The Fall’s Mark E. Smith Lists His Favorite Books, Films & Music (1981)

Mark E. Smith (5 March 1957 – 24 January 2018), The Fall’s entertaining frontman who explained his band’s sound thus, “If it’s me an your granny on the bongos, it’s the Fall” – a handy guide given the band’s ever-changing line up (40-plus members; keyboardist Ruth Daniels lasted a day; “It’s a bit like a football team. Every so often you have to get rid of the centre-forward,” explained Smith) – spoke to the NME for the August 15, 1981 issue. For the magazine’s regular feature “Portrait of the Artist as a Consumer”, Smith picked his favorite art, writers, comedians, books, films, and even other music. Ted Mills has transcribed the story.

 

READS
Gulcher – Richard Meltzer
A Small Town in Germany – John Le Carré
A Scanner Darkly – Philip K. Dick
The Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
The Deer Park – Norman Mailer
The Black Room – Colin Wilson
Ritual in the Dark – Colin Wilson
Cogan’s Trade – George V. Higgins
At the Mountains of Madness – H.P. Lovecraft
Beyond Good and Evil – Frederich Nietzsche

AND
U.S. Civil War Handbook – William H. Price
How I Created Modern Music – D. McCulloch (a weekly serial)
True Crime Monthly
Private Eye
Fibs About M.E. Smith by J. Cope (a pamphlet)

WRITERS
Claude Bessy
Burroughs

ART
Wyndham Lewis
Malcolm Allison
Virgin Prunes
The Worst live, Marchester Dec. ’77

COMEDIANS
Lenny Bruce
Alan Pellay
Bernard Manning
All Ian Curtis derivatives

FILMS
Polanski’s Macbeth
Mel Brook’s (sic) High Anxiety
Fellini’s Rome
The Man with X-Ray Eyes and The Lost Weekend starring Ray Milland
Visconti’s The Damned
Days of Wine and Roses with Jack Lemmon
Charlie Bubbles with Albert Finney

TV
Bluey
John Cleese adverts

MUSIC
Take No Prisoners – Lou Reed
Peter Hammill
Johnny Cash
The Panther Burns
God Save the Queen – The Sex Pistols
Raw and Alive – The Seeds
Pebbles Vol. 3 – Various
16 Greatest Truck Driver Hits cassette
Radio City – Philip Johnson (cassette)
Der Plan
Alternative TV
Land of the Homo Jews and Hank Williams Was Queer, live – Fear (L.A. Group)
We’re Only In It for the Money – Mothers of Invention

 

Via: Open Culture, StandUpAndSpit