The Fall Cup: Last 64, Ties 9-12

  

Tie 9: Blindness v Joker Hysterical Face

Steve: Joker is a much underrated track, but it can't compete with either the Peel or Palais version of Blindness.

Eric: While a part of me very much wants to keep "Joker Hysterical Face" moving forward, as a representative of the deliciously wonky Room to Live, and as Marc Riley's last studio songwriting credit as a member of The Fall, I'd just be being perverse for perversity's sake to pick it over the thunderous and magnificent "Blindness." I'm most partial to the Peel version of the song, though there are enough iterations of it out there to demonstrate that it's a beast capable of being wrestled from within any number of stances and configurations. I've been very tepid about Fall Heads Roll through this re-listening project, making "Blindness" all the more titanic given its wan company in its original studio release version.

bzfgt: JHF has an off-pitch repetitive riff that does things to me neurologically that few other things can match, and in fact is even more effective than Blindness in bringing me to riff-nirvana. Both of these are worthy, but I'll be very upset when Blindness wins. JHF is the single most underrated song in the catalogue (or else it's tied with And This Day).

Richard: We were discussing recently how The Fall were influenced by trucker's songs, but Blindness may be the first time they were influenced by the truck. A rumbling, unswervable juggernaut of a song, when this came in after his song on Later..., old Plant must have felt like the guy in Duel. Joker sees a spirited performanced on the album version, and boasts a nice lope, but it is crushed beneath the wheels this time (plus I dont know what MES meant by a "polyocracy" - I'm not convinced he knew either).

Lewis: I look down the list and I can see quite a few songs that Blindness would lose out to. Not this time though, and it's a shame because Joker is probably my second favourite RTL track, even if (especially as) it is a bit of a ramshackle mess. I have very few words to add about Blindness other than what I've said before. It's a modern era classic, maybe the last Fall classic. A bit of a  monster even, but monsters often go down in the end. 

Result: Blindness 4 - Joker Hysterical Face 1

Tie 10: All Leave Cancelled v Lay Of The Land

Steve: It's really hard to reject the inventive sprawl of All Leave Cancelled, but Lay was one of the first songs that got me into The Fall and still sounds fresh and crazily aggressive.

Eric: The closest of the four contests in this installment, but still not very close, really. I'd put "All Leave Cancelled" beside "Couples vs Jobless Mid 30s" as the finest example of long-form near-prog collages by the final Fall group. In the prior group, I picked "Behind the Counter" over "Couples," and was on the losing side of that argument. This time, I'm picking "All Leave" over the solid-enough "Lay of the Land" as a much more interesting cut, especially its romping final sections. I expect to be on the losing side of this argument, too, alas. 

bzfgt: ALC is kind of a mess, and Lay of the Land is a classic. But the former is more interesting to me, and I like listening to it more right now, so I’m going with it. 

Richard: Leave is a mystery, an am dram Day of the Triffids on the far side of thick smoky fug. Lay, suitably, is in part influenced by Quatermass, and is more structured, which might be seen as good or bad. Just as it's beginning to pall, that huge distorted low guitar waddles in gives everything a swampy sheen. My motto is, if in doubt, go for the track that's more mysterious, so Leave it is.

Lewis: This is a tough one, but I've always loved Lay Of The Land. From the scary intro to the manic cranked to the max ending, it's the perfect start to the album that moved The Fall from a dense almost atonal sound towards a more listener friendly accessible era, without losing the essence of what The Fall were about. And of course 32 years later it was hugely pleasing to see they could still turn out something so wilfully difficult, devoid of tune but full of a collage of sounds that All Leave Cancelled provided. In this tie though, the old skool wins.

Result: All Leave Cancelled 3 - Lay Of The Land 2

Tie 11: Garden v Slates, Slags, Etc.

Steve: Can't fault the abrasive relentlessness of Slates, but Garden is one of those long-form masterpieces that the group did so well in the early 80s...

Eric: Both great songs, absolutely, but "Garden" achieves a much-higher level of greatness for me, in part for its lyrics, it part for its patient but stately arrangement and its inexorable build to a climax, whereas "Slates, Slags" is a bash and bish bit from open to close. Sorry to see "Slate, Slags" go, if that what happens, but there are relatively few Fall songs that can conquer "Garden" for me at this point. 

bzfgt: I don’t know if anything can beat Garden. First of all, the lyrics—it sort of splits the difference between mystical and mysterious and a diss track, and I think it works in both directions. I like the PBL version best, something about the production makes it deep and psychedelic, and Hanley is much more audible than he is on Peel. 

Richard: The most brutal match-up yet. Garden has a chilly insistence with Smith intoning the words like an otherworldly hierophant (and that's before we get to the muffled tape interlude and those synapse-scopuring static burst keyboard wipes at the end). Slates is, indeed, the definitve rant, and the whole track sounds as though it's being heard through a walkie-talkie. Although this is simpler musicially, pretty much just one pummelling riff, it is one of those unusual tracks where it feels as though the whole group is equal, playing together and facing the same direction, swatched in a protective cowl of feedback. Impossible to choose but "don't start improvising" just takes it for me.

Lewis: A battle for the LBBs. I appreciate Garden is a Fall classic but it's never got me. I do like the Peel version, it makes the LP mix sound quite dull, and the remix for a later PBL issue isn't much different. Slates Slags Etc is thrilling, I never understood why the production on the album (yes it is) was so crisp while this track sounded like it was recorded in the toilet at the end of the corridor, but it doesn't matter and in fact it adds to the dirtyness of it all. 

Result: Garden 3 - Slates, Slags, Etc. 2

Tie 12: Leave The Capitol v Free Range

Steve: Free Range is the best Fall song of its era, and still sounds thrillingly energetic - but Capitol (on which Pavement based their whole career) just about bests it.

Eric: Another no-brainer for me. I've noted in earlier rounds that if I had to pick a single song to communicate the pure, raw essence of The Fall to a neophyte, I'd be hard pressed to come up with a better choice than "Leave the Capitol," which features some of the greatest lyrics, vocals, arrangements and music in the entire canon. Brilliant and uncanny in equal measure. "Free Range," like much of Code:Selfish feels transitional to me, the group morphing from the first Brix and second Bramah eras into the confident and punchy Bush and Lads era, but they're not quite there yet on this one, and as I play it again today, I'm mainly just surprised that it's survived as long as it has.

bzfgt: I could have gone either way with this one. Free Range has some great lines, and a cool riff. Tonight I’m feeling LTC more, though. 

Richard: Free Range is the first Fall song I ever heard, on wunnerfull Radio 1's chart show, and it's still a cracking tech-swagger which manages to say a lot about European border politics in a few words, but it can't stand up to the beauty of Leave The Capitol, possibly the best three-way clash between exploratory unlearned musicianship, ultra-tight gestalt-group playing, and fascinating rhythmically playful lyrics

Lewis: This is another tormented battle that I shall probably lose. Both songs are high in my list of greatest Fall hits so once again I'm going with the one that (today) is giving me the most enjoyment, Free Range. Also worth that extra point for being the only self penned Fall song to make the top 40 UK singles chart, albeit one week at #40. And there's that touch of extra sparkle in the single remix too. 

Result: Leave The Capitol 4 - Free Range 1

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