Renegade - the Lives and Tales of Mark E Smith

 

Can't say that I'm a huge Fall fan, although I have liked what I've heard, but Melanie picked this up and lent it to me after she finished so I thought I'd see what Smith had to say.

Co-written/edited/what-have-you by Austin Collings, you get a sense of Smith's character right from the start as he describes his entire band leaving him a few days into an American tour. He does give both sides of the story (although he basically calls bullshit on the band's side) but regardless, he comes off as a hugely problematic, cantankerous, alcoholic prima donna, but that's just in the first few pages, so let's see how he progresses as the story continues. (Yeah, that never changes...)

Smith tells his story in a very curmudgeonly, conversational way, jumping around chronologically, going off on tangents, just giving his opinion about situations, and all with plenty of back street Britishisms that are often just barely comprehensible (if that) to a mid-western American like me. He also name checked people with the assumption that you know who he is talking about - and if you don't live in England, you probably don't. He's definitely a paranoid egomaniac and the book seems to simply be an excuse to rant about all of his perceived injustices and to complain about musicians, scenes, record labels, critics and the like.

(Good line though: “hard livers with hard livers” with “faces like unmade beds” - talking about Manchester barflys.)

His tangents truly are disjointed, as well, and if you don't know someone that he's referring to by name, well then, you're on your own and have to work it out - he's not going to explain who they are. He'll veer from music to sports to old friends to politics in a paragraph or two and leave you to figure out what's what - again, as an American who doesn't follow these things, it's like listening to a drunk at a dive bar with a heavy accent - ya never know where he's going to go next!

He goes on about soccer for a chapter - along with some tangents, of course - throwing out names that meant nothing to me and I didn’t really get it until he mentioned that a Fall song is used in conjunction with soccer somehow - and a song was used for a commercial, as well. Really is a different country there!

The ending comes abruptly, which somehow seems appropriate, as he is talking about Orson Wells later, drunken TV commercials, for no real reason, other than that Smith seems to have an affinity for him. 

For all my criticisms, I have to say that the book is engrossing and entertaining, although you certainly will not come out of it liking Smith in any way, shape or form, or necessarily even respecting him. He does not get into any real background of any of the music or lyrics, either, so fans will not be enlightened about any of his work, other than understanding his personality a little better. It's an odd one - not sure whether I would recommend it or not, but it's certainly something!