| A Part of America Therein, 1981 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | 1982 | |||
| Recorded | Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Houston, Memphis, May–July 1981 | |||
| Genre | Post-punk | |||
| Length | 52:11 | |||
| Label | Cottage Records (a US division of Rough Trade Records) | |||
| The Fall chronology | ||||
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A Part of America Therein, 1981 is a live album by the Fall, recorded on their 1981 U.S. tour and originally released only in the U.S. in 1982.
After a tour of Iceland with Paul Hanley on drums, singer Mark E. Smith invited Karl Burns (who had left the band early in 1979) back into the group while also retaining Hanley. For this U.S. tour, the group were without Hanley as, at 17, he was refused a visa as he was too young for the clubs the band had been booked to play in. The Fall appeared with both Burns and Hanley on drums for the next three years, though both occasionally played other instruments.
The album 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. [1] [2] It includes several songs that had not been released at the time of the performances, including three that would be included on Hex Enduction Hour (1982), and "Lie Dream of a Casino Soul", which was recorded and released as a single on the band's return to the UK. [3]
The album was given its first UK release in 1992, a "2 for 1" CD on the Dojo label alongside six-track mini album Slates . [4] This coupling was reissued in 1998 on Essential with amended artwork. It was released as a standalone CD album in 1998 by Castle, and in expanded form in late 2004, adding four additional recordings from the same tour: "Middle Mass", "The Container Drivers" (both in Boston), "Session Musician" (New Orleans), and "Your Heart Out" (California). It was reissued again in 2017, on vinyl by Let Them Eat Vinyl, and on CD by Westworld Recordings.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [4] |
| The Austin Chronicle | [5] |
| Robert Christgau | B [6] |
The album received a 'B' rating from Robert Christgau, who commented "They're as consistent as The Isley Brothers: no notable rise in quality or interest, and also no falloff." [6] AllMusic reviewer Ted Mills gave it three stars, viewing it as one of the band's best early live albums. [4] Marc Savlov, reviewing the reissued album in 2002 for The Austin Chronicle , gave it two stars, calling it "abrasive", and opining that it showed the band "in its early, dismal anti-glory". [5] Alex Ogg, writing for AllMusic, viewed the album as featuring "generally strong performances" but not as good as another live album from that period, Fall in a Hole . [7] Trouser Press viewed the performances as "uniformly strong, particularly the epic 'N.W.R.A.'" [2] The Wire considered the album showed the band "achieving its aims, with endless riffs approaching trancelike qualities", with the version of "An Older Lover" included described as "a definitive, hallucinatory live reading". [8]
Despite only being available in the UK as an import, the album reached number 9 on the UK Independent Albums Chart in 1983. [9]
The Fall were an English post-punk group, formed in 1976 in Prestwich, Greater Manchester. They had many line-up changes, with vocalist and founder Mark E. Smith being the only constant member. The Fall's long-term musicians included drummers Paul Hanley, Simon Wolstencroft and Karl Burns; guitarists Craig Scanlon, Marc Riley, and Brix Smith; and bassist Steve Hanley, whose melodic, circular bass lines are widely credited with shaping the band's sound from early 1980s albums such as Hex Enduction Hour to the late 1990s.
Crucifix was an American hardcore punk band from the San Francisco Bay Area, active from 1980 to 1984. They were among the most popular acts of the San Francisco punk scene of the early 1980s. Fronted by Cambodian-born singer Sothira Pheng, Crucifix were distinct among American underground bands for their strong D-beat musical characteristics and anarchist lyrical content and graphic design. The band's debut 1983 full-length album Dehumanization on Crass Records‘ offshoot Corpus Christi Records, is considered by many critics and fans to be a cornerstone of political punk music. After their breakup, Crucifix’s members went on to form the bands Loudspeaker and Proudflesh.
Before the Flood is a live album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and The Band, released on June 20, 1974, on Asylum Records in the United States and Island Records in the United Kingdom. It was Dylan's first live album, although live recordings of earlier performances would later be released. It is the 15th album by Dylan and the seventh by the Band, and documents their joint 1974 American tour. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, reached No. 8 on the popular album chart in the UK, and has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Sonic Youth is the debut EP by American rock band Sonic Youth. It was recorded between December 1981 and January 1982 and released in March 1982 by Glenn Branca's Neutral label. It is the only recording featuring the early Sonic Youth lineup with Richard Edson on drums. Sonic Youth differs stylistically from the band's later work in its greater incorporation of clean guitars, standard tuning, crisp production and a post-punk style.
Slates is an EP by the Fall, released on 27 April 1981 by Rough Trade Records. It was one of singer Mark E. Smith's favourite Fall releases, and he claimed it was aimed at "people who didn't buy records".
Live at the Witch Trials is the debut studio album by the Fall. It was released on 16 March 1979 through record label Step-Forward. It is not, despite its title, a live album and was recorded in a studio in a single day and mixed by producer Bob Sargeant.
Totale's Turns (It's Now or Never) is a (mostly) live album by the Fall, released on 5 May 1980.
Room to Live, subtitled Undilutable Slang Truth!, is the fifth studio album by English post-punk band the Fall. It was released on 27 September 1982 through record label Kamera.
Grotesque (After the Gramme) is the third studio album by English band the Fall. Released on 17 November 1980, it was the band's first studio album on Rough Trade.
Dragnet is the second studio album by English post-punk band the Fall, released on 26 October 1979 through Step-Forward Records. Appearing less than eight months after its predecessor, Live at the Witch Trials,Dragnet established at an early stage two key patterns characteristic of the group's future: that of high productivity and that of a regular turnover of group members.
Perverted by Language is the sixth studio album by English post-punk group The Fall, released in December 1983 on Rough Trade Records.
Blue Orchids are an English post-punk band formed in Manchester in 1979, when Martin Bramah left the Fall, after playing on the band's debut album Live at the Witch Trials. Christened by Salford-based punk poet John Cooper Clarke the band recorded for Rough Trade and acted as backing band for the Velvet Underground's Nico before a 25-year period of intermittent activity and fluctuating line-ups.
The Light User Syndrome is the 18th album by the Fall, released in 1996 on Jet Records. It was the group's first album to feature keyboard player and guitarist Julia Nagle and the last to feature Brix Smith, while longtime guitarist Craig Scanlon was fired in late 1995 during troubled recording sessions for "The Chiselers" single which preceded the album. A version of "The Chiselers" is included on the album as "Interlude/Chilinism".
Fall in a Hole is a live album by the Fall, recorded in Auckland in August 1982 and released in December 1983 on the Flying Nun label of New Zealand.
The Twenty-Seven Points: Live 92–95 is a double album by the Fall, released in 1995. The album consists of live recordings made in various locations between 1991 and 1995, but also contains interludes and two previously unheard studio tracks. Credits on the album are sketchy but the front cover lists the cities in which the tracks were recorded; Prague, Tel Aviv, London, Glasgow, New York City and Manchester.
Live in London 1980 is a live album by the Fall, released in 1982 on cassette on the Chaos Tapes label. Initially a limited edition of 4,000 copies, the album has since been reissued several times as The Legendary Chaos Tape.
Sabotage/Live is a live album by John Cale. It was recorded at CBGB, New York on 13–16 June 1979, and released by SPY Records in December 1979.
Document and Eyewitness is the first live album by the post-punk band Wire, released in July 1981 by Rough Trade Records. It marked the end of the first period of Wire's activity (1977–1980) and the end of their association with EMI. Recorded in February 1980 at the Electric Ballroom in London – at the final gig of Wire's first period – the original release came with a 45 rpm 12" EP that featured recordings from a July 1979 show at the Notre Dame Hall in London, along with one track from a March 1979 gig at Le Pavillon in Montreux, Switzerland.
Mama is the debut album by Victoria, British Columbia punk rock band Nomeansno. Featuring the band's original incarnation comprising brothers John and Rob Wright, the album was released independently on LP in 1982. Nomeansno reissued a remastered version the album in 1992 on their own Wrong Records imprint, coupled with the tracks from their Betrayal, Fear, Anger, Hatred EP of 1981.
Hip Priest and Kamerads is a 1985 compilation album by British rock band The Fall, containing tracks taken from their releases on the Kamera label together with a previously unreleased live track from the same era. It was subsequently reissued with a further four live tracks added.
