The Miracle of the Smiths

In the early days he used to insist on being called Steven as he hated Steve so not sure Mark E Smith is being a dick although apparently (according to Marr) there was an official directive issued by Rough Trade around 1983 forbidding the use of his forenames.

Or Johnny Marr, or Mike Joyce, or....

Can't believe a drummer found an old tape of some songs he co-wrote and recorded, in a drum case, and personally paid for a producer to restore them, personally paid for the pressing and distribution of a sure-to-make-him-millions 500 copies, arranged publicity, hired a singer to sing on it, and then DIDN'T hire an unrelated session drummer, who famously charges well beyond his ability, to wipe the drum tracks of his, the original drummer / writer / tape discoverer / project coordinator / investor / record label, own and replace them. What was he thinking???!

Morrissey is an asshole. So sad to read Johnny would have reformed in 08 if not for Moz being a flake and and weirdo.

There doesn't seem to be anything especially assholey or flakey about getting drunk and sentimental, knocking around the idea of doing something, then rethinking it later on.

I mean, Morrissey is self-evidently a massive arsehole and flake, but not for this. Doing a Three Quarters Of The Smiths reunion would be a bad idea, and almost certainly have fallen apart long before the end.

Trying to unpick part one of that, but failed. My orig post was about how daft the "We decided not to ask Morrissey" bit like it was up to them if they'd let him do it. For what its worth, it doesn't seem to be anything like The Smiths..

Part two and three are completely OTM, btw.

I think there are many reasons why it would be a bad thing.

I don't think it would 'piss on the legacy', I don't think it would be bad per se.

I just think there are better things to do.

Re a couple of points upthread: I think the only time you can hear the influence of the NY Dolls in the Smiths is "Lonely Planet Boy" in "There Is a Light".
And Edwyn Collins said in interviews at the time that "The Artisans" was about Orange Juice.

Maybe he meant that it was "about Orange Juice" being replaced as critical darlings by the Smiths.

Yep, there's no way OJ would have actually said "this is about The Smiths".

"It's Too Late" is a New York Dolls song that has a lyric that is a bit Morrisey-like. Even mentions Diana Dors!

"No Reply" is basically a Smiths song. tell me you can't hear Morrisey singing "i nearly diiiiied"

This happened once before
When I came to your door
No reply
They said it wasn't you
But I saw you peep through your window
I saw the lie, I saw the lie
I know that you saw me
As I looked up to see your face
I tried to telephone
They said you were not home
That's a lie
'Cause I know where you've been
I saw you walk in your door
I nearly died, I nearly died
'Cause you walked hand in hand
With another man in my place

Nah, that's more The Wedding Present.

I always saw no reason for Morrissey & Marr to not reform under that handle and not The Smiths - there would be no need to involve Bruce & Rick, plus the emphasis could be on a fresh beginning w/ new material rather than a straight reunion, plus it sounds better than something like 'The Tears'.

Well, no real reason other than Morrissey in general

a *new* Smiths release!

http://true-to-you.net/sites/default/files/screenshot_20161129_180942.jpg

weird time to put it out. seems more like your 'record store day' thing. maybe the beginning of some 'proper' reissues? deluxe jobs and what have you? i know Moz was keen for a TQID anniversary edition that never materialized. who can say?

http://www.nme.com/news/music/smiths-release-new-single-featuring-two-unheard-tracks-1882407

Tie in with recent Johnny Marr book?

see the Morrissey Solo site for plenty of scuttlebutt

Morrissey likes to reissue his solo songs for no particular reason as 7"s so nice to see he's still keen on The Smiths

I don't really see the point in reissuing deluxe versions of their output since Marr has remastered everything recently and apparently they released everything they produced at the time so there's no unreleased stuff left...

complete Peel/BBC sessions would be nice, can't believe they've never been issued on CD/vinyl in full. supposedly either Marr or Moz wanted the Troy Tate version of the album released at some point, maybe that'll see the light.

xpost -- and then it turns out there's two albums worth of unreleased funk sex jams. (Okay maybe not.)

ah ! I would by that !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_T1NE4Q2BI

am i mistaken in thinking that marr recorded instrumental demos for morrissey to write to? have any of those ever surfaced?

hum. that would be cool indeed. but I guess the demos were just basic recordings on cassette or something. I doubt they even kept these...

but if they existed that would be interesting since Marr has said often that Moz kept turning things around, making verses with choruses and vice versa.

yeah, i guess i remember marr saying he'd give morrissey like a really complex set of chord changes and morrissey would pick out sections and simplify? maybe I'm making that up...

might not be worthy of release, but would be cool to hear anyway.

does moz bark in that video?

there's this of course which is pretty much an instrumental demo that Moz never got round to singing over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8sBAvfM4sY

ha, yeah, i'd listen to an hour of that kind of thing!

That's wonderful, thanks for posting it piscesx

Would've been fascinated by things like that "Fast One" clip in the 90s. Now not so much. It sounds like 2-bar segments of actual Smiths songs edited together to make an imaginary one. I don't mean it's fake, but they probably did the right thing not taking stuff like this further.

I didn't know this Smiths demo. it's pretty good and reminded me of this thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa5sQuU2YjM&list=PLpAH3kPpftqrrufLr5Ei_EM_Z-i0qwAEI&index=7

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/the-smiths.jpg

ey up

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2017/07/19/smiths-there-is-a-light-that-never-goes-out-take-1/

"This site can’t be reached

www.slicingupeyeballs.com’s server DNS address could not be found."

Google cache has the page but the same news is on the band's fb page:

https://www.facebook.com/TheSmithsOfficial/posts/10154956732592683

Wait, what!?

(from that FB page):

https://scontent-ams3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/20155585_10155291251880225_9077061206948731071_n.jpg?oh=89e6419c6c006dfe8b20cbd49e64111b&oe=5A0C6A65

Ok, officially announced 2 days ago:

http://www.stereogum.com/1952454/details-of-the-smiths-the-queen-is-dead-super-deluxe-edition-revealed/news/

Alseep? Is that an alternative version of Asleep?

I would assume that those B-sides are just the original tracks, except (here's hoping) Rubber Ring/Asleep might segue into each other to lovely effect as they did on the original 12" – not released since.

Plus there's a DVD of the Jarman film/s and some live gig or other

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/the-smiths-the-queen-is-dead-reissue/

Not sure why a new master needed making of an album that was remastered only a few years ago but still

Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package!
Re-evaluate the songs

Really wish they had released Salford 86. Check out Frankly, Mr Shankly from that show. This is the year the album got released, and the crowd go crazy for a random album track. Incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYeRMrz4pC8

31 years ago today!

Demos - meh. What I want is a complete Peel sessions!

2017 master? Does this mean this is different from the remastered discography that was released a few years ago? That's my least favorite reissue strategy, the unnecessary re-remaster, like the nu-Sgt. Pepper, and the upcoming Pet Shop Boys.

Yeah,but people be buying it for the demos.

And the 'segued together' Rubber Ring/Asleep. It must be. Surely.

The re-remaster is just a bonus.

Just seen this factoid on the Facebook (Simon Reynolds just wrote an article about the TQID reissue and it was in reply to his post)

"Possibly my favourite little thing about TQID is the way Marr lets us know that "Cemetry Gates" is about Linder by borrowing the riff from Ludus' "Patient" as the intro/outro."

Is this a stretch? I kinda hear it in the bass but I'm not totally convinced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYo38Dy2lGM

listening to this via streaming only, not positive this is a remaster beyond the one from a couple of years ago. also, at least via apple music, the 'full version' of the queen is dead isn't the one that was slipped out on that nice leaked bootleg a few years ago, which had a very extended intro; other than not having the bar song on it I'm not even sure what's different about this track. The demos are interesting but they're very very slick demos, to the point where some, I think, might be the same as used on the album just stripped of some tracks and production? anyway: I'm not buying this for $100 or whatever.

Stephen Street said they were rough mixes, not demos. I took the distinction to be that the main parts of the finished track are all there, but the mixing/overdubs hadn't been done.

ah, that makes sense. that is exactly what they seem to be. are they interesting? yeah, I suppose.

they still hsould have put that long ass version of the title track on there though.

Steve H forum seem to think that Frank Arkwright/Marr weren't involved on this and that Moz is now back in charge of reissues etc?
Surely the complete BBC sessions/ Troy Tate mixes are next?

Anyway the TQID 'demos' are mostly pretty pointless imo but the artwork is nice; amusing to see this as the inside cover artwork

https://www.morrissey-solo.com/data/attachment-files/2017/10/40937_Smiths-800x530.jpg