The Fall's pub inspired 'Fiery Jack' named Single of the Week

The Fall : Fiery Jack

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On January 29, 1980 The Fall released "Fiery Jack", their fourth single. Produced in Wales, with Mark E Smith recording his vocals outside in the studio courtyard, the three-song single was selected 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." 

As Smith tells it, Fiery Jack is about the kind of middle aged pub regular he's see around Manchester who ate hot dogs and pies and complains of a bad kidney:

I sat and drank 

While my dreams decay 

I'm 45 

Cause I am Jack 

In his autobiography, Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith, Smith wrote of early 1980:

“That whole pre-Grotesque period was a phenomenal learning curve. It’s horrible how much people try to shape what you do. At the time I was very sensitive about this; I still am, but I don’t beat myself up about it as much. I had a lot more untapped anger back then. And hearing other people’s silly verdicts on what I did just made me worse. I wrote about what was around me; that was the whole point – to get down the experiences, scenes, people, etc. But some people are so daft they don’t understand that writing about Prestwich is just as valid as Dante writing about his inferno.” 

"Fiery Jack" came with a double B side ,"2nd Dark Age" and the Dragnet track "Psykick Dancehall #2".

The single entered the UK Independent Chart on 23 February 1980, peaking at number 4, and spent twenty weeks on the chart. "Fiery Jack" was voted by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show at number 38 in the 1980 Festive Fifty.