The one permanent fixture amidst the Fall's ever-changing line-up was Mark E. Smith (1957 – 2018). Smith's lyrics are free, unboxed and unpredictable, touching on an extremely wide range of subjects and places, and caring little for being tied down to easily digestible messages.
Smith's singing could put off some people, but others find it a uniquely expressive instrument. Smith was not a conventionally great vocalist, but his keen sense of rhythm, his energy and personality more than made up for this.
The Fall's music changed depending on the line-up at a given time. Always experimental, Mark E. Smith claimed to invent several musical genres, including house music; "we were doing that years ago" and even the internet. "He told me I didn't understand, that we were from the bleak industrial wastes of North England, or something, and that we didn't understand the Internet. I told him Fall fans invented the Internet. They were on there in 1982." One thing that is for sure is that The Fall (and their fans) always pushed the boundaries, and were never afraid to experiment.
The Fall were a favorite group of DJ John Peel, recording 24 sessions for his BBC1 radio program over the years.
The Fall's back catalogue consists of 29 studio albums, and is very fragmented with a seemingly endless number of compilations and semi-official live albums.
In 2006, British music-critic Dave Simpson published an entertaining account of a journalist's attempt to track down all 43 former members of The Fall in the Guardian. Many previous members have been fired, often with little or no notice. Simpson's ongoing effort was subsequently described at greater length in his book "The Fallen" (2008). His effort to track down the final unaccounted stragglers of at least 50 previous members of The Fall - including drummer Karl Burns - continues in his blog. Having decried Simpson's book as a "hatchet job" in the pages of Pseud. Mag., a Fall fan-mag, Mark E. Smith countered in short order with his autobiography "Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith" (Viking, 2008/Penguin 2009).
Mark E. Smith died on 24 January 2018, aged 60.
Key Albums include:
# Live At the Witch Trials (debut)
# Dragnet
# Totale's Turns (It's Now Or Nevr)
# Grotesque (after the Gramme)
# Perverted By Language
# Hex Enduction Hour
# This Nation's Saving Grace
# Middle Class Revolt
# Bend Sinister
# Extricate
# The Infotainment Scan
# Country on the Click aka The Real New Fall LP
# Fall Heads Roll
# Reformation Post TLC (new)
Compilations/Singles/B-Sides:
# 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong: 39 Golden Greats
# The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004
# Totally Wired: The Rough Trade Anthology (disc 1) and Totally Wired: The Rough Trade Anthology (disc 2)
# 458489 A-Sides
# 458489 B-Sides
Garden
The Fall Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
내 맘에 들어올때까지
늘 간절히 기도하며
하루하루 살고 있어요
난 죽지않을 만큼의 햇살
비를 맞고 커져만 가요
아무도 만져지지 않아요
모두들 날 바라보며
내 모습이 아름답다고
주위를 둘러싼 벽 너머
한마디씩 던지고 모두다 뒤돌아 가요
나를 이렇게 두지 말아요
텅 빈 심장은 얼어붙을 것 같은데
손을 내밀면 문을 열어줘요
세상에 섞일 수 있게
섞일 수 있게
The Fall's song Garden is a melancholic song that begins with the sound of faint, distant voices that gradually make it to the singer's heart. The lyrics suggest that the singer is desperately praying for something to satisfy their craving for something that may never come. The desire for that satisfaction and fulfillment keeps them going through each day. The singer then describes themselves as a growing sunlight that continues to absorb the rain and grow larger. However, despite reaching out for help, no one comes to touch them.
In the second verse, the singer speaks of how everyone around them admires their beauty without knowing what is going on inside. They throw out compliments while not knowing the turmoil inside the singer. Everyone eventually turns away and leaves them standing alone, surrounded by walls. The singer then pleads not to be left alone with their hollow heart, which would freeze over without any warmth. They ask for someone to reach out and open a door so that they can be a part of the world and no longer be alone.
The song's lyrics express themes of loneliness, isolation, and a person's yearning for something full of life. It gives a voice to those who feel as if they are invisible and unimportant to those around them. Despite this, they continue to grow and strive for life, hoping that someday someone will reach out and let them in.
Line by Line Meaning
저멀리 들려오는 소리
A distant sound that catches my attention, and I keep listening for it eagerly.
내 맘에 들어올때까지
I long for the sound to enter my heart.
늘 간절히 기도하며
I pray fervently for it.
하루하루 살고 있어요
I live day by day waiting for it.
난 죽지않을 만큼의 햇살
I am like the sun, growing even stronger through the rain.
비를 맞고 커져만 가요
I keep growing despite the hardships I face.
하지만 아무리 손을 뻗어도
Despite my efforts and reaching out, no one touches me.
아무도 만져지지 않아요
No one seems to acknowledge or appreciate me.
모두들 날 바라보며
Everyone looks at me, and admires my appearance.
내 모습이 아름답다고
People think I am beautiful, but they don't understand me.
주위를 둘러싼 벽 너머
There is a barrier around me, that separates me from others.
한마디씩 던지고 모두다 뒤돌아 가요
People throw a word or two, and then leave me alone.
나를 이렇게 두지 말아요
Please don't leave me like this.
텅 빈 심장은 얼어붙을 것 같은데
I fear that my empty heart will freeze over.
손을 내밀면 문을 열어줘요
If you reach out your hand, please open the door for me.
세상에 섞일 수 있게
So that I can belong in this world.
섞일 수 있게
So that I can blend in and not feel alone.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Lucid Fall
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
ClueSign
The first God had in his garden
From the back, looked like a household pet
But when it was twirled 'round
Was revealed to be a 3 legged black grey hog
See what flows from his mushy pen
Garden, garden
That person is films on TV
5 years back at least
He's the "Young Generation" dancing troupe
Trying to perform country and western
Do a dance here
Never since birth not eaten in a day
Never since courtship stayed up some nights
He had the 'Kingdom of Evil' book
Under a German history book
He was contrived like that
See what flows from his slushy pen
Garden, garden
Small, small location on huge continet
Sodomized by presumption
Contrieved a past revealed at last
Godzone, godzone
Godzone, godzone
(...his ferry stopped at 'Pool port. revealed to be spolit
Slate with largesse resource
Wild Bill hick, shaves and charts at last, made the second God sad -
He's coming up...)
Shotgun, shotgun
Shotgun, shotgun
The best firms advertise the least
The second God lives by fountains
That flowed by the blue shiny lit roads
Had forgot what others still try to grasp
He knew the evil of the phone
He knew the evil of the phone
The bells stopped on Sunday when he rose
The bells stopped on Sunday when he rose
He's here, he's here, at last
I saw him! I swear!
On the second floor
Up on the brown baize lift shaft
He's here! He's here at last!
I saw him! I swear!
A jew on a motorbike
Neil Procter
The Groundhogs did record a song called Garden in 1970, but it really isn't this one! Would MES have written these "lyrics"?
My garden is all overgrown and the weeds are creeping up on my home
Grass has grown over two foot high and the trees are blocking out the sky
French windows won't open any more from the moss that's grown outside the door
Hundred birds are nesting in the trees, looks like a wild-life sanctuary
But I'm not going to cut a single blade of grass, my garden will look just like the distant past
Before the days of agricultural land, before the time when pebbles turned to sand
When I leave this house I'm going to stay, I'm forsaking my comforts to live another way
Get my clothes from heaps, my food from bins, my water from ponds and have tramps for all my friends
Hahaha! The very idea!
max55ernst
I'm 70. This band just gets under my skin. I think more younger people will discover and emulate this stoic vision of life ..
jiggersotoole
@Stéphane you tell em, dude! Is your fucking age diferent from your biological age?
shannon m. townsend
I'm 47, been soaking in The Fall for a good while it feels so familiar, barely notice that it's part of you. Mark E. to me is like an older, wiser sibling, schooling you with acerbic beattitudes like an embattled, but still volatile classical philosopher as Socrates. How elegantly he turns a phrase. Into a weapon. Using bleak alliterations to put across the obvious ugliness meanness of the world, but the music lifts you up as the vocals/lyrics make you swagger and sneer a bit, even if they remain inscrutable-, to a degree, to the fan, they are the more so to a first-time listener and so the small though perennial pleasure of privately broadcasting The Fall!
Epiphany
@Panderjit SinghVV Shone Brightly....
& 'did not go quietly into that good night' better than 100yrs of bot life !
Epiphany
Much better than the made up socrates...
Gareth Knight
Who did?
shannon m. townsend
@Gareth Knight that's what they said about the Fall
shannon m. townsend
@London Dada ty, but what is OU
tostare
I was on the Fall Forum a lot in the early 00s and this came second in the first ever "battle of the songs" tournament, losing to Wings in the final. It was funny because even though most fans would not put this as their favourite Fall song, it seemed that no-one could bring themselves to vote against it, so it just kept going up and up the table. In effect, it was the song that everyone loved more than they thought they did.
W. Matthew Wilson
Me finding The Fall now feels like when I found The Smiths when I was a moody teen