When you think of Mark Edward Smith of The Fall, perhaps you think of an over-protective man who is as keen to put as much distance between him and other bands as possible.

He certainly doesn't have any time for most other 'indie' groups, reserving titanic scorn for those foolish enough to hail him as an influence. He has gone on the record, for example, saying he would hire a lawyer and sue anyone who bandied about his name. And woe betide any interviewer who asks him about Sonic Youth or Pavement.

Of course there is more to this than meets the eye. Smith, like Billy Childish, is aiming for the kind of return that can't be measured in album sales or column inches. He wants to be held in the same cult regard as his heroes. This would explain why he has such antipathy towards other bands (he once said to the Editor: "Look, if you don't think your band is the best in the world, there's just no point in you doing it"), never giving his seal of approval to anyone, relying on strange video artist Safy Sniper as main live support instead of a more well known band.

At the same time though this means he has no problems at all in celebrating his own taste in music and idiosyncracies. Below there is a playlist of some (but not all) of the songs The Fall have covered, two of which ('Victoria', 'There's A Ghost In My House') would be among their biggest hits.

The list of Fall cover versions then. Covering heavy metal, psych rock, garage, rn'b, country, folk, surf and rockabilly. Alway the same, always different. But mainly always different.

Anyway, click here to listen to our Spotify Playlist of songs The Fall have covered.

For those without access to Spotify, the playlist contains:

1. The Monks 'Higgeldy Piggeldy'
2. Richard Berry 'Louie Louie'
3. R. Dean Taylor 'Gotta See Jane'
4. Gene Vincent 'Rollin' Danny'
5. The Kinks 'Victoria'
6. Waylon Jennings 'White Lightning'
7. Captain Beefheart 'Beatle Bones and Smokin' Stones'
8. New York Dolls 'Jet Boy'
9. Lou Reed 'Kill Your Sons'
10. The Saints '(This) Perfect Day'
11. The Stooges 'I Wanna Be Your Dog'
12. Sister Sledge 'Lost In Music'
13. Leadbelly 'The Bourgeois Blues'
14. Deep Purple 'Black Night'
15. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch 'The Legend of Xanadu'
16. The Groundhogs 'Strange Town'
17. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons 'Walk Like A Man'
18. Merle Haggard 'White Line Fever'
19. Dean Martin 'Houston'

Mark E Smith photograph courtesy of Richie Hopson. Fall covers information top up thanks to the ever-brilliant Visi Fall website