Mark E. Smith's recent decision to have "Look, Know" removed from the "Hex" reissue might suggest that he is embarrassed by this admittedly not stellar song. But what do you think is the most embarrassing Fall single? (Limited editions not included).

Ghost.
Bloody awful :finger:

"F-Oldin'" and "Victoria" are both dire, but the former got my vote by the merest fraction.

Telephone Thing, disgustingly bad track.

Had to go for 'Ghost', as the criteria was most embarrassing. This came out at a time when I was waxing lyrical to a lot of mates about how The Fall were the most uncompromising band they would ever hear. Enter the R.Dean-Taylor pop song cover.

My girlfriend at the time actually bought me the single, so I had to make myself like it. I was re-assured by the video of the song where the band seemed to address the issue of whether they should be playing it or not.

Happy postscript: The original was one of my wife's favourites. For one of our first dates, I took her to see the Fall at Bradford Uni in theearly 90s with the promise of, "you'll really like them, they sing There's a Ghost in my House".

Needless to say, they didn't sing this, but she still humoured me admirably, and enjoyed the gig.

Popcorn Double Feature is pretty bloody bad, but Victoooooooooooooria gets my vote. Dreadful. Makes listening to Frenz Experiment all the way through well-nigh impossible.

Damn, I love Victoria.

In fact, I don't know if I'd call any of these truly embarrassing but some will certainly stand the test of time. Some just seem dated. 15 Ways... but still not embarrassing.

Like most bands, the singles are often not the strong point of their output, though The Fall managed years of incredible seven inches from the get-go.

Hit The North...I hate it...even though I kept buying all them different versions of it...I was hoping they would make it sound good on one of em.

Went for 15 Ways...turdy turd turd.
Could have been Telephone thing or Hit the North just as easily.

Nothing wrong with Victoria in my opinion.....

Between "Ghost" and "Popcorn". Went for "Ghost".

"Look, Know" is great.....

Popcorn Double Feature. Look , Know is a great song, don't see why it's deemed inferior.

I realy cant belive 'Oh! Brother' has two votes yet 'C.R.E.E.P' has zero...
Im in shock :o

BTW, Although not my fave on the list, 'Look, Know' is a long way of being the worst...or most embarrising

I'll vote for C.R.E.E.P - like that overall Brix period, but that song I really dislike. The reason? Pure and simply, I think it's cack! It really gets on my nerves. It's a "Yellow Submarine" song whereby I have to fast forward it. The one song that ruins anotherwise quality album as far as I'm concerned.

I refuse to admit Look Know is not wonderful. Excellent bass. Great lyrics.

Voted Luciani, though on reflection, Victoria tries more patience

Look Know is wonderful

Popcorn double feature is not.

Only a few other duff ones to keep it company.

There's a ghostly in my house not being one of them.

Kids!

Oh yeah, Luciani. That one's big crap.

As are a lot of the songs from that period :(

victoria-though i like the sneering aspect to the vocals.

whenever our ABC 'rage' plays fall videos the guest programmers (according to the producers) always pick this track.

why the fuck when theres so much else to choose from VHS9788907897/PBL etc etc

I'm not much of a fan of 'Look/ Know', but it's ok. I voted for 'Oh Brother' - really not very good and those Brix 'La, la, la's' do my head in.

I can't believe people are singling out some of the Fall's better, more amusing covers over something as lifeless and boring as WHITE LIGHTNING...

Have to agree with Rex on that one, after having grown up hearing George Jones sing that, for the life of me I just can't fathom why MES would cover that, and on what level? Lyrics? Easy to play? A more unexpected cover than Victoria?

My least favorites are "!5 Ways" and "Sparta," but for different reasons.

The first, because it's just lifeless, flat, generic. "Popcorn Double Feature" is similar in this respect.

The second, because it's slick and catchy in the way I DON'T like, as adverts or holiday jingles are catchy.

Andy

I always see Popcorn Double Feature as having a sarcy vocal......
played straight i would have hated it.

Popcorn is just downright embarrassing, if truth be told.

Not even the hip and happening member of Jesus Jones (at the time), Mike Edwards, can save it with his geetar :(

I was close to voting either Oh Brother or CREEP but Popcorn just screeched at me...

Agree, and i didn't bother with all of the Parts One Through Infinity--an astonishingly bad song.

I would say the problem MES has with Look, Know is the prominent part Marc Riley plays in the song.

Who the heck voted for "Oh! Brother"? That's just crazy. That is one great track and great crunching bass.

Im amazed. All these great records are getting a slateing. The question should have read something like what is the worst U2 single. Answer all of them :D

Nobody has voted for any single prior to Beggars Banquet.

Namely because there all superb ;)

(Ok, so Bingo Masters Breakout is slightly average but it beats a lot of the latter stuff hands down)

Telephone Thing - superb.
Luciani - superb, one of my favourite Fall tracks, in fact.

Went for Victoria, myself.

Well, the losers in this are mainly cover versions...and who could honestly say that The Fall's cover versions have added much to their standing? I'm exaggerating, yes: I do like Lost in Music, Pinball Machine, one or two others, and also their adaptations of stuff like Kill your Sons to the band's sound. But in general, The Fall will not be remembered for their interpretations of other people's work.

i think they do great interpretations and reworkings-the monks stuff like war and shut up and BM theme, but some naff and dull ones too like pefect day (godawful pedestrian vocals) and jungle rock and Victoria now grates as does Ghost very 80s-in bad 80s way.

white lighteniong i love the three way vox esp Brix (is it Brix) gutteral delivery, and Smith's languid half-assed delivery good counterpoints to the Bennett or Burns deep voice delivery

mm. High Tension Line.
:mellow: What's wrong with Victoria?

i liked it then, hate it now-too pop,(and whenever mainstream TV plays vids they alway choose this one to play in australia-terrible unreprsentative swill
but then a lot of fall songs you grow to like and appreciate at a later date. Eg never like kicker conspiracy at first im ashamed to admit

I don't get it either. It's a Kinks song, and an improvement on that. Not exactly Debbie Gibson. Not sure why everyone has such a problem with it. I think it's one of Mark's livelier vocals, too.

Popcorn Double Feature I think is dreadful, I couldn't stomach it when first I heard it and always always skipped it on the CD when listening to Extricate. It don't sound like The Fall to me.
Funny though that that song, and I said it somewhere else in some bad song thread, appeals to some non-Fall-familiar humans. As does a song like There's a Ghost in my House, which along with songs like Rollin Dany of similar period are pretty darn good in my opinion.
I think they're all good, and Look, Know is one of my favs from back in the day.
So removing it is a puzzle here.

Cheers.

I'm voting for White Lightning primarily cos the video made me feel ashamed I ever told anyone I liked this band. I actually quite enjoy most of the ones people have attacked so far in this thread...

Draygo's Guilt has never grabbed me.

I downloaded this video from the Fall video site....
I can see your point. Cringeworthy stuff :sick:

I couldn't vote. I like them all. :(