The Miracle of the Smiths

the miracle of this thread. best ilm thread ever?

One of those great old threads where I look through it years later hoping, "Man, I hope I didn't say something really stupid during this terrific discussion." And I didn't say anything at all, thankfully.

TBH I only recently started watching footage of early Smiths concerts. It is kind of incredible that this man was a pop star:

Not even like charmingly Michael Stipe-ish geekiness.

(Like, speaking as someone who's pretty awkward and unco-ordinated but harbours no ambitions to pop stardom.)

Just academic stardom.

This thread was also amazingly self-renewing -- it had Nabisco, Dr C and Carmody writing great screeds early on, but years later the marvellous Mary could still pop up and write an even bigger one.

I think elwisty got the return and ? keys on his computer confused.

lol aspergers

lol you're a dick

Heads up -- from the folks who brought you the New Order/Joy Division Recycle blog:

http://smithsrecycle.blogspot.com/

:D

Thanks, Ned.

kewl

Bookmarked!

Stoked for this.

Hope some fans pick up the idea and do this for The Cure too.

I know it's in bad taste to go "OMG this thread is so good!!!"

But yeah, OMG this thread is so good!!!

It is good! (today's stinking it up a bit, though)

Aw.

it was my emoticon, wasn't it ... :(

Still no Smiths action figures...

Sorry Ned, now I feel bad.

http://s-ak.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/terminal01/2009/1/30/17/morrissey-almost-nude-23290-1233354574-13.jpg
shit just got real

actually wait a second, what is andy cairns from therapy and that guy from sum 41 doing in mozza's band?

nooooooooooooo

you know I looked at the name of that URL and still I thought it was going to be of action figures

As for "having a car with *'only'* a tape deck"... jeez. That's what I call living in the World's Only Remaining Superpower.

I still think of this post, often, when driving

in case you missed this:

Search and Destroy : New Order

umm, i missed it, but that is one of the most amazing album covers i've ever seen. please let that be real.

To re-revive:

http://smithsrecycle.blogspot.com/2010/10/updatey-ness.html

Don't like the sound of Wnr Br0$ shutting their blog down. Surely they'd have bigger fish to fry.. ah well let's hope so.

Meanwhile there's a brilliant How To Buy The Smiths article right at the back of MOJO December issue which just came out in the uk. It goes for Hatful.. as the best album, as voted for by writers and members of MOJO forum. I concur!

Heads up, folks. It's started:

http://smithsrecycle.blogspot.com/2010/10/etaatb-01-rt131-hand-in-glove.html

didn't really 'get' the smiths until recently - this will be a good way back in. cheers!

i can see just from the first blog post that i'll be learning a few things here. and there was me fancying myself as some kind of Smiths expert!
what was Brixton Ace i wonder? never heard of it before.

this is going to be fun, those cover scans are incredible.

update!

http://smithsrecycle.blogspot.com/2010/10/etaatb-02-rtt136a-reel-around-fountain.html

well i didn't think it possible to make the smiths interesting in 2010, but here we are

hand in glove was amazing, thanks for posting the updates about this...would have had no idea.

shocked by how excited I am for this

had no idea about a planned RATF single. Jeane was always a brilliant song. one of the few lesser known B sides thanks to it's exclusion from the 80's era compilations.

I like how dismissive the post is about morrissey

yeah I find it weird that someone could be a smiths fanboy w/o being a morrissey fanboy, at least on some level

Not really -- I've encountered enough people over time who are very explicitly all about Marr and the music above all else, and who really don't bother with Morrissey solo much. They're a smaller and much less visible group of Smiths fans than the expected norm, but they're there.

well I can understanding not liking his solo career - I personally don't like much beyond the singles - but his persona and lyrics are such a major part of 'the miracle of the smiths'...

but yeah, people are weird

morrissey as a person does my head in to be honest. that night he flounced offstage last year in Liverpool after 1 song was the last straw for me. The Smiths are still my fave band of the 80s by some distance but his solo career could make a good 6 track mini album at best imho.

Morrissey has evolved an not always in ways I have found satisfying as I, too, have evolved. He has a couple of singles I like but The Smiths was the great musical love of my adolescence and that doesn't mean I have to keep following now. Ned, I love Marr but the last time he was in town fronting his forgettable band, I actually yawned and ended up leaving.

Haha believe me, I couldn't even muster that level of interest for Marr solo.

one time an old band i was in did a bunch of smiths covers for a cover band contest.

was really interesting learning their material....gave us such an appreciation for them as musicians...marr's parts are incredibly odd and difficult to learn, such a personal style of playing guitar (and frankly or guitarist had to just get it "close" esp on the more picky stuff)...

another thing that really sticks out when you sit down and learn the parts is how amazing rourke and joyce are as a rhythm section....rourke's bass lines are so melodic and invenetive, even if he's not really "showy" in a classic musicianly way....

another weird thing, is that sometimes the parts weren't the "right" number of measures...like in general in rock it will be okay well four bars of this, then sixteen bars of that, then eight bars of the chorus, etc etc...def EVEN numbers

sometimes with the smiths it would be well four bars, then eight, then FIVE, then twelve or something...it was usually apparent that they were conforming the songwriting to whatever lyrics morrissey had and not vice versa...