Mark E. Smith, the cantankerous, lacerating wit who was the only constant member of influential British rock band the Fall throughout its more than four decades of activity, died at his home this morning at age 60 following prolonged health problems. In August, the group canceled what would have been its first U.S. tour in a decade. No details about the cause of Smith’s death have been made public, but the group’s manager, Pamela Vander, has confirmed his passing.
Smith always looked sallow and unhealthy, but at the same time it felt like he was somehow immortal, a permanent antidote to an entertainment world that seemed increasingly empty and cynical. The Fall occasionally made relatively accessible music—especially in the mid-80s, when Smith was married to former Chicagoan Brix Smith Start, aka Laura Elisse Salenger—but the band’s recent output was some of the angriest and most ferocious of its entire career. At moments like this, though, I tend to fall back on the songs that resonate most for me—and in the case of the Fall, that means the early stuff. Below you can check out the unfuckwithable 1979 single “Rowche Rumble,” whose numbing, off-kilter punk spun my head around when I first heard it in the early 80s.
