Oliver: The Fall - A Lot of Wind (21 December 1991)

Having previously posted two vintage Fall tracks on this blog, A Lot of Wind is the first "contemporary" Fall track to be selected, having been recorded for their 1991 album, Shift-Work.  When I first heard it, I dismissed it as typical Mark E. Smith blether; only one lot of wind round here, mate, and it's coming from you.  Second time around though, it smacked me round the face with how good it was and how in step I am with his its thinking.  The panels on TV which Smith was at that time railing against were getting larger in number and shriller in voice.  The Internet has now made the wind into a typhoon (and I'm aware that I'm an isobar in that state of affairs).
With its pissed off lyrics and constantly chattering guitar/violin interplay, it would be perfectly fine on its own terms but the passing years have given extra layers of piquancy to Smith's observations of the weatherman who "used to teach all our friends".  Throw in sideswipes at This Morning and the "King of Granadaland", undoubtedly Tony Wilson, and it's all too easy to picture Smith grinding his way through a hangover and caught between the dead boredom of fragility and the prattle of experts on the "tragic lantern".  No wonder he has "antagonals" on his eyelids and is suffering nightmares.

The theme of A Lot of Wind got me remembering this from BBC 2's TV Hell night on August 31 1992, which we'll see Peel on eventually.  Did Danny Baker get the idea from Mark E.Smith, I wonder?



The track was the third out of the four selections for the 1991 Peelenium to be played on this night.

Videos courtesy of #TheFall and magus26.