They were the godfather of indie music John Peel's favourite band. "The Fall." he said, "Always different, Always the same." The 59-year-old front man Mark E Smith still crafts the group around his poetry.
Great to listen to an un indoctrinated thinking human, wouldn't agree with him on many things I guess such as socialism being beneficial because its clearly not , but the debate is the way to knowledge and he clearly wouldn't be tolerated by Facebook, X maybe.
Yes. Two feet firmly on the ground. I imagine he learnt a lot at that time, and iit served him well for the rest of his days. He knew he wanted more. He got it. He would have gone back to "proper" work, if he'd decided to. He gave no fucks in all the right ways. Still think we'd have clashed. Good job I'm a no talent. Our paths never crossed. Incredible artist. Difficult Sod. x
Ah, sad to see what decades of drink and drugs and women and rock and roll can do to a once bright and intuitive mind, Krishnan has lost it big time, Mark's still killing it though
+Tom Wilko drink, drugs, women and rock'n'roll sad? you must be kidding. Reaching 100 with unfulfilled dreams after a life of complete tedium and mediocrity is SAD. Dying in your twenties is SAD, not surviving decades of excess well into middle-age and beyond.
Rex Mundi you're preaching to the converted rex, not sure you fully got my comment. it was a silly joke taking the mick out of the interviewer. I truly believe the 'road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom' always have, one of the reasons i'm interested in Mark E Smith, though not the main reason
A far more complex individual than the comments before tend to show. Mark E. Smith was not a nice man, this much is true. However, he was honest - brutally, so. His lyrical content was profound on many, perhaps most, occasions and he was, for better and worse, a true rebel - a true punk. He was a man addled by alcohol and 'demons' yet still managed to spew out more intriguing prose at his worst than most do at their best. You could call the man a national treasure and I'm sure he would agree, through a warped smile and sense of hilarity; subversion and a messy kinship to the past. A man of his time(s) that met his end on his own terms. Take that as you will. Personally, selfishly, I'll take some inspiration.
+revol148 Billy Bragg is a liberal leftie who only believes in one thing: political correctness (moral cowardice and a tool of neo-fascism). Who wants to listen to Bragg caterwailing the labour party manifesto?
+pinkcampion I agree with the first part of your comment although Bragg wrote some great songs in the mid 1980's if that is much of a defence for the fact that for the past 2 decades he's turned into a national treasure / Jeremy Corbyn supporting bore.I like the quote as I reckon it's kind of what I believe Mark E Smith is like in the flesh.
+Survive the Jive i never got the billy brag quest, he was always singing about northerners having a hard time, and then he got fat, too many Mars bars coated in batter. A Northern delicacy I've heard.
Ireland . ..all 32 county's...🇨🇮4 .celtic gaelic provinces.....☘️ munster leinster ulster connaught and the 7. 2 million on the island ...of Ireland.......love mark
Talk about thinking outside the box. Mark’s words will ring in our ears as we stand clapping like fools on our doorsteps for people and causes that have been discussed ti abstraction by politicians and Instagram influencers.
Yep, gotta get those credentials established, early on in case people think you're just another untouchable caricature media celebrity with your cogent thoughts dulled by years of abuse...
I can't understand the concern about if a musician lines up with your worldview, lifestyle or political opinion.... Then again I'm American and we have a major 'news' network and political party 10x more inflammatory than anything said here. This man has been better than Santa Claus at delivering every year for four decades, that's what matters to me.
We live in a social media world where people just create echo chambers and never hear anything other than their own narrow perspectives of the world, even sadder when so many of those perspectives are no more than force fed beliefs from the left/right paradigm. If you sit back long enough these people always make hypocrites of themselves somewhere down the line
I met him in a pub in Devon one afternoon. He was due to play a gig nearby, and he was drinking a pint at the bar - I recognised him, and when I went to the bar to buy a drink, I said hello and I mentioned he was in the fall and playing nearby - but he just grunted something and seemingly didnt want to speak, so I said nothing more and waited in silence for my drink to be served and left the bar to sit down... I then realised all the stories were true of him being a bit grumpy! ;)
Many comments on this thread misunderstand him. He was a miserabalist, anti fashion, anti sheep mentality, working class git always and he always said, whether it pleased left wing cowards or right wing bigots what he thought. There is no left and right in honest social commentary or great art. We are all guilty of inconsistent bollocks. He was brought up working class. Pen and paper. Smith's off kelter remark about refugees was spot on. Feeling uncomfortable? Brilliant.
It's not like there are two sides in the Syrian war though, is it? You cannot compare that situation to the British army fighting Nazism...can you? Thank god we've never had to rely on Mark E Smith to fight any wars for us if he's going to get all righteous on us. If you're going to make great swooping generalizations about war, maybe he should have fought in Falklands!
I really wish I had the faintest idea what you are talking about. Mark E Smith is a kitchen sink school commentator/poet, someone who has sharp insights into the human condition. His comments on politics and society are his alone.Take it or leave it.
David B. is spot on about Mark E. Smith- Mark, was obviously a drunk poet, a true artist and maybe not a politically correct fellow- but his art was great, pay attention to that not the man.
Yeah, 'economic migrants', trying to escape from war to get something for their families. Why are there many men? Well, do you know what can happen to a woman on such a dangerous route? I wouldn't send my daughter nor would you.
Me interesa este Artista y lo que significa en la cultura Britanica, me encanta la música de The Fall un estilo único y diferente el sonido de Manchester de los 70s 80s , Cantantes posteriores se inspiraron en el estilo de Mark E Smith. , saludos desde Argentina
the more interesting and insidious thing about The Fall, is an idle moment can cause a lyric or refrain to catch on the brain- and will stay for any number of days.
He's right about big numbers of young Syrian men coming here but expecting us to fight their battles back home - Syrian women in camps over there been complaining same here on RU-vid for a year or more.
@@ericjensen9091 Britian's relationship to Israel is fairly complicated tbf. Initially the British government was very much against the creation of the state of Israel going as far as to fund the Arabs, but later on they changed tack. In any case those aren't our wars to fight anymore. And by importing millions of people here who have a personal stake in the fight all we've done is imported the conflicts here.
Like most old people, he ended up believing what he read in the papers. He was a pretty vacuous guy, I don't think he had a strong belief in anything other than who was buying the next drink as long as it wasn't him.
Mark was the last of his kind. As an American, you don’t hear anything like The Fall over here. You never once heard anything or read anything like Mark’s lyrics. They made absolutely no fucking sense but made absolutely perfect sense at the same time.
"Why have they all left their wives and families... Two million fellas could be any effing garbage." MES dispensing some wisdom on uncontrolled immigration.
What a startling, illuminating point Mark makes. Yeah. Bloody right. Those 2 million (or whatever the actual number) or 242 blokes from Syria, could wreak absolute havoc here - if they chose to. So, just why are they coming here minus their families? Also, 10 out of 10 for staying off the FaceBollocks nonsense. Mark E Smith for Prime Minister. Proper 2020 visionary politics.
