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

this was probably their most popular song in America.

Would love to hear posters' queen stories listening to the Smiths.

Wait, 'William, It Was Really Nothing' hasn't placed yet, has it? Definitely hoping to see that one in the Top 15!

The Smiths were really good at making lullabies for the disenchanted.

queer! I hate Autopost.

A big song for me. This song really shaped my mind at 12-13 and perhaps for the worse but I still love it.

I can think of about 13 songs which are guaranteed to place in the next batch, the other 2 I'm not so certain of. Given the way this poll has gone so far, the order is a hell of a mystery.

Another weird thing about The Smiths and how they were heard in the States in the '80s: To many people, they're "The band that had songs in those John Hughes movies".

I was 16 when I bought my first Smiths album (because I HAD to own "How Soon Is Now?" which I'd heard on MuchMusic). Driving home with my parents with Meat Is Murder in hand, I feverishly read the lyrics over and over in the back seat. It was as if a secret society had admitted me entrance - a life-altering event (literally, "the songs that saved your life"). I have forgiven Morrissey many missteps in the 30ish years hence because of that day.

That's a particularly solid stretch of tracks since #21 IMHO.

Also: great images, btw, Johnny Fever! (I have images turned off and only just caught up with a huge batch!)

Please is so short, but long enough.

Poor Ducky.

First time I ever heard Please was, almost with 100% certainty, The Dream Academy's instrumental cover that plays during the museum scene in Ferris Bueller. When I found out it was a real song with words, I was elated.

I was 16 when I bought my first Smiths album (because I HAD to own "How Soon Is Now?" which I'd heard on MuchMusic). Driving home with my parents with Meat Is Murder in hand, I feverishly read the lyrics over and over in the back seat. It was as if a secret society had admitted me entrance - a life-altering event (literally, "the songs that saved your life"). I have forgiven Morrissey many missteps in the 30ish years hence because of that day.

― lingereffect (Kent Burt), Saturday, March 5, 2016 7:42 PM

I felt much the same about TQID when I was about thirteen. More recently, I had Hatful and especially "Accept Yourself" practically on repeat the last few months before starting to transition, because I guess I have no sense of irony.

Because I do have a sense of shame, though, I'm relieved that no traces of the excruciating Morrissey pastiches I wrote in high school survive.

lol I wrote a review of Your Arsenal for the high school paper and thankfully can't find a copy

"I Know It's Over" would have been the other one of my top two tracks had I voted.

Just catching up with today. Shoplifters was my #1, You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby was my #2.

For me, the part about living in the real world instead of a shell is the quintessential Smith moment. Very cool riff too. I was pleased to see that Morrissey himself agrees with me.

I'm surprised it wasn't top ten. it was technically the first smiths song I heard (via jeff buckley)

xpost

So many of the songs that placed today I was certain would be in the top 10, especially Please Please Please Let Me, Reel Around The Fountain, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore, Still Ill and Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others.

I've just about given up hope of my number one making it now.

Genuinely baffled by the Some Girls... love. Three number ones?!

it's my favorite queen is dead song

Forgot how good "Still Ill" is. It's not a very flashy song, but relistening to it, it's so tight and the lyrics are great. Should've found room for it on my ballot

"Sheila Take a Bow" was my #1. Part of the charm of the Smiths is that they never seemed to write a perfect pop song without slightly fucking it up somehow, but "Sheila" is as close as they ever got in my book. The crunchier than usual guitar and unusual concision remind me a bit of the Pixies on this track.

My entire top 5 hasn't placed yet. Happy to be part of the consensus!

wow, still ill way to low!

If someone were to ask me to play them one Smiths song to encapsulate everything I love about the band, this would be my pick.

agree completely, and with the rest of JRN's post too. i'm always in the mood for still ill

This Night Has Opened My Eyes is my favorite Smiths song. The pain in the lyric combined with that chord progression is simply magic, plus the removal of melodrama really drives home the pathos of the story. It's just a simple, beautiful song about a difficult situation and I genuinely think that you are emotionally broken if you can't connect with it.

I voted it #2 because of a fit of pique about people talking shit about How Soon Is Now?

just listened to Girl Afraid again, and remembered that another amazing thing about it as how it's always shifting. at the very beginning, after the intro, almost any band would repeat that first phrase (up through "...or does he even have any?"), but they just hurtle straight through a transitory phrase (that is maybe actually the chorus, if the song has one?) and then back to the beginning guitar ilnes. i love songs that feel like they have no beginning or end. there's a way to achieve that effect using repeated figures/drones, but the even more impressive way to pull it off is to have the song constantly feel like it's reaching toward something, never settling for too long. it's 2:46 but it feels so much shorter, it just flies by.

Also makes me think of surf music for some reason.

ha Dan I did the opposite, HSIN is my fave because I guess I'm so basic, so I kicked it down a few notches and voted This Night as my #1 to give it a boost. It was never a standout back when Hatful of Hollow was in constant rotation (my ballot was basically the entirety of Hatful, that one has always been quintessential Smiths for me, official album or not) but listening to it again last week it just seemed so haunting and, like you said, restrained.

i'm surprised those last five weren't all at least five places higher each considering what's still to come

That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore was my #3. Fantastic song and far too low at 20

I'm worried about "Accept Yourself" :(

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

yeah but "I made my own mixtapes from compilation albums" does not equal "nobody on ILX ever bought or considered the singles of this band"

That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore was my #3. Fantastic song and far too low at 20

Agreed. It was my #4. Can't believe it didn't get any number one votes.

"Still Ill" was my #1. I never considered anything else for the spot. If someone were to ask me to play them one Smiths song to encapsulate everything I love about the band, this would be my pick.

I hear you. It was my #3 but could easily have been my number one.

Disappointing results to be honest. Can't imagine a strong top 10 at this point.

I dunno, there's still quite a few big songs yet to come: 'Panic', 'This Charming Man', 'How Soon Is Now', 'Stop Me...', 'There Is A Light...', 'Bigmouth Strikes Again', 'William, It Was Really Nothing', 'The Queen Is Dead' etc.

'What Difference Does It Make', too.

hands on mammary glands, Moz pretending to be horny, etc

This song is a little confusing. Except for the chorus, it mostly sounds to me like he's singing to a man. Assuming that Morrissey knew what mammary glands are, either the perspective keeps shifting or the point is that he's pretending.

Also on this note:

Moz pretending to be horny,

God, how sex implores you to let yourself lose yourself!

Right, let's do this!

http://i.imgur.com/7t6X2CK.jpg

15 (TIE). HAND IN GLOVE (Single A-side | Album track from The Smiths)
836 points | 35 votes | 1 first place vote

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http://i.imgur.com/1tpW5D7.jpg

15 (TIE). CEMETRY GATES (Album track from The Queen Is Dead)
836 points | 40 votes | 4 first place votes

I left Hand In Glove off my ballot and immediately regretted doing so, it's perfect.

It's not on my ballot
while "Cemetery Gates" is onnn miiinnne

So good.

this was probably their most popular song in America.

― sarahell, Sunday, March 6, 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wait, what?!

xxp Yeah, there are plenty of big songs left but the truly essential shit (Reel Around the Fountain, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore and now Hand In Glove) already placed.

Hello, I woke up with "we can POLL about it now but at the time it was terrible" in my head.

should have been 'POLL is a four-letter word' as recompense for that song cruelly receiving no votes