The times they are a-changin', just a little, I think. The music news site TwentyFourBit reports:"Taking the stage in a wheelchair after your hip breaks for the second time is pretty punk rock, we think."Image description: A black-and-white photo of Smith giving a grimacing smile or snarl to the camera. He's 52 now (though he looks older) and missing a couple teeth.
When Mark E. Smith, lead singer and sole original member of the post-punk rock band, performed with his current line-up for The Fall this past Tuesday and Wednesday, he sang first from the wheelchair he is currently using and then, for the end of the Wednesday show, from the dressing room backstage. NME has further details, including a somewhat less punk rock subheadline (in italics):
Recovering singer adopts unusual singing position as he recovers from hip injuryThe song "Blindness", from the 2005 album Fall Heads Roll, has rather impenetrable lyrics (at least two previous versions) where the first-person narrator only has one leg. I am not enough of a cult follower of The Fall to know if this is or is not a reference to Smith's first hip injury in 2004 when he completed part of an American tour from a wheelchair before pain and medication reportedly caused some canceled dates.
The Fall played London's KOKO last night (April 1), with Mark E Smith performing most of the gig from a wheelchair - before he abandoned the stage altogether and sung from his dressing room.
Currently recovering from a broken hip, the frontman, dressed in a black leather jacket, wheeled himself around the stage to alter settings on the band members' equipment before moving to sit behind a guitar amp for most of the concert.
The last three songs were performed with Smith singing from the dressing room, and changing the lyrics to 'Blindness' to say: "I refused to go onto the stage at one point / You'll get over it in the morning".
Anyway, here are those lyrics:
BLINDNESS
The flag is evil
Welcome: living leg-end
I was walking down the street
I saw a poster at the top
I was only on one leg
The streets were fucked
And the poster at the top of street said:
“Do you work hard?”
I was only on one leg
The road hadn't been fixed
I had to be in for half six
I was only on one leg
My blue eyelids were not (?)
There was a curfew at half nine
For my kids
There was a poster at the top of the street
Encapsulated in plastic
It had a blind man
So I said: “Blind man, have mercy on me.”
I said: “Blind man, have mercy on me.”
The flat is evil and full of cavalry and Calvary
And calvary and cavalry.
“Do you work hard?”
It said, “I am from Hebden Bridge.
Somebody said to me: I can't understand a word you said."
Said: “99% of non smokers die”
“Do you work hard?”
“Do you work hard?”
I was walking down the street
And saw a picture of a blind man
The flat is evil
Of core? cavalry and calvary
Of core(?)
Blind man, have mercy on me
Said, blind man, have mercy on me
??
I am a ?
My blues eye get…ID/I get
My curfew was due half eight
Now its half past six
My curfew is at 9:30
I said. “Do you?”
Blind man! Have mercy on me
Blind man! Have mercy on me
Blind man! Have mercy on me
I’m on one leg
My eyes can’t get fixed
And my kids
Can’t blue eyes get fixed
Blind man! Have mercy on me
Blind man! Have mercy on me
BLINDNESS (Peel session version)
And all humans
Cavalry or calvary
And not a drop of water
Or paper
Or paper
J.W. said "walking bass, walking bass"
Don't forget, don't forget
He expected Aristotle Onasis
But instead he got Mr James Fennings from Prestwick, in Cumbria
Do you... reflect this evil?
Thought of cavalry and calvary
His first appearance was on Moscow Road
The poster came at first
At first I thought it was just a poster
I was talking to James Seymour
Eyes wide open
The neck was slightly dislocated
But then I walked up the street
There was a repellent plastic
Said poster with a picture
Do you work?
I was on one leg
At the top of the street
There was a poster
A plastic front
From Moscow Road it came
From Deansgate it came
From Narnack Records it came
I was on one leg
I had to be in by 9.30
I said walking bass
Paper times 2
Paper times 2
Paper everywhere and not a drop of water to be seen
I said
I was by the ocean
I saw a poster
I am [?]
I am [?]
Everywhere I look I see a blind man
I see a blind man
Everywhere I look
I see a...
I can't get my eyes checked
My blues eyes can't get checked
I'm only one leg
I said to poster, "When's the curfew over?
I said, "Blind man, have mercy on me."
I said, "Blind man, have mercy on me."
Blind man have mercy on me
Oh Great One I am a mere receptacle
The egg tester for your sandlewood and other assorted woods
In dark green
Blind man have mercy on me
I got a metal leg - truth
Flat is the evil of calvary and cavalry
Anyone want to interpret that?
About the times a-changin': If singing from a wheelchair is now considered "pretty punk rock", recall that in 1974 Robert Wyatt of Soft Machine, performing on the British TV show Top of the Pops just a year after an accident left him paralyzed, was considered "not suitable for family viewing" because of his wheelchair.
On the other hand, when has punk rock ever been suitable for family viewing?
Further sources to enjoy:
BBC News interview with Smith in May, 2008
The Fall wiki
Mark E. Smith wiki
the band's website
YouTube video of "Victoria", perhaps The Fall's most recognizable hit, from the 1988 album The Frenz Experiment
YouTube video of a live performance of "Blindness"
YouTube video of a concert performance of "Totally Wired" from the 1980 album Grotesque (After the Gramme)
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