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
Give Up, Give Up: Transmission 201, 2015 April 28
Cruising Altitude Departure 10, 2014 September 13
U_D_M Detour 10, 2014 August 29
Cheap Trucker Speed: Transmission 200, 2015 April 21
Windows All Open, Chaos in My Hair: Transmission 199, 2015 April 14
Babylon and Ting: Transmission 198, 2015 April 12
Is That Pedantic Enough For You: Transmission 197, 2015 April 11
Let's Not Upstage Kink Anymore: Transmission 196, 2015 April 7
To Do A Dangerous Thing With Style Is What I Call Art: Transmission 195, 2015 March 31
When Stars Appear and Shadows Fall: Transmission 194, 2015 March 24
Wandering Around the Supermarket, Wondering What Went Wrong: Transmission 193, 2015 March 17
We're Going to Find the Meaning of Feeling Good: Transmission 192, 2015 March 12
Look Forward to More Sloppiness: Transmission 191, 2015 March 10
In Pain, the Body Rearranges: Transmission 190, 2015 March 3
Hear It And Believe, Don't You Grieve Or Look Behind: Transmission 189, 2015 February 24
You Feel the Fear Inside, There's Nothing Wrong: Transmission 188, 2015 February 16
Poison Kills the Weak and Feeds the Best: Transmission 187, 2015 February 15
Boredom Is an Invasion of Time into Your Set of Values: Transmission 186, 2015 February 10
Festival of Evidence v2.1: Transmission 185, 2015 February 7
We Are At Once Nowhere and Everywhere: Transmission 184, 2015 February 3
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
Immediately Kinfolk
Turned On
Resident by Hernan Cattaneo
Markus Schulz presents Global DJ Broadcast