Spit on the streets 
Numb heads and feet
Nowhere to go
Won't let us in the shows

'Cos we talk about love
And the Psycho Mafia 
I'm talking 'bout love
And the Psycho Mafia

No soul in the discos
No rock in the clubs
Won't let us in the pubs
And the city joys 

Going on about love
And the Psycho Mafia
I'm talking about love
And the Psycho Mafia

Psycho Psycho Mafia
Psycho Psycho Mafia
'cho Mafia
'cho Mafia

Spit on the streets
Shot heads and teeth
Our eyes are red
Our brains are dead

Going on about drugs
Psycho Mafia
I'm talking about love
Psycho Mafia
Psycho Mafia
Psycho Mafia
Psycho Mafia
Psycho Mafia

Commentary

MES: …That’s what I’m saying, you must never contrive it, a lot of things get across you never thought were getting across. Psycho Mafia is the classic one for that, I mean the interpretations of Psycho Mafia are amazing. A lot of what kids have come up to me and said “This is what I think Psycho Mafia is about”, I think ‘Fucking hell, I never even thought of that one!’, and that is just amazing.

PN: Isn’t that inviting things that aren’t there?

MES: Yes, but who says they aren’t there?

Mark E. Smith, from an interview with Mark E. Smith, Kay Carroll and Craig Scanlon by Martin Clayton and Simon Whale in Printed Noises, #4, 1980. (no page numbering [p.4])

“Psycho Mafia” is one of a number of punkish early Fall songs seemingly rooted in the experience of disaffected/rebellious youthfulness, and of living close to Prestwich Mental Hospital.

On a sheet attached to a letter to Tony Friel dated 20 December 1976, MES wrote out a proposed setlist for their group, then still called The Outsiders. “Psycho Mafia” is second on the list, evidence of its place as one of the nascent group’s earliest songs. It would also be listed among “RECORDED/Presentable” tracks in “The Outsiders Group” canon in a letter from MES to Friel dated 25 January 1977.

[Note: the Smith-Friel letters were briefly available on Friel’s atomicsoup.co.uk website, now defunct]

However, the earliest documented live performance of “Psycho Mafia” isn’t until the Rafters gig on 4 August 1977. It cannot be ruled out that it was played before then, since there is no known setlist for the gig immediately prior to that one, at Hulme Labour Club on 22 July 1977, or for several other previous gigs, but we can only go by what is documented (and gaps in the documentary record have been filled over the last few years by setlists appearing for auction) by The Fall Online Gigography (See: https://thefall.org/gigography/gig77.html).

Contemporary reviewers of the single (it was sometimes referred to as an EP) don’t seem to have been impressed with the track. Two to mention it by name were Colin Irwin (Melody Maker), who disapproved of “Psycho Mafia”‘s “rather cliched posturing”, and Rosalind Russell (Record Mirror), who said, “‘Psycho Mafia’ bored me to tears.”

Simon Ford’s later assessment contextualises the song in the development of The Fall’s (and in particular MES’ vocal) sound:

‘Psycho Mafia’, the punkiest track on the EP, was distinguished by its quirky electric piano and Smith’s vocalization, which lay somewhere between singing and ordinary speech. The sound he produced would never be musical in the conventional sense, but could be described as an instrument in its own right, especially during moments of abstracted outburst and rhythmic stress. The track established at the outset a classic Smith-ism with the rhyming of ‘mafia’ and ‘love-ah’. Smith’s trademark ‘ah’ at the end of some words, as well as its use as an occasional rhyming and rhythmic device, gave added emphasis to the lyrics. It also coincided with those places where he needed to draw breath, a trait that can be disguised by trained singers. For Smith this extra syllable came naturally and was not an artificial embellishment. ‘I can’t grasp that “Ah” thing, he later complained, “It’s just having a go at me for my accent. That’s easy, that’s lazy.”

Ford, Simon (2003). Hip Priest: The Story of Mark E Smith and The Fall. London: Quartet. pp.40-41.

And Tommy Mackay, in 40 Odd Years of The Fall (2018) identifies its “more traditional punk by numbers riff, but a bloody good one.” (p.13).

The phrase “psycho mafia” can be interpreted from different angles. It might refer either to the psychiatric establishment or to psychiatric hospital patients, or just to a gang trying to come across as edgy and dangerous.

It also brings to mind the 1973 “biker horror” film, Psychomania (dir. Don Sharp [Wikipedia entry]). Both Mick Middles’ review of the 13 November 1977 Band on the Wall gig, Manchester (“No hip-ocrisy, no Clash registers”, Trick, #2, December 1977, p.16.) and Ian Wood’s review of the same gig published in Sounds, 3 December 1977, p.44, refer to the song as “Psycho Mania” (Middles) / “Psychomania” (Wood). But this just seems to be an error on their part, since the song was “Psycho Mafia” in all the currently available documentation, including setlists.

The earliest incarnation of the song seems to have been much more sharply targeted at what the group regarded as psychiatric repression. Several articles in 1977 and 1978, well in advance of the release of Bingo-Master’s Break-Out!, print versions of the lyrics, apparently supplied by MES, which include the unsubtle lines “I’m talking about electrodes and the Psycho Mafia”.

Paul Eastham’s article on The Fall in New Manchester Review, from the spring of 1978, says:

Each of the tracks included on the E.P. namely, ‘Psycho Mafia’, ‘Frightened’, ‘Bingo-Master’s Break-Out’, and ‘Repetition’, are each consistent with a theme of mental illness. Both Mark and Una have attended Mental Patient’s Union meetings at the local hospital, and have occasionally invited patients back to the flat.

On the lyric sheet with Mark copied out he wrote: “N.B. Psycho Mafia is about chemical straightjackets”:

“No soul in the discos / No rock in the clubs / Won’t let us in the pubs / And the city joys / Spitting on the streets / Shot heads and teeth / Our eyes are red / Our brains are dead / ‘Cos we know about chemicals and the Psycho Mafia / I’m talking about electrodes and the Psycho Mafia.”

Eastham, Paul (1978). “The Fall: avoiding the Straightjacket” [sic]. New Manchester Review, #53, March 24 – April 6, p.8.

(“Straightjacket” should of course be “straitjacket”. The “local hospital” would have been what was then Prestwich Mental Hospital. For more on the Mental Patient’s Union see Wikipedia, and Libcom.org)

Eastham was one of the co-authors of a feature on The Fall in Temporary Hoarding, the fanzine of Rock Against Racism. The article puts forward an identical take on “Psycho Mafia”:

The choice of songs to go on the record was interesting, but coincidental – ‘BINGO MASTERS (BREAKOUT)’, ‘FRIGHTENED’, ‘PSYCHOMAFIA’ & ‘REPETITION’ are all consistent with a theme of mental illness. As MARK was eager to point out, both he and UNA have been to Mental Patients Union meetings at the local hospital, and have invited patients back to their falt [sic].

MARK  
NO SOUL IN DISCOS / NO ROCK IN CLUBS
WON'T LET US IN THE PUBS / AND THE CITY JOYS
SPITTING ON THE STREETS / SHOT HEADS AND TEETH
OUR EYES ARE RED / OUR BRAINS ARE DEAD
COS WE KNOW ABOUT CHEMICALS & THE PSYCHO MAFIA
I'M TALKING ABOUT ELECTRODES & THE PSYCHO MAFIA

'WE DIG REPETITION IN THE MUSIC AND WE'RE NEVER GONNA LOSE IT WE DIG IT, WE DIG IT
THEY REALLY DIG IT IN WEST GERMANY
SIMULTANEOUS SUICIDES

© M E SMITH 1977

Eden, Kevin Barnes, Ian and Eastham, Paul (1978). “Don’t Believe All You Read – The Fall.” Temporary Hoarding, No. 5, Spring. No page numbering.

And here’s Chris Brazier:

… “Psycho Mafia”… the song which has haunted me most in the two months since I first saw them.

Mark Smith’s intonation is always intensely cynical (if that’s possible) and usually deliberately tuneless, and both those traits come into their own in this fragmented warning about the Thought Police of the present.

Spitting on the streets / Numb heads and feet / Nowhere to go / Won’t let us in the shows / ‘Cos we talk about love and the Psycho Mafia / I’m talking ’bout love and the Psycho Mafia / No soul in the discos / No rock in the clubs / Won’t let us in the pubs / And the city joys / Spitting on the streets / Shot heads and teeth / Our eyes are red / Our brains are dead / ‘Cos we know about chemicals and the Psycho Mafia / I’m talking about electrodes and the Psycho Mafia.”

“Psycho Mafia was probably one of the songs that led to them being branded an exclusively political band…

Melody Maker, 31 December 1977, p.9.

Danny Baker’s piece on The Fall also gives prominence to the “electrodes” lyric, despite the fact MES wasn’t singing it this way by the time of publication. The version in his article doesn’t have the “we know about chemicals” line.

Although it lived on in the press, this more explicitly anti-psychiatric angle was evidently quickly de-emphasised live and on record, the omission changing the feel of the song significantly – “our brains are dead” comes over very differently without the following “I’m talking ’bout electrodes.” “Chemicals” seems to become “drugs”, which again tends to depoliticise the song.

But “Repetition”, also on Bingo-Master’s Break-Out!, features the lines, “They put electrodes in your brain / And you’re never the same”. So maybe it would have been heavy-handedly repetitive to include similar wording in “Psycho Mafia”.

The only recorded evidence (studio or live) of the “electrodes” lyric, is on the aforementioned Total Eclipse bootleg rehearsal tape/7″, which suggests it was adjusted very early on. Although Mick Middles quotes it in his review of the 26 May 1978 gig at The Squat, Manchester (Sounds, 10 June 1978, p.52), it’s likely he took the lines from the previous articles. The lyric isn’t heard at either the preceding gig at Foxes at the Greyhound, Croydon on 7 May (no recording exists for the Goldsmith’s College/Challenge Festival gig on 13 May), or the following gig at Band on the Wall, Manchester, on 11 June.

The press release for Bingo-Master’s Break-Out! included the following explanation of “Psycho Mafia”:

This song started out as a tribute to a local street-gang, but on completion of the lyrics, it took on a sinister aura – an aura of oppression, a sort of sub-conscious manifestation of events which were happening around the writer at the time. The music, strangely enough, is a sort of tribute to the new R’nB bands which were the only thing happening at the time of writing i.e. early ’76.

Years later, in Renegade, MES would claim that the Psycho Mafia was his street-gang:

Music to me was something your sisters did. My three sisters all had posters of Cliff and the Osmonds over the house. I was more into causing trouble, forming gangs and things like that. I used to have a few – Psycho Mafia, the Barry Boy gang. We’d fight other gangs. It was quite interesting; there used to be Irish gangs and Orthodox Jewish gangs. But the Psycho Mafia was a real melting pot, and I was the vice president.

Smith, Mark E. (with Austin Collings) (2009). Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith. pp.15-16.

But Tony Friel’s now-defunct website, atomicsoup.co.uk, featured an mp3 of Psycho Mafia, labelled “1977…. “Sedgley Park Psychomafia” (bus stop graphiti)” (sic). Which may, or may not, suggest that the title was taken from graffiti rather than the name of a gang MES was in.

The Psychic Mafia

The Psychic Mafia is a 1976 book by M. Lamar Keene (written with the Canadian author Allen Spraggett, a believer in the paranormal), a spiritualist and con-man from Tampa, Florida. In the book, Keene confesses to having been a charlatan. It’s possible MES read the book, but in any case the title would have post-dated the naming of MES’ childhood gangs.

Sounds like…?

On The Annotated Fall, I reported a claim on social media that the bassline to “Psycho Mafia” resembled that of Amon Düül II’s song “Kronwinkl 12”, from their 1972 album Carnival in Babylon (comment #13, 24/9/2020). bzfgt was unconvinced: “it does but not decisively I don’t think.. this seems like one of those things where I put that, and then we wind up with 37 comments each with a different song it resembles…” (comment #14, 27/9/2020).

Make up your own mind (listen in particular around the 3:10 mark):

Notable cover versions

• Diall. Originally released on the Four Song Promo cassette. (Conviction Records CR027, 2023) [Discogs] [Bandcamp].
• J Church. Originally released on the Japan-only CD Seishun Zankoku Monogatari (Snuffy Smile SMILE-049, 2004) [Discogs] [J-Church.com]. Re-released on the split J Church/The Plungers Who Killed Pasolini/Psycho Mafia – Lost City Lover/Breakaway 7″ (Chunksaah Records CAR-024, 2005) [Discogs] [J-Church.com].
• Sonic Youth. Originally recorded for a John Peel Session at BBC Maida Vale Studios 11 October 1988, first broadcast 19 October 1988. Released on the 4 Tunna Brix Peel Sessions 12″ EP (Goofin’ Records GOO-01, May 1990) [Wikipedia: 4 Tunna Brix] [Discogs].
• Woolen Men. Originally released on the split Woolen Men/Eyelids 7″ Cover (Off Records OFF990, 2014) [Discogs]. Re-released on the compilation Lucky Box (Dog’s Table DT07/See My Friends Records SMF013, 2017) [Discogs].

Footnotes

1. As noted, some printed renditions of the lyrics have “spitting” rather than “spit”. But that isn’t what I hear on most studio or live versions. ↩︎
2. To some listeners, “joys” sounds like “jars”. The lyric would probably still make sense if it was. But I’m quite sure it isn’t. “Joys” is also what appears in printed versions of the lyric. See Brazier (1977), Baker (1978, p.7), and Middles (1978). ↩︎

Sources / Links

• The Annotated Fall: “Psycho Mafia” [Archived]
• Baker, Danny (1978). “The Fall”. ZigZag, No. 81, February-March, pp.6-8.
• Brazier, Chris (1977). “United They Fall”. Melody Maker, 31 December, p.9.
• Clayton, Martin and Whale, Simon (1980). “The Fall”. Printed Noises, #4. No page numbering [pp.3-5]. [Available online via the Manchester District Music Archive or The Sparrow’s Nest Library and Archive]
• Eastham, Paul (1978). “The Fall: avoiding the Straightjacket” [sic]. New Manchester Review, #53, March 24 – April 6, p.8.
• Eden, Kevin Barnes, Ian and Eastham, Paul (1978). “Don’t Believe All You Read – The Fall.” Temporary Hoarding, No. 5, Spring. No page numbering.
• Ford, Simon (2003). Hip Priest: The Story of Mark E Smith and The Fall. London: Quartet.
• Irwin, Colin (1978). “Rise of Fall”. Melody Maker, 12 August, p.18. [Text online, The Fall Online Bibliography]
• Mackay, Tommy (2018). 40 Odd Years of The Fall. Place of publication unknown: Greg Moodie.
• Middles, Mick (1978). “The Fall: Manchester”. Sounds, 10 June, p.52. (Review of the Rock Against Racism gig at The Squat, Manchester, 26 May 1978).
• Richardson, Hollie (2022). “Scam the bereaved, defraud the dead: the shocking crimes of America’s greatest psychic conman.” The Guardian, 1 February. [Online]
• Russell, Rosalind (1978). “The Fall: Psycho Mafia / Bingo Master“. Record Mirror, 2 September, p.8.
• Smith, Mark E. (1978). The Record (press release for Bingo-Master’s Break-Out!, June 1978). [Text online, The Fall Online Bibliography]
• Smith, Mark E. (with Austin Collings) (2009). Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith. London: Penguin.
• The Fall Online Discography, singles/EPs: Bingo-Master’s Break-Out!
• The Fall Online Gigography: 1977
• The Track Record: “Psycho Mafia”
• Wikipedia: M. Lamar Keene