The Miracle of the Smiths

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/when-tony-met-mary-met-chris-467061.html

wow, small world.

she also went out with Chris Huhne, an Oxford contemporary of Blair, who last week was tipped in the polls as the most likely contender to take over from Charles Kennedy as Liberal Democrat leader.

LOLz

just plowed through the fletcher bio in a couple of days - a really great read as stated above by others. i'm a little surprised at absolutely no mention of the byrds among marr's influences/interests.

I read the book last week and it has quite re-invigorated my love for the music, and watching YouTube videos of their early gigs at the Hacienda really helps underscore the notion that they seemed to emerge fully formed. Lyrically and musically, some of their earliest songs are still amongst their strongest and most affecting, imo. But reading of how they pretty much hit the ground running made me wonder if they don't dispel Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000-hour rule (ie the amount of time required practicing something before you can master it). I mean, yeah, Marr played in other bands before the Smiths, and there's Morrissey's fevered letter-writing activities, but it doesn't seem to be the equivalent of, say, the Beatles slog through the Hamburg and Cavern years. I dunno.

If I've read The Severed Alliance, should I pick up this Fletcher Bio?

xp yeah The Smiths are the all time great example of where the Outliers theory doesn't work. Marr says they never even rehearsed.

according to the book they rehearsed plenty. also they specifically played small out-of-the-spotlight venues to hone the songs.

yeah, and there's that tape of them rehearsing!
http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2013/03/19/smiths-rehearsal-tape-may-1983/
[maybe he meant they didn't rehearse much]

they rehearsed mostly daily early on, and did so to get better between their first appearance and subsequent gigs.

Also Gladwell's theory is bullshit.

http://thischarmingcharlie.tumblr.com/

TRENDING: Peanuts strips w/Smiths-Moz lyrics. The Lucy ones are all great, but this one is perfection:

http://31.media.tumblr.com/f040e379045b0b13cce55fae6873d98d/tumblr_mr8zesWAZu1seji43o1_500.png

ha ha just posted that here

Morrissey's Smiths Lyrics: Are they 'in character', or from his own viewpoint?

so much to love!

Johnny Marr on the process of writing with Marr.

I didn't know that Half a Person was the one song they wrote together together

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/05/british-songwriter-interviews-secrets

Writing with Morrissey, rather.

i forgot You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby was meant to be a single. it's way more Radio friendly than many of their actual singles.

Yes, but it's also kind of awful.

yeah it kind of is, it's in that rubbishy Smiths mini cannon. Golden Lights, Girlfriend In A Coma, Work Is A 4 Letter word,
I Keep Mine Hidden.. i guess that's it. oh and maybe Ask.

Enjoyed reading those "Smiths fan" stories upthread! This and "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter" poll revived my memories... of 80s turntables and the crackle of vinyl, autumn nights and pots of peppermint tea! Too busy at the time feeling dismissed by stupid and xenophobic American writers to be truly depressed.
Like, I listened to the vinyl albums with folk and oldies. After reading that stuff, I stopped reading any and all press about British bands.

Anyway, I listen to them on mp3 now but it's not the same! I guess the music doesn't go with office culture as well as it does dorm rooms and study. Morrissey dresses great and is a good entertainer. Also read he likes Buffy Saint-Marie! Honor the campfire!

Also I have my own Smiths story, but it's funny rather than sincere : this was another "not-shit" guitar band being passed around via tapes in my teenage circle....sat at party at some friend's house and we wondered what the singer looked like. "He sounds fat!" Not in an anti-fat people way, either. Like - how cool that fat people are fronting fashionable British rock bands! How punk! So we were a little disappointed.

I don't know how someone can "sound fat" but when I listen to early Smiths now I can't shake the false memories I have of fat Morrissey and smile.

He's a bit thicker now tbh

Yes, I noticed - but he has aged well IMO!

He has, and that's one reason why a Smiths reunion would look wrong. The other 3 are all variations of "young lads, but older"

Eh, he went from handsome Irish man to every old-looking Irish man ever with that brief period where he looked like Tony Blair in the middle. He looks his age I think.

yeah it kind of is, it's in that rubbishy Smiths mini cannon. Golden Lights, Girlfriend In A Coma, Work Is A 4 Letter word,
I Keep Mine Hidden.. i guess that's it. oh and maybe Ask.

How does Girlfriend In A Coma merit inclusion with the rest of this list?!

because it's a terrible, horrible song that should really be forgotten?

it's serious

It's no Death At One's Elbow.

well no, I agree that "Death At One's Elbow" is a more atrocious song

i like all the smiths' fake rockabilly songs and i like all of strangeways

i'll never understand ppl hating on strageways. it's good!

― goole, Monday, October 1, 2012 4:32 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

holy shit, 1 year to the day ahahahahaaa

Strangeways is one of a very small number of albums (possibly the only album) I've ever started out liking but then began to despise as I went further back into the band's catalog and discovered how great they used to be before that album. The entire thing screams of a band that wasn't in sync and couldn't agree on a musical direction and there are only two songs on it that I think are even worth listening to: "A Rush and A Push..." and "Stop Me..." Everything else should be erased from history.

xp: woah

don't forget to update your calendar for next year

and try not to be 2 1/2 hours late yeah?

both marr and morrissey have said that Stangeways is their favourite

That doesn't mean I have to agree with them!

the new smiths book said it pretty well i thought, which was that strangeways feels like a "transitional" album, the smiths awkward evolution from what they were to what they would have become, except they break up so it's not a transitional album but a sort of weird last album

Morrissey always comes off worst in discussions about the end of The Smiths - Cilla Black covers, him being a stick-in-the-mud and an asshole to boot - but honestly nowadays I'm glad we got Viva Hate/Bona Drag than a Smiths albums sounding like Electronic or The The.

yeah for all the talk of how it was marr's band and marr was the musical genius he hasn't seemed to be able to do that much w/o morrissey (which i don't really count The The or Modest Mouse as those were pretty fully formed things already)

Strangeways is divisive, even down to the tracks themselves. I've always felt ambivalent about Paint a Vulgar Picture: Beautiful guitar, but lyrically barren. Record company execs? Isn't that what bloated rock stars sing about?

that bloated Geoff Travis, what a fat bastard

(I love that song btw)

Strangeways is the only one I bought originally on vinyl and it has always seemed special to me for that reason -- I also continue to have strong love feelings for Rush/Push, Stop Me, and I Won't Share You. Vulgar Picture is boring, agree. Lots of boring songs on this album, but my three favorites are not among them. lol/obvs.

Love Paint A Vulgar Picture. Lyrically, yeah you can mock Morrissey for some of the sentiments now, but the fan perspective has always been my favourite part of that song. Something about the way he sings this

I touched you at the soundcheck
You had no real way of knowing
In my heart I begged "Take me with you ...
I don't care where you're going..."

always gets me.

yeah the POV turnabout is what makes it

Yes.

interesting interview (from a Strangeways EPK?) with Marr just a short time before the whole thing went tits up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjdDDCTCc_E

'vulgar picture' sank in as brilliant only after a long time. it is a little bit leaden and herky-jerky, but that sax part is gorgeous and moving

what the hell is marr on about when he says strangeways is more brutal, harder and mre discordant? maybe the guitar on a song like i started something is rawer than on a usual smiths song but over-all i find strangeways not discordant at all. for me it has got this slightly mystical, misty feel especially a rush and a push which is such an amazing starter wth morrissey's rising voice in the beginning which mutes mysteriously into the tune. probably my favourite ten seconds of morrissey. and he doesn't even sing something...

Death of a Disco Dancer, with all that Aladdin Sane piano clashing? I don't get any of that from Strangeways either, it feels more wistful to me.

well he was talking about the record before it was finished so maybe he intended to do that but didn't manage it. there's certainly nothing as hard as the title track of TQID on strangeways.