YOU MUST GET THEM ALL: THE FALL ON RECORD
Available now from Route Publishing:
http://www.route-online.com/all-books/you-must-get-them-all.html
You Must Get Them All is the first book to capture the full, incredible story of The Fall, from Live At The Electric Circus to New Facts Emerge. It covers every single release – album, EP, single, compilation, live album – every line-up change, every setback and every triumph. It is a comprehensive chronology of the life and times of Britain’s most remarkable group, based on contemporary accounts, the recollections of Fall members and the experiences of the Fall community – the gig-goers, the record-buyers, the reviewers, the forum contributors, the lyrical analysts and the factual obsessives.
It’s a book that challenges the clichés, lazy assumptions and common misconceptions about The Fall. But above all else, it celebrates the astonishing and significant body of work that the group created over their 40 odd years of existence.
People write to me and say, ‘I heard The Fall, which record should I get?’ And I never have any hesitation in telling them: you must get them all, because it’s impossible to pick one. You have to have them all, you do… and in fact I’ll go further. I say: anybody who can tell you the five best Fall LPs, or the five best Fall tracks, has missed the point, really. It’s the whole body of the work that is to be applauded. John Peel
It should no longer be our job to explain to people why The Fall are the greatest English rock band of the last 40 years. In fact, I’d politely suggest the onus is now on others to find out for themselves instead of us having to draw them a f***ing map. John Doran, The Quietus
Foreword by Paul Hanley
Over the course of 2018, I wrote a blog called The Fall in Fives, in which I reviewed all 525 Fall songs (you could quibble about the exact number forever, but 525 is what I went with) in batches selected by a random number generator. (If you want to look for any specific song, the index is here.)
I was pleasantly surprised by the reception that the blog received; there was clearly an appetite for an appraisal of the group’s impressive body of work. Therefore, having completed my Fi5 odyssey, I decided to attempt another blog which told the whole history of The Fall, framed around the albums they released between 1979 and 2017.
I decided to call the blog You Must Get Them All, feeling that John Peel’s words in the video above best summed up my approach to the project:
People write to me and say, ‘I heard The Fall – which record should I get?’ And I never have any hesitation in telling them: you must get them all. Because it’s impossible to pick one; y’know, you have to have them all, you do. And you have to have any new record that comes out… Live in Nova Scotia 1984; even if the sound quality’s terrible, and he was pissed, or he’d just fired half the band, or whatever… you still have to have them. You do.
So there is no answer to that… and in fact I’ll go further. I say: anybody who can tell you the five best Fall LPs, or the five best Fall tracks, has missed the point, really; it’s the whole body of the work that is to be applauded.
As well as a post about each of the studio albums, the blog took in a complete review of the multitude of live albums and compilations released in the group’s name. In addition, I did a series of posts about the songs that The Fall ‘borrowed’ from other artists, which are collected here:
The Fall’s “Borrows”
Part 1 (1984-88)
Part 2 (1988-97)
Part 3 (1999-2017)
The blog has now been revised, extended and converted into book form. It is due to be published in early 2022 by Route (who were responsible for Simon Wolstencroft and Steve and Paul Hanley’s Fall-related books). As a result, the album-related chapters are no longer hosted here. However, you can still read a wide range of my Fall-related writing at the Fall in Fives Main Page. This includes:
- An A-Z of The Fall
- The Fall in Five Radio Show
- The Fall Monday Playlists
- ‘I prefer the Peel session…’
- A complete list of Fall albums
- ‘Is this Fall live LP worth buying?’
- A complete list of Fall cover versions
- Fall LP covers ranked
- MES collaborations & guest appearances
You can follow me on Twitter (@TheFallinFives) or contact me via thefallinfives@mail.com
My YouTube channel is here.
You Must Get Them All 