Prompted by the Dave Bush poll, how do we feel about the violin in Fall songs?

Personally, I hate it, and found that Peel session 14 in particular was rendered almost un-listenable by Kenny Brady's contributions. :huh:

I won't place all the blame with Brady, as MES himself has been known to dabble (Hotel Bloedel).

Your views...?

More fiddling I reckon.
Its a very powerful sound though so in moderation.

Bloedel is one of my all time fave fall tracks, so go for it. MES plays almost as good as Sherlock Holmes.

Yes o yes, I still like Kenny Brady's contributions a lot. Actually I think he was even more important onstage than in the studio. A couple of spring 1991 bootlegs belong to my favourite live recordings. Some of the best Life Just Bounces and Mr Pharmacist renditions I've ever heard.

IMO the fiddle was most effectively used on Arid Al's Dream.

If it were up to me the Kenny Brady period should have lasted longer. Nevertheless I couldn't imagine the violin as a permanent part of The Fall.

Seems I am in a minority here... :unsure:

I don't like violins in any pop songs. I remember when The Drifters were among the first R n B groups to have a string section[59 or 60] and I hated it.
I can tolerate a distorted electric violin soloing like a guitar on occasion but let's keep it to a minimum, eh?

Thank you duckpin, sense prevails at last! :D

I've always been anti-Wall of Sound....I like to hear a person or group backed up by a small combo that's small enough so that you can hear each individual instrument most, or all, the time.

"The Mixer" is brilliant. Another vote for Brady.

I like The Mixer too - it's one of the few on Shiftwork I tolerate - but I find the violin on the Peel session versions ( War Against / Idiot Joy / Mixer / Wind) to be too high in the mix, too overbearing.

Violin in rock/pop music is only good when played wearing boxing gloves. In Hotel Bloedel it sounds great. :applaud:
I could live without it in The Mixer, but then i could do without that song altogheter. :lol:

Would you like electric guitars to form the string section in a Beethoven symphony? :sick:

not guitars, no...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ikJKSqnTylI

This is a fucking sacrilege! :rant:

Kazoo solo please, and set aside the grand piano for English Scheme. :lol:

Fiddle is great in country music. Two are even better.

Absolutely, love this one. The fiddle on The War Against Intelligence is nice too. Option 1, quite easily (whilst thinking about which Dirty Three album I play next).

I like the Sing! Harpy intro

Mark on the Stockhausen-esque "Papal Visit", yay.

More songs with banjoes would be good, too.

I knew this would crop up - I don't care much for banjos either! :rolleyes:

I don't care for a lot of things, it seems... :huh:

I like a bit of a fiddle...

So I believe, fnarr fnarr!! ;)

{Just seen your party picture in the Friday night thread - shocking behaviour! :lol:

Bagpipe reeds maybe?

Something I dont miss about the 80s is those electric drums that sounded like a large plastic ball knocking children off a merry go round. Dont think the Fall ever used those!

Now that's more like it! MES should introduce a plastic ball maiming kids type drum machine to the Fall sound, in addition to a regular drummer, obviously! :D


No bagpipes though, please...

A Lot Of Wind is the Fall song I singa long to the most.
Just thought I'd share.

When Karl Burns rejoined in 1993 he had hexagonal shaped electronic drums, alongside SW's regular drumkit

Just been listening to Marshall Suite. Plenty of cello to be found in Touch Sensitive and Shake Off. I didn't find it offputting at all, it's a much nicer sound than screeching violins.

Awh, don't leave us hangin'.

What did he DO with them?!?

The song would go like this:

GROINY POPULACE SOUTHWEST
(merry go round whirr)
TRAIPSY HOLLYWOOD DAKOTA TEST
(faster faster)
SILENT HILL 3 MENU DIGEST
(ping pshhattst ping)
SEINN FELD SHORTSIGHTED SPECS INGEST
(eeeeekkkk aahaahahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)

button touch sensitive

shiek hoff shiek off

little lotta wind harvey comic little lotta wind

etc

So you actually mean "no more fiddling" then?

Personally not a fan of the fiddle in rock, but then it always bothered me that in The Devil Went Down To Georgia, the wrong player won. And bowed instruments don't cut it over lead guitar as they lack any attack.

Horslips, mate.

That's what it's all about.

Myself: Duely noted.

Prefrred Rush.

You know that supposed 'extra hour' you get when the clocks go back? I've just used 11% of that looking at Horslips on YouTube. As a result of that I intend to spend the remainder of this 'found time' travelling to your house and chucking a dustbin lid through the front window.

Perhaps the 'Lips haven't aged well, on reflection.

Allow me to make amends with THIS

Lots of sax but no violins. A great tune that (composed by George Martin, yes, but they made it their own) - alright I guess the south coast's mini-kristallnacht can wait, and anyway it's raining - no better policeman than the weather, as they say.

That drummers the spitting image of Animal.

sing harpy!