Words and music: The literary afterlife of the Fall

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Words and music: The literary afterlife of the Fall

With a name inspired by Camus and a flair for transformation, the post-punk Mancunians have always appealed to bookish fans. Now the first in a series of short story collections is to take the band's song titles as its inspiration

By Louise Jury (Independent) Published: 19 March 2007

The enigmatic lyrics and idiosyncratic performances of Mancunian post-punks The Fall inspired a new generation of bands such as Sonic Youth.

But the influence of frontman Mark E Smith and colleagues has now reached the world of literature, too, with the forthcoming publication of an anthology of short stories, all taking a song title as their starting point.

Authors including Michel Faber, Nicholas Blincoe, Matt Thorne and the comedian and writer Stewart Lee have come out of the woodwork as Fall fans to produce stories which are presented in the order in which the songs themselves were released.

Griffiths kicks off with the 1978 single "Bingo Master's Break Out" while Rebbecca Ray concludes the volume with a saucy tale taking its title from the 2005 track "I Can Hear the Grass Grow".

The project was the brainchild of the writer Peter Wild, who runs an art website bookmunch.com and has edited the volume.

"I've always thought that The Fall have really, really good titles and that you could do an interesting novel or short story using Fall songs as titles," he said. "And I thought if you were a Fall fan, you would be interested."

As soon as he started to make contact with his wish list of authors, he realised many music-loving writers were keen to take part. "I became aware of all these people who are really into The Fall. The book ran away with a head of steam. Matt Thorne, who has written 'My Ex-Classmates' Kids', loves The Fall and sees every date when they tour."

Niall Griffiths, author of Grits, described as the Welsh Trainspotting, and Sheepshagger, said of course he wanted to take part. "Well, how could I refuse? It's The Fall - since my teenage years they've been the band to rely on for consistent bloody-minded madness.

"They remain unmanufactured, unreconstructed. Mark E Smith's survival not just as a songwriter but as a breathing being continues to astound. They somehow remain fresh."

Michel Faber, whose work includes Under the Skin and The Crimson Petal and the White, spoke with a similar passion. "I've always liked The Fall. One of the most distinctive things about them is the gleeful arrogance of Mark E Smith's delivery," he said.

"It's clear from every word and inflection that he doesn't give a f*** what anyone else thinks. In my story, [Fortress/Deer Park] I transposed that almost pathological superiority on to a bunch of elite creeps at a deer hunt. I wove lots of Smith's phrases into the prose - as many as I could without breaking the spell of the narrative."

Only a couple of Peter Wild's dream writers did not take part. "I was really keen on getting Magnus Mills but he doesn't do anthologies and I contacted Sarah Waters to do the song 'Spoilt Victorian Child' but she doesn't write short stories."

And while Mr Wild originally intended to publish the anthology himself, Serpent's Tail then took on the project. Perverted by Language: Fiction Inspired by The Fall will be launched on 1 July at the inaugural Manchester International Festival with a gig by the band.

A further five volumes along the same lines are already in the works. A clutch of American authors are among those to have contributed to the second book, The Empty Page: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth, the American rockers, which will be issued in April next year. Writers including Mike Gayle, Nic Kelman, Mil Millington and Kate Pullinger have contributed to Paint a Vulgar Picture, a volume based on The Smiths, and Pleasant Dreams, inspired by The Ramones, will follow.

There will be a Joy Division anthology entitled Incubation, for which The Damned Utd author David Peace has already agreed to write, and the series will conclude with What Goes On, inspired by the Velvet Underground.

Peter Wild said what was curious was how different bands produced particular types of fiction. "The Fall is quite dark and quite offbeat. Sonic Youth is quite violent and avant garde and challenging and The Smiths is just really twee - lots of lovely love stories."

The concept had turned into a finished product far better than anything he had hoped for. "Obviously, the editor's thrill is planting a seed in someone's mind and seeing it come through," he said.

"Michael Faber's Deer Park is quite shocking. He has celebrities and pop stars and African fascist dictators go out on a deer cull. It's harsh but it has quite an impact."

He hoped the overall result would be to lure more readers to a sub-section of literature that often struggles to find an audience. "Short stories aren't popular with the reading public but I see these books as appealing to fans of the music who maybe will try a book of short stories for the first time," he said.

Bands to move from ear to page

THE FALL

Mark E Smith took the name for his band from Albert Camus' La Chute. Thirty years on - and 40 band members later - the Mancunian frontman's lyrics remain no less obscure, though Fall fans would have it no other way.

BINGO MASTER'S BREAK OUT: Released in 1979, this two-minute 22-second track recounts the poignant, some might say depressing, story of an ageing bingo caller grown disillusioned with his lot. With only the solace of lager to comfort him, a planned holiday to Spain is cancelled and the bingo master decides it's eyes down for the last time.

NEW FACE IN HELL: Paranoid, nightmarish parable from 1980 of an amateur radio ham who intercepts secret government messages. Hurrying next door, he finds his neighbour dying from the effects of poison. A "prickly line of sweat" creeps across his forehead as he realises that he is next.

GOD BOX: Though the uninitiated may struggle, God Box is one of the more straightforward of Mark E Smith's lyrical ad offerings. Released in 1984, the song rails against the vacuity of American television, leaving Smith with the feeling that he is drowning under a sea of puerile programmes.

VELVET UNDERGROUND

Now considered the most influential band on the New York music scene in the 1960s, the Velvet inspired generations of musicians, poseurs and artists with a heady cocktail of brooding sexuality, haunting melodies and lyrical intrigue.

WAITING FOR THE MAN: Taken from the band's first album, Velvet Underground and Nico - better known as the Banana album - is the everyday story of a young white man who travels to Harlem to visit his drug dealer, armed with nothing more than the $26 with which he hopes to score. It is there he learns the first rule of buying drugs: you've always gotta wait.

THE GIFT: Narrated by John Cale, the story of Waldo Jeffers appeared on the band's second album White Light/White Heat. This dark tale sees the lovestruck young man decide to post himself to his erring sweetheart in Wisconsin to save on the bus fare. But he doesn't bank on his girlfriend's infidelity, nor her outsize letter opener.

CANDY SAYS: Homage to Candy Darling, New York transexual and actress cast by her friend Andy Warhol in two of his films, Flesh and Women in Revolt. Born James Slattery, Candy modelled herself on the actress Kim Novak. She was a big hit on the New York bohemian scene frequented by the Velvets but died of leukemia aged 29.

JOY DIVISION

Named after the sex slaves in Nazi concentration camps, Joy Division's music was always going to err on the dark side. The band split in 1980 after the suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis.

LOVE WILL TEAR US APART: Curtis's troubled marriage to his childhood sweetheart Deborah was at the root of many of the singer's problems. Written in 1979, this bleak dissection of a failing relationship where "routine bites hard and ambitions are low" became an unlikely pop classic.

NO LOVE LOST: The House of Dolls, the semi-fictional account of a Polish girl forced into sexual slavery at Auschwitz, written by Ka-tzetnik was one of the most powerful influences on Joy Division. One verse includes a spoken extract from the book.

SHE'S LOST CONTROL AGAIN: Curtis's extraordinary baritone vocal style was accentuated by his eccentric dancing style. The singer suffered from epilepsy and employed body movements from a fit into his routine. "She's Lost Control Again" details the plight of a fellow-suffering female fan.

THE RAMONES

One, two, three, four ... The architects of punk's brevity were matched only by their lack of commercial success. Founded in 1972, the band split in 1996. Only one founding member of the four-piece survives.

SHEENA IS A PUNK ROCKER: The kids get drunk, grab their surfboards and head down to the Discotheque Au Go Go to check out Sheena. "I combined Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, with the primalness of Punk rock," said Joey Ramone.

BABY I LOVE YOU: The Ronnettes took this to the US top 40 in 1964. The Ramones' version, produced by Phil Spector, was their big UK hit.

BLITZKRIEG BOP: Some fans say the band were alluding to Hitler's favourite method of waging war or a fight between rival gangs. But it is really about the energy and excitement of going to an early punk gig.

THE SMITHS

For just five short years in the mid-1980s, The Smiths dominated the alternative musical scene and created an army of life-long fans.

THIS CHARMING MAN: Loved equally for Johnny Marr's jangly guitar riff as Morrissey's words, this 1983 minor hit is the story of a young man wakened to his true sexuality by a handsome stranger.

THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT: From the 1986 album The Queen is Dead, this is The Smiths' finest hour. Young man seeks liberation from his parents, his hometown and of course his virginity. Some critics say Morrissey's influence here is James Dean's Rebel Without a Cause.

BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN: Morrissey's no stranger to the hot flush of shame: witness Joan of Arc imagery. The reference to the martyr's hearing aid is said to be a show of support for a young fan too embarrassed to wear her device to gigs.

SONIC YOUTH

Arty New York guitar band who outlived musical fashions from post-punk, to No Wave and Grunge to Indie. But their lyrical profundity is often submerged below fathoms of exhilarating noise.

CONFUSION IS NEXT: Taken from the band's second album this is a typically grimy, early punk offering giving little away in terms of narrative. Guitarist Thurston Moore intones: "Chaos is the future / And beyond it is freedom / Confusion is next and next after that is truth..." The rest is down to you.

FLOWER: Taken from the 1985 album Bad Moon Rising, Kim Gordon celebrates the power of womanhood, manhood, sexuality and life.

MY FRIEND GOO: Named after a character in Raymond Pettibon's film, Sir Drone, it is a satire of the New York 1980s art world. Goo plays drums and peers through her hair . Boys stick to her "like glue". What else?