"Im a child of the 90s, so I wasnt there, but were the Smiths an influence at all?"
If you're talking about an influence on British UK indie-rock, most definitely. But if you're talking about Nirvana/American indie-rock, I'd have to say probably not. Most Americans didn't identify with Morrissey's British wit. His lyrics are pretty friggin' indecipherable to us Yanks. If you ask me, the four primary influences on American indie rock were the Replacements, R.E.M., Dinosaur Jr., and Sonic Youth.
"And they werent really alternative were they?"
No. They weren't. They're only called that because they put their records out on an independent label.
"Weren't they huge in England?"
I think so.
― Evan, Saturday, 2 November 2002 21:51 (twenty-one years ago) link
― David (David), Saturday, 2 November 2002 21:58 (twenty-one years ago) link
― esiotrot, Sunday, 3 November 2002 00:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 3 November 2002 00:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
I was that bastard in your school who wore a Smiths shirt every day to class. I wrote "Morrissey" on the board before the teacher arrived. I was the fellow who wrote the birth and death dates of Ian Curtis on the board. Sue me, but The Smiths are certainly up there above the all the bands you mentioned. ILM, it seems.
― Quite obvious long-time poster, Sunday, 3 November 2002 00:53 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Daniel (dancity), Monday, 4 November 2002 12:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Daniel (dancity), Monday, 4 November 2002 12:53 (twenty-one years ago) link
I remember Morrisey saying in an early interview that rock music was basically dead, in that there was nowhere else for it to go but to keep reinventing previous versions of itself, but that he had found the last little corner of the culture that could genuinely be 'new'. or words to that effect.
It was precicely the uniqueness of the Smiths' approach - and in particular, it's effete, sensitive, poetic, 'old England' 'take' on the contemporary 'alternative' themes of urban bleakness, imminent apocalypse/individual isolation - that made it matter to so many of us.
And it was for precisely those reasons that it was also a dead end. The only ways in which the Smiths had a lasting influence (yes, Johnny Marr's Byrdisms) were those that could 'fit' with a re-entrant rockist conservative macho suffering guitar god 'alternative' music that is really indistinguishable from the mainstream. in other words, Morrisey was right.
― jon (jon), Monday, 4 November 2002 13:19 (twenty-one years ago) link
you can't a lot of this seriously really.
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 4 November 2002 13:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jon (jon), Monday, 4 November 2002 13:59 (twenty-one years ago) link
The only band I can think of who actually sounded like they were influenced by the Smiths were the Wedding Present. It's hard to imagine David Gedge's long song titles and conversational Northern 'wit' without Morrissey.
― James Ball (James Ball), Monday, 4 November 2002 15:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
a distinction between rock and pop and indie required. thanks.
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 4 November 2002 15:18 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 4 November 2002 15:30 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 4 November 2002 15:49 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 4 November 2002 15:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 4 November 2002 16:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Anna (Anna), Monday, 4 November 2002 16:40 (twenty-one years ago) link
― christoff (christoff), Monday, 4 November 2002 16:44 (twenty-one years ago) link
Sonic Youth?MBV?
― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 06:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
What, no double pack, photograph, extra track or tacky badge? We wuz had!
― Charlie (Charlie), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 06:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
I'd include The Sundays here as well -- at least on their first album. A lot of bands tried the jangly-Marr guitar route, but Gavurin's playing appears to me as a sort of refinement to this style. Meanwhile, Wheeler's take on Englishness in her lyrics are somewhat akin to Morrissey's, although I wouldn't necessarily postulate direct in***ence.
― OleM (OleM), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 12:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
The penguin classics autobiography cracks me up whenever i see it. I was an intern at penguin but before. Wish i could have sat in on a meeting when they were debating which imprint the book should be published under
― Treeship, Saturday, 6 December 2014 18:14 (nine years ago) link
It wasn't a debate: Morrissey insisted on the 'penguin classics' livery, when they tried to issue it on a more 'ahem, fitting' cover he had a mini-fit and withdrew permission and was going to take it some other publisher, so they acquiesced.
(I'm not an insider, that's from news-stories from around the time)
― Mark G, Monday, 8 December 2014 10:24 (nine years ago) link
lol that's the worst thing i've ever heard about morrissey
― difficult listening hour, Monday, 8 December 2014 18:15 (nine years ago) link
Between "fits" I can only imagine he is fidgeting in a chair somewhere looking at the clock.
― Evan, Monday, 8 December 2014 19:18 (nine years ago) link
If it hadn't already been done to death, I'd have launched a Smiths website. But too many already. So I decided instead to launch a website around the music of two other great songwriters - Cathal Coughlan and Sean O'Hagan. On https://coughlanohagan.com/, I think I'm building up something worthwhile. Hope you enjoy it.
― weirwrite, Saturday, 23 May 2020 06:52 (three years ago) link
weishite
― buzza, Saturday, 23 May 2020 07:12 (three years ago) link
*If it hadn't already been done to death*
Pity you didn't exercise the same restraint by not bombing loads of threads completely unnecesarily (and making me think The Smiths were getting back together).
― Maresn3st, Saturday, 23 May 2020 08:10 (three years ago) link
Was hoping they were obit bumps
― What fash heil is this? (wins), Saturday, 23 May 2020 08:17 (three years ago) link
not a good time for garbage fansites with "cough" in the title ... way too soon!
― calzino, Saturday, 23 May 2020 09:00 (three years ago) link
Guy's doing a great job of making people hate Cathal Coughlan and Sean O'Hagan.
― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Saturday, 23 May 2020 09:04 (three years ago) link
Can't believe this thick cunt wasn't banned the first time around
― come out you melts and bams (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 23 May 2020 09:09 (three years ago) link
weirshite too
― come out you melts and bams (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 23 May 2020 09:10 (three years ago) link
when a spamming cunt can't even be bothered to spam the right threads they are beyond beyond contempt
― calzino, Saturday, 23 May 2020 09:15 (three years ago) link
oh I see they spammed the appropriate thread 2 months ago to no avail
― calzino, Saturday, 23 May 2020 09:20 (three years ago) link
I must admit, as a fan of Cough Lanohagan, linking them to the Smiths is doubly irritating.
― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Saturday, 23 May 2020 09:23 (three years ago) link
Suggests the poster hasn't quite grasped what Lanohagan is all about.
― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Saturday, 23 May 2020 09:28 (three years ago) link