No One Dead This Time; well...

Today I downloaded the new album by The Fall. I love The Fall. Not the season, the innovative post-everything group.

I've seen them once. It was a memorable show for a couple of reasons: One was that Fall mainman Mark E. Smith had fallen (ha) during this particular tour & was on crutches. So he did most of the show sitting at a table. And he used two microphones, one in each hand. Don't ask why, he just did. Just like he always messes with the controls on his guitarists' amps. It's just kooky, that's all. Oh, and he also sang the last song offstage, behind a curtain. It was a cover of The 4 Seasons' "Walk Like A Man"- I think, because like Dylan it's sometimes hard to tell with Mark E. Smith what a familiar song has morphed into. Anyway, the other reason the show was memorable (but I didn't know it at the time) is that it was the last show I saw with my friend Ed who died less than a year later. I was always dragging him to shows that were not exactly mainstream, but always interesting. Like this one, or The Datsuns, who were actually overshadowed by support The Black Keys and even more so by opening act Electric Eel Shock from Osaka, which could tell you a lot. They were extremely wild, that was the consensus.

Anyway, Ed was someone very special. He'd hook up the speakers to his stereo by putting BOTH positive or red or whatever it was from both speakers on one channel, and both black or negative or whatever to the other side. Crazy! He'd also say "nit! nit!" after taking a shot, like Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider. He also knew more card games than just about anyone I knew except my brother-in-law.

He was a big Sloan fan. He thought Love's "Forever Changes" was a "Spanish" album. And I know secrets about him that I'll take to my grave.

I dragged him to a midnight showing of The Clash movie "Rude Boy" at the old Punch & Judy Theater right after he finished an 8 hour shift at work. He was less than impressed, but then so was I. I could've had him listening to WFMU, I just know it. That was another thing - he always had his computer messed up, kinda like his wife does nowadays. Is it an homage?

There are only two men who aren't family that I've kissed - Ed was one of them, and the other one is dead, too. Maybe I have the kiss of death for men.

Actually, three. The third was an obnoxious gay guy who worked with my ex-wife. Everything he said was a reference to gay sex. He called me Alfred, because I reminded him of Alfred Hitchcock. So this was our first meeting, at a Christmas party, and he asked if I was homophobic. That's when I kissed him. He was an asshole so I don't count him unless it's to my advantage. Maybe he's also dead, who knows.

So while for a change I'm not reporting on newly dead people, The Fall made me think of a very special dead guy.

And by the way, the new Fall album is called "Imperial Wax Solvent", and it's great.