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

high five to other PAVP #1 voter

That would be me. I'm an unapologetic Strangeways fan, and this song is the peak imo. Great memories also of hearing it live during Morrissey's '97 concert, along with Shoplifters.

I wouldn't really say that Moz wanders around in different keys, at least not on studio recordings

I'd also say that unless you are talking about the poetic use of meter rather than the musical use, he absolutely 100% sticks to meter on every single song I can think of at the moment (although I invite someone to post something where he is doing, for example, a cross-meter 3 relationship against the foundation that the musical arrangement is giving him)

yeah I'm referring to poetic meter - the way his lines don't conform to standard patterns of syllables-per-line, that kind of thing

I just last night watched a thing on Youtube about his solo career and pretty much every one of those collaborators expressed surprise at how he mapped out his lyrics over the musical structures they submitted too. Bless.

on a lot of the strangeways songs his parts are so meandering and loose, it doesn't go against the musical meter but it doesn't really fit either

In Morrissey's recent (by recent, I mean last 20 years I guess) solo stuff he's really got to grips with regular meter and more conventional melodies, and that's partly why a lot of it sounds so dull. His songs almost always follow a straight verse-chorus-verse-chorus pattern, to their detriment.

I've often though that Morrissey approaches his melodies like someone who doesn't know which part was intended to be the verse, the chorus etc. To this day I'm sure that the Marr didn't actually write the verse part of 'The Headmaster Ritual' as the verse.

*thought

I would like to hug the person who voted Last Night #1. It was my #2. It really holds up ... the production is beautiful.

― sarahell, Friday, March 4, 2016 12:33 PM (56 minutes ago)

C'est moi.

I guess Smiths fans would know, but did Marr ever do scratch vocals for demos of his songs before Morrissey got his hands on them. I'd be fascinated to hear something like that.

I've often though that Morrissey approaches his melodies like someone who doesn't know which part was intended to be the verse, the chorus etc.

i'm sure i read somewhere that this is exactly what sometimes happened. marr would give him song sketches and morrissey would put words in all the "wrong" places.

marr would give him song sketches and morrissey would put words in all the "wrong" places

see also: rem (at least sometimes)

Ha, I hadn't actually listened to "Strangeways" in many years. (It was not my favourite but I love "Paint a Vulgar Picture" and like "Stop Me"). I tried listening to "Death of a Disco Dancer" and "Death at One's Elbow", two that never really stuck with me, and I totally see what you guys are saying about the even more pronounced disconnect between the vocals and instrumental music.

(Ha, "Unhappy Birthday".)

"Unhappy Birthday" may be one of the most embarrassing songs ever recorded by a good band

It's not one of Morrissey's finest lyrics, I'll say that much.

http://i.imgur.com/7vuOgs9.jpg

34. WELL I WONDER (B-side of 'How Soon Is Now?' | Album track from Meat Is Murder)
402 points | 18 votes | 1 first place vote

I mean, you have that meandering quality in "Vulgar Picture" too. I guess that one just works for me.

Gorgeous. My #3

I originally complied a list of my top 25 songs. Then I found out only 20 were needed, so I had to cut. This is one that got cut. I love it, though. Still-awake-at-4am music.

"Well I Wonder" never seems to linger long in my mind. Sounds great right now though. I really like "please keep me in mind". Such a modest request.

"Please keep me in mind" turns into 'i don't mind if you forget me' a few years later.

"well i wonder" is the best and i voted for it, probably a great example of morrissey putting the words in the wrong places

gasping, but somehow still alive

"I Don't Mind If You Forget Me" better imo

Love the sounds of a grey dawn downpour at the end.

All solid gold from here to no. 1

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

33. SWEET AND TENDER HOOLIGAN (B-side of 'Sheila Take a Bow' 12")
415 points | 20 votes

TOO LOW

Not solid gold, imo

best line he ever wrote:

ET CETERA ET CETERA

not a favourite of mine, though i do often sing it to my cat

The dancefloor at my local indie disco used to go nuts to this, though iirc. me included.

in the midst of life we are in death etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

"Et-cet-traaaaaa... "

I don't have an awful lot to say about 'Well I Wonder', which has always been a neither-here-nor-there track for me (nice guitar sound, though) but 'Sweet and Tender Hooligan' is fucking awesome.

ET CETERA ET CETERA ET CETERA ET CETERA ET CETERA ET CETERA ET CETERA ET CETERA ET CETERA ET CETERAAAAAAAAAA ET CETERA ET CETERA

TOO LOW

― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Friday, March 4, 2016 1:23 PM (11 minutes ago)

Turrican OTM about both! The intro to "Hooligan" always reminded me of Slash in a weird way.

(A very weird way, considering it was probably released earlier than anything by GnR.)

is the peel session version of this on Louder Than Bombs the only version of this that they recorded? I've never really understood exactly what recording a session for the peel showe entailed, did bands just go into a bbc studio and record it 'as live' in one take?

"et cetera et cetera" bit probably bitten from the fade of this?

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

did bands just go into a bbc studio and record it 'as live' in one take?

No! Well, somebody might have but usually it was recorded as per any other recording session - multiple takes, overdubs etc - but with just one day to do it. I've heard of some bands using pre-recorded material but I imagine that was discouraged.

yeah loads of Peel Sessions stuff v clearly has overdubs, studio editing etc.

I always thought of Peel Sessions as a concerted counter to the miming of TotP. Oh, you have bands pretend to perform? Well, we have bands come in and rerecord their songs.

tbf sometimes bands do entirely new songs

Generally speaking it was a bit frowned upon to do stuff that you'd already recorded and released, unless you were radically re-arranging the material.

man, what a huge fucking loss with John Peel twelve years ago. Only 65. ridiculous

On TOTP you were apparently sent into the studio to re-record your track due to some silly BBC rule, but nobody ever did.

SATH was only ever a BBC session yeah.

highly entertaining how-Peel-sessions-are-made mini-doc here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfwf6JuwYDw

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

32. HANDSOME DEVIL (B-side of 'Hand In Glove')
434 points | 21 votes | 1 first place vote