The Miracle of the Smiths

My favourite memory was Andy Rourke's remark on Marr singing a melody line along with Morrissey during a session, saying they sounded like Peters and Lee.

(check the harmonies on Electronic's "Get the message")

ah, this stuff sounds great thus far ... deep smiths immersion begins NOW.

Why I am still so geeked to hear this? I should have grown out of this by now.

drums sound way bigger on this reel around the fountain.

what was Brixton Ace i wonder? never heard of it before.

I think it's the Fridge now.

yeah, all those troy tate mixes are pretty sweet.

Cannot wait to get home tonight to dl these! Figures that the week I quit obsessively checking the blog every day it would finally launch.

never heard the Tate bootleg sound so good as on Accept Yourself here.

yeah i actually compared my copy of the tate sessions to the tracks they've posted and it's a huge improvement.

Figures that the week I quit obsessively checking the blog every day it would finally launch.

In 2010 people aren't using RSS feeds?

Google Reader please.

this is from an eno interview i read yesterday...don't know if it had been suggested prior or whether 'pop in 85' really did mean 'them, the smiths', automatically

...What do you think of modern pop music?

I rather like them, The Smiths. I think they're a good band. I think Morrissey is an extraordinarily arrogant person, especially considering that he's probably the most successful tone-deaf singer the world has ever knows. But that being said, I like his singing quite a lot, and I like their records. I could live without some of his studied miserableness, I suppose.

But I don't listen to records much.

yeah i actually compared my copy of the tate sessions to the tracks they've posted and it's a huge improvement.

These all sound so much better than the Tate sessions I already had...they're almost unbelievably good.

The most thorough examination of all the various different Tate sessions/ demos i've come across is here. I'm glad somebody went to the trouble of working all this out.
http://tinyurl.com/322arwp

This isn't being updated fast enough!
;)

I agree. I thought the concern was with it being taken down quickly. Bizarre to post two in a row then nothing for going on 2 days.

really enjoying the first two singles. finally had a chance to listen to them both in full. hope they end up releasing all of the Troy Tate sessions with this fantastic mastering. Sounds great.

Oh my, two days, lawdy.

The gap between my general indifference towards the Smiths and my love for "Panic" is huge. I actually find "Panic" weirdly moving. Not for any specific sentiment expressed. It's more like being moved by somebody making a perfect, once-in-a-lifetime statement in a two-minute song.

panic is music that says something about me and my life. i don't know what though.

In 2010 people aren't using RSS feeds?

Google Reader please.

Haha, I do use this, but for some reason I've had trouble with blogs I've added in the last 6 months not updating. Think I've fixed it now though.

.. throw me a frickin bone here

was hoping for an update this weekend. not all the interesting in This Charming Man but they may have something interesting. Really interested in Barbarism.

It'll be Charming, plus all the remixes...

(there's been a few unreleased ones)

well in the meantime..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9588NWjagT8&feature=related

morrissey is the str8est looking dude in that freezeframe

A miracle!

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

british parliament looks like an amazing thing

OTM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/dec/15/smiths-queen-is-dead

just turned up on emusic. was their full discography on itunes before? in any event, it appears to be now. if it's new on itunes, also, that's -- to me -- 100X more significant than the beatles arriving on itunes.

http://smithsrecycle.blogspot.com/

Update of sorts.

That thing that that update is about is a real revelation.

about this Smiths Recycle site: I've downloaded the first two sets of songs. Nice to have one or two things I didn't have digitally - a Troy Tate track, 'hand in glove' live. But not sure I yet get the point of it as a whole. The main 'hand in glove' for instance seems the same as the one on Louder Than Bombs.

can anyone enlighten?

It's supposed to be "Superiorly mastered" versions of the singles' main tracks, from best sources. Plus bonus tracks as apposite.

wow, that new update.. never thought we'd ever get to hear Heavy Track and the early run through of There Is A Light.. and suchlike. been waiting for these to leak since i first read Simon Goddard's book in 2002.

Well, that's a matter of opinion.

pretty sure it's a statement.

...easily the most mind-blowing was the discovery of a never-before-mentioned Morrissey/Marr song from 1982 called A Matter Of Opinion.

"Musically, it's very much in the same R 'n' B vein as What Difference Does It Make? while the lyrics are typical Morrissey and quite cynical."

It's not yet known whether the track will be released.
---
Update: 05/25 00:48 GMT: An anonymous person adds details from the print NME:
...while the lyrics are typical Morrissey and quite cynical. The opening line is - "Sit by the fire with your books and pretend that you're active"

But they never played it live and there's just the one copy on a rehearsal tape. It's been kept quiet for nearly 20 years so from a fan's perspective this is sensational news."

...Simon Goddard's The Smiths - Songs That Saved Your Life will be published in November by Reynolds & Hearn
---

i dunno what's more baffling; these unreleased tracks not leaking years back or Marr and Mozza not putting a proper box set out sooner that had them all on.
either way it's amazing to have them out at last.

Selling the music to a major label that's unbothered about legacy editions until US Rock radio do a legacy retrospective, can do that.

i dunno what's more baffling; these unreleased tracks not leaking years back or Marr and Mozza not putting a proper box set out sooner that had them all on.
either way it's amazing to have them out at last.

I agree.

i'm ecstatic with this version of the queen is dead, which i always wanted to be longer than it is.

can anyone explain me

"and so i broke into the palace
with a sponge and a rusty spanner"

why those two things?

spanner: clobber her over the head, sponge: to wipe up after. also because spanner reminds with 'piana'.

of course!

i was in London a few months back and i saw Morrissey on Brompton Road. my head was swimming with shock for about five minutes afterwards.

*rhymes with.

heck this new Smiths bootleg excitement has played havoc with my spelling.

does anyone need/want to hear the francois kervorkian remixes of "this charming man"? i have them here. vocal and dub.

"i broke into the palace with a sponge and a rusty spanner" is a reference to Michael Fagan whose encounter with the Queen was notable for its mundane elements.

From the sources i've read Sony are totally into getting the rare stuff out there, its Morrissey/Marr who can't get their acts together.

I wrote to Johnny Rogan in 1992 and asked him about that verse.

He replied, in a fairly long handwritten letter, that the sponge and spanner were, he supposed, emblems of the proletariat.

I just hear it as two pathetic items with which to attempt a break-in. Whimsy. pathos and a nice turn of phrase seemed enough.