the new smiths book said it pretty well i thought, which was that strangeways feels like a "transitional" album, the smiths awkward evolution from what they were to what they would have become, except they break up so it's not a transitional album but a sort of weird last album
― lorde willin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 19:56 (ten years ago) link
Morrissey always comes off worst in discussions about the end of The Smiths - Cilla Black covers, him being a stick-in-the-mud and an asshole to boot - but honestly nowadays I'm glad we got Viva Hate/Bona Drag than a Smiths albums sounding like Electronic or The The.
― Eyeball Kicks, Tuesday, 1 October 2013 22:19 (ten years ago) link
yeah for all the talk of how it was marr's band and marr was the musical genius he hasn't seemed to be able to do that much w/o morrissey (which i don't really count The The or Modest Mouse as those were pretty fully formed things already)
― lorde willin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 22:39 (ten years ago) link
Strangeways is divisive, even down to the tracks themselves. I've always felt ambivalent about Paint a Vulgar Picture: Beautiful guitar, but lyrically barren. Record company execs? Isn't that what bloated rock stars sing about?
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:07 (ten years ago) link
that bloated Geoff Travis, what a fat bastard
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:08 (ten years ago) link
(I love that song btw)
Strangeways is the only one I bought originally on vinyl and it has always seemed special to me for that reason -- I also continue to have strong love feelings for Rush/Push, Stop Me, and I Won't Share You. Vulgar Picture is boring, agree. Lots of boring songs on this album, but my three favorites are not among them. lol/obvs.
― Untt (La Lechera), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:15 (ten years ago) link
Love Paint A Vulgar Picture. Lyrically, yeah you can mock Morrissey for some of the sentiments now, but the fan perspective has always been my favourite part of that song. Something about the way he sings this
I touched you at the soundcheck You had no real way of knowing In my heart I begged "Take me with you ...I don't care where you're going..."
always gets me.
― gyac, Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:44 (ten years ago) link
yeah the POV turnabout is what makes it
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:45 (ten years ago) link
Yes.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:51 (ten years ago) link
interesting interview (from a Strangeways EPK?) with Marr just a short time before the whole thing went tits up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjdDDCTCc_E
― piscesx, Wednesday, 2 October 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link
'vulgar picture' sank in as brilliant only after a long time. it is a little bit leaden and herky-jerky, but that sax part is gorgeous and moving
― goole, Wednesday, 2 October 2013 00:17 (ten years ago) link
what the hell is marr on about when he says strangeways is more brutal, harder and mre discordant? maybe the guitar on a song like i started something is rawer than on a usual smiths song but over-all i find strangeways not discordant at all. for me it has got this slightly mystical, misty feel especially a rush and a push which is such an amazing starter wth morrissey's rising voice in the beginning which mutes mysteriously into the tune. probably my favourite ten seconds of morrissey. and he doesn't even sing something...
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, 2 October 2013 18:52 (ten years ago) link
Death of a Disco Dancer, with all that Aladdin Sane piano clashing? I don't get any of that from Strangeways either, it feels more wistful to me.
― gyac, Wednesday, 2 October 2013 18:57 (ten years ago) link
well he was talking about the record before it was finished so maybe he intended to do that but didn't manage it. there's certainly nothing as hard as the title track of TQID on strangeways.
― i lost my shoes on acid (jed_), Wednesday, 2 October 2013 19:00 (ten years ago) link
nowadays I'm glad we got Viva Hate/Bona Drag than a Smiths albums sounding like Electronic or The The.
I <3 a lot of early solo Moz (discovered The Smiths through Last Of The Famous International Playboys!) but Getting Away With It / Electronic / Disappointed and Mind Bomb / Dusk >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Viva Hate
(and the difference between those two bands suggests that any further Morrissey/Marr work wouldn't have sounded anything like either)
― I'm not a rockist, I just hate Rap-A-Lot (sic), Wednesday, 2 October 2013 22:47 (ten years ago) link
(discovered The Smiths through Last Of The Famous International Playboys!)me too!!!i bought the cassingle and my mom thought i was crazy because i kept going around the house singing "have i faaaaaaaaaiiiiiled" and she was like yes, you have please stop singing that song immediately
― Untt (La Lechera), Wednesday, 2 October 2013 23:32 (ten years ago) link
The Smiths took a lot of stick in the 80s music press for their classicist approach, which is understandable, even though, as Taylor Parkes pointed out, their records sounded terribly of their time. But I am glad that they didn't add a fifth album with more blatantly 1989 indie-dance sounds.
― Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 2 October 2013 23:43 (ten years ago) link
Last of the Famous Int. playboys is totally baggy!
― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 3 October 2013 00:41 (ten years ago) link
I think you mean Interesting Drug (or November Spawned A Monster), but I take your point.
― Eyeball Kicks, Thursday, 3 October 2013 07:04 (ten years ago) link
yes, interesting drug, you're right.
― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 3 October 2013 07:07 (ten years ago) link
I remember really loving "November Spawned A Monster" at the time and wishing Moz would do more songs like that.
Recently, I played the song again and found the lyrics incredibly cringeworthy and awful, the wordless shrieking in the bridge representing the "monster" flat-out reprehensible, and Moz's singing to be outrageously constipated and forced.
At this point, the only Moz songs from that era I have any time for are "Alsatian Cousin", "Little Man, What Now?" and "Late Night, Maudlin Street" and that's partially because I haven't gone back to them in about a decade to see if I still like them.
― smang culture (DJP), Thursday, 3 October 2013 14:58 (ten years ago) link
Alsatian Cousin is amazing.
What about Disappointed?
― gyac, Thursday, 3 October 2013 15:00 (ten years ago) link
zero memory of it; generally speaking I would like to set Bona Drag on fire
― smang culture (DJP), Thursday, 3 October 2013 15:02 (ten years ago) link
(one minute in and I vastly prefer Electronic's song)
― smang culture (DJP), Thursday, 3 October 2013 15:03 (ten years ago) link
woah....bona drag is like moz's hatful imo
that's a crazy opinion bro
― lorde willin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 3 October 2013 17:22 (ten years ago) link
when you consider that this was all right at the beginning of Moz's "I'm gonna be a spiteful bigot for a hot minute" phase, it's less crazy
― smang culture (DJP), Thursday, 3 October 2013 17:26 (ten years ago) link
yeah but then i guess there's no morrissey you would like right?
just feel like the early singles and viva hate are pretty great as a period for him
― lorde willin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 3 October 2013 18:11 (ten years ago) link
a few exceptions aside, this is a very accurate description of my position on Morrissey
― smang culture (DJP), Thursday, 3 October 2013 18:13 (ten years ago) link
Had a discussion about the Smiths with my girlfriend, who now rates them as duds. Her reason is that "Marr's guitar playing sounds like a machine." I can actually see her point, although I still love them.
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Thursday, 3 October 2013 18:59 (ten years ago) link
kinda surprised we never did a Bona Drag poll.
― piscesx, Thursday, 3 October 2013 19:04 (ten years ago) link
I'd love to hear working versions of Viva Hate songs, particularly the ones with more Vini Reilly.
― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 3 October 2013 19:16 (ten years ago) link
Meanwhile, looks like Morrissey's book is actually coming out in a couple of weeks: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Autobiography-Morrissey/dp/0141394811/.
― Eyeball Kicks, Thursday, 3 October 2013 22:27 (ten years ago) link
Hmmm, it's not listed on Penguin's site.
― gyac, Thursday, 3 October 2013 22:47 (ten years ago) link
"Full confirmation is expected from Penguin Books within the next 24 hours" it says on Morrissey Solo, so we'll see.
― Eyeball Kicks, Thursday, 3 October 2013 23:04 (ten years ago) link
lol does this ever happen with books? like a book with a very major publisher may or may not exist at all?
― lorde willin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 4 October 2013 01:38 (ten years ago) link
Autobiography covers Morrissey's life from his birth until the present day.
― fit and working again, Friday, 4 October 2013 03:39 (ten years ago) link
well tbh Penguin's site has always been a fucking mess. You can now pre-order it from Amazon!
― gyac, Friday, 4 October 2013 10:25 (ten years ago) link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24396482
and everywhere, it seems, by mid oct.
― Mark G, Friday, 4 October 2013 11:04 (ten years ago) link
Ha yes of course - I only mentioned that as I went to the link to look up the ISBN.
― gyac, Friday, 4 October 2013 11:08 (ten years ago) link
Jon Savage (or a sub editor) has swiped the thread title!http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/oct/16/morrissey-autobiography-smiths
― piscesx, Thursday, 17 October 2013 01:51 (ten years ago) link
I swiped the thread title for Jon's piece. Seemed perfectly apposite.
― Unsettled defender (ithappens), Thursday, 17 October 2013 12:36 (ten years ago) link
hahaha
― ᶓ͠סּᴥ͠סּᶔ ᶓͼ᷆ₓͼ᷇ᶔ (gr8080), Thursday, 17 October 2013 12:37 (ten years ago) link
Why didn't you just call it "Morrissey: Why Is He So Bad And Hated?"
― Boards of Komeda (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 October 2013 14:15 (ten years ago) link
cos he has a terribly annoying writing style. music and lyrical work was definitely the right option.
― OutdoorFish, Thursday, 17 October 2013 21:25 (ten years ago) link
LOL . . .http://i.imgur.com/cAiVbnn.jpg?1
― rip van wanko, Friday, 17 January 2014 15:27 (ten years ago) link
Is this real?
http://www.passionsjustlikemine.com/legacy/legacy.htm
― Virginia, Plain and Tall (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 19 February 2014 19:38 (ten years ago) link
!!! official remasters of the troy tate shit??? damn
― sXe & the banshees (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 19 February 2014 19:41 (ten years ago) link
I'm not buying all of these again. Sorry, Smiths.
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 19 February 2014 19:47 (ten years ago) link
It's fake I think. An early April Fools thing or something.
― Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 19 February 2014 19:56 (ten years ago) link