Day 114: I'm telling you man, he was outta sight...

Not technically on the original release, but on the re-release on CD, this is an amazing cover.



Song: Rollin' Danny
Album: This Nation's Saving Grace/458489 A Sides.
Year: I have no idea, I'd guess around 1985?

Yeah so this is a Gene Vincent cover, you can see the original is actually faster overall here. This is what I imagine MES listens to at home on a crackly record player while he smokes endless cigs. It's also the kind of song you hear on terrible Heartbeat-style shows, the only reason you'd actually keep that sort of tripe on the telly. There'd be a portly policeman chasing some dude with a flat cap and moustache through a village street with it all ending in a slapstick manner, perhaps a herd of sheep block him off and he has to take his cap off and stamp on it, fuming. Either that or he'd climb a ladder and fall off, for added effect getting wet in a stream or tin bath full of rainwater, what a to-do!

I'm getting sidelined, but I do like a decent Fall cover, Mark sounds really comfortable on this and the band are incredibly tight and it works really well. This could actually pass for the original, the vocals are bang on. I think I prefer the cover to the original as Gene sounds like he's phoning it in. I imagine if MES has his way (even more) he'd have recorded a whole LP's worth of 50s/60s hits, just for a laugh, he still might. Has he ever had a quiff?

It's strange to think that this would have been recorded around the same time as mad songs like Paintwork, LA and I Am Damo Suzuki, maybe it was a bit of a break from all that, either way, it's a pleasing diversion.

By the way, buying a Fall best of, why the hell would you do that to yourself? Surely each album has a different lineup (odds on) and each therefore has a different feel. I can enjoy songs ojut of context, but not knowing them in their original order on the albums they come from just seems wrong when you think of the order of Hex, YFOC or TNSG. Madness.

As an aside, I got an intriuging email today from a guy called Simon Barrington (hello) and he has come up with an exhaustive list of Fall albums ranked in order, it apparently took him three weeks with two friends (who he must have forced) to come up with it. I think I'm going to attempt the same in a few weeks' time and will post the results here in an extended post. If anyone else wants to join in this gargantuan task and email me their lists, I will also come up with a cumulative result, just for extra nerd points. Think this may be opening the floodgates, but that's why I do this blog.