The Band Least Likely To...

November 15, 2006 · 20 Comments

...appear as theme music in a TV commercial? The latest Mitsubishi Outlander commercial "Out-..." uses a driving piece of music that had me sitting bolt upright going "Omigod! It can't be!!! That's The Fall!!!"... A bit of 'net research revealed that it is indeed The Fall - "Blindness" from "Fall Heads Roll", released late last year. I've been a major fan of The Fall since their first utterings in the late 70's ("Live At The Witch Trials" and "Dragnet") and I've seen them live countless times (including one extremely dodgy performance at Dingwalls in Camden). They are, in my opinion, the most groundbreaking band of the last few decades although their output over the last few years has mostly been a steady stream of re-issued bootleg recordings (of extremely variable quality) that span their career. So I rushed over to iTunes and bought "Fall Heads Roll". Only to find that the track listing is a little confused. Fortunately, Amazon has the correct track listing so I was easily able to rename the errant tracks in iTunes (right-click, Get Info, select the Info tab and update the track name). It's a great album! "Blindness" (track 7, despite iTunes' insistence this is track 2 - which is actually "Pacifying Joint") is a storming track with hints of "Chicago, Now!" from "Extricate" ("Do you work hard?"). I'm really pleased to hear this on TV commercial! While I was there (in the iTunes store), I saw another recent album by The Fall that I didn't yet own ("Real New Fall Album") so that had to go in the cart too... If you've never heard of The Fall (now-deceased British DJ John Peel's favorite band), you owe it to yourself to check them out...

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20 responses so far ↓

1 Eric O'Connor // Nov 15, 2006 at 3:27 PM

i always have mixed feelings when i hear a song i like in a commercial. while it may be cliche to some, i do think there is something to the accusation of "selling out". i do believe that using art to sell consumer products does somehow devalue the art.

that being said, i respect people who, through hard work and committment, manage to make a living on their music, particularly when that music is not terribly commercial. for a band like the fall, making money by having a "hit" simply isn't an option. the money a band can make by selling a song to an advertiser is huge, both in financial terms and in terms of their ability to continue on as a band, doing the things they want to do.
2 jim collins // Nov 15, 2006 at 8:54 PM

You're really really dating yourself. Old man :).
John Peel passed away? When?
I heard Phillip Glass on a Nissan commercial last night.
3 Sean Corfield // Nov 15, 2006 at 11:04 PM

@Jim, John Robert Parker Ravenscroft died 25 October 2004:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Peel
4 Pete // Nov 16, 2006 at 1:00 AM

As a slight aside, BBC TV use the Fall's wonderful 'Theme from Sparta FC' as the introduction music for when they read out the football (soccer) scores. As a result they once had Mark E Smith read out the results. Brilliantly bizarre!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHQcoPUEskA
5 Tim Fitzpatrick // Nov 16, 2006 at 6:11 AM

Yes, it is cool that since people our age are making the commercials now, they are sometimes able to slip in fairly obscure music...

I was absolutely mind-boggled a few years ago when Volkswagen used Psychic TV's "Roman P." on a commercial.
6 Sean Corfield // Nov 16, 2006 at 7:51 AM

@Tim, yeah, my mind is pretty boggled at the thought of Genesis P. Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti advertising VWs... :)
7 David Knapik // Nov 22, 2006 at 2:19 AM

When did you see The Fall @ Dingwalls? I saw 'em there in 1998 the same night The Jesus and Mary Chain played at the Electric Ballroom. Tough decisions that night! Every indie kid in London was roaming NW1 by 11pm.

Automobile adverts seem to be hipper than most. I remember being shocked the first time, though, that I noticed an indie track in a mainstream advert (Velocity Girl for VW sometime in the 90s.... now who's dating themselves?). I kinda dig it now in my old age. I especially liked the use of MIA's "Galang" in a recent one (I forget what car it was for).

Psychic TV in a commercial? I missed that one! Though we don't have to worry too much yet. The day that Throbbing Gristle's "Hamburger Lady" is used to sell Range Rovers, however...
8 count_schemula // Dec 1, 2006 at 6:57 PM

I'm right with you. Not only did I fall out of my chair the first time I heard the Mitsu commercial... I fall out of my chair every time I hear it... lol

Nothing matters anymore after London Calling was used in a Jag-u-ar commercial. :(

MES reading football scores was pretty funny. Chelsea. Nil.
9 Sean Corfield // Dec 1, 2006 at 7:14 PM

@David, I don't remember when I saw The Fall @ Dingwalls but 1998 sounds plausible - it was a very rough set with MES wandering off-stage several times, much to the apparent bewilderment of his band...

I saw The Jesus & Mary Chain live, just after their second album appeared... can't remember the name of the place tho'... I saw a lot of bands there tho', including Xmal Deutschland, Sonic Youth, Nico & John Cale...
10 Jane // Dec 4, 2006 at 7:08 PM

Hi Sean dont mean to be a pest but having some trouble with this fall song for the outlander commercial the only words on the commecial are ''I was walking down the street'' when I went to Amazon to listen to the Fall's song ''Blindness'' did not seem to be the song? I have spend hours and hours trying to call and find this out? Thanks
11 Sean Corfield // Dec 4, 2006 at 11:48 PM

@Jane, yeah, it absolutely is "Blindness" from "Fall Heads Roll". Exactly one minute into the song, MES sings "I was walking down the street... I saw the poster..." and at 1:27 he sings "Do you... work hard?" which was my reference to "Chicago, Now!"

Part of the confusion seems to come from the fact that iTunes mostly has the wrong song titles for the album... "Blindness" is track 7... it goes:

Ride Away, Pacifying Joint, What About Us, Midnight Aspen, Assume, Aspen Reprise, Blindness, I Can Hear The Grass Grow, Bo Dimmeck, Ya Wanner, Clasp Hands, Early Days Of Channel Fuhrer, Breaking The Rules, Trust In Me.

Hope that helps?
12 glea adams // Dec 26, 2006 at 7:00 PM

when i heard it, it knocked om off my chair. Another line "I saw a poster" Can any one give me the rest of it. I knew it so well at one time.
13 Sean Corfield // Dec 26, 2006 at 9:58 PM

Lyrics for all versions here:

http://www.thefall.info/trackrecord/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=36
14 Peter Hisey // Jan 18, 2007 at 4:27 PM

I've been hearing this for a month or so but could never remember what it was advertising. Exposing people to the Fall, by whatever means, is a GOOD thing. I own virtually every legit release, and have loved them for ages. I first saw them opening for the Clash at the Academy of Music in NYC, where they mainly faced away from the audience and played most of Live at the Witch Trials with a few new songs. I was hooked immediately.

I once tried to interview Mark, back when I worked as a music freelancer for a few small newspapers and fanzines. He wasn't exactly unpleasant, but it was the most difficult interview I ever did, and I got nothing usable out of it. He's unfairly charged with being a total dick; he's just a very bright and difficult person.

The Real New Fall Album, btw, is his best in ages. The new one, Reformation Post TLC, is supposed to be as good, even though he had to re-record most of it when his band quit on the U.S. tour last year.

I just found your blog and enjoy it.
15 Erik Harris // Jan 31, 2007 at 4:37 PM

The quality of the music notwithstanding, doesn't it seem a poor choice of lyric to end a car commercial with "I was WALKING down the street?" It bugs me every time I see this commercial and wonder why they thought to include more than just the riff.
16 Sean Corfield // Jan 31, 2007 at 6:18 PM

@Erik, actually, it ends with "I saw a poster..."

Maybe they were WALKING down the street and saw a poster for the Mitsubishi Outlander and thought "Wow! I must have one!" :)
17 John // Feb 20, 2007 at 1:02 PM

Well, I felt old last week when I heard the Buzzcocks' "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" as the background music on an AARP commercial - you read that right - an AARP commercial!
18 Alyssa // Feb 27, 2007 at 12:23 AM

well. glad to know I'm not crazy. sad to know that it is in fact The Fall. Whilst I see the merits of doing a commercial (The Who once justified it by explaining that they were exposing new people to their music, although I think they've gone a bit far with nearly every crime drama on TV theme song!), I must say that I can never shake the impression that selling out, and particularly selling something that is not morally viable (ie if it were an electric car perhaps MES could be more easily forgiven!), just seems wrong to me. I can't help but feel immense pride for indie funksters !!! (Chk Chk Chk) who flat out refused offers of copious amounts of cash from a car company to use their song 'Me and Guiliani Down By The Schoolyard' in an advert.
I was a bit confused when I heard the ad originally, since I was thinking it was 'Jerusalem' from I am Kurious, Oranj, in which there is also a part with MES distorting his voice and saying 'I was walking down the street' but it's followed with 'when I tripped up on a discarded banana skin', rather than 'I saw a poster'.
Incidentally, I was not familiar with the other song it actually is (I'm a bit of a Fall newbie) so I'll now have to go and listen to it - so a good thing there!
Also, I am reminded of the story of one of my favourite artists, Alphonse Mucha, who created much of his 'Art Nouveau' art on advertisements for champagne and cigarettes, and promotional posters for the actress Sarah Bernhardt. He eschewed the high class art world, and said his goal was to bring art to the common man/working classes, which is why he did it in the form of advertisements. A beautiful concept. If only The Fall's Mitsubishi ad were as artistic as Mucha's paintings for Moet & Chandon. ahem.
I can't help but be disappointed that now every time I hear that part of 'Jerusalem' I will think of the ad, and of MES selling out, and that was always my favourite part of one of my favourite songs, and now I'll only be disappointed. And I'm just not sure that all of the good points are worth that.
Anyway, thanks for clearing this up, I came upon your page cause I was trying to find out if that ad really was The Fall. I enjoyed reading all the comments and leaving my own, and by the way for all the older people here, I'm 23 and a close friend of mine is 18 and obsessed with The Fall/MES, so just so you know - the torch shall be carried on!
19 Kevin // Sep 2, 2007 at 3:23 PM

Just 90 seconds ago I heard this commercial for the first time. I couldn't believe it but now your blog seems to confirm that one of my favorite songs by The Fall has hit the bit time. This doesn't bug me at all. the more people that hear it, the better.
20 Passerby // Dec 16, 2011 at 7:58 AM

Bit late here, but some googling about four years ago after seeing that commercial lead me to acquire some of their tunes for themselves
So for those who're unsure about music in commercials, it's not a completely bad thing

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