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

I'm really surprised at all the people who are surprised that some girls didn't place higher. It's my 3rd least favorite song on the album!

lol I had guessed Some Girls was one of the two songs no one voted for because I think it's not very good.

these images are really wonderful btw

Pretty sure Marr said that he and Moz were a unified front, never questioning the other's choices.

This really is reminiscent of an XTC thread. I can't believe so many of the best songs from Meat is Murder have already placed, and pretty low. I guess the title track isn't going to make it then. The title track is the first Smiths song I ever heard, I think I was 10. Really disturbing song, still. Beautifully haunting nonetheless.

the mooing cows were better recorded than some of the instruments

People need to talk about "Half A Person" some more. I hope to learn how a b-side like this accrues 2.5 as many points as a b-side like "These Things Take Time".

I quite like the weariness in Morrissey's voice when he sings "if you *have* five seconds to spare... "

And how he rhymes "sour" with "dour"

xxxpost:

The title track of Meat Is Murder is notorious for being most people's least favourite on the album. I don't consider it a contender at this stage.

Y...WCA

http://i.imgur.com/ocz9JSn.jpg

21. REEL AROUND THE FOUNTAIN (Album track from The Smiths)
708 points | 30 votes | 3 first place votes

my no. 2

way too low jesus christ

I dunno, this one feels like it's in the right place, as much as I like it. A great song that I don't really think they ever did a definitive version of.

It wasn't my #1 track, but in some ways I think Half a Person is The Smiths' finest song. Like, the music here absolutely fits the words (I thought this before I learned that this was pretty much the only one written by Morrissey and Marr together in the same room), and the melody/lyrics are really tightly structured. The chorus is for me their most hummable, and the tune/music when he sings "Sixteen clumsy and shy / I went to London and I..." is almost unbearably poignant. And then the "In the days when you were hopelessly poor, I just liked you more" line is great.

My no. 1 (mostly for the Hatful version); I love how tonally slippery Morrissey's lyrics and vocal performance are here.

Yes, that's way too low. My #2 (Hatful/Peel version, not the studio take.)

it doesn't particularly matter to me that they never recorded it right; there's an uneasiness in the text and music that is imo enhanced by how the verse/chorus relationship never totally works

it's also just so gorgeous and summarizes everything i like about the smiths

"Girlfriend In A Coma" - their worst original composition.
"Shoplifters" and "Sheila" - I'm fond of these, but OK with their placements.
"Some Girls" - 4 first place votes? Y'all are wacky.
"Half a Person" - at least it didn't make top 20.
"Reel" - legitimately too low.

Also soref is otm about the tension in Morrissey's treatment of sexuality; I think of the Smiths, like the Velvets, as a band I latched onto as a teenager in part for their queer subtexts (at the time, I didn't have much access to explicitly queer punk, and I had rpckist ideas about disco that I've since outgrown). I'm not sure, though, how those subtexts signified in the context of the UK in the 80s, though, and how much they colored my listening for more arbitrarily personal reasons.

*rockist, I mean

I don't understand how anyone can read Moz's lyrics as having anything other than a queer subtext....though many have tried.

As a sexually confused teen, the mammary glands line in "Handsome Devil" is exactly the kind of way I would've looked at women whom I was expected to hook up with.

http://i.imgur.com/UD9rJUu.jpg

20. THAT JOKE ISN'T FUNNY ANYMORE (Single A-side | Album track from Meat Is Murder)
733 points | 33 votes

If I were to vote again, this would've been my #1. Over the past couple of weeks, I've realized it's absolutely perfect.

that beautiful chord change under "when you laugh about people"

Hatful version of Reel Around is so beautiful

I didn't vote for it, but I am awfully fond of it. The 20 song limit was tough.

46 seconds in... that whole line is just sublime

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

The best (BEST!) bit is those shimmering chords Marr plays that move from channel to channel and back again. Not as (purposely) funereal as I Know It's Over, but still a solemn bit of music that puts me in a way.

"Half a Person" is the song I point to when people say they hate the Smiths because Morrissey is so dour. "But he's so FUNNY! Listen to this one!"

It never, ever works. Yet I maintain my erroneous course.

It somehow missed my ballot, but a tremendous track. Soaring. I like the almost murmured vocals of "kick them when they fall down... "

'That Joke...' is an absolute favourite of mine... It's one of those songs that grabbed me the first time I heard it and I've never, ever found myself sick of it or bored of it. There's so many wonderful moments in this, both musically and lyrically.

I quite like the play on words in the lyric "it was dark as I drove the point home"

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

19. I KNOW IT'S OVER (Album track from The Queen Is Dead)
779 points | 36 votes | 3 first place votes

Yes that's a beautiful line. Amazing song and far too low. The instrumental reprise-coda makes it even more sublime. Xpost

I know it's over would have been my number one of I had voted.

If I had.

"I Know It's Over" is a masterpiece.

The first Smiths album I owned was TQID, and I Know It's Over was my first favorite Smiths song, so it'll always have a secure place in my heart. I don't always listen to it the whole way through now, though.

I know it's over
And it never really began
But in my heart it was so real

sums up how I feel about my life at this point.

"And as I climb into an empty bed
oh well, enough said"

A straightforward, yet amazing lyric

Too low; it's melodramatic, sure, but in a way that tips over into the sublime.

WHILE THEY'RE IN EACH OTHERS ARMS

I don't know how others hear the "it's so easy to laugh..." portion of the song, but I've long interpreted it as a call not to be hardened and embittered by heartbreak. Which, to me, is especially powerful coming in the midst of one of the great heartbreak songs of all time.

"Cause tonight is just like any other night" is a great line - so biting.

I personally wouldn't say it's too low, but I'm shocked it's not in the top 10.

I was expecting the last three to all place in the top 10. Interested to see whats going to show up next

xp