The Fall | Totally Wired | Live in New York | June 1981

Restored classic footage of The Fall live in New York in 1981, performing Totally Wired, synced to a high quality audio of the same performance, from the album A Part of America, Therein.

Posting on the anniversary of the death of The Fall's Mark E. Smith.
RIP MES 5 March 1957 – 24 January 2018

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Totally Wired is one of the few early Fall songs that has its own Wiki page:

Released in September 1980, the single became one of their signature tracks. It reached no. 2 in the UK Independent Singles Chart and no. 25 in New Zealand. In a dismissive review on its release, Danny Baker said in NME: "Totally Wired is ugly, and terribly produced…”

The track appeared in John Peel's Festive Fifty in both 1980 and 1981, reaching 21 and 56 respectively and number 34 on All Time Festive Fifty broadcast in 2000. Subsequently it appeared at #57 on the "100 Greatest Singles of the Post-Punk Era" published by Uncut in 2001, in Gary Mulholland's book This is Uncool – The 500 Greatest Singles since Punk and Disco, published in 2003, and in the Guide To the (500) Greatest Songs from Punk To the Present published by Pitchfork published in 2014.

The originally US-only 1982 album, A Part of America, Therein, was compiled from recordings of live shows in Chicago, New York, Memphis, Houston, and San Francisco, between May and July 1981. The quality of recordings is variable, and the album was described as a "slap-dash document" of the band's US tour. The Totally Wired live video, shot at an unspecified New York show, first came to my attention on the 1983 home video, Perverted By Language Bis.

Thanks to the great site The Annotated Fall, we know that the hard to fathom extra M.E. Smiths lyrics in this live version are:

You don't have to be weird to be wired
You don't have to be a died hair punk funk shit-hot fucked up tick-tock pad
You don't have to be strange to be strangled
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro

And many thanks to then-Fall guitarist Mark Riley [he's the tall handsome chap stage left in this video] who has been kind enough to send us these recollections:

I remember we’d just not long since finished a European tour and were off to America. It was our 2nd time over there but this time we were to do it ‘properly’ traveling some long distances in a van rather than doing a batch of dates on the east coast and then flying over to the west. This was the same tour that we opened for The Clash at Bonds Casino in Times Sq. They were supposed to do a handful of shows but the tickets were massively oversold and so it ended up a record breaking 17 night residency. I recall we played well that night. Perhaps too well, which resulted in one of the Clash road crew unplugging our amps prematurely and the DJ banging a tune on in the blink of an eye. Before we were about to soundcheck, Joe Strummer approached MES on a staircase and said to him “I bet you hate us don’t you…”. I’m not sure Mark ever told us his response.

Maxwells was a great club. Small (200 capacity) and dark. Perfect for us. I say ‘was’ a small club as a quick bout of research tells me it was under new ownership by 2013 and shut its doors permanently in 2018. Its probably a Sushi Bar these days.

This is a great version of Totally Wired. Sadly not featuring original drummer Paul Hanley who couldn't join us on this tour due to the fact that he wasn't old enough to even enter most of the clubs we were playing. Karl of course does a great job tho.

Thanks for watching, hope you dig it!

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Credits

Video:
The Fall | Totally Wired | Live in New York | June 1981 | Perverted By Language Bis DVD | Cherry Red Films | 2003

Audio:
The Fall | Totally Wired | Live in New York | June 1981 | A Part of America Therein, 1981 | Released 1982 | Cottage Records | Rough Trade Records | BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 1982 Sanctuary Records Group Ltd., a BMG Company

Musicians:
Mark E. Smith | vocals, keyboard
Mark Riley | guitar, backing vocals
Craig Scanlon | guitar, backing vocals
Steve Hanley | bass
Karl Burns | drums


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Always more videos to follow, so please keep your electric eye on me babe!

I don't own the rights, and I'm not making any money out of this etc. Just a fan making videos for other fans.

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[exexalien]

Even the drum flub was synced perfectly. Beautiful!

[yecatsays]

Being a Cope fan, when he mentioned The Fall in an interview (In:Palace of Swords Reversed) I jogged down to my local library's music section to hunt and found said album on cassette. 5p to borrow for a week. I duly copied it on mum's tape-to-tape ghetto blaster and have been a Fall fan ever since. Once again, sterling work and I thank you for the fab content once again. I love this channel.

[cathyt]

Wow. What a surprise. Such a great scene in Chicago at that time...

[MarquisSmith]

Bowie is my solo guy, but The Fall were my band. You have impeccable taste, Nacho.

[christophecrompin]

Makes me think so much of Iggy Pop's "Five Foot one" from his 1979 "New Values" album !

[gillesjpgoy]

J’avais 20 ans et toujours fan de Ziggy Stardust

[tannermartin]

Any idea if there's any other audio from this specific show out there? Haven't been able to find anything myself

[s-s-s-suki]

This is outstanding, even by The Fall's standards.

[goa]

First time I listened The Fall
I knew it was a respected and influential band

Any idea where to start??? (I'm a Bowie fan)

Cheers from Chile