Perverted by Language
Encyclopedia
Perverted by Language is a 1983 album by The Fall. It was the first Fall album to feature Brix Smith
Brix Smith
Brix Smith-Start is an American singer, guitarist and television presenter, best known for being a member of post-punk band The Fall, and as lead singer and songwriter with The Adult Net.-Biography:Brix grew up in Los Angeles and Chicago...

, then wife of Mark E. Smith
Mark E. Smith
Mark Edward Smith is the lead singer, lyricist, frontman, and only constant member of the English post-punk band The Fall.-Early life:...

, who performs lead vocals on "Hotel Blöedel". However, the bulk of the album was recorded before she joined the band.

The album contains the track, "Eat Y'self Fitter", which John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

 picked as one of his Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...

; when Peel had first heard the track – in a session the band recorded in March, 1983 – he stated on air that he had fainted and his producer, John Walters, had had to resuscitate him.

The album was the only full length product of the group's renewed relationship with Rough Trade
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...

, whom they had previously left in 1981. This time, they fell out over the full length video the group wished to make for the album. The video Perverted by Language Bis went ahead funded by the group themselves and producers Ikon who released the finished product on VHS in 1984 (a DVD edition was released by Cherry Red
Cherry Red
Cherry Red is a London-based independent record label formed in 1978.-History:Cherry Red grew from the rock promotion company founded in 1971 to promote rock concerts at the Malvern Winter Gardens...

 in 2003). By that time, the group had signed to Beggars Banquet
Beggars Banquet Records
Beggars Banquet is an English independent record label that began as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin, and is part of the Beggars Group of labels...

.

Side one

  1. "Eat Y'Self Fitter" (Mark E. Smith
    Mark E. Smith
    Mark Edward Smith is the lead singer, lyricist, frontman, and only constant member of the English post-punk band The Fall.-Early life:...

    ) – 6:38
  2. "Neighbourhood of Infinity" (Smith, Karl Burns
    Karl Burns
    Karl Burns is a British musician best known as drummer for The Fall, featuring in many incarnations of the band between 1977 and 1998....

    , Paul Hanley
    Paul Hanley (musician)
    Paul Hanley is an English musician, based in Manchester. He is best known for playing drums in The Fall and The Lovers.-Career:...

    , Steve Hanley
    Steve Hanley (musician)
    Steve Hanley is an Irish-born English musician, based in Manchester. He is best known for playing bass guitar in The Fall from 1979 to 1998, and afterwards in The Lovers....

    , Craig Scanlon
    Craig Scanlon
    Craig Scanlon is a British guitarist, best known as a member of The Fall between 1979 and 1995. During this period he co-wrote over 120 of the group's songs; Mark E. Smith excepted, this tally is unmatched by any other musician to have passed through the group.-Career:Scanlon joined the band...

    ) – 2:41
  3. "Garden" (M. Smith, Scanlon) – 8:42
  4. "Hotel Blöedel" (M. Smith, S. Hanley, Brix Smith
    Brix Smith
    Brix Smith-Start is an American singer, guitarist and television presenter, best known for being a member of post-punk band The Fall, and as lead singer and songwriter with The Adult Net.-Biography:Brix grew up in Los Angeles and Chicago...

    ) – 3:47

Side two

  1. "Smile" (M. Smith, Scanlon) – 5:06
  2. "I Feel Voxish" (M. Smith, S. Hanley, Marc Riley
    Marc Riley
    Marc Riley is a British musician, alternative rock critic and radio DJ on BBC 6 Music. Formerly a member of The Fall, he had his own record label, In-Tape, and also worked as a record plugger...

    ) – 4:19
  3. "Tempo House" (M. Smith, S. Hanley) – 8:51 (recorded live at The Haçienda
    The Haçienda
    Fac 51 Haçienda was a nightclub and music venue in Manchester, England. It became most famous during the "Madchester" years of the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the 1990s it was labelled the most famous club in the world by Newsweek magazine...

    , Manchester July 1983)
  4. "Hexen Definitive / Strife Knot" (M. Smith, Burns, Adrian Niman, Scanlon) – 6:57

Reissues

There have been 5 CD editions of the album. The first three (1984 - Line, 1993 - Castle and 1998 - Cog Sinister) duplicated the original vinyl. It was reissued through Castle Music in 1998 in a slightly different mix (only "Garden" was noticeably altered) and adding 5 bonus tracks.
  • 1998 bonus tracks
  1. "The Man Whose Head Expanded"
  2. "Ludd Gang"
  3. "Kicker Conspiracy"
  4. "Wings"
  5. "Pilsner Trail"


1 & 2 were issued as a single by Rough Trade in June 1983, and 3 & 4 by the same label in October of the same year (accompanied by a disc of Peel session tracks, "The Container Drivers" & "New Puritan"). 5 was an outtake from the PBL recording sessions which had previously been bootlegged as "Plaster On The Hands".
  • The 2005 edition, again on Castle Music carried the original mix of the album, all the bonus tracks from the 1998 version and came with an additional disc carrying live recordings from the era and a Peel Session, as well as the remixed "Garden" from the previous edition.

  • 2005 bonus disc
  1. "Smile"
  2. "Garden"
  3. "Hexen Definitive"/"Strife Knot"
  4. "Eat Y'Self Fitter"
  5. "Garden" (1998 remix)
  6. "Neighbourhood Of Infinity" (live in Munich April 1984)
  7. "Smile" (live in New York May 1983)
  8. "Tempo House" (live in New York May 1983)
  9. "Perverted By Language" (live in London December 1983)
  10. "Wings" (live in London March 1982)
  11. "Backdrop" (live in Brighton October 1983)


Tracks 1-4 form the group's sixth session for John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

. Track 6 had previously been released on the 1987 compilation Palace Of Swords Reversed on the group's own Cog Sinister imprint and 7 & 8 had previously been issued on Speed Trials, a compilation on the Homestead Records
Homestead Records
Homestead Records was a Long Island, NY based sublabel of music distributor Dutch East India Trading. It was founded in 1984 by Sam Berger, who was the American Independent buyer for Dutch East India Trading. Berger was finding that many bands who had perhaps released their own first 45 were...

 label also featuring Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....

, Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...

 and Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...

 amongst others.

Personnel

  • Mark E. Smith
    Mark E. Smith
    Mark Edward Smith is the lead singer, lyricist, frontman, and only constant member of the English post-punk band The Fall.-Early life:...

     – vocals, piano
    Piano
    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

    , violin
    Violin
    The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

  • Craig Scanlon
    Craig Scanlon
    Craig Scanlon is a British guitarist, best known as a member of The Fall between 1979 and 1995. During this period he co-wrote over 120 of the group's songs; Mark E. Smith excepted, this tally is unmatched by any other musician to have passed through the group.-Career:Scanlon joined the band...

     – guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

    , vocals
  • Steve Hanley
    Steve Hanley (musician)
    Steve Hanley is an Irish-born English musician, based in Manchester. He is best known for playing bass guitar in The Fall from 1979 to 1998, and afterwards in The Lovers....

     – bass guitar
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

  • Paul Hanley
    Paul Hanley (musician)
    Paul Hanley is an English musician, based in Manchester. He is best known for playing drums in The Fall and The Lovers.-Career:...

     – drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

    , keyboards
    Keyboard instrument
    A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

  • Karl Burns
    Karl Burns
    Karl Burns is a British musician best known as drummer for The Fall, featuring in many incarnations of the band between 1977 and 1998....

     – drums, bass guitar
  • Brix Smith
    Brix Smith
    Brix Smith-Start is an American singer, guitarist and television presenter, best known for being a member of post-punk band The Fall, and as lead singer and songwriter with The Adult Net.-Biography:Brix grew up in Los Angeles and Chicago...

     – guitar & lead vocals on "Hotel Blöedel"; backing vocals on "Eat Y'Self Fitter"

Cover versions

  • The Want
    The Want (DC band)
    The Want is an American rock band from Washington, D.C..-History:The Want formed in Washington D.C. in the early 1990s and began playing live shows in 1994...

    recorded a cover version of the song "Wings" on their 1995 release Too Much Stuff.
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