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
Live Flagrant, Make People Nervous: Transmission 473, 2019 June 26
U_D_M Detour 35, 2019 June 22
I Feel Something I Want To Be, Lesson One: Look at Me: Transmission 472, 2019 June 19
We Are Running Out of Love in the Time of Lexapro: Transmission 471, 2019 June 12
Flying Aboard the Seduction 747: Transmission 470, 2019 June 7
You Know How To Sing, You're a Diplomat: Transmission 469, 2019 June 5
Kiss All Your Posters, Hold All My Letters: Transmission 468, 2019 May 29
Do You Ever Want To Turn Around And Go? Transmission 467, 2019 May 22
All About the Screaming: Transmission 466, 2019 May 18
Saying Nothing So You Don't Have To Lie: Transmission 465, 2019 May 15
That Little Problem Our Boys in Engineering Find So Entertaining: Transmission 464, 2019 May 8
Cruising Altitude Departure 32, 2019 May 4
Let Me Take You Down the Corridors of My Life: Transmission 463, 2019 May 1
But What Does It Matter? Transmission 462, 2019 April 24
Validate What You Create: Transmission 461, 2019 April 23
Of Course You'll Scoff: Transmission 460, 2019 April 17
I'll Have To Stay By Your Side: Transmission 459, 2019 April 10
M Is For The Mean Things That This Mean Man Does: Transmission 458, 2019 April 3
Everything Is One, You Have Nothing To Do with It: Transmission 457, 2019 March 27
He's Scandinavian, That's Why I'm Confused: Transmission 456, 2019 March 26
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