IF IT'S NOT LOVE THEN IT'S THE POLL THAT WILL BRING US TOGETHER - ILM Artist Poll #72 - THE SMITHS - RESULTS THREAD

1.Ask
2.This Charming Man
3.There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
4.That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
5.Panic
6.This Night Has Opened My Eyes
7.The Queen Is Dead
8.Bigmouth Strikes Again
9.Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
10.Frankly, Mr. Shankly
11.Sheila Take a Bow
12.Death Of A Disco Dancer
13.Reel Around The Fountain
14.Cemetry Gates
15.Rusholme Ruffians
16.Jeane
17.Well I Wonder
18.I Want The One I Can't Have
19.You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby
20.Asleep

My #1!

I love the story Marr has about designing the music after what he felt the MC5 should have sounded like after he'd finally heard and was disappointed by them.

― Now I Know How Joan of Arcadia Felt (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, March 6, 2016 3:07 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It was my #1, too. Funny, I got into the MC5 around the same time -- shit, now that I remember it, it was the same day -- I got into the Smiths. My brother and I went to the record store where he bought Hatful of Hollow, and I bought Babes in Arms.

I loved "The Queen Is Dead" the moment I first heard it. I already loved the Smiths, and I hadn't necessarily wished for them to rock out more, but hearing them do so blew my mind.

Thanks for doing this, nate!

My ballot:

1. The Queen Is Dead
2. How Soon Is Now
3. Bigmouth Strikes Again
4. What Difference Does It Make
5. This Charming Man
6. William It Was Really Nothing
7. Still Ill
8. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
9. Handsome Devil
10. What She Said
11. These Things Take Time
12. Frankly Mr. Shankly
13. Hand In Glove
14. I Know It's Over
15. London
16. Reel Around The Fountain
17. The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
18. You've Got Everything Now
19. Cemetry Gates
20. Vicar In A Tutu

songs:

How Soon Is Now? (would have been my #2 had I not gotten irritated right before sending my ballot)
This Night Has Opened My Eyes (my actual favorite)
What Difference Does It Make?
Half A Person
Sweet and Tender Hooligan
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
The Queen Is Dead
Bigmouth Strikes Again
London
Shakespeare's Sister
William, It Was Really Nothing
Handsome Devil
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
Meat Is Murder
Girl Afraid
Ask
Is It Really So Strange?
Rubber Ring
Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want

albums:

Hatful of Hallow
The Queen Is Dead
Louder Than Bombs
Meat Is Murder
The Smiths

The songs that fell off the end of my ballot that I desperately wanted to include but couldn't:

A Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours
Asleep
Back To The Old House
Hand In Glove
Oscillate Wildly
Panic
Reel Around The Fountain
The Boy with the Thorn in His Side
This Charming Man

The singer Morrissey is said to be "considering very seriously" an invitation to enter the London mayoral race.

An entry on his semi-official website revealed he had been asked to stand by the Animal Welfare Party.

A statement by the singer on the website said he wanted to speak out "against the hellish and archaic social injustice allotted to animals".
The Animal Welfare Party confirmed it had approached him to represent them.

Animal rights
Vanessa Hudson, the party leader, told BBC London: "We'd like to see the mayoral contest include the views of a candidate who would seek to champion London, not only as a world leading city for people but for animal welfare, too."

Morrissey, who has been vocal on the subject of animal rights and vegetarianism for many years, said in his statement: "What animal protectionists need to say is very well worth saying and well worth hearing.

"But we cannot just sit around waiting for establishment enlightenment. The sanctimonious disaster of animal agriculture cannot be allowed to go on forever, because its widespread impact is hellish."

Morrissey is from Manchester and has lived in London, Los Angeles and Rome.

To be eligible to stand, he would need to be registered to vote in London, or show that he had lived or worked there for 12 months.
A candidate also needs the signatures of 10 registered electors from each London borough and a deposit of £10,000.
Nominations for London mayoral candidates close at the end of March.

So he won't be standing for mayor then.

no.

Thanks so much to Mr. woolls f running the poll.

My ballot:

1
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby
The Headmaster Ritual
Reel Around The Fountain (John Peel version)
The Queen Is Dead
Panic
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Sweet and Tender Hooligan
Sheila Take a Bow
Ask
Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
Is It Really So Strange?
Girlfriend in a Coma
Half A Person
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
I Want The One I Can't Have
Bigmouth Strikes Again
Cemetery Gates
Unhappy Birthday
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
20

"Panic" is still a ton of fun to sing but growing up with the rise of hip-hop and then learning more about the origins of techno combined with the "turn" his lyrics and public persona took makes it really, really hard for me (especially as an African-American) to not hear that song as a racist lynching anthem.

TRACKS:

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
How Soon Is Now?
What Difference Does It Make?
Bigmouth Strikes Again
The Boy with the Thorn in His Side
William, It Was Really Nothing
This Night Has Opened My Eyes
The Headmaster Ritual
This Charming Man
Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now
Shakespeare's Sister
Sheila Take A Bow
Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby
Asleep
Half A Person
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Rubber Ring
Panic

ALBUMS:

Singles
Louder Than Bombs
Meat Is Murder
The Queen Is Dead
The Smiths

1. You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby
2. London
3. I Started Something That I Couldn't Finish
4. There is a Light That Never Goes Out
5. This Charming Man
6. Sweet and Tender Hooligan
7. Ask
8. Some Girls Are Bigger...
9. Cemetery Gates
10. Barbarism Begins at Home
11. The Queen is Dead
12. I Won't Share You
13. Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
14. Bigmouth Strikes Again
15. Half a Person
16. Is It Really So Strange?
17. Back to the Old House
18. Panic
19. I Know It's Over
20. What Difference Does It Make?

ALBUMS

LOUDER THAN BOMBS
THE QUEEN IS DEAD
MEAT IS MURDER
STRANGEWAYS HERE WE COME
THE SINGLES

"Hatful of Hollow" really seems like the great divider--somebody upthread posted a ballot with literally nothing from that record;
I would struggle to find more than half a dozen songs I care about that AREN'T on it...

Yeah my basic conception of The Smiths is Hatful/Bombs/TQID

I've never heard Hatful of Hollow

A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours
Still Ill [Hatful of Hollow version]
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
I Know It's Over
London
Oscillate Wildly
Asleep
Girlfriend in a Coma
Jeane
Unloveable
Reel Around the Fountain [Hatful of Hollow version]
The Boy with a Thorn in his Side
Sweet and Tender Hooligan
You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby
I Want the One I Can't Have
Vicar in a Tutu
Unhappy Birthday
Cemetry Gates
This Charming Man

albums
Louder Than Bombs
The Queen Is Dead
Hatful of Hollow
Strangeways, Here We Come
The Smiths

Hatful of Hollow was the last Smiths' album I bought, so I had already heard all the songs on it except for Handsome Devil and Accept Yourself. Some of the versions are different, but it still never meant too much to me.

"Panic" is still a ton of fun to sing but growing up with the rise of hip-hop and then learning more about the origins of techno combined with the "turn" his lyrics and public persona took makes it really, really hard for me (especially as an African-American) to not hear that song as a racist lynching anthem.

― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Monday, 7 March 2016 16:41 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if it helps, the song that prompted this was Wham's "I'm your man", so it would be that sort of thing..

and I thought they got on so well after their TV interview too

It was because BBC Radio One DJ Steve Wright played "I'm Your Man" straight after a news report about Chernobyl.

Instead of playing the Smiths.

Ha! Yeah, possibly... but mostly because Moz/Marr felt it was so inappropriate. Kinda like playing a U2 song after coming out of a story about some fuckin' dog dying.

Pure indie snobbishness however you slice it though.

morrissey always hated the greeks

"Rembetika is vile"

these guys are from England and who gives a shit
http://i.imgur.com/ByCnnyr.jpg

See, when you come out of those nuclear goddamn disaster stories, man, it's impossible to make those transitions.

Diddly shit! Diddly shit!

Moz sings like a person who has never seen and has no interest in mammary glands.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

people who were bottle fed sing differently?

― sarahell

LOLOLOL

Imagine how things might have turned out had the band been called Smiths!

Could totally imagine Moz in a "Choose Life" shirt, though.

xxp he's interested in protecting the mammary glands of cattle from mechanized human molestation

I say I say I say

Would love if the song were actually about milking a cow.

http://i2.wp.com/contentdope.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/vegetarian-thanksgiving.jpg
"Let me get my paddles on your wobbly waddles ..."

Re-listening to 'The Boy With The Thorn In His Side' again, I love it how Morrissey begins singing on the second chord in the chord progression, as opposed to the first chord where you'd expect the singing to start.

wasn't able to participate in this but thanks for organizing! I'm on tracks 77-75 and they are already awesome.

Tracks 50-48 I mean

ugh

i missed this

never got used to the fact that how soon is now is so loved, likewise with ask

son list would like thusly

20 miserable lie (peel sessions)
last night i dreamt
this night
what difference (hatful)
this charming man (hatful)
barbarism
boy with the thorn
headmaster
stop me
rusholme
nowhere fast
handsome devil (hatful)
london
rubber ring
some girls
still ill (hatful)
bigmouth
i know it's over
asleep
1 there is a light

and out of the albums/comps

hatful of hollow is probably my fave, followed by queen is dead and meat is murder

song*/look*

Just noticed that the Smiths' Complete, which I bought as mp3s and assumed was... complete, doesn't include a few songs! I just heard "Wonderful Woman" for the first time and it's a very pretty song. Maybe not top 20, but certainly top 50

Here is my very consenus-y ballot.

This Charming Man
Ask
William, It Was Really Nothing
Panic
The Boy With a Thorn In His Side
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
Reel Around the Fountain
Bigmouth Strikes Again
Hand in Glove
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
Is It Really So Strange
How Soon is Now?
Cemetry Gates
What Difference Does It Make?
Girlfriend in a Coma
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
Girl Afraid
Frankly Mr. Shankly
Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before

While waiting for the kettle to boil earlier I realised the main riff from What Difference Does It Make is the theme tune from HOW with the beat on a different place in bar.

What is HOW?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XK0RImTvh0

Now soon, is HOW!

Oh wait, it's come back to me now! Haven't thought about that programme for 30+ years!

Fred Dineage is our local news report presenter, so I get to think about HOW! fairly often.

I missed this. People don't like Strangeways nearly enough - I'm with Morrissey and Marr in thinking Last Night I Dreamt is their best song - but god bless Euler for putting A Rush and a Push at #1.

1. Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
2. I Know It’s Over
3. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
4. Rubber Rin
5. Asleep
6. Shoplifters Of The World Unite
7. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
8. Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Know
9. This Charming Man
10. How Soon Is Now
11. Panic
12. Ask
13. Bigmouth Strikes Again
14. A Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours
15. The Queen Is Dead
16. William, It Was Really Nothing
17. Girlfriend In A Coma
18. Nowhere Fast
19. Oscillate Wildly
20. London

Can anyone recommend some good Smiths live shows from the MiM and QiD tours? Also, were they known as a particularly good live act? Never saw them although I was a fan at the time, regret it now.

Nevermind, I got it (Thank Your Lucky Stars, LA 1986; Madrid, 1985)