The Fall: Weather Report 2

Track of the Week - 4 March 2018

If you're reading this from the UK (if anyone's reading this at all!) you'll be aware that there was a bit of rough weather this week.

A sudden stratospheric warming event ('The Beast from the East') brought freezing cold winds and combined with a storm from the south to bring a fair bit of snow.

That meant I spent plenty of time this week looking at weather reports on the TV and web to see if
a) I was still able to take my mum to hospital to visit the elderly gentleman of our acquaintance (I was) and
b) if I could get out to have a curry with some friends one evening (I couldn't.)

The Fall's Weather Report 2 is the closing track on the 2010 album Your Future Our Clutter and is one of the highlights of a pretty solid record. It's the group in restrained mode and Mark E Smith in reflective mood.

If I can take a leap about meaning I think the singer is convalescing. The 'weather report' mentioned is 'it's like an ice rink'. Are we hearing from someone incapacitated after a fall? (Smith performed in a wheelchair at times in his later career after suffering a broken hip.) That might explain why they 'watched "Murder, She Wrote" at least five times'.

This is a favourite of mine from the later Fall catalogue. It ends with a whispering Smith declaring 'you don't deserve rock and roll'.

Did we ever deserve The Fall?