A comment on the weedy Home Office sanctioned LIBERACE-ISM of UK band transmissions. Taken from a press handout promoting the Look, Know b/w I’m Into C.B. single on Kamera Records.
CB radio has never entirely died out, but its popularity and hold on global consciousness was never greater than it was in the 1970s and early 1980s. Culturally, it owed its profile to sources as diverse as CW McCall’s global hit single, Convoy, Sam Peckinpah’s 1978 film of the same name and popular television series such as The Dukes of Hazzard and B.J. and the Bear.
In the UK, its scope was somewhat smaller but no less devoted among its users. Mark E. Smith was probably not saying “Breaker, breaker” from a back room of his house in Prestwich. It’s more likely that he may have got the idea for his lyrics during the Fall’s lengthy American tour of Summer 1981 - a theory I’m basing on comments about the track posted on The Annotated Fall.
It was recorded during sessions for The Fall’s early 1982 album, Hex Enduction Hour. Musically, it’s built out of a piece of standard Fall-like melodic repetition, with everybody playing one note repeatedly for long stretches. Drummer Karl Burns reported that the drum pattern was a one handed beat, played repeatedly over 6 and a half minutes.
Smith’s lyrics start out in playful mood as he plays the part of two C.B. users: Happy Harry and C. Blank (or Cedar Plank, no-one seems quite sure). The verses cover topics as diverse as Government job creation schemes (Blank), drunkenness (Harry) and family relationships (both) though any social comment is kept to a minimum, the drinking is experimental sampling of Martinis and while there are things that annoy our narrators about their families (Harry’s sister has bad taste in pop music, Blank’s father is a bit uncommunicative), there’s nothing particularly dysfunctional to be concerned about. Indeed, the bulk of the track is quite light and almost affectionate. You could imagine Half Man Half Biscuit using the song as a template for a similarly, light piss-take of a niche hobby.
At 2:48, the two characters appear to be talking to each other at which point, Smith does a great job of structuring an argument between them both in a foreshadowing of social media spats. The row is broken up when the characters receive an official letter warning them both off continuing to use C.B. frequencies - it was still illegal in the UK to operate domestically on the C.B. channels at the time that Smith was writing the lyrics, though by the time I’m Into C.B was released, Parliament had passed the necessary laws allowing for legal domestic use of C.B frequencies. Nevertheless, by 4.10, Smith has skipped off, turning his back on the hobby and leaving his bandmates to grind on for another 2 minutes, playing the aural equivalent of dead air between the frequencies.
I know it’s always tempting to listen to Fall recordings, especially from their early period, and describe
them as down at heel, scuzzy flipsides to slicker, better produced, “professional” takes on similar themes by other bands, but I couldn’t forgive myself if I failed to pair it up with 1982’s other C.B. influenced pop classic. I refer of course to Calling Captain Autumn, the closing track on Haircut 100’s Pelican West, album which came out about 6 weeks before The Fall released both Hex Enduction Hour and the Look, Know single. Was Smith influencing Nick Heyward or vice versa? Sadly, I don’t think Smith would have gone near an Aran jumper.
Videos courtesy of Dr Hfurhuhurr (The Fall) and SD Remastered Music (Haircut 100)
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