SIMILIARITIES NOTED BETWEEN BOB DYLAN AND MARK E.SMITH (THE FALL)

Been listening to the back catalogue of The Fall the last week partly inspired by finally hearing their latest cd IMPERIAL WAX SOLVENT….I won’t say I’m the biggest Fall fan but I do respect their fidelity to a certain style of recording and their ability to maintain their integrity while having prolific output.

Or I should say HIS fidelity as Mark E. Smith is really The Fall….My recent Fall listening binge brought to mind some similarities between Smith and Bob Dylan….

They both rattle off their poetry as lyrics over band backing without worry over such melodic niceties as singing or middle 8’s or traditional verse chorus structure unless you count mentioning the same phrase every fourth or sixth line….

Dylan was lucky to be backed by The Band among other talented sidemen on his best albums including BLONDE ON BLONDE and HIGHWAY 61 REVISISTED….They at least injected some drama into dull arrangements which is almost like spoken word when one gets down to it.

Now, I’m definitely not the biggest Dylan fan….In fact aside from great poetry, I’ve always found him a curiously regressive creature who peaked early and produced crap ever since….I never liked his voice and didn’t really like anything he did after the 60’s….

Smith on the other hand while using multiple sidemen over the 30 year 30+ album/cd career of the Fall still continues to produce a bizarre original sound….He’s never lost track of what he’s about unlike Dylan whose a good poet but very very overrated when it comes to every other part of his music….

Some of my favorite Fall Albums….THE WONDERFUL AND FRIGHTENING WORLD OF THE FALL, THIS NATION’S SAVING GRACE, BEND SINISTER, GROTESQUE (AFTER THE GRAMME), THE FRENZ EXPERIMENT ,CODE:SELFISH, THE UNUTTERABLE, ARE YOU MISSING WINNER?....