― Cecilia, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Friday, 22 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
THE VERY BEST OF THE SMITHS: CLASSIC *AND* DUD??
― the pinefox, Friday, 22 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
The cover - how long did it take them to come up with Charles Hawtrey? It's lazy,dull-witted hackwork.
― Dr. C, Friday, 22 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Okay, from 1983 - 1987 I probably had the biggest case of Smithsitis in North America. I hounded the staff of a now-defunct record store in my hometown to drive me 500 miles to see them in Chicago - they complied. I bought everything I could lay my hands on, had people make me PAL- converted videotapes of all TV stuff from the UK and augmented my film and reading lists with every single piece of Angry Young Man filmmaking and writing available to me - in many ways, this 'bands with a syllabus' thing was the Manics' province in the '90s, but it was a great ladder upstairs to places like university, especially for a lot of people who were not from comfortable backgrounds (I'd do you a great big list of European, UK and US musicians and writers but I'd be here a while). There was also a huge radical feminism component to Morrissey, which sat well with the stuff he liked oustide the kitchen sink canon. He also linked me up to Kenneth Anger, Truman Capote, Warhol everything, Derek Jarman, other Manchester bands and oddly enough, this brought me eventually to House music.
To sing (in weird half-step vocals that people like Ofra Haza would later drop into the charts) that the music on the radio had nothing to say to him about his life in 1986 was pretty spot-on considering what actually played on daytime R1 in the days before Detroit and Chicago impacted on the British charts and before the invention of MIDI. How this made a Tamla-Motown lover a racist in the eyes of the press I'll never know (it's borderline reductive to say this, but I'd never be so facile as to call my black friends who only listen to hip-hop racists because of the music they're into).And as much as he hated his one remix, at least it was by François Kervorkian!
People I know now, such as the gay A&R who signed the Smiths to EMI, agreed with me when I posited the theory that Morrissey was one of those closet cases who fancied, but never touched, the men most likely to bash him: beery lads, Latino boys, skinheads, etc. This has become more pronounced the older he's become. If you look at the reccurring fascination for those styles in the fashion world, it's also down to ageing gay creatives literally flirting with dodginess...
Since you guys are dropping Reynolds science to justify your own C or D arguments, I should maybe remind you of something he wrote for Spin in the late '80s. It was about the concept of the pernicious influence, the group a band loves that doesn't let them move forward if they try to emulate them. I seem to recall Smiths being top of the list!
And Johnny Marr? Although he's partially responsible for Oasis being here now (legs-up, same management, yucch) he made the guitar cool in the face of my favourite synth stuff simply because he played it beautifully and never once went for the cheap cock-rock option!
― suzy, Friday, 22 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― d.z., Friday, 22 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
As fer the last stereotype -- when I was an undergrad (early- to mid- nineties), the IT guy where I worked was a big-time metalhead -- though he liked a lot of eighties cheesy hair-metal as well as the good stuff. Big strapping country boy from the mountains of Pennsylvania, even had a pick-up truck. The only alternative/indie/whatever band he liked was the Smiths. Go figure.
― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Saturday, 23 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― X. Y. Zedd, Saturday, 23 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
As we were driving up to the Aragon in baking late-afternoon sun the group emerged; I went all 'driver, STOP THE CAR!' and rushed over to meet my heroes. Luckily, I managed to be blasé about this despite a complete freakout in the car - and weirdly, found Morrissey a bit slow on the uptake. Johnny Marr was hilarious, though - a bit like a chipmunk on speed. Calm in the face of the experience, when I returned to Mininoplace I had to be scraped off the ceiling or forced by my friends to SHUT THE FUCK UP. But I learned:
1. People in groups are not always as clever as you want them to be - or, indeed, as intelligent as they think they are.
2. I possessed the unique ability to perfectly apply liquid eyeliner in a moving vehicle.
The gig was great, by the way.
― suzy, Saturday, 23 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
The fact that John Peel does the voiceover is even more predictable than everything else. Strange to hear his voice again on the old Radio 1 medium wave frequency, though.
― Robin Carmody, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― the pinefox, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― DG, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Since I bought all of the Smiths albums on cassette *far too long ago*, I keep thinking of getting decent replacement copies of them on cd. It would be nice if the albums were all reissued nicely with the b-sides, etc. instead of forcing yet another illogical Best Of on the public.
― Nicole, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― DG, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― ivan mandic, Friday, 10 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Dan Perry, Friday, 10 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― DavidM, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― gareth, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― DG, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Richard Tunnicliffe, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Robert McPherson, Tuesday, 6 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I live in Canada, but my cousin is Adam Clayton. Now there's an over-rated band. Not to mention Daft Punk, you Punky-ass bitch!
― Rob Clarkson, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Graham, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Colin Gates, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Hahahahahahaha yes, this is actually quite true!
― nabisco%%, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Dom Passantino, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
(This is not to justify what the fellow upthread says about anything else.)
― the pinefox, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 21 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 21 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― mark "the s stands for WHAT THE FUCK ELSE COULD I DO THE GOAL WAS WIDE OPEN M'LU, Tuesday, 21 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Jaymeeness, Monday, 16 September 2002 16:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
The Smiths
These Things Take Time is, apparently, a Smiths documentary on Friday 8th November. It's on ITV but only in the Granada, Border and Tyne Tees regions
Don't know about other regions? buy the TV supplements in the Saturday/Sunday papers to check.
― DJ Martian (djmartian), Friday, 1 November 2002 20:27 (twenty-one years ago) link
Also, either way, they're one of the gayest bands ever.
― David Allen, Saturday, 2 November 2002 03:13 (twenty-one years ago) link
I thought that was the formula of the Smiths.. they have ever known for what reasons they have been into music arena. And I also am thinking same thoughts for Manics and the other leading combinations of British Pop. They have always shown the same point, from the direction of every groups own artistic catches and daily routine . So they wanted to show us how capital city could be alianated people by prisoned the person into money based relations, the objection of no-mistake, obeyance for survival and etc. which are not illustrated with the ' freedom of reality '. For these reasons The Smiths and others couldn't have been Punk ever, because i believe they show everyone how to survive as humans in big cities. So new ones are using their terminology as proggressing its argument by placing it to more positively speak-out platform, because new indie-pop generation has much comformitted lives through post-modernism but they (also we) have much complicated future problems. I am offering ' The Queen Is Dead ', to who can't be introduced with The Smiths. It should also be given a chance to Cocteu Twins, Bauhaus, Joy Division and all other post-punk voices of British Island .
― I. Eken (I. Eken), Sunday, 3 November 2002 12:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
This Charming ManWhat Difference Does It Make?Heaven Knows I'm Miserable NowPlease Please Please Let Me Get What I WantHow Soon Is NowShakespeare's SisterThe Boy With the Thorn In His SideBigmouth Strikes AgainThe Queen Is Dead (Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty)Cemetary GatesThere is a Light That Never Goes OutPanicAskShoplifters of the World UniteHalf a PersonSheila Take a BowIs It Really So Strange?Girlfriend In a ComaStop Me If You Think You've Heard This One BeforeSuedeheadHairdresser On FireEveryday Is Like SundayWe Hate It When Our Friends Become SuccessfulThe More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get
(81:26 overburn! chronological by first appearance, missing key classics, but a decent single disc survey)
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 13 November 2003 22:59 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 13 November 2003 23:13 (twenty years ago) link
Then, along came Stone Roses, and UK indie was saviored.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 13 November 2003 23:15 (twenty years ago) link
― typo acapulco (gcannon), Thursday, 13 November 2003 23:54 (twenty years ago) link
― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 13 November 2003 23:56 (twenty years ago) link
Geir, you make my head hurt.
― Manuela Kamosi (mjt), Thursday, 13 November 2003 23:59 (twenty years ago) link
― Ian Johnson (orion), Friday, 14 November 2003 02:26 (twenty years ago) link
― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 14 November 2003 02:27 (twenty years ago) link
― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Friday, 14 November 2003 03:33 (twenty years ago) link
So, classic, then.
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 14 November 2003 03:34 (twenty years ago) link
― ddrake, Friday, 14 November 2003 05:53 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 14 November 2003 13:06 (twenty years ago) link