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Captain Beefheart has died :(

Captain Beefheart has died :(

My 82 Favourite Punk Rock Singles ‘77-‘79

#26 The Fall - ‘Rowche Rumble’

“Roche rumble / For thousands of wives around the world / Are given out by doctors, to feed their little girls / The doctors need prescriptions / The wives need their pills”

Rather an anomaly in the early Fall catalogue, this single’s riff is actually somewhat conventionally catchy (not to say that there aren’t loads of catchy songs by The Fall, because there are, but this one seems poppier, at least by the standards of their fairly abrasive ’70s output), and the lyrics seem to almost make sense. The song would appear to be essentially an attack on the pharmaceuticals industry (the title is a play on the name of the drug company ‘Roche’), and valium in particular. It is also, in my opinion, one of the few songs released prior to Hex Enduction Hour in which the band truly transcend their influences (Can, Captain Beefheart, garage rock, etc.) and develop a really original sound. Highly recommended.

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Captain Beefheart is the most important musician to rise in the Sixties, far more significant and far-reaching than the Beatles, who only made pretty collages with material from the public domain, when you get right down to it; as important, as I said, for all music as Ornette Coleman was for jazz ten years ago and Charlie Parker 15 years before that, as important as Leadbelly was for the blues Cap teethed on. His music is a harbinger of tomorrow, but his messages are universal and warm as the hearth of the America we once dreamed of. That’s a combination that’s hard to beat.
Lester Bangs