man, berry

The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour (listen) YES! The mightiest album of the mighty Fall is back in print! It is a failing on the comprehension skills of modernity that it did not collapse upon this album's release in 1982, designed in fact to be their last, and thus, the Fall has been doomed to roam the earth for decades since as half a ghost band until it completes that last errand. Abrasive from the get-go, essential until the last involuntary bray of the dead horse mercilessly beaten to create "And This Day" and then a whole second disc.

I love this particular story about the record:

In 1984, Motown Records expressed an interest in signing the band to a new UK division and asked to hear their back catalogue. "Hex" was the only album Smith had to hand. The letter the group received back stated "I see no commercial potential in this band whatsoever". Smith publicly speculated that this might have had something to do with the lines "Where are the obligatory niggers? / Hey there, fuckface" from album opener "The Classical". (Brian Edge - Paintwork - Omnibus Press 1989, p72)

And while yes, the oblique incendiary message at the beginning of "The Classical" likely ensured this would not come out on Motown, the icy jagged edges and general unfunkiness of the rest of this glorious ramble probably didn't help. What I want to know is (provided the incident ever happened): who was the person that decided to play the Fall for Berry Gordy in the first place? "Man, Berry, you are gonna like this group!"

Fortress / Deer Park - The Fal...