The Fall

Mark E. Smith said discovering Can's music "saved his life," and The Fall built entire songs — including "I Am Damo Suzuki," a direct tribute to Can's vocalist — around Can's hypnotic, repetitive grooves.

listen: upstream & hereshare

1971

HalleluwahCan

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1985

I Am Damo SuzukiThe Fall

listen forA rigid, almost motorik rhythm that just keeps churning underneath Smith's ranted vocal — closer to a trance than a verse-chorus song.

Smith made the connection explicit on "Repetition," The Fall's very first single — its "we dig repetition" refrain is a direct nod to the droning, hypnotic repetition the Velvet Underground brought into rock, and "Totally Wired" has been described as The Fall's answer to "White Light/White Heat."

listen: upstream & hereshare

1968

White Light/White HeatThe Velvet Underground

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1978

RepetitionThe Fall

listen forA guitar figure that just repeats and repeats under a flat, deadpan vocal until the repetition itself becomes the point.

The Fall's jagged, start-stop rhythmic lurches and Smith's spoken-sung delivery sit in a lineage critics and biographers trace back to Beefheart's Magic Band, though Smith never pinned the connection to one specific song, so the influence is best read as a general kinship rather than a direct quote.

listen: upstream & hereshare

1967

ElectricityCaptain Beefheart

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1980

Container DriversThe Fall

listen forThe band sounding like it's stumbling into and out of the groove on purpose, guitars zigzagging against a stiff, marching rhythm section.