’There’s A Ghost In My House’: When The Fall embraced a northern soul classic
Mark E Smith and The Fall existed in continued defiance of the musical mainstream, marching to the beat of their own drum and creating music largely for the wants of Smith, along with the band’s dedicated cult following. In many ways, the post-punk outfit came to represent the pinnacle of a cult band, which put them in line with other cult music scenes, including the northern soul scene, which blossomed throughout northern England during the early 1970s and continued to court a cult audience for decades.
Born out of the tail-end of the mod subculture, the northern soul scene was built upon an utter adoration for the sounds of American soul and R&B music. Swathes of working-class youths packed all-night dances in cities and towns like Wigan, Blackpool, Stoke, and Manchester in the hopes of hearing soul sounds which had previously been lost to obscurity. After all, northern DJs and fanatics always gravitated towards soul records which had been, by the standards of the mainstream music industry, flops.
This penchant for obscurity, along with the scene’s strong roots in the glorious north of England, perhaps endeared it towards Mark E. Smith. Then again, it is difficult to properly deduce any of Smith’s opinions, as his public persona was marked by deliberate contradictions and a seemingly endless love of enjoyable yet unnecessary cynicism.
In 1981, The Fall released ‘Lie Dream of a Casino’, satirising the northern soul scene and its subsequent resurgence. The song took a cynical, somewhat bleak view of the scene and its impact on working-class communities, although it does not necessarily attack the movement itself. However, only a handful of years later, the band recorded a cover version of ‘There’s A Ghost In My House’, one of the most prominent tracks from the northern soul movement.
Originally recorded by R Dean Taylor for Motown Records in 1966, to be released the following year, the track was not a success upon its initial release, despite having the songwriting power of Holland-Dozier-Holland behind it. Taking on a somewhat dark atmosphere by Motown standards, the track tells the tale of a broken-hearted lover whose house is haunted by the memory of an ex-lover.
Due to Motown’s ultimate prioritisation of chart hits and their high turnover of releases, ‘There’s A Ghost In My House’ was quickly forgotten about, until it made its way over to the dancefloors of northern England. The track became an unlikely hit within the northern soul scene, and a reissued version of the single even broke into the UK singles chart in 1974.
Whether Mark E. Smith first encountered the track during that unlikely chart run in 1974, or from the gangs of sharply dressed, amphetamine-fueled dancers near to his hometown of Prestwich remains a mystery but in 1987, The Fall unleashed their own unique spin on ‘There’s A Ghost In My House’. Playing up the dark, morbid nature of the track, Smith rendered Taylor’s lush, soulful vocals in his typically dissonant, sneering delivery.
Although The Fall stripped away much of the danceable groove from the song, which first made it a hit at Wigan Casino, the cover does suggest that Smith held something of an appreciation for the northern soul scene and its impact on music. What’s more, the song became one of The Fall’s earliest mainstream hits, becoming the band’s first to reach number 30 in the UK singles chart – keep the faith, indeed.
