I'm going to be petty for a moment and talk about an inconvenient aspect of death. It can really mess with the plans of the living. Here I was, planning on featuring a Leslie Winer record (NB that I did anyway) and in comes the news that Mark E Smith has died. What on earth am I supposed to do with this? I did what I could, and what I always do--I played a Fall song on the radio.
Should I have gone with two hours' worth? Maybe, though frequent listeners will already be overly familiar with my Fall habit. I certainly didn't become acquainted with the band through large doses. Funnily enough, my first relevant memory is of hearing a tune in the car, age 16 or 17, not knowing who it was, having it stick in my head firmly enough to drive me crazy with curiosity, and finding out years later that it was "Barmy." There was also Friend of Bombast Jeremy, who had a copy of Palace of Swords Reversed that he would try to get me to listen to but I couldn't seem to be bothered, most of the time. Still, things stuck with me--bits of "Leave the Capitol," "Fit and Working Again" and "Kicker Conspiracy," and all of "Marquis Cha-Cha." At some point I bought this compilation and was bowled over by the rendition of "Wings." (Ah, this one, here! So good!) I wouldn't call this succumbing instantaneous or gradual; it was very random and staccato. Things just lingered, waiting to be latched onto. Seems fitting.
It's been weird, the last 20 years, watching the man's personal decline--hearing about the belligerence, the drinking, the verbal and physical violence. I have to say that I haven't made sense of it--I'm unable to bracket off the "product" from the personal, but I also can't stop listening. I can't quit him though I know I probably should. It is probably like this for other people.
If this seems like an abrupt ending, that's how life works.
BOMBAST playlist, 2018 January 24, 2100-2300:
a train to Crewe
https://www.facebook.com/radiobombast?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/KidCatharsis
Get Ready for That Albini Sound: Transmission 508, 2020 January 29
Songs About Happiness Murmured in Dreams: Transmission 507, 2020 January 15
You Should Know What You Look Like: Transmission 506, 2020 January 11
He Bites on the Neon and Sleeps in a Capsule: Transmission 505, 2020 January 8
Insight, Foresight, More Sight: Transmission 504, 2020 January 1
Five to Twelve, Almost Gone: Transmission 503, 2019 December 31
Let This Evil Season End: Transmission 502, 2019 December 24
Don't Ask Me Why, For I Don't Know Why: Transmission 501, 2019 December 18
What Can We Do To Stop This Insanity? Transmission 500, 2019 December 11
Cruising Altitude Departure 33, 2019 December 7
Can You Guess Which One of Us Does Not Give a Toss: Transmission 499, 2019 December 4
They Don't Call Me Loverboy for Nothing: Transmission 498, 2019 November 27
People Are Telling You, "Be in the Moment": Transmission 497, 2019 November 20
You Can't Arrest Me, I Pay Rent Here: Transmission 496, 2019 November 16
Forget Your Worries, Embrace Abundance: Transmission 495, 2019 November 13
I Seem To Be Saying Increasingly Dangerous Things: Transmission 494, 2019 November 9
All You've Got To Lose Is Your Mind: Transmission 493, 2019 November 6
OK Sister, You Have a Jezebel Spirit Within You: Transmission 492, 2019 October 31
Bodies Up and Bodies Down, Bodies Moving All Around: Transmission 491, 2019 October 30
Hundreds of Miles Going Nowhere: Transmission 490, 2019 October 23
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