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

I love the feeling of the chorus in Girlfriend in a Coma, and voted for it. It's effortlessly catchy but no way is it better than Asleep.

In terms of tracks from this album, it's probably mid-table for me, below 'Death of a Disco Dancer' and 'Stop Me...' etc.

It ended up being the highest I put anything from Strangeways, which surprised me. Listening to it again I didn't find the atmosphere of Last Night I Dreamt or Death of a Disco Dancer as engaging as I'd thought, though I voted for those as well.

This was the last song I cut off my list. Happy to see it place.

― Kitchen Person, Saturday, 5 March 2016 15:20 (42 minutes ago) Permalink

Asleep was mine too. Great song, but I can't vote for a Smiths song without guitar

http://i.imgur.com/Unihgk2.jpg

28. RUBBER RING (B-side of 'The Boy with the Thorn in His Side' 12")
549 points | 26 votes | 1 first place vote

Great song

Asleep is generic Smiths to me. Well I Wonder is prettier.

One of their best. Book mentions shared tempo with "Green Onions," then a shift in key and a more disjointed, Chic influenced funk and wraithlike strings.

Among the most original and emotionally potent tracks of their career, the title was Morrissey's metaphor for The Smiths' repertoire, as perceived by their most ardent admirers who were emotionally dependent on his every word...

..his ruthless rebuke 'hear my voice in your head and think of me kindly' assumes an unsettlingly spectral timbre; a haunting reprimand from the other side. Morrissey's own voice from the dead is echoed in the sample culled from an obscure EP originally distributed with Dr Konstantin Raudive's 1971 book Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment In Electronic Communication With The Dead...

On the 12 inch, this was blended together with "Asleep." It's too bad these and some of the other singles weren't included on TQID.

whoever gave "rubber ring" a first place vote: i like your ideas

You are sleeping, you do not want to believe, you are sleeping

this poll makes me feel so basic, i really went with the classics. great to discover new songs!

'Rubber Ring' was in my top five. Absolutely top stuff.

For an essay written for my college freshman comp course, I cited the lyric in "Rubber Ring" about the pop scene to decry '90s radio. I had particular distaste for "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough."

My #1!

Only Morrissey could self-mythologize like this. "I'm a god to melodramatic teenagers, but lots of melodramatic teenagers grow up/become well-adjusted. HOW DARE THE INGRATES." The voice kind of reminds me of some of Shakespeare's sonnets—the poet saying "you are only redeemed by ME, so credit where it's due."

Otm; it's probably my favorite self-conscious address to the the listener in the Smiths' discography because its self-memorializing is so ridiculously grandiose, even by Morrissey's standards.

Also god that double-stop in the bass in the verse. And the guitar line under the chorus. And the fact that the chorus "hook" is just Morrissey mumbling nonsense syllables. What a song.

the strings!

or is it a single cello? I haven't heard it in ages.

http://i.imgur.com/vcNh8XU.jpg

27. YOU JUST HAVEN'T EARNED IT YET, BABY (Album track from The World Won't Listen)
567 points | 23 votes | 3 first place votes

if you're wondering why...

my #1 -- the peak of '80s jangle.

Btw, the illustration here for "Girlfriend in a Coma" is perfect.

Love "Rubber Ring" - an insecure Morrissey projecting into a future where his fanbase has outgrown his bedsit miserablism; "I'm holding the torch in the corner of your room - Can you hear me?!"

When "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby" got some discussion in the nominations thread, I listened to it and kind of scoffed at the idea that someone would rate it that highly. I just listened to it again, more closely this time, and you know what, it is pretty great. For some reason it never made a strong impression before now.

This one and London still sound great decades later. Or rather, they sound better to me than some of the songs that I loved as a teen/early 20-something largely for lyrical content and affect.

TOO LOW! (My #2)

http://i.imgur.com/z7eSPTV.jpg

26. GIRL AFRAID (B-side of 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now' 12")
581 points | 25 votes | 3 first place votes

For all the naysayers, the "Girl Afraid" intro pretty much demonstrates Marr's virtuosity. And for anyone that would use a lesser word, congratulations, you, too, must be a virtuoso.

BTW, this poll has sent me back to some bootlegs and man, dysfunctional or no, the band was super tight at the end of its run. You'd think a lot of these songs would be tough to play live, and maybe they were, but they all sound great.

I'm loving how many B-sides/non-LP tracks we're getting in a row here!

As I've said before, Marr has created some wonderful guitar work over the years, but I certainly wouldn't describe him as a virtuoso.

barbarism begins on ILM

does it really matter in terms of everyone here's discovery/experience of the band whether a song was a "B-side"? Hatful, Louder than Bombs, and World Won't Listen were widely available comps that I feel like people considered the equivalent of "albums." And The Smiths got next to no American radio play while they were active, so the single vs. b-side/album track distinction wouldn't be meaningful in terms of that aspect of experiencing the band.

^ this

I imagine it may have been a different story depending on where you grew up, but in America there wasn't any real distinction between what was a Smiths album and a Smiths compilation. B-sides are every bit as familiar to me as album cuts, and probably more so because I listened to Louder Than Bombs more than anything else.

xx-post

Honestly, who cares if he's a virtuoso? I have no idea (nor do I care) if a guitar bit requires skill to play or not.

Does it sound good? Most of the time it does, yes.

love rubber ring, one of those songs i just like more and more as time goes by

I got Hatful and World Won't Listen as well, as I was a completist as a teen, though to be honest, I probably listened to the mixtapes I made of my favorite Smiths songs more than any one album or comp.

And The Smiths got next to no American radio play while they were active,

this is not true. i lived in a place called Los Angeles and they have a radio station called KROQ. the Smiths were one of their biggest bands and they played every single and even some album tracks.

several xposts

One edgy station in LA does not equal "American radio play."

No, I don't think it particularly matters. Sure, I don't consider those compilations to be "proper" studio LP's (which they aren't) but I don't have a problem with so many B-sides/non-LP tracks placing - as I said, I'm loving it... it demonstrates the consistency of the bands output.

(many x-posts)

Wish I would've voted for Rubber Ring. If I leave The Smiths for a while and come back, it's one of the songs I never pair with its title all that easily, but it's a brilliant song!

Girl Afraid was my #1, JIC otm regarding Marr's guitar on this track, absolutely stunning

it's one of the songs I never pair with its title all that easily,

yeah, going through the list, that was one of those, "what song is that again?" and at first I'd thought it was an instrumental

B-sides are every bit as familiar to me as album cuts, and probably more so because I listened to Louder Than Bombs more than anything else.

xpost The reason I keep bringing up the virtuoso thing is I think it's key to Marr's compositions. They're so distinctive and original and imo inimitable because he is so remarkably skilled and creative. "Girl Afraid" in particular, no one else would have done that, or anything close to that. Same for many Smiths tracks. Like someone like, I dunno, Robert Fripp, his virtuosity is similarly inextricable from his songwriting. It's more than just "wonderful guitar work." Save that looser complement for John Squire or Bernard Butler or something.

I have to admit, though, I haven't given much thought to how Americans perceived this band. I always assumed they were very much a cult concern over there at the time, far more so than here.

sarahell OTM about the compilations. Although quite a lot of the b-sides from around TQID and beyond are somehow discernably b-side-like, in a way that doesn't apply with the earlier singles. (Aside from perhaps "Wonderful Woman", which sounds exactly like a b-side.) "Rubber Ring" is the only one of the last few tracks that was close to being a contender for me.

xpost:

I wouldn't consider John Squire or Bernard Butler to be virtuosos either, fwiw.