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

"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"

I don't think there's a definitive version of What Difference Does It Make, both are good but have things the other lacks

"Difference" one of my faves, slightly prefer Hatful to debut version. Hatful version is less tidy, more jarring.

I've never heard any Hatful versions of anything

http://i.imgur.com/O6O0nf8.jpg

12. HEAVEN KNOWS I'M MISERABLE NOW (Single A-side)
945 points | 42 votes | 2 first place votes

I've heard this so many times I probably take for granted just how perfect the lyrics to Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now are.

This is one I don't get the appeal of at all. The intro is sort of nice but the rest doesn't really amount to anything.

I was looking for a job then I found a job

That one doesn't wow at first, but does get under yr skin.

A friend at work who's just slightly younger first bought the Strangeways record, which remains his favorite, and worked backwards from there. Did anyone else approach them that way?

I heard a few singles on college radio in 84-85, and I remember seeing Hatful at my local record shop, but it was at a prohibitively expensive import price. So I didn't get into them until my friend got the Queen Is Dead tape right when it came out and I dubbed it. Shortly after I tracked down the first two. I was 16, perfect timing to dive in.

Thought that one would be top ten for sure but 12th is about where I'd place it

Although I ultimately didn't vote for them, I'm happy to see HIG, HKIMN and WDDIM appear in the results.

And speaking of Smiths getting radio play in the US, to this date the only song I've ever heard on my local rock station is "Bigmouth Strikes Again" (yet to come?)

I don't know, I thought The Smiths had done nothing but grow in popularity and stature in the states, but the popular vote results of the last batch of Hall of Fame nominees was shocking. They were 14th/15 with just 0.3% of the votes. It doesn't look good for them ever getting in.

http://rockhall.com/voting/2016-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-nominees-vote/

I remember reading a piece years back about how Morrissey has become kind of a mainstream superstar in Mexico.

Although I ultimately didn't vote for them, I'm happy to see HIG, HKIMN and WDDIM appear in the results.

― lingereffect (Kent Burt), Sunday, March 6, 2016 3:25 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm kind of in love with how incomprehensible this post would be out of context

There's a 'Mexican' Morrissey covers album out this week!

Must we keep doing this?

Another great potential Moz title!

my entire ballot has placed except for two songs, only one of which I expect in the countdown

"Hand in Glove" my #2. "I know my luck too well/and I'll probably never see you again" the quintessential (early) Moz lyric. Two ppl against the world! - even that's doomed not to be.

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

11. PANIC (Single A-side)
949 points | 42 votes

"Cemetry Gates" sounds gorgeous, and I love Moz getting misty reading grave stones, but all that stuff about plagiarism? ehh

Was sure this one would've been top five, even though I didn't put it in my own top 5 when voting. Just seems like one of the key big Smiths songs to me.

but there's always someone, somewhere, with a big nose, who knows

"Panic" is a bit boring, tbh

I'm surprised "Hand in Glove" didn't place higher: did it seem too ubiquitous?

It must have been several years before I noticed how close "Panic" is to the verses of "Metal Guru." I like it, but it's a little too repetitive to be one of my favorite Smiths singles (and I could do without the child singers).

i've been in too many rooms where a whole crowd sings "hang the dj" to consider "panic" boring but i've also been in too many rooms where a whole crowd sings "hang the dj" to vote for "panic"

listening to "shoplifters" again and man, how can people be neutral on this song after the guitar solo

i was bored before i even began!

Heaven Knows has the most blissful guitar lines

Panic is a hit but it's not actually great come on. Tons of bands do this sort of thing way better. Awkward placement imo.

Panic is so much fun.

it's a good song i think

poll of one word smiths titles

stunned that "accept yourself" may have fallen outside the top 50

When will you accept it

i couldn't for the life of me tell you what song that is

Musically, this song is based on T. Rex's glam rock anthem, "Metal Guru." Marr recalled to Les Inrockuptibles in 1999: "When we wrote 'Panic' Morrissey was obsessed with 'Metal Guru' and wanted to sing in the same style. He didn't stop singing it in an attempt to modify the words of 'Panic' to fit the exact rhythm of 'Metal Guru.' He also exhorted me to use the same guitar break so that the two songs are the same!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s1Ra39nh_8

i mean i have a rough time remembering "accept yourself" myself but it's well-loved

http://i.imgur.com/Ju2bSP9.jpg

10. STOP ME IF YOU THINK YOU'VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE (Album track from Strangeways, Here We Come)
962 points | 42 votes | 1 first place vote

I'm not surprised to see 'Panic' place this high, probably one of their best known songs, and the "hang the DJ" coda is absolute perfection.

hey it's my no. 4, and the last of my ballot to place