The Smiths

[xneverwherex]

this doesnt have anything to do with the smiths, per se ... but i loved hearing morrissey talk about the dolls in the movie - new york doll. how great it was when he got them to perform in 2004 at his festival (which im completely blanking out on the name). its definitely worth checking out, if only to see Moz.
 
 besides - arthur kane was pretty fascinating. its on IFC this month so anyone can see it if they have cable.

[Brian_Wallace]

Originally posted by Fadger:
  This is an interesting topic. As I write I am listening to the Beatles who are still, in my opinion, the greatest band ever.
 

Ugh, where did you come from?
 
 The most amazing thing about the Smiths was that from the time they released "Hand in Glove" (May 1983) to the time Johnny Marr spoke the words: "I didn't form a group to perform Cilla Black songs" (August 1987) it was four years and three months.
 
 All they accomplished: Four albums, seventeen singles (eight(!!!) of which weren't on a proper studio album) and millions of fans whose lives were changed.
 
 Fifty-one months and they were gone.  You can place their entire career in the time between Radiohead albums.  
 
 Johnny Marr was only 23 when they BROKE UP!
 
 Amazing what they accomplished in that time.
 
 Brian
 
 P.S.  Best Smiths song? "Paint a Vulgar Picture."  Second Place: "Asleep"  Third: "I Keep Mine Hidden" or "Half a Person."

[Mobius]

I generally found The Smiths to be a lot of fun.  The lyrics uncover a darker side and they certainly dabbled in meloncholy but Marr's guitar and Morrissey's singing was often upbeat and infectious.  e.g. Louder Than Bombs was a fun summery kind of record.

[bearman🐻]

Mobius, "Louder Than Bombs" screams late spring/early summer 1987 for me. A really pivotal time in my life, but I can put that record on and I can almost literally smell fresh cut grass from my dad mowing the lawn, low 70's weather and a gentle breeze blowing through my window while I'm hanging out in my bedroom.
 
 My top 10 favorite Smiths songs (though it could easily be 20:
 
 1) Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
 2) Bigmouth Strikes Again
 3) I Know It's Over
 4) Shoplifters of the World Unite
 5) Back to the Old House (acoustic version from "Hatful of Hollow")
 6) Panic
 7) This Charming Man
  What Difference Does It Make? (also from "Hatful")
 9) I Want the One I Can't Have
 10) Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

[frazman]

Originally posted by Brian Wallace:
   

Originally posted by Fadger:
  This is an interesting topic. As I write I am listening to the Beatles who are still, in my opinion, the greatest band ever.
 

Ugh, where did you come from?
 
 The most amazing thing about the Smiths was that from the time they released "Hand in Glove" (May 1983) to the time Johnny Marr spoke the words: "I didn't form a group to perform Cilla Black songs" (August 1987) it was four years and three months.
 
 All they accomplished: Four albums, seventeen singles (eight(!!!) of which weren't on a proper studio album) and millions of fans whose lives were changed.
 
 Fifty-one months and they were gone.  You can place their entire career in the time between Radiohead albums.  
 
 Johnny Marr was only 23 when they BROKE UP!
 
 Amazing what they accomplished in that time.
 
 Brian
 
 P.S.  Best Smiths song? "Paint a Vulgar Picture."  Second Place: "Asleep"  Third: "I Keep Mine Hidden" or "Half a Person." [/b]

My suggestion about the Beatles is perhaps not as contentious as you would think. They sold a few records, changed a few scenes in their time you know.
 
 Especially when you go on about all the records and non-album singles that the Smiths released (though I agree it is indeed a commendable record). Hmmmm, what other British four man band did something similar except for a period twice as long? Twelve original albums, one double EP, and twenty-two singles (featuring mostly otherwise unavailable material) in eight years? An amazing band.
 
 Anyway I do love the Smiths and I think Morrissey's solo stuff is terribly underrated - I still enjoy Southpaw Grammar and Maladjusted immensely. Vauxhall & I is a phenomenal record. His live show is still top class.
 
 Morrissey has always said that the Cilla Black stuff was bollocks in terms of being the reason that Marr broke up the band - we'll never know I suspect, but I imagine there was more to it than that.
 
 As for Paint a Vulgar Picture being a favourite Smiths track, I do like it, but when I scroll through my Ipod and see World of Morrissy, My Early Burglary Years etc I find it a bit hard to take in addition to the tie pins that Moz has been selling at recent shows - tacky badge anyone?

[Bags]

My Smiths story is similar to Bearman's.  While I'd gotten Hatful of Hollow as a gift early in my senior year of high school, it was my sophomore year of college that cemented what the band meant to me.  I was SO depressed, and would lay on my bed in my dorm room with the blinds drawn and listen to the Smiths catalogue to that point over and over.  It truly lifted my spirit - not to giddiness or happiness, but out of the really deep blackness.  Listening to them I thought, if someone as intelligent and sensitive and utterly cool as Morrissey could feel as sad and depressed as I, than clearly it's a 'normal state of being' for any person.  That meant a lot, to at least be able to compartmentalize my 19-year old funk for what it was, yet another stage of growth or, hell, just being.
 
 I agree that I don't know how someone could hate the Smiths across the board.  Although, I will say, there are genres of music that I viscerally dislike -- it's not happening in any logic part of my brain at all, it just drives me nuts (when even bands I love verge into Jam land, I go berserk).  So, perhaps that can happen to other people as well -- it's a more emotional reaction, they just don't 'get it.'
 
 On a more general front, I have this recurring thought often in the middle of a really great sont:  "Man, just one song can fill me with so much happiness for 4 minutes that it's literally enough to live for."
 
 Clearly, for some of us, music is our drug.  

[Bags]

This is the response I got to Doom's initial post from a friend of mine who LOVES music.  We love many of the same bands, but we each diverge into territory the other doesn't get (he into the Dead, me into really sweep pop).  He's not a Smiths fan, but I never knew if he actively disliked them, or just didn't care for them:
 
 eh--i personally always found the Smiths a little dull also.  i've never really gotten their appeal. but i decided to give them more of a listen before the Moz show, and thought it was a little better and would have been interested to see them live.

[beetsnotbeats]

Originally posted by Brian Wallace:
   

Originally posted by Fadger:
  This is an interesting topic. As I write I am listening to the Beatles who are still, in my opinion, the greatest band ever.
 

Ugh, where did you come from?[/b]

:roll:

[bnyced0]

Originally posted by xneverwherex:
  this doesnt have anything to do with the smiths, per se ... but i loved hearing morrissey talk about the dolls in the movie - new york doll. how great it was when he got them to perform in 2004 at his festival (which im completely blanking out on the name). its definitely worth checking out, if only to see Moz.
 
 besides - arthur kane was pretty fascinating. its on IFC this month so anyone can see it if they have cable.

That would be Meltdown darling, and stay on topic!

[xneverwherex]

thanks darlin'! (i knew youd know and/or respond). well my response did involve morrissey - and we all know morrissey's love for the dolls. perhaps its the way we all feel about the smiths - on topic enough, right? at least i didnt go on about the beatles  

[renton007]

I have a much different The Smiths story.  I bought my first The Smiths album 2 summers ago, at age 28.  I was always aware of them but had never heard so much as a song. I thought they were great instantly and wished I had been listening to them in the awkward teenage years.  I just felt like sharing that.

[TheDirector217]

Learn to love me
 Assemble the ways
 Now, today, tomorrow and always
 My only weakness is a list of crime
 My only weakness is ... well, never mind, never mind
 
 Oh, shoplifters of the world
 Unite and take over
 Shoplifters of the world
 Hand it over
 Hand it over
 Hand it over
 
 
 Learn to love me
 And assemble the ways
 Now, today, tomorrow, and always
 My only weakness is a listed crime
 But last night the plans of a future war
 Was all I saw on Channel Four
 
 
 Shoplifters of the world
 Unite and take over
 Shoplifters of the world
 Hand it over
 Hand it over
 Hand it over
 
 
 A heartless hand on my shoulder
 A push - and it's over
 Alabaster crashes down
 (Six months is a long time)
 Tried living in the real world
 Instead of a shell
 But before I began ...
 I was bored before I even began
 
 
 Shoplifters of the world
 Unite and take over
 Shoplifters of the world
 Unite and take over
 Shoplifters of the world
 Unite and take over
 Shoplifters of the world
 Take over
 
 Pure. Fuckin'. Genius.
 
 Note: Sorry to swagger-jack your trademark, B.  

[sweetcell]

Originally posted by Brian Wallace:
 The most amazing thing about the Smiths was that from the time they released "Hand in Glove" (May 1983) to the time Johnny Marr spoke the words: "I didn't form a group to perform Cilla Black songs" (August 1987) it was four years and three months.
 
 All they accomplished: Four albums, seventeen singles (eight(!!!) of which weren't on a proper studio album) and millions of fans whose lives were changed.
 
 Fifty-one months and they were gone.  You can place their entire career in the time between Radiohead albums.  
 
 Johnny Marr was only 23 when they BROKE UP!
 
 Amazing what they accomplished in that time.

FYI, you are lauding a band that released albums before you were born (if you were alive, you were very young - too young to make them relevant to your life).  why are you defending this golden oldie shit?  how can it possibly compete with AFI or fallout boy?
 
 confused.

[Brian_Wallace]

Originally posted by sweetcell:
 

 how can it possibly compete with AFI or fallout boy?
 
 confused. [/b]

A Fire Inside, My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy all ROCK!  They are awesome.
 
 Brian

[sonickteam2]

hmm, i want to join the Smiths debate, but i cant since i probably couldnt name 3 songs they sing.
 
 i was 10 when they broke up.
 
 
 but what i can say is that if these kids were in their early to mid twenties, then its possible that, being younger than i, they knew no one who listened to or like the smiths.
 
  sometimes music needs to be happening at the time for people to really get their real importance of musical talent. sure, the beatles and the beach boys influenced TONS of bands that i listen to today but their music was always just classic songs to me, never really songs that tie memories or remind me of my life at all.
 
  i think this is why "rip-off" bands like Interpol, White stripes, wolfmother, etc exist because sure, you could just put in some sabbath, but that was someone else's band, every generation needs bands to call their own. I find it hard to believe that anyone who puts in RATM's debut album and listens to it for the first time today will get the same feeling from it as some of us who did in 1993.
 
  and lastly, i am guilty of denouncing the talent of world famous musicians after i've had a few too many so this could be the simple reason.