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
Forgive Me, Forgive Me: Transmission 420, 2018 August 15
Past Lives in Warmer Climates: Transmission 419, 2018 August 11
Still Life with Ample Parking: Transmission 418, 2018 August 8
U_D_M Detour 32, 2018 August 4
We'll Keep Heaven Rolling Along: Transmission 417, 2018 August 1
Lost in a Permanent Dream: Transmission 416, 2018 July 18
Maybe Heaven Is All That's There: Transmission 415, 2018 July 15
You Will Have an Experience That Will Seem Completely Real: Transmission 414, 2018 July 4
Lights Flicker, Time To Start The Show: Transmission 413, 2018 June 27
Distant Sounds Inside Your Head: Transmission 412, 2018 June 13
Astonishing Empathy, or So It Says Here: Transmission 411, 2018 June 6
No Need for You To Cry: Transmission 410, 2018 May 30
Got the Tools but Don't Know the Rules: Transmission 409, 2018 May 23
Circa Nineteen-Eighty-One: Transmission 408, 2018 May 16
Every Fool Will See His Madness Crowned: Transmission 407, 2018 May 15
Sees the Stars at Lunchtime, Says He Has a Plan: Transmission 406, 2018 May 9
Undaunted I Will Be: Transmission 405, 2018 May 2
Tough Kids Love Sad Songs: Transmission 404, 2018 April 25
We're Probably Not Going To Be This Ambient All Evening: Transmission 403, 2018 April 18
Looking into the Void, You're Reckoning with a Question: Transmission 402, 2018 April 11
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