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

I think that's the song and album which made Christgau intimate that they were proto-Gamergate nerd-bullies.

Should have titled this poll "I was looking for a POLL and then I found a POLL, and heaven knows I'm miserable POLL!!!"

Nowhere Fast is one of the songs with a Peel session version that never saw official release: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L-Fg6XWT9w. Less lively and doesn't have the brilliant guitar bits in the middle eight, but has a throatier vocal.

Was trying not to embed the youtube clip there. Guess I fucked it up.

I'm up to my ears in work deadlines or I'd do it – would someone consider assembling a Spotify playlist of the rollout?

Really nervous that "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" won't place...

can't imagine that there are 42 Smiths tracks ilm rates above 'This Night Has Opened My Eyes', I wouldn't worry about it

Just catching up. First of all - thanks to whoever posted the youtube link to the 1984 gig in Hamburg where Johnny Marr takes off his guitar and starts dancing around to Barbarism Begins At Home - brilliant. I ended up watching almost the whole gig and not going to bed until stupid o'clock. I was glad (I don't know why) that when they played Pretty Girls Make Graves he did the 'Hand in gloooove...the sun shines...' bit at the end that's on the record.

Secondly, I always assumed those lines in Suffer Little Children were about Hindley and Brady being haunted by their victims. I'd never considered any other possibility, but what I've read here has got me thinking.

Thirdly - just remembered how much I love These Things Take Time, but can't remember if I even voted for it. Need to check.

Really nervous that "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" won't place...

I am only nervous that it won't be in the top 2

immediately after i sent off my ballot i regretted not making "this night" my no. 1

my no. 1 is really weird anyway

xp Well that's reassuring.

This Night... will definitely place. I put These Things Take Time as my no.20, it turns out.

http://i.imgur.com/xJQWNTP.jpg

43. BARBARISM BEGINS AT HOME (Album track from Meat Is Murder)
310 points | 17 votes

Surprised at how low that one is

yeah less than 1 in 4 ballots seems low

TOO LOW!

idg what's so special about This Night Has Opened My Eyes, a song that has never left an impression w me

First of mine to place and what Turrican said

"barbarism" just missed my ballot. it is funky as hell

Love Morrissey's yelps on this track

I love how Morrissey's lyric says so much but in so few words.

TBH, I can totally see most being fond of "Barbarism" while not struggling to find twenty songs they like more. It is a bit monotonous [in the most literal, not-necessarily-disparaging sense] and atypical after all.

Well, it's their version of funk, and funk is kinda meant to be
repetitive!

http://i.imgur.com/a2kC5h2.jpg

42. DEATH OF A DISCO DANCER (Album track from Strangeways, Here We Come)
350 points | 18 votes | 1 first place vote

xpost:

I do agree that it's atypical, though. I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking "fuck, I didn't expect this!"

TOO LOW, AGAIN!

'Death of a Disco Dancer' is wonderful, IMO, and easily one of the highlights of that album. I love Morrissey's vocal melodies throughout and I often feel this one gets overlooked.

I really can't articulate why so many of the Strangeways songs went from "cool, a gateway into a new band" to "oh my god I would rather murder myself than listen to this" for me but I am trying to give "Death of a Disco Dancer" a fair shake right now and I am literally feeling my skin crawl, the urge to turn it off is so strong. The weird thing is that I can tell objectively that my phobic reaction to the song is wholly out of step with anything happening in the song itself; it's really not THAT bad! But my entire body is screaming "STOP TORTURING ME" at me while I listen to it. I can't explain why.

(especially considering that I still really enjoy "A Rush and A Push..." and, in certain moods, "Stop Me...")

Playing catch-up here, two comments:

1. I'm in the soref camp on the interpretation of "Suffer Little Children": I've always assumed that "we will haunt you when you laugh" etc. was directed at the parents. In fact I never considered that it might be directed at the killers. Thinking about it now, I'm guessing my tacit assumption was that Brady and Hindley must have been psychopaths, and therefore unlikely to feel haunted by what they did. The parents, on the other hand, absolutely would be haunted forever. The lyric always struck me as a bit cruel for that reason, as well as extremely, almost unbearably poignant.

2. It's interesting to me that people are so split on "Nowhere Fast", with some saying it's one of the band's best and others saying it's never made a strong impression. I'm firmly in the latter group: when it placed I had to look it up to remember how it went. I wonder how many other songs in the poll will get reactions like tat.

"death of a disco dancer" is amazing

love peace and harmony?
oh, very nice, very nice, very nice, very nice
but maybe in the next world

Pretty sure "Disco Dancer" was the only track from Strangeways to make my ballot. Love Morrissey's vocals on that one.

Surprised at how low the last two are, voted for both and had Death of a Disco Dancer at #6.

Strangeways came out about a month after the breakup was announced if I recall (or maybe us Yanks were late to get the news?), and that fact might have affected my perception of it. It felt like a band technically at the peak of their powers, but trying too hard to do something different, and ending up a bit of a dull dirge. All these years later I recognize "Death of A Disco..." "Last Night..." and a couple others as good, but will never get near my top 20.

great images btw

xxp

(or maybe us Yanks were late to get the news?)

I remember thinking, "Cool, a new album! Hope they tour!" So yeah, we (or at least, the less-hip of us) didn't hear about the breakup until well after the album was out.

"death" and "last night" are all about build and atmosphere in a way i think they were aiming for throughout their career, but they kinda perfected it on those songs imo

'Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before' is one of their five best songs for me.

but i voted strangeways as my no. 1 album so imo don't trust me

Didn't Marr basically break up the band the moment the album was completed? I understand things had been simmering for a while, no doubt helped along by Morrissey's attitude to managers and not bothering to turn up for the 'Sheila Take a Bow' shoot.

The guitar in "Death...." reminds me of Gang of Four.

"death" and "last night" are all about build and atmosphere in a way i think they were aiming for throughout their career, but they kinda perfected it on those songs imo

agreed. Listening to a bunch of their songs the other day with middle-aged person ears and deciding i liked some of the songs I had loved as an adolescent less now because of production-related stuff (e.g. a lot of songs on the self-titled debut), and then listening to those two and liking them more.

"Nowhere Fast" was the last song I cut but maybe I should have kept it. Love Marr's layers on that.

I guess the thing with "Nowhere Fast" - why I ended up cutting it and maybe why people are divided on it - is that it has a great guitar part and lyrics but there is not much to it melodically.

Didn't vote but catching with it now.

Almost always listen to this group - if at all - through its compilations.

The stuff on Strangeaways is a bit out of place and just off, Marr's spiky guitar picking etc.

http://i.imgur.com/X2erEfa.jpg

41. STRETCH OUT AND WAIT (B-side of 'Shakespeare's Sister' 12" | Album track from The World Won't Listen)
361 points | 17 votes | 1 first place vote

oh, I'd hoped this would place higher. did they ever record anything more joyful than this track?

It's so much better than the A-side it isn't even funny.

'Shakespeare's Sister' remains one of those Smiths tracks that has never really grabbed me, in all honesty. See also: 'Shoplifters Of The World Unite'