John Doran introduces The Fall's Hex Enduction Hour

[@bzfgt1]

Excellent, excellent talk!

[@bzfgt1]

Especially 15:20 ... heh...but really, tackling that line that lots of us just wish didn't exist (so we wouldn't have to deal with it), you do admirable work here....I'm mulling over whether I was too easy on him...

[@MadderMel]

Darn ! Those lyrics are very deep indeed !!

[@animatiz]

Who said that particular song had deep lyrics ? You?

[@matthewmiller4341]

Very interesting.

[@karllux-d6g]

I had to be the 77th to like this. This is an album i only bought in 85, because distribution and import around these shores were a headache in those days, but i remember when it came out. Mind you, my country's national fm headquarters ( at least two major stations in 1982, in Portugal) had some announcers/dj's who were into The Fall, so secondary and university students progressively became witness of Mr Smith's group's energic yet somewhat awkward musical rendition. The Fall must be on the UK's 5-short-list for Die-Hard British bands who freakin' never sold out, even when grooming and slightly polishing their sound and vision, namely when Brix joined them. I'd been an lp collector since 77 and this was the first Fall album i've ever bought ( ...many more after) , nevertheless, having heard parts of Live at TWT, Dragnet and Grotesque (a.t.t.g) on said radio shows, this new one had something about the sound and production (yes, production) that kinda set them side by side with them ''professionally sounding'' groups. And when The Classical broke in through the speakers, without warning, it was as if they were takin' on the world - you never recover from that track. .

[@elwoodblues7157]

"Bands send tapes to famous apes
. Male slags, male slates, famous apes, water, cater. Now: great thoughts
. The whole country is post-gramme
. Hail the new puritan!"

[@karllux-d6g]

Apart from the intro to your comment, which sounds a wee cryptic, yet hinting at something happening at the BBc, involving tea, i do agree with the synthesis. Anyways, i've always seen him as a real new puritan, an hard-boiled buzzcock still able to describe in vitriol , what trve-grit working class British Socialism might have been, had it not vanished with a tuneful blare.

[@matthewcoombs3282]

Why is he so obssessed with a single lyric from The Classical. I took it to be Smith attacking tokenism and condesending attitudes to black people in general. Maybe I am taking a charitable view. Either way it is not important. It is a single word not typical of the rest of Smith's output.

[@earinsound]

exactly i’m surprised doran willfully ignores this

[@lukeheywood7334]

You are correct ref underpaid and bit part tokenism roward black thesoians. Hence o ligayory nihgr

[@Morphstock]

I don't see why he singles out the Gun Club. I've checked the lyrics to For THe Love Of Ivy and it seems quite clear that they were in character unless of course Jeffrey Lee Pierce was a "steel drivin' man" which seems a bit unlikely. I'm not saying it was a good idea for him to use the n -word but I don't think for a moment it was meant to be representing his own viewpoint. One of Pierce's big influences was Robert Johnson and he was also a fan of Sun Ra and even Prince. There's far more evidence to support the argument that MES was racist if you wanted to go down that route.

[@mesolithicman164]

What a pathetic load of twaddle regarding 'the n word'. Back in 1982 that word hadn't been weaponized in the way it has today. And Smith is using it in an intelligent way to describe the Fall's outsider status in relation to the main stream media. These days everyone and their sister 'love' the Fall, back then they were as peripheral to the music industry as you can get. It's also important to contrast this with his observation of "Kensington white Rastas". So in effect you're talking about 2 sides of the same coin. It's ill-advised trying to explain stuff like this if you weren't there, but there was never any critique of this at the time and no one seriously considered Smith or any of the Indie bands as racist in outlook.

[@mesolithicman164]

Further: I'm amazed that these people can throw around the C word but they tread on eggshells with the N word. This tells me that they don't understand the central core attitude of the Fall. And in fact, let's be honest, love the cool outsider image that goes with being a modern pseudo Fall fan. That kind of hero worship would have gotten the harshest kind of rebukes from MES in his razor sharp prime.

[@lukeheywood7334]

Your so right marks politics have slwzys been sound fuc me give the man dome credit in sctual fact its anti racist the clasxical is mes at his best

[@lukeheywood7334]

Hobestly shut the dribbleleadbelly

[@mesolithicman164]

@@lukeheywood7334 ' Precision made to the wrong specifications '.

[@lukeheywood7334]

Wireless unenthusiasts

[@TheWill2112]

Well said sir :)

[@beebop3734]

How many times does he say "I/me/my" ... yawn

[@craftykev]

Some interesting stuff, bit too much lefty politics which I don’t think shares much with the Fall.

[@earinsound]

yeah that marxist magic trick at the end

[@adriansteele5679]

mark was a trot though

[@mesolithicman164]

Although he had a northern working class political outlook, Smith had a contempt for people who couldn't think for themselves. He delighted in his role as a contrarian, he was by no means a doctrinaire thinker, politically or culturally.

[@craftykev]

@@adriansteele5679 Hardly, he believed in God. He wasn't a revolutionary. He remembered traditions as others discarded them.

[@craftykev]

@@mesolithicman164 Indeed. Just refreshing to see someone with their own mind. Stands out like a sore thumb these days, as he did.

[@charleshodgson9285]

If you're a middle class lefty with a degree, you should STFU about The Fall. About sums up Doran & The Quietus. Go back to your groundbreaking Radiohead records.

[@jordanashley1994]

Why? The Fall doesn't 'belong' solely to working class people without a degree.