Well to be fair he never claimed to be a musician, he just hired some new people to work with. His solo stuff is up and down but the best bits certainly are on a par with second tier Smiths material. Vauxhall and I is a great album and the two tracks 'Hold On To Your Friends' and 'The More You Ignore Me' would not be out of place on a Smiths best of. And 'The Last of the Famous International Playboys' is almost a Smiths track in that it fetaures Rourke, Joyce and one-time Smiths second guitarist Craig Gannon. And of course Everyday Is Like Sunday is one of the finest records he made with or without the Smiths. A mixed bag for sure but every Smiths fans could make their own fifth studio album with Morrissey solo tracks that would be hugely enjoyable.
In the mid-80s in the US, when I was a college student, they were the band...in my circles, people didn't care much about REM. But The Smiths were the be all end all. My favorites have always been Hatful Of Hollow and Meat Is Murder, much-hated last song included!
Have you seen the film England Is Mine? I had my doubts but I thoroughly enjoyed it and it works as a Morrissey origin story, a coming of age story and a decent film in its own right.
It's a decent enough starting place, but lots of their very best songs not represented here! Back To The Old House (acoustic), I Know It's Over, Well I Wonder, Cemetry Gates, Handsome Devil, I Won't Share You, The Queen Is Dead, Asleep... etc, etc. For new listeners, I've found The Queen Is Dead and Hatful of Hollow are usually the most instantly appealing. Then perhaps either The World Won't Listen or Louder Than Bombs, I think. The eponymous first LP, Meat Is Murder, and Strangeways might be more of an acquired taste to the casual listener, but they are all completely worth the effort. In fact, all four studio LPs deserve to be listened to in their entirely as albums rather than random individual tracks on compilations.
Great as a b-side though. Taken together, 'William..'/'How Soon Is Now'/'Please Please Please...' must be one of the greatest rock singles ever released. 'William...' might be my favourite of all The Smiths records. Great guitar riff; fantastic song and delivery by Morrissey; all done and dusted in just over 2 minutes. Perfect.
Yeah, I intended to bring that up. "How Soon Is Now" is an excellent tune, but it's not that characteristic of most of their material. It's more of an oddball in their discography. So it's difficult to say based on liking that tune that one will like the rest of their stuff.
I am one of the few who are rather ambivalent to them, despite owning several of their albums. I enjoy some of the songs and I think there is some fantastic guitar and bass playing. Never really liked Moz's vocals but then I do enjoy a handful of his solo songs as well. I think The Smiths were too early for me to appreciate in the 80s (or I was too young) and the 90s bands, although many of them (notably Oasis, probably Suede too...most likely Gene) held them in high regard, the sound had changed. I really started listening to them in the mid 90s and by then the bands had a harder edged sound. and to me they sounded a bit passé by then. Again, had I been around earlier my view may be different. I never really liked the sound of The Smiths' albums all that much. A bit hollow sounding, and despite Marr's clever guitar orchestra approach to some of the (excellent) songs I never felt the sound itself really grabbed me. But I still listen. Sometimes.
I would. It's their best! Most people think The Queen Is Dead is better but I've been scratching my head for 33 years over that one. That's probably why my hair has thinned out considerably.
It's also worth seeking out the 1961 British kitchen sink drama "A Taste Of Honey," which was a big influence on Morrissey as a writer. Several lines in the movie found their way into Smiths songs and one scene formed the basis of "This Night Has Opened My Eyes." The film is about a working class single mother, her teen daughter who gets pregnant by a black guy, and the daughter's closeted gay best friend. This was very new ground for 1961. As I once wrote on a Beatles thread, their cover of the title song might seem tame today, but it was a radical move for them to align themselves with the working class people portrayed in this movie by covering it. The screenwriter of "A Taste Of Honey," Shelagh Delaney, is pictured on the cover of Louder Than Bombs and at least one Smiths 45 sleeve.
The Sound Of The Smiths is the comp you want but I would get all their remastered albums and Hatful anyway. They're all very cheap to buy. Guess what? That's what I did only 2 months ago instead of buying the inflated price Complete Smiths box. I picked up the 3 disc deluxe of Queen Is Dead too.
Those comps were my real intro and got me into the band. Borrowed them from a public library. Before that I tried to get into the band via the self-titled album, which didn't work for me. If you like those try Hatful of Hollow or The Queen is Dead next.
Both collections I believe are missing "The Queen is Dead" (an absolutely brilliant song.....my favorite by them), so you may want to pick up that album as well.
Funny thing with me is I don't like their best known song in the US ("How Soon Is Now") very much. Too long and repetitive. But then I listened to some other stuff and liked it better. "Bigmouth Strikes Again" was one that really struck me. But I've never gotten into them the way I did someone like REM or the best singles from the Cure. Worth exploring more for sure though.
I had a compilation for a few years, and liked the jangly sound. But I found the titles better than the actual songs.
Great post. Can you or anyone else recommend good soundboard recordings of shows from Summer 1983 through Spring 1984? Thanks in advance
You should watch this movie, it's a clever anti-romcom and the Smiths are an essential part of the plotline. It's how I discovered their music and became a fan.
Yep. I loved "How Soon..." from the moment I first heard it in the mid-'80s on a cousin's cassette copy of Meat is Murder, but it took me a while to warm to the Smiths overall. Most of their material I found pretty wimpy (note this is pre-Queen is Dead), some of it skiffle-like, even.
I can't vouch for the sound quality, but I went to this show, and didn't see The Smiths! had to leave after the Go-Betweens to catch the last train home.
Nobody edits the Mozzer!! I liked his Autobiography a lot, some parts I was laughing so hard I was crying. Skip the court case part if you like, but reading it, you'll realize it's no mystery why Johnny Marr left the band - imagine having to deal with that on a day to day basis! I recommend Marr's book Set the Boy Free - written in a straightforward way, but you realize there is so much more in each page than meets the eye. Totally inspirational.
Timely post. I'm just a tick more familiar with them than you are, but just barely, and just this past week I picked up "Singles".
