The Smiths (again!)

[Charlie O.]

CLOTH EARSe

[DayoRemix]

First heard them when I was a kid, on Rodney on the RoQ, I believe it was.. Thought they were pretty interesting. Grew to love them as I got older.. Didn't see them live, of course, but do put on one of the albums every so often..

Also, don't agree that Strangeways was their best (though not all that crazy a notion). The album did seem like it was trying to point the band in a newer musical direction, away from the jangle, which worked well. Too bad they imploded not long after the recording..

[fange]

Put me down as another who thinks they were remarkably consistent for their all-too-brief years. (And that extends into the early years of Mozza's solo career too - i love those first 2 albums)

In terms of buying their records I came to them rather late - my first being The World Won't Listen - but i knew them from the radio and had LOVEDe the early singles like 'This Charming Man' and 'What Difference Does It Make?'; they fit in very well with my love of jangly catchy pop and rock. But they made little commercial impression in Aus till they were almost done as a band, so in terms of talking about them with kids my age there was almost none.

Never saw them live, but I did see Morrissey live much later and he was fabulous. A really commanding performer and singer.

This was from that gig...

[Stacy Heydon]

Strangeways isn't so bad - it's a more than a decent album, the difference in song quality between TQID isn't as great as the critical consensus would have it. The problem is it doesn't really add anything, so it just comes across as a lesser TQID and it doesn't have the big song to define the album.

[adamcoan]

Death of a disco dancer is one of their finest moments.

[Stacy Heydon]

It's dreary and trying too hard to be this big bleak statement. I was quite taken with it initially, but it's one of those songs that's ultimately a bit empty so it doesn't endure.

["BING E BONG"]

Oh, I Iove it. But it's a world away from those early tunes.

[riggers]

Do you remember first hearing or seeing them?

I heard them before I saw them. The first two singles completely passed me by, so it was 'What Difference Does It Make?' that hit me. I've spoken on here before about how I was a full on 60's revivalist with hair down to my arse until I started at 6th Form College in '83. I met an older guy there who began to educate me about post punk/indie music. In the common room at college, they piped in Radio 1 and it was there that I first heard 'What Difference'. It was the riff that got me and I was intrigued by Morissey's monotone vocal.
Funnily enough, Marr and Rourke went to my school. They were in their last year when I was in my first. I remember seeing Marr about, he had his look together even then. When I saw them on TV I recognised him immediately, and I'd heard about this band called The Smiths that had two Wythenshawe lads amongst their number, but at that time I was more interested in Ten Years After or Johnny Winter. It took a few months at college, meeting new people and hearing new music before my ears properly attuned to contemporary stuff. I remember seeing them perform the single on TOTP and The Oxford Road Show and I was on board....until the next single 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now', which I thought was a joke and didn't take to at all.
It took a while before I was properly on board. I remember being impressed by a Whistle Test feature on the making of 'Meat Is Murder' and then there was an NME free giveaway EP, which featured a live version of 'What She Said', which I loved. I got the album out of the library, but even then I only taped 'What She Said' and 'Nowhere Fast'.
It was the Whistle Test appearance when they did Bigmouth and Vicar in a Tutu that really hooked me in again. I remember getting 'The Queen Is Dead' for Christmas that year and absolutely hammering it. I think it's probably their best, although side 2 lets it down a little.
I was ready for Strangeways when it came out and bought it on release. I remember it being bittersweet, as they had already split up by then. I don't know if it's underrated or just particularly evocative for me. When it came out, I'd been press ganged into one of those 'get the plebs off the dole' schemes. I'd been happy as a dole-ite, layabout musician, but I suddenly found myself doing the gardens of Wythenshawe pensioners, 3 days a week, in the middle of Winter, frozen ground, making a bonfire to keep warm. Whenever I hear 'Paint A Vulgar Picture', 'I Started Something I Couldn't Finish', I'm transported back to that miserable time, yearning to be in my warm bedroom, listening to The Smiths.

Was there a contemporary band that was comparable, in terms of how they affected you?

When I first got into them, I was very much transitioning from full on hippy, so catching up with contemporary stuff was a gradual process, but by about '85/'86, the other two bands that I loved (thanks to the record library) as much as The Smiths were REM and Husker Du.

Did you see them live?

Sadly not. Even though gigs were much cheaper then than now, cashflow dictated who I saw live. I remember when they were on the Queen Is Dead Tour, my mates and I were in a quandary as The Damned, Motorhead and Nick Cave were also on tour and we couldn't afford them all, so we went for The Damned and Nick Cave. We thought we'd catch The Smiths next time...
I've seen Marr a couple of times as a support act and he was bang average.

Do you still listen to them?

Now and again. They crop up in playlists. I've got 'Cemetry Gates' on now and it's great. Very evocative and stands up well, but Morissey kind of ruined them for me in a way. I only liked his first few solo singles and bits of the first album. I made the mistake of introducing my ex to the Smiths and she became a proper obsessive, but also a Moz mega fan. I remember coming in from work and she'd have one of his dreary fucking albums on and I literally couldn't listen to that voice and substandard material by then. I had to take shelter in my 'man-cave.