, there was something about it. Backdrop, that is.

This is a toughie, I so love this version of Hip Priest its practically a religious experience for me :wub: so thats my big pick

As a baby Fall fan I 'd love to know why Backdrop has won this poll so decisively, I like it ( I've only heard it about 5-6 times mind you) & agree with comments below by The Eccles Con but its not in my top 3 off this wicked album.

1. Hip Priest
2. No Xmas for John Quays
3.Solicitor in Studio

:)

Its the same misguided fools who put Metal Machine as Lou's best. :ohdear:

Didn't see this at the time.

But - and I can't remember the comments without gong back and listening for them,and its nearly tea-time so I'm not going to do that - I would take them as taking the piss out of Australias for the NZers' benefit.

That's what I thought too.

Some of the bonus stuff on In A Hole is blinding, like Container Drivers (gets my vote) and Who Makes The Nazis, also Slates as mentioned.

Room to Live for me - it just sounds so fresh.

I love Backdrop but the version of Impression of J Temperence is just incredible, from Mark's vocal performance (those trimphone impersonations give me shivers every time) to Riley's overdriven and ridiculous keyboards, not to mention that bassline. Been listening to this on repeat for the past 40 minutes and it really is untouchable :wub:

Thanks for bumping this, Sven... I had never voted in it before. :)


"Black Night!!!" (Thank heaven for the remaster, for so many reasons...) :wub:

Black Night fills me with joyful glee Flickering. I just can't help laughing when I listen to it.

There's too little humour in music.

I was thinking about this the other day and why I can't stand to listen to bands like The Clash and Killing Joke amongst so many others. It's the seriousness I can't stick and can't get on with, in spite of everything. The idea that furrowed brows and earnestness, somehow makes an artist's work more worthy or valuable.

Just about all the music I love from The Fall to Chic to Earl Brutus to Italo Disco to, ooh, loads of stuff, has a rich vein of humour running through it. I'm sure Mark E Smith has alluded to this on occasion, but I can't find the direct quote.

I'm not saying music is a frivolous thing, just that to me, the very best of all music, the stuff that transcends real life is quite likely to make me grin or burst out laughing, whether this is due to its ridiculousness, a genuine attempt at communicating using humour or the shock and suprise of something different. Sometimes just simply the brilliance of music can make me grin like a simpleton.

Mark E Smith is very serious about his words but is self depreciating and the same applies to the Fall. Those Kazoos on The NWRA, childish jokes on the early albums, C+C Hassle Schmuck from The Peel sessions, right up to the latest album and the idea of the hookline of a song being 'we're not from Bury' Wonderful :wub:

I fucking love The Fall I do. They make me happy :D

I'm waffling now, so I'm going to shut up.

I don't think you're waffling. I do think you are right on the money. I've had this same conversation with other people who care a lot about music. It's not that I don't like 'serious' music where humour is not an ingredient. I do. It's just that my favorite music, the things that are dearest to me, almost always include an element of humour. The Fall included... :)

And Black Night has a similar effect on me. That, and the jumping around part...

^^ This

Oh...Prole Art Threat btw. Video Reach / Stereo Bog!

Backdrop's a classic here, obviously, but also the greatest versions of RTL and Slates you'll ever hear.

I've voted for Slates.

this album has alot of great tracks but Backdrop takes the cake!

I Wonder if ''Fall In A Hole'' is the only live album from the Room to Live Era?

Room to Live sounds great here!

There's also Live To Air In Melbourne '82 and Austurbaejarbio (obviously a cut and paste job).

Just visit the trainspotter's corner.

Technically, Austurbaejarbio's post RTL era, as Riley had got the boot by then. -_-