So What About It

Written by:

Mark E Smith, Craig Scanlon, Simon Wolstencroft

Initial release:

Shiftwork, Cog Sinister/Fontana 848.594-1LP; 848.594-4 Cassette; 848.594-2 CD
(Also: a 2-track promotional 7″ (FALL1) contained tracks: So What About It? and Edinburgh Man.)

Date:

15 April 1991

Subsequent releases:

So What About It?, Cog Sinister/Fontana NICE1 12″; 1991 (exact date unknown)
[US promotional CD: The Infotainment Scan, Matador Records/Atlantic PCRD 5094; May 1993]
Shiftwork, Cog Sinister/Voiceprint COGVP134 CD; 23 September 2002
Listening In, Cog Sinister/Voiceprint COGVP132 CD; 11 November 2002 (contains the three promo remixes)
Shiftwork (coupled with Code Selfish), Cog Sinister/Voiceprint VP241005CD; 22 September 2003
Shiftwork, Fontana/Mercury 9847464 CD; 7 May 2007 (also contains the three promo remixes)
The Fontana Years, Fontana CD574265/; August 2017; also contains the three promo mixes; box set contains Shift-Work extended CD)

Group on initial release:

Mark E Smith – vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Simon Wolstencroft – drums, keyboards; Kenny Brady – fiddle

Commentary:

“We actually did ‘So What About It?’ on four-track.”: Simon Wolstencroft interviewed in “Pride and The Fall” by Paul Quinn in Melody Maker, May 1991.

The song reached no. 43 in John Peel’s Festive Fifty in 1991.

One of several Fall songs to feature driving in the lyrics, others being Contraflow and M5, and one which features the word(s) “The Fall”, as with Jim’s “The Fall” on Are You Are Missing Winner (coincidentally also an opening track). Musically, an upbeat number, though perhaps an example of true Fall brilliance. Hanley seems to be mixed very low, if in fact he appears at all.