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
I Don't Want To Hear About Your Doom: Transmission 361, 2017 August 12
Here Comes the Bishop's Daughter: Transmission 360, 2017 August 5
U_D_M Detour 31, 2017 February 19
U_D_M Detour 30, 2017 February 12
U_D_M Detour 29, 2017 February 5
U_D_M Detour 28, 2017 January 29
U_D_M Detour 27, 2017 January 8
U_D_M Detour 26, 2017 January 1
U_D_M Detour 25, 2016 December 18
U_D_M Detour 24, 2016 November 13
Occasionally Lucid Commentary: Transmission 359, 2017 July 26
Cleaner Lyrics, For the Most Part: Transmission 358, 2017 July 22
Spiritually and Emotionally Uplifting Properties: Transmission 357, 2017 July 19
Missing from My Own Head: Transmission 356, 2017 July 16
Get Nowhere Twice As Fast: Transmission 355, 2017 July 13
Presumably, Supposably: Transmission 354, 2017 July 12
The Magic Wound: Transmission 353, 2017 July 8
Real-Time Critique Mode: Transmission 352, 2017 July 5
Lonely Is As Lonely Does: Transmission 351, 2017 June 28
It's a Fact that I Live With: Transmission 350, 2017 June 24
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