Perverted by Language

Infobox Album |
Name = Perverted by Language
Type = Album
Artist = The Fall


Released = December 12 1983
Recorded = Pluto, Manchester
Genre = Rock
Length = 47:04
Label = Rough Trade
Producer = Steve Parker
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:nt5ibkh96akb link]

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Last album = "Fall in a Hole"
(1983)
This album = "Perverted by Language"
(1983)
Next album = "The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall"
(1984)

"Perverted by Language" is a 1983 album by The Fall. It was the first Fall album to feature Brix Smith, then wife of Mark E. Smith, 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 picked as one of his "Desert Island Discs"; 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, 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 in 2004). By that time, the group had signed to Beggars Banquet.

Track listing

ide one

#"Eat Y'Self Fitter" (Mark E. Smith) – 6:38
#"Neighbourhood of Infinity" (Smith, Karl Burns, Paul Hanley, Steve Hanley, Craig Scanlon) – 2:41
#"Garden" (M. Smith, Scanlon) – 8:42
#"Hotel Blöedel" (M. Smith, S. Hanley, Brix Smith) – 3:47

ide two

#"Smile" (M. Smith, Scanlon) – 5:06
#"I Feel Voxish" (M. Smith, S. Hanley, Marc Riley) – 4:19
#"Tempo House" (M. Smith, S. Hanley) – 8:51 "(recorded live at The Haçienda, Manchester July 1983)"
#"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
#The Man Whose Head Expanded
#Ludd Gang
#Kicker Conspiracy
#Wings
#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
#Smile
#Garden
#Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot
#Eat Y'Self Fitter
#Garden (1998 remix)
#Neighbourhood Of Infinity (live in Munich April 1984)
#Smile (live in New York May 1983)
#Tempo House (live in New York May 1983)
#Perverted By Language (live in London December 1983)
#Wings (live in London March 1982)
#Backdrop (live in Brighton October 1983)

Tracks 1-4 form the group's sixth session for John Peel. 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 label also featuring Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch amongst others.

Personnel

* Mark E. Smith – vocals, piano, violin
* Craig Scanlon – guitar, vocals
* Steve Hanley – bass guitar
* Paul Hanley – drums, keyboards
* Karl Burns – drums, bass guitar
* Brix Smith – guitar & lead vocals on "Hotel Blöedel"; backing vocals on "Eat Y'Self Fitter"