Mark E Smith RIP

RIP you crazy bastard

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UPDATE Jan. 27:

Perhaps someone has more details on the influence of The Fall on Morrissey. I recall songs from The Fall were played as intermission music before Morrissey shows (according to this YouTube playlist, "Living Too Late" in 2017 and this playlist, "Lie Dream of a Casino Soul" in 1995). Also, this excerpt posted by Uncleskinny from "The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise" by Brix Smith Start (original article from Oct. 2016):

Mark had been losing patience with Rough Trade and decided we had to look for a new record label. There were a few reasons Mark had soured on them, but the main one was that The Smiths had arrived. This was a huge bone of contention. When he was younger, Morrissey used to write Mark long, fawning letters. Mark has them all saved. Morrissey was obsessed with The Fall and Mark. Mark would never call him Morrissey and would refer to him by his first name, Steven. The rumour was that they named themselves The Smiths after Mark, and that they loved The Fall so much they wanted to be on Rough Trade. One of their first gigs was supporting us.
...
It never even dawned on me that our smoking may have set off the alarm. As we were hurrying down the stairs to evacuate the hotel I ran into Morrissey. By this point I was having a full-blown anxiety attack, bordering on panic. The alarm was blaring and I was desperate to find Mark. I asked him, ‘Have you seen Mark?’ Morrissey responded in a dry, mean tone: ‘He’s probably upstairs, burning up in the fire.’ He thought it was funny, but I had no sense of humour right then. I was really worried about Mark’s wellbeing. I never spoke to Morrissey again. He was always so unfriendly, prickly and weird, whereas Johnny Marr was the loveliest, most friendly, genuine person.




Also, The Fall are #8 in Morrissey's Headful Of Heroes (NME, Sep. 16, 1989) - "Moanchester, so much to answer for":

 

[joe frady]

Any time any band did something that sounded like the Fall, it would infuriate him. He was the fiercest Mancunian that I have ever come to know, and there are a lot of them. Morrissey was a massive Fall fan before the Smiths, and used to write him fawning fan letters, which we have in our house, signed. But the Smiths signed to Rough Trade, and Rough Trade obviously put everything they had into the Smiths, which we can see now was worthwhile. And Mark felt kicked to the curb. I remember we were all playing a gig in Manchester, and the smoke alarm went off in the hotel. I was quite panicked. I saw Morrissey, and asked if he’d seen Mark, and he said: “Yeah, he’s upstairs burning.” I never spoke to him again after that.

Oof; as they say.

.

 

[Stanley the 2nd]

Doesn't seem that long ago that I'd be sat on home listening to the John Peel show and undoubtedly a Fall song would get played. Now both are gone. Perhaps I'm just getting old. Thanks MES.

 

[ninetimesfined]

the Fall have really always been the impenetrable wall for me. They’re the curate’s egg.

Someone said to John Peel that they were not sure whether they like the Fall’s music but know they like the Fall. That’s very much where I sit, I think. I’ve read Renegade and I love who he is and what he does. Perhaps their amazing back catalogue is perhaps a bit too prolific.

I have tried once again since the sad passing of their ringleader - but I know MES would really hate that people were getting into them posthumously.

 

[Anonymous]

Morrissey is a fan.

Also, this forum is titled "Other music", so you can start a thread about Kate Bush or Puccini if you like.

I can understand why it's on the 'Other Music' forum - just not why it's the headline story on the main page of 'Morrissey Solo' - the connection is tenuous at best.

 

[smiffy]

I dipped in and out of The Fall if I'm honest, there were some absolute gems, some soso, and others I would just skip past, but other than the music, I admired the man.
I loved the way he talked, and made the interviewers feel on edge, a total anti 'pop star' but true character, we are all worse off In one way or another after his demise, it's just that the majority won't realise it.

 

[Cornflakes]

but I know MES would really hate that people were getting into them posthumously.

Really not sure I agree. What makes you say that? Apart from, obviously, he may prefer not to be dead.

 

[Cornflakes]

I can understand why it's on the 'Other Music' forum - just not why it's the headline story on the main page of 'Morrissey Solo' - the connection is tenuous at best.

I guess because it's likely to be of particular interest to a fair portion of people visiting the site.

 

[URBANUS]

the Fall have really always been the impenetrable wall for me. They’re the curate’s egg.

Someone said to John Peel that they were not sure whether they like the Fall’s music but know they like the Fall. That’s very much where I sit, I think. I’ve read Renegade and I love who he is and what he does. Perhaps their amazing back catalogue is perhaps a bit too prolific.

I have tried once again since the sad passing of their ringleader - but I know MES would really hate that people were getting into them posthumously.

Not everyone was able to hear the music inside the noise. I don't think it would be healthy for anyone to have listened to all their songs which of course would have been time consuming to say the least.

Just like with Joy Division it's not music you just enjoy for a bit while you vacuum your home. I think most people have summed it up by saying something along the lines that they first hated what they heard but that it was so different that they started to like it cause it was so different.

Mark was a singing screaming poet who had the last laugh on our behalf and personally I loved having my leg pulled by someone who could not care less about music or culture or anything cause that was the whole point. If anything he hated more things than he loved just like a certain Morrissey.

They could both fit in well in any mental institution and I mean that in a nice way cause they knew/know that the world is barking mad and impossible to be taken seriously.

Morrissey and Mark sing about subjects no one else dared to even think about because they are proper mancunians and northern icons and quite frankly all you southern pompous fooks can just feck off to your Blur's and all that other shit you produced by working as rent boys.

 

[URBANUS]

MES means wimp in swedish and also this silly bird.

If you're too lazy to type his whole name just call him Mark cause in this thread we know who you are on about. As for the ones not getting that this a other music thread I can only say there is absolutely no hope for you and you are the very reason why this world stinks.

Give me your addresses and I will ship some rope tied and ready for use.

 

[countthree]

.



MARK, WHEN THEY MADE YOU THEY BROKE THE MOLD !


GIVE THEM HELL IN HEAVEN ! OR WHERE EVER YOU ARE.

WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER. GENIUS ETERNAL.

THANK YOU, MARK.

















<>
. . .

I'm very sad for you too, KS. You have previously written here several times about your admiration for Mark E. Smith. Well deserved, of course, because he was one of a kind. Manchester, what a place.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

As Robert Smith said in an interview just before the release of Disintegration: "you'd have to be the most boring person in the world to only listen to one type of music". Oops off topic again!

especially if you listen to just the Cure.










DOCUMENTAL REALLY ... M.E.S !!!!






<>
. . .

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

I'm very sad for you too, KS. You have previously written here several times about your admiration for Mark E. Smith. Well deserved, of course, because he was one of a kind. Manchester, what a place.

That's sweet of you.

YES & YES ! ...

ONE OF A KIND ! =

MARK ...... E ....... SMITH !




DOCU 2 folks WELCOMED






<>

 

[URBANUS]

He hated the band Suede and glam rock in general.



Stop eating all that chocolate
Eat salad instead
In fact, you're a half-wit from somewhere or other
Why don't you bog off back to Xanadu in Ireland
Glam Rick
Don't try to cheat me
I'm fragile
You hang around with camera crews in shell-suits
You lecture on sweets
You read Viz comic
Glam Rick
You are bequeathed in suede
You are entrenched in suede
Glam Rick
You've got celluloid in your genes dad
You are Glam Rick
You've cut my income by one third
You are working on a video project
You hog the bathroom
And never put your hand in your pocket
Glam Rick
You're Glam Rick
You're paging the Malagna in Spain
But can't read between the lines
Your price, cut down is amazing
You're one of the best songs I've ever heard by Stephen King
Glam Rick
Rhinestone
Your Clearasil produces Richthofen rashes,
Sideboard-like on mountains
Clearasil is in conjunction
Shadrach, the shock
Glam Rick
You post out sixty-page computer printouts
On the end of forests
All the above will come back to you
And confirm you as a damn pest
Glam Rick
You're Glam Rick

 

[gordyboy9]

should I be taken outside and battered with a big stick for saying their music doesn't do it for me,same with joy division.

 

[Oh my]

should I be taken outside and battered with a big stick for saying their music doesn't do it for me,same with joy division.

Yes.

I never liked the Cranberries (I don't hate them either, it's just that I never found them interesting). I didn't feel the need to bring bullshit to the thread dedicated to the recent death of their singer.

 

[Peppermint]

Yes.

I never liked the Cranberries (I don't hate them either, it's just that I never found them interesting). I didn't feel the need to bring bullshit to the thread dedicated to the recent death of their singer.

That's a bit unfair, OhMy. He's just expressing a different opinion. It's still relevant. I feel the same way, as it happens.

 

[Peppermint]

should I be taken outside and battered with a big stick for saying their music doesn't do it for me,same with joy division.

I feel the same, Gordy. I have tried again, since the news of his death, listening to lots of clips on YouTube but I just cannot see it. But there are enough people, whose opinions I usually value, saying it was good, so he must have had something special. I get the anger and originality, but for me that wears off after a minute and a half and I want something more musical. Horrible way to go, though, and too young.

 

[gordyboy9]

Yes.

I never liked the Cranberries (I don't hate them either, it's just that I never found them interesting). I didn't feel the need to bring bullshit to the thread dedicated to the recent death of their singer.

get aff yer f***ing high horse ya f***ing idiot,so you cant even say you don't like a group because everyone else does.

 

[Oh my]

get aff yer f***ing high horse ya f***ing idiot,so you cant even say you don't like a group because everyone else does.

No horses here.
It is even impolite to have this discussion here.
It is perfectly OK to dislike a group. It is perfectly OK to say it. It's just that when the singer of such group has died a few days ago and there is a thread about such thing and people trying to bring good memories about such person, it is extremely impolite to post that you don't like his band. It is a matter of context. It is a matter of respect. I assume that a LOT of persons on the forum do not like The Fall... I do not see the need to express that feeling in a thread that is dedicated to remembering what an artist has done during his life.

 

[Peterb]

should I be taken outside and battered with a big stick for saying their music doesn't do it for me,same with joy division.

Absolutely. That's fair enough.