REVOLVER:'I WAS rolling a joint in a club in New York and Jack White came over to me and asked me to make a record with him." It's the sort of sentence only one person could have uttered, writes
BRIAN BOYD
We all know that Irish musical Zelig BP Fallon can talk the talk but he’s also walked the walk: working with The Beatles’ Apple label in the 1960s, being T Rex’s press officer, working with Led Zeppelin, representing Ian Dury, managing Johnny Thunders, touring with U2 and now, with Alan McGee, globe-trotting around with the “Death Disco” club night.
Credentials established and CV scrutinised, we still need to know why the most important figure in popular music of the past decade, Jack White (whose reputation has been greatly enhanced by his scene-stealing performance in the current It Might Get Louddocumentary) fancied a tangle with the man Bono calls a "vibe master"?
“Jack White asking me to do a record with him? I don’t know why,” says Fallon. “We never discussed it. I can try and figure it out but it might sound arrogant so, with respect, I won’t.”
Following the nightclub meeting in New York in September of last year, White brought Fallon down to his Third Man studio in Nashville and the two set about a spoken-word track called Fame #9– a three-sided vinyl release (it's got an A, B and C side). Just released, a tricolour pressing of this record is currently going for €80-plus on eBay.
“I believe in vinyl records/I believe in MP3/I believe in Tutti Frutti/I believe in R&B/I believe in psychedelics/I believe in LSD,” speaks Fallon over an earthy Jack White bottleneck guitar riff.
"It's a three-sided release with the main song on the A side. On the B side is Jack White doing an interview with me, and on the C side is I Believe in Elvis Presley. The way you work the B and C side is by turning the balance knob on your record player to either the left or the right side for either track," he says.
“Recording it was quite something. To be able to look over your right shoulder and see Jack White playing slide guitar on your song is quite amazing. The man just breathes music. Plus, he knows how to present stuff – look at all the great visuals for The White Stripes records. On this release, he’s not only the producer and the guitar player but he also chose the photos for the sleeve and was very much involved in the design too. But then it is his label it’s going out on.”
The song – already getting great reviews in the US – is Fallon musing on the “uppers and downers” of fame and celebrity.
“Marc Bolan said to me once: ‘Being famous is like joyfully riding a Tyrannosaurus Rex – you have to be careful it doesn’t turn around and bite your head off.’ But the best description of the song I think is that it’s a love song woven out of iconography,” he says.
White’s Third Man Records label (he has a thing about the number three, as he does with the colours red and white) is quickly becoming a cult vinyl release only company. He’s put out releases by Dead Weather (another White side project), Dan Sartain and one by composer James Boswell featuring the voice of the late astronomer Carl Sagan.
The next slated release, which has got a lot of people excited, will be by the “Queen Of Rockabilly” herself, Wanda Jackson. Also keep an eye out for a release by an all-female rock group, The Black Belles, who were discovered by White.
In the meantime, Fallon’s triple-sided Fame #9 is only available from the Third Man website (thirdmanrecords.com) or from iTunes.
And have a look on YouTube at the Shimmy Marcus-produced video which includes appearances by Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie and My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields.
