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

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

I had a few poll titles in mind, including

STOP ME IF YOU THINK WE'VE POLLED THIS ONE BEFORE

LAST NIGHT I DREAMT THAT SOMEBODY POLLED ME

One of the hardest things about running these polls, thinking of a good title

STOP ME IF YOU THINK WE'VE POLLED THIS ONE BEFORE

Ha, love this one.

Good to see 'Cemetry Gates' up this high, although 'Hand In Glove' quite possibly too high.

"Hand in Glove" was my #1. Talk about a calling card.

I'm gonna quote from this fanzine cos it was OTM then (early '84) and still is…

and the beginning of '83 gave us 'Hand in Glove' and, if for no other reason, we should be damn grateful and say 'thank you to the beginning of '83'. Go on, say it... "Thank you, beginning of '83". Unless you're intimately connected to an up and coming band it'll be the first public offering that grabs or misses the nation's ears. 'Hand in Glove' came from absolutely nowhere. […] It fades in, warms, and fades out. "Who the hell were they?"

I love Cemetry Gates & it was in my top 10 but I'm kinda surprised both ended up so high. They both feel sort of minor, but that perfect breeziness is what makes Cemetry Gates so good I suppose.

I'm always so happy to get to Cemetry Gates after the darkness of the previous two songs on The Queen Is Dead. It's my favourite thing about the sequencing on the album.

http://i.imgur.com/LGZOXY7.jpg

13. WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE? (Single A-side | Album track from The Smiths)
875 points | 38 votes | 1 first place vote

Disappointed to see this so high. Never been a big fan.

single version >>>> Hatful version

When people said The Sundays were The Smiths with a girl singer*, I think Cemetry Gates was the song they had in mind.

(*They, of course, were so much more than that.)

hand in glove way too low imo. the riff and the harmonica alone should have been sufficient for top ten

single version >>>> Hatful version

Must we keep doing this? OK: Hatful version >>>>> single version. It was my number one, I'm surprised to discover (I thought I'd put This Charming Man first).

serious highlife guitar sound on "cemetery gates"