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Fantastic Life: The 20 Greatest Fall Songs In No Order Whatsoever. No.18 - No Bulbs

Right, a couple of outright bangers for you as we take this series to a conclusion.

Summer 1988. I have now been in the midst of a full-on obsession with The Fall for some months, my respect and enjoyment having turned to adoration under the spell of the “Palace Of Swords Reversed” compilation cassette. I have just turned 15 and have been given some money for my birthday. So naturally, I buy a Fall album; “Live At The Witch Trials” on LP. This is met with considerable consternation from my parents who feel I’m spending far too much money on records and especially on the horrible noise this particular mob are attempting to describe as “music”. So my next purchase needs to be more stealthy. In an HMV store on Union Street in Glasgow (today, a branch of Poundland), I find a cassette called “Escape Route from aie The Wonderful And Frightening World Of...The Fall”. Holding a whopping 16 songs and coming in at a princely £5.79, this was snapped up quickly and was ported home in my jacket pocket. Hah! Fooled ya this time.

By the time night had fallen, this was my most prized possession, The tape effectively compiled their 1984 recordings, omitting only a clutch of alternate versions - it’s not completely clear why the 12″ “C.R.E.E.P.” was used rather than “c.r.e.e.p.” but no matter, all the songs are here from the 9 song LP and the surrounding singles. The running order - dictated by MES - kept the LP sides intact but spread the single tracks around. Therefore, the tape closes with “No Bulbs”. Well, of course it does. How the hell could you follow THAT?

“No Bulbs” is The Fall on full thrust with Smith bemoaning his living circumstances and, by extension, his relative poverty. Unable to find his only belt within the clutter, some of which appears to have belonged to a previous tenant, he switched on the light, only for the bulb to burst. The core of the song therefore appears to be Smith’s dark amusement that a tenant could leave behind “years of hippy craft” but not something usual like a bulb. Or even a belt (this should, of course, be contrasted with the following year’s “My New House” but, y’know...another time...).

However, this is one of those occasions where the lyrical slant doesn’t make all the difference because the genius of “No Bulbs” lies in the group performance and a finer example of how The Fall could take a few simple figures and turn them into a masterpiece of dynamic, relentless rock and roll, I challenge you to find. Smith’s voice is effectively another instrument here and has to complete with 2 drum kits, two guitars, some sparkling keys (sounds more like Smith than Paul Hanley which would make sense if this was a live take) and the ever reliable Steve Hanley holding down a cleverly restrained bassline. This is nothing less than the rollercoaster thrill of being flung about by one of The Fall’s greatest incarnations. They drop you straight in; one bash of a snare drum and we’re off, riding an insistent pummeled throb, a wave that builds and builds and then breaks and then builds again - the creation and release of tension throughout the song is thrilling and Smith gets right in, delivering his lyric from the very edge of a screech and the regular “hup now!” only gees things along that little bit more. Absolutely a group performance, “No Bulbs” is the Fall at their most rousing, their most electrifying, their most unremitting, their most immutable. If anyone should doubt the sheer power and originality of what we’ve lost, play them this. 7 minutes and 50 seconds of the fucking best.