The Knight, The Devil and Death

Written by:

Mark E Smith, Craig Scanlon, Simon Wolstencroft

Original release:

Ed’s Babe

Date:

22 June 1992

Subsequent reissues:

Sinister Waltz
The Other Side of The Fall
Listening In
Code: Selfish
The Fontana Years
Group on initial release:

Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Dave Bush – keyboards, machines Simon Wolstencroft – drums; Cassell Webb – vocals

Commentary:

Review   in The Pseud Mag (issue no. 15; April/May 2007), of the alternate version of the track as first released on Sinister Waltz: “Slightly shorter than the version on Ed’s Babe without the narration from Cassell Webb and lacking the initial over driven guitar over-dub from Craig [Scanlon]This appears to be a straight backing track run-through with the violin taking less of lead role and some minimal guitar over-dubs.”

The song is possibly inspired by the book “The Knight, Death and the Devil” by Ella Leffland

The following analysis appeared in the series Gladys Winthorpe’s Emporium Of Particularly Underacknowledged Fall Compositions and was originally published in The Pseud Mag no.3 (April/May 2005)

“Smith, M E: violin(?)
Wolstencroft, S: drums
Hanley, S: bass
Scanlon, C: guitar
Bush, D: machines
Webb, C: vox

As I mentioned at the start of this article, the line-up of the band at this stage of The Fall’s history produced an extremely wide range of musical compositions. Take “The Knight, The Devil And Death”: it’s a completely different song to “Pumpkin Head Xscapes” in many ways: mood, tempo, structure, sound. Indeed, “The Knight, The Devil And Death” is a somewhat unique entry into the band’s catalogue in many ways. Most obviously, MES doesn’t appear, at least not vocally [1]. The track has more of a “film music”-type style to it than any other Fall track that I can think of, as opposed to just being a plain song. Also, I always equate “The Knight, The Devil And Death”‘s music with having a vaguely “medieval” sound, for some reason, which again is something unique to it. Not entirely sure why this is, or whether it’s the same for any of you lot out there?

The underlying structure of the song isn’t particularly complicated – there’s only 1 repeated section – but the song’s repeated pause for breath (e.g. 0:25) nicely splits the song up into manageable chunks. Simon, as previously, holds down a steady, uncomplicated beat. I’m sure there must have been a real temptation to do something more fancy than the pattern actually played, so applause to the chaps for keeping it simple and effective. Doc Shanley effectively sidles, crab-like, around the same 3 or 4 chords, usually alternating between just two [2]. Craig has more of a starring role here – as well as the fuzzy “soloing” guitar (starting at 0:03), I counted at least 3 different rhythm guitar tracks: centre (0:00), right (0:09), left (1:09). As per Steve, the rhythm guitars aren’t playing anything complicated (same 4 chords, I think), but it’s the layering of the different parts which adds to the overall effect. Dave Bush isn’t immediately obvious, but I’m guessing he provided a lot of the “texture” which fills out the song’s sound; for example, the drones at 0:09, 2:05 and 2:42, the graceful notes at 0:43 and various other samples (gibbering at 0:57, a bang at 2:59, “Oww-wow-wow” at 3:12 [3] and a chant at 3:14).

The vocals to this song are provided by Cassell Webb, wife of producer Craig Leon. It was a great idea to use her – I’m sure that the song would have had a completely different feel if MES had featured instead. Whilst speaking coolly and calmly at the start of the song [4], Cassell uses her speaking voice to great effect, with lots of opportunity for different intonations and emphasis (e.g. the so-laid-back-I’m-horizontal mention of the song’s title at 2:01) [5]. She sounds more animated in the section which starts at 2:45, and by the time that the climactic final section commences (announced by the “soloing” guitar’s rapid ascention at 2:52), she’s wildly screaming. Unfortunately, throughout the entire song most of the words she speaks are buried quite deeply in the mix, so it’s difficult to discern what she’s saying and whether there’s any particular meaning to the lyrics. As the lyrics seem somewhat fragmented, perhaps it’s the sound of the words – rather than the meaning – which is important.

As you may have gleaned from my comments here, I love this song. Ironic, really, that one of my favourite Fall songs doesn’t feature MES, but there you go – contrary to the last, me. As well as being a cracking song, it’s the attention to painting detail into every available musical corner and the ability of the band to “look beyond the boundaries”, if you like, which make it such a success in my book. “Pumpkin Head Xscapes” is also great in a more Fallesque way – it shows the band could write catchy – albeit unorthodox – songs which bear out repeated listenings.

[1] Perhaps it’s him playing the violin (e.g. 0:52)?
[2] Doc Shanley’s move up an octave is a nice touch (e.g. 0:37).
[3] To me, this sounds very much like the vocal sample used in “The Blue Room” by The Orb!
[4] There’s also speaking at 0:37 and 0:46, played backwards. I’d be interested to know what’s being said here…
[5] The extremely pointed and sarcastic utterance of “smart-alec” at 1:55 is just perfect!”