"Fiery Jack" is a song by the Fall released in 1980 as their fourth single.

Composition

Singer

Mark E. Smith Mark Edward Smith (5 March 1957 – 24 January 2018) was an English singer, who was the lead singer, lyricist and only constant member of the post-punk group the Fall. Smith formed the band after attending the June 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the ...

said the song was written about "the ageism thing, where people are supposed to be screwed after they're 29", directed towards middle-aged men who are "hard livers with hard livers; faces like unmade beds", and that the song was intended to represent "the people in the pubs where I go are 48 or 50, but they've got more guts than all these other preeners. In every generation, you get this core of spirit, and they never lose it.".Thompson, Dave (2003) ''A User's Guide to The Fall'', Helter Skelter Publishing, , pp. 43–44 The track is grounded by a

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

-beat, described by journalist David Wilkinson as chosen due to its being a rhythm that would "likely have been to the taste of a middle-aged working class Mancunian in 1979".Wilkinson, David (2016) ''Post-Punk, Politics and Pleasure in Britain'', Palgrave Macmillan, , p. 126

Simon Reynolds Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his professional career on the staff of ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He has since gone on to freelance and publish a number of full-length books on musi ...

saw it as "a coruscating portrait of one of Manchester's finest sons, the hard-bitten product of five generations of industrial life...a forty-five-year-old pub stalwart who's spent three decades on the piss, ignoring the pain from his long-suffering kidneys", also speculating that Jack may be an

amphetamine Amphetamine (contracted from alpha- methylphenethylamine) is a strong central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and obesity. It is also commonly used ...

user.Reynolds, Simon (2012) ''UK Post-Punk: Faber Forty-Fives: 1977–1982'' (Kindle edition), Faber & Faber, ASIN B0085MG96Y Smith stated in a '' Sounds'' interview at the time of the single's release that Jack was "the sort of guy I can see myself as in twenty years".

Recording and release

The single was recorded at Foel Studios in

Llanfair Caereinion Llanfair Caereinion is a market town and community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales upon the River Banwy (also known as the River Einion), around 8 miles west of Welshpool. In 2011 the ward had a population of 1,810; the town itself had a po ...

Powys Powys (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh succession of states, successor state, petty kingdom and princi ...

, Wales in October 1979, and produced with

Geoff Travis Geoff Travis (born 2 February 1952) is the founder of both Rough Trade Records and the Rough Trade chain of record shops. A former drama teacher and owner of a punk record shop, Travis founded the Rough Trade label in 1978. Biography Travis was ...

and

Mayo Thompson Mayo Thompson (born February 26, 1944 in Houston, Texas, United States) is an American musician and visual artist best known as the leader of the experimental rock band Red Krayola. Background His formal education includes Garden of Arts Kin ...

, who had accepted Smith's invitation to work on the sessions.Taylor, Neil (2010) ''Document and Eyewitness: an Intimate History of Rough Trade'', Hachette Smith recorded the vocals for "Fiery Jack" in the studios' courtyard as he liked the echo that it created. It was released in January 1980 by Step-Forward, the band's last release on the label before moving to

Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. Having successfully promoted and sold records by punk rock and early post-pu ...

. As well as "Fiery Jack", the band recorded the B-side tracks "2nd Dark Age" and "Psykick Dancehall #2" (a song originally released on their '' Dragnet'' album), and "That Man", which wasn't included, but was later released on the ''

Totale's Turns ''Totale's Turns (It's Now or Never)'' is a (mostly) live album by the Fall, released on 5 May 1980. Recording and release The first of the band's many live and part-live albums, it was mostly recorded at gigs in the north of England, but the t ...

'' album. The sleeve's artwork was designed by Smith's sister Suzanne, with text by Mark E. Smith which mentioned Roman Totale XVII (one of several references to this character in the band's early releases), and claiming the contents of the single were found next to Totale's remains, "the results of experiments which took place in the remote Welsh hills one autumn" and urging the reader to "never unleash it on humanity". A live version was included on the 1980 album ''

'', and the studio version has since been included on several compilations of the band's work.

Reception

"Fiery Jack" was chosen as 'Single of the Week' by '' Sounds''. According to Mick Middles the song saw the band "perfecting pomposity, the Fall jump into the rough and raw world of rockabilly with confidence in excess. 'Fiery Jack' sees the band at their painful best, a number that glides on and on and on." The single entered the

UK Independent Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the rel ...

on 23 February 1980, peaking at number 4, and spent twenty weeks on the chart. "Fiery Jack" was voted by listeners to

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show at number 38 in the 1980

Festive Fifty The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's 50 (though the exact figure varied above and below this number) best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show. It was usually do ...

.Festive 50s: 1980
, ''Keeping It Peel'',

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. Retrieved 9 March 2018

Track listing

Personnel

– vocals, electric piano *

Marc Riley Marc Riley (born 10 July 1961 in Manchester) is an English radio DJ, alternative rock critic, musician, and former music businessman. He currently presents on BBC Radio 6 Music. Formerly a member of the Fall, he co-owned a record label, In-Tap ...

– guitar, electric piano, vocals *

Craig Scanlon Craig Antony Scanlon (born 7 December 1960 in Manchester) is an English guitarist, best known as a member of the Fall between 1979 and 1995. Despite his surname being spelled 'Scanlon' he was wrongly credited as 'Craig Scanlan' on every record h ...

– guitar * Steve Hanley – bass guitar, vocals *Mike Leigh – drums, percussion

References

{{authority control 1980 singles The Fall (band) songs 1979 songs Songs written by Mark E. Smith Songs written by Craig Scanlon Songs written by Marc Riley