Telephone Thing
| "Telephone Thing" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| SinglebyThe Fall | ||||
| B-side | "British People in Hot Weather" | |||
| Released | January 1990 | |||
| Genre | Post-punk | |||
| Length | 4:20 | |||
| Label | Cog Sinister | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Mark E. Smith,Jonathan More,Matt Black | |||
| Producer(s) | Coldcut | |||
| The Fallsingles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Telephone Thing"is a song by British post-punk bandthe Fall,written byMark E. SmithwithColdcutmembersMatt BlackandJonathan More.Produced and mixed by Coldcut, it was released as a single in January 1990 and reached number 58 on theUK singles chart.[1]It also featured on the Fall's twelfth album,Extricate.
Recording
[edit]The duo Coldcut first collaborated with Smith on the song "" (I'm) In Deep ", one of the tracks on their debut albumWhat's That Noise?.Another track on the album, "My Telephone"featuredLisa Stansfieldand was a minor chart hit in 1989. Jonathan More said of Smith: "He thought the vocals and all the rest of the stuff we did on it were shit, but he really liked the guitar, bass and drums, and he gave the cassette to his band to learn these parts."[2]The band –Martin Bramah(guitar),Craig Scanlon(guitar),Steve Hanley(bass),Marcia Schofield(keyboards), andSimon Wolstencroft(drums)[3]– learned the tune, and Mark E. Smith wrote lyrics ranting againsttelephone tappingat a time when he thought his calls were being intercepted.[4]
Smith said:[2]
[Coldcut's recording] was a misjustice to the tune. That single was a flop and it was rubbish. You see, they compose all their shit on machines, so I got the band to learn it, played naturally. So it's very different indeed. I just think it's topical - like all Fall singles. I think it's good to have a go at things like that - British Rail and British Telecom. It's a natural gripe. One time, I was using the phone a lot and I dialled a number and I could hear people munching sandwiches and talking about my last phone call. I actually rang up the operator and said 'Lookl I'm trying to dial a fucking number here and I can't get through because people are talking about my phone calls! Have you got a bleedin' license to do this?
Smith's lyrics include the lines "How dare you assume I want to parlez-vous with you / Gretchen Franklin, nosey matron thing...".Gretchen Franklinwas the actress playing the part of Ethel Skinner, an elderlybusybodyin theBBC TVsoap operaEastEnders.Smith claimed:[2]
I thought I'd made up that name. Coldcut andCraig Leonwere going to me 'That's a great name to make up, Gretchen Franklin', it just came out of nowhere. And then I was watchingEastEndersand... it was terrible! Maybe she'll be flattered, you usually find people are flattered. I don't even watch fuckingEastEnders.I hate it! It must've just lodged there somewhere, out of the blue. It's subliminal - I've nothing against her - I can't even remember what she looks like now.... OH NO! It's not the woman with the dog is it? It's not!
As well as being released as a single and on the albumExtricate,the song featured on several live albums by the Fall.[3]
Legacy
[edit]James Murphypaid tribute to the song by using the phrase "I'm tapped" on theLCD Soundsystemsong "Movement",copying Smith's pronunciation (" tapped-uh ").
References
[edit]- ^Betts, Graham (2004).Complete UK Hit Singles 1952-2004(1st ed.). London: Collins. p. 271.ISBN0-00-717931-6.
- ^abcAndrew Collins, "Funky, Cold, Modern-ah",New Musical Express,25 January 1990, pp. 24-26.Retrieved 28 January 2018
- ^ab"Telephone Thing",The Fall Tracks A-Z and The Fall Live.Retrieved 28 January 2018
- ^Joseph Gallivan, "Nietzsche boy: Mark E Smith told it like it was at the ICA this week.",The Independent,10 March 1994.Retrieved 28 January 2018
