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Input: Mark E. Smith  Was An Uncompromising And Essential Voice From Music's Fringe
It is safe to say that there was no one else like  Mark E. Smith . The irascible leader of the legendary Manchester post-punk group The Fall â who died yesterday at the age of 60 â was a true artist and eccentric. An acerbic British icon with working-class roots  his words were like cryptic incantations  layered with bone-dry wit and an interest in horror  fantasy and the surreal.  Smith  was a stubborn contrarian who broke new ground both sonically and lyrically with the band  he  founded  and then owned that territory for over 40 years and dozens of albums.
The Fall first formed in Prestwich  near Manchester  in 1976  taking its name from the title of a darkly philosophical novel by Albert Camus. The group bonded over a share interest in literature  bands like Can and the Velvet Underground and copious amounts of psychedelic drugs. ( Smith  even took acid before  his  high school O-level exams  according to an account by  his  friend Dave Haslam.)
 Smith 's unique skill as a lyricist was evident from the band's earliest days   his  stream-of-consciousness style laced with sideways references  quirky humor  sharply honed imagery and trenchant observations on British society  culture and politics. "It was like a poetry group at first " recalled Martin Bramah  The Fall's first guitarist  to the critic Simon Reynolds in the anthology Totally Wired. "We used to share our innermost feelings in words and play our favorite albums.  Mark  bought a guitar but couldn't play it. I was already singing in another band  so the first lineup of The Fall was me singing and  Mark  playing guitar. It quickly switched because  Mark  was writing these mad  well-observed lyrics. Our early stuff sounded American  but  Mark  picked up on how to make Manchester interesting."
Manchester occupies a legendary place in music lore; a huge number of bands were spawned within the city's grim industrial confines during that era. The scene surrounding Joy Division and Factory Records captured the public's imagination  but it was The Fall who held the crown as the strangest and most singular band to have ever come out of Manchester. The group's debut album  1979's Live at the Witch Trials  proved  it  to already be well on  its  way to developing a signature sound: a churning  propulsive rhythm section  an emphasis on extreme  almost trancelike repetition and pointed  cryptic lyrics that  Smith  scowled with a voice that sometimes sounded like  he  was gargling razorblades. With each successive album  The Fall honed its technique  with  Smith  reveling in all ideas that ran counter to social norms.
The Fall proudly showed off that flair for the bizarre and monstrous  titling its 1980 album Grotesque (After the Gramme.) By this time  the original founding members of The Fall â Bramah on guitar  Tony Friel on bass  Karl Burns on drums  Una Baines on keyboards and  Smith  on vocals â had dissolved  leaving  Smith  as the sole original member. It was a theme that would continue apace throughout  Smith 's long career in The Fall â the members of the group shifted constantly and erratically from album to album  or even from month to month  with  Smith  as the only constant presence. Nearly 70 people have been members of The Fall over the course of the past four decades â an eye-popping number. "If it's me and your granny on bongos  it's The Fall " Smith once famously quipped â less a joke than a statement of fact.
 Smith 's group garnered many prominent fans â the legendary British DJ John Peel was a constant champion â but The Fall never quite hit the mainstream in the United States. In the 1980s   Smith 's marriage and creative partnership with Brix Smith (now Brix Smith Start) helped lead to some of the catchiest  most upbeat music of their career â most notably on 1985's This Nation's Saving Grace â but the band remained oblique and abstruse  even in its poppiest days. "He never once compromised " Brix Smith Start wrote of  Smith  in a statement released after his death  "how many others can leave this life with such a singularity of vision?"
Mark E. Smith led The Fall through over 30 studio albums  along with a flood of EPs  singles  and collaborations  amounting to dizzying discography that could bewilder even the most die-hard record collector. Some of these records were absurdly brilliant â like Hex Enduction Hour (1982) and The Wonderful and Frightening World Of... (1984); others were a mixed bag  and a few were absolute failures. The same could be said for The Fall's live performances  which could be as transcendent as they were unhinged. It didn't help that  Smith  picked fights with band mates and girlfriends  or that  his  behavior could be prickly  to say the least.
 Smith  kept creating  and kept touring  up until almost the end. As the guiding force of The Fall â and the only member of The Fall who never quit the band â Smith and The Fall became synonymous with each other. And while many bands were inspired by The Fall â Pavement  Sonic Youth and the Pixies among them â no one sounded exactly like the group. Without  Smith   there can be no Fall  and the wonderful and frightening world of music  he  ferociously hurled forth is now a bit less wonderful and frightening as a result. "When I'm dead and gone / my vibrations will live on / In vibes on vinyl through the years "  he  howled on the song "Psykick Dancehall " released in 1979. The Fall's music will  indeed  live on.

Mark E. Smith Was An Uncompromising And Essential Voice From Music's Fringe : The Record : NPR