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
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Amateurism Arises When the Culture Around You Won't Let You Out of Where You Are: Transmission 254, 2015 December 23
Accidental Christmas Tunes To Come: Transmission 253, 2015 December 22
Everyone Has To Have an Interest: Transmission 252, 2015 December 16
Can't Cry When I Don't Have Your Shoulder: Transmission 251, 2015 December 9
Maybe We Are Thinking the Same Thing: Transmission 250, 2015 December 8
U_D_M Detour 14, 2014 November 14
If You Finish, There's Hot Chocolate: Transmission 249, 2015 December 2
Cruising Altitude Departure 13, 2014 November 8
Emergency Festivals Are Still Festive: Transmission 248, 2015 November 28
That Ghost That Lives in Your Head: Transmission 247, 2015 November 18
Skin in the Game: Transmission 246, 2015 November 11
Terror Takes the Sound Before You Make It: Transmission 245, 2015 November 4
The Look of a Stranger Is Almost a Smile: Transmission 244, 2015 October 28
No, I Don't Know, Too: Transmission 243, 2015 October 21
Revenge Is Sweet to Those Who Have Never Known Anything Sweet: Transmission 242, 2015 October 14
Let's Send the Sucker Headfirst Into Space: Transmission 241, 2015 October 7
I Won't Be Waiting Here Like Undiscovered Treasure: Transmission 240, 2015 October 4
So Agitated That I'm So Agitated: Transmission 239, 2015 September 30
Shallowness is Forever: Transmission 238, 2015 September 29
Trying to Capture Something That Was Beyond My Capabilities: Transmission 237, 2015 September 22
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