GOM OR BOFSundays are a day for quiet reflection. An oasis of tranquillity before a week of turbulence. Not last week.
Drew at Across The Kitchen Table had a teeth-grindingly awful post on MES on Sunday and if that weren't bad enough TVV compounds it by having a haigographic MES post on Monday. Enough is enough. TVV isn't a place for haters. Except this week.
What is it about MES that inspires such affection? That's rhetorical by the way. How can a man with a one note career inspire such affection and loyalty? That's also rhetorical.
Let us consider the evidence. The sainted John Peel had him for more sessions than any other. Proving that no-one's perfect. We all have our blind spots.
Doesn't MES' ever-changing band line up tell you that the man's a menace? Doesn't his treatment of Brix Smith show you the shallow nastiness of the man? Doesn't the regular no shows or short pissed sets show you how much he dismisses you, his fans.
MES has been recycling the same song for over 30 years. Album after album of twangy, shouty nonsense. And you buy it.
Make a stand. Say no. Don't buy. Don't write. Let him disappear into the vastness of history. Allow him to sink into the cesspit of his drinking, drug taking and all round nastiness.
Apologists will claim that tracks like Eat Yourself Fitter are suitable to be set alongside great acts like Joy Division. That his dedication to one type of ill-conceived and half-formed garage rock shows a dedication to ploughing his own furrow and a dedication to his art. It doesn't. Its because he knows no other chord. Making music for contemporary dance is no excuse either. It's luvvies getting off on each other.
Please let it end with this post. Let the blogosphere unite and not write.
Niceness will re-emerge next week.
Colin, Sunday 6 February 2011
Note from JC
Colin didn't select any mp3s to accompany his epistle. So I've done it for him. I hope he doesn't mind these:-
mp3 : The Jazz Butcher - Southern Mark Smith (Big Return)
mp3 : R.E.M. - Fall On Me (unplugged)
Happy Listening
21 comments:
You are entitled to you're opinion Colin but you are so wrong.
I have a feeling this post is tongue on cheek, and/or just trying to goad a few. So here goes. Liking the music doesnot translate into admiration for the writer/performer, regardless of how sublime that output is. or who that performer is. ME Smith doesnot seem to be a particularly nice bloke, but his records, are on the whole just tremendous. Well, most of them. Is Colin suggesting that if we don't approve of the personal life/personality we avoid the music? Bang goes the Ted Hawkins LP. And the Elton John records. And probably most of my blues collection. And Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye,...
Can i keep my Fred Lwoery "Whistles Your Gospel favourites"?
Oh, and the Phil Spector box set
and Captain Beefheart
George is right- you do have to separate the artist from the art. On the other hand, I think Colin just genuinely dislikes MES and the Fall.
The 'teeth-grindingly awful post' at Drew's referred to by my honourable friend appears to be of 'Bill Is Dead' which I have always found to be a quite melodic and rather heartfelt, even 'soft', old thing. How strange.
It's precisely because he engenders such furious devotion/oppobrium that I heart MES (even though I'd stand well away from him in the pub). Long live his one chord!
And now I'm off to listen to Gut Of The Quantifier, very loud, & tickle myself with a feather.
This is the Colin who put Sparta FC 2 on a list of ten songs he had to have together to sum up him and songs is it?
Never got MES/The Fall myself - just noise - but each to his own eh !
Diolch
Walt Jabsco
What does GOM or BOF mean exactly?
http://www.all-acronyms.com/GOM
Grand Old Man
http://www.all-acronyms.com/BOF
Boring Old Fart
Thanks Ctel, I'm not down with the kids, obviously. Should be COC - Curmudgeonly Old, well you know.
"This is the Colin who put Sparta FC 2 on a list of ten songs he had to have together to sum up him and songs is it?"
Sorry to say Adam, but its not that Colin.....
Blinkin' well love The Fall although like most bands they've done plenty of shit as well as plenty of brilliant stuff too.
My particular favourite for the past 6 months has been 'Frenz' easily.
JC, how about another post on Red Guitars, been loving the track 'Remote Control' for ages now.
I'm all for slaughtering sacred cows - but not this one
http://quims.org/personal-histories/the-fall/
Bob the Chiropodist
No need to be sorry, I'm glad it's not that Colin.
As an 18 year old starting college, with feelings that teen life needed to end and something new had to happen to me, The Fall's Leave The Capitol embodied the desire and impatience I felt. I think it's on every mix cassette I made in those days. Similarly, Totally Wired, the year before could have been the soundtrack to my 17th summer...full of energy and need to get into as much trouble as I could find.
I love the Fall, but I'm not sure I would like Mark E. Smith as a person.
Though I think if I had to be in a room with him or Liam Gallagher, MES would win everytime.
The Fall are fucking shit and MES has sand in his vagina.
I don't care what MES is like as a human being. I love listening to The Fall. Well, most of the time. Some of it is shite, but most of it is tremendous.
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