The Fall’s Mark E. Smith’s Singing Declared "Hard to Hear" by Judge
As anyone who has ever listened to The Fall knows, Mark E. Smith isn’t exactly a great enunciator. Now, Smith’s infamously mush-mouthed delivery has been confirmed by a court of law.
Current and former members of the Fall were embroiled in a lawsuit over the rights to “Touch Sensitive”, an album cut from 1999′s The Marshall Suite, the Manchester Evening News reports (via the Quietus). Producer Steven Sharples claimed that he re-wrote the song, which is credited to Smith and former Fall member Julia Adamson, and was thus entitled to a bigger share of the profits. Smith and Adamson said that “Touch Sensitive” was an updated version of a song they’d performed live and on John Peel’s radio show in 1998, which led to a judge listening to all three versions.
Sharples provided Recorder Amanda Michaels with a transcription of the lyrics he claimed to have written. However, the judge noted a discrepancy between his transcriptions and Smith’s singing. “Mr Smith delivers the lyrics in a manner which at some points makes it hard to hear the words,” the Manchester Evening News reports her as saying.
“I accept the contention that the line is not ‘And a Star Wars police vehicle Paul’s off,’ but… the more comprehensible ‘And a Star Wars police vehicle pulls up,’” Michaels said.
However, while Michaels ruled that Smith likely wrote the lyrics, she found Sharples’ instrumental contributions—he added the strings—to be significant. Therefore, he’ll end up with a third of the royalties after all.
The Fall’s 31st album, Sub-Lingual Tablet, is out now internationally, with a U.S. release set for June 9 via Cherry Red.
Sub-Lingual Tablet:
Listen to “Touch Sensitive”:
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