Remembering The Fall’s manic Christmas cover of ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’
The Fall’s acerbic post-punk autodidact Mark E. Smith doesn’t have much time for pompous posturing, he made that much clear when he sacked Marc Riley for dancing to Deep Purple. However, if this led you to believe that he would be the Salford Scrooge then think again. He might have been mean, but he was never green.
Thus, the snarling singer never stomped around cursing the campness and nicking dolls off toddlers like the post-punk Grinch in a slabbering rant against commercialism and corniness. He embraced the good tidings of Christmas in his own way. “I must admit I don’t like Christmas in England because everywhere closes down for three weeks. It’s disgusting,” he bemoaned, “You can’t get any bread or milk and that’s what the song’s about. Christmas is more of a family time…where families can beat each other up.”
In truth, he’s pretty much nailed it there. Lord knows what Christmas around the Smith household looked like, but his explanation of a manic family get-together sounds like something he would have loved. Thusly, he seized upon this with his wild cover of ‘Hark the Harald Angels Sing’, cutting the traditional facsimile in favour of the true spirit of festivities.
This scratchy live rendition takes the drunk in a midnight choir to new realities. In fact, it even has a bit of the Christmas card nuclear family sentiment to it too. The Fall were a band deeply entwined with John Peel, so much so that when the iconic DJ passed away Mark E. Smith appeared on BBC News and declared, “We were never friends, but he was always objective, people forget that.” That might not sound like praise but it’s almost a Christmas cuddle from Smith.
Taken from a session in 1994, Smith snarls his way through the classic folk song like a man who has just been informed that his train is cancelled at the same moment he stubbed his toe. With jangly pop guitars and a few manic moments, this is the lock-in Christmas carol, when the wheels have fallen off festivities and you’ve entered a coma induced by Roses and Rum.
Smith was a unique man, and for all his faults, he always gifted the public with the things they never knew they needed whether that is the strangest recital of football scores in history or the angriest Carol ever recorded.
