The Miracle of the Smiths

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.

nowadays I'm glad we got Viva Hate/Bona Drag than a Smiths albums sounding like Electronic or The The.

I <3 a lot of early solo Moz (discovered The Smiths through Last Of The Famous International Playboys!) but Getting Away With It / Electronic / Disappointed and Mind Bomb / Dusk >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Viva Hate

(and the difference between those two bands suggests that any further Morrissey/Marr work wouldn't have sounded anything like either)

(discovered The Smiths through Last Of The Famous International Playboys!)
me too!!!
i bought the cassingle and my mom thought i was crazy because i kept going around the house singing "have i faaaaaaaaaiiiiiled" and she was like yes, you have please stop singing that song immediately

The Smiths took a lot of stick in the 80s music press for their classicist approach, which is understandable, even though, as Taylor Parkes pointed out, their records sounded terribly of their time. But I am glad that they didn't add a fifth album with more blatantly 1989 indie-dance sounds.

Last of the Famous Int. playboys is totally baggy!

I think you mean Interesting Drug (or November Spawned A Monster), but I take your point.

yes, interesting drug, you're right.

I remember really loving "November Spawned A Monster" at the time and wishing Moz would do more songs like that.

Recently, I played the song again and found the lyrics incredibly cringeworthy and awful, the wordless shrieking in the bridge representing the "monster" flat-out reprehensible, and Moz's singing to be outrageously constipated and forced.

At this point, the only Moz songs from that era I have any time for are "Alsatian Cousin", "Little Man, What Now?" and "Late Night, Maudlin Street" and that's partially because I haven't gone back to them in about a decade to see if I still like them.

Alsatian Cousin is amazing.

What about Disappointed?

zero memory of it; generally speaking I would like to set Bona Drag on fire

(one minute in and I vastly prefer Electronic's song)

woah....bona drag is like moz's hatful imo

that's a crazy opinion bro

when you consider that this was all right at the beginning of Moz's "I'm gonna be a spiteful bigot for a hot minute" phase, it's less crazy

yeah but then i guess there's no morrissey you would like right?

just feel like the early singles and viva hate are pretty great as a period for him

yeah but then i guess there's no morrissey you would like right?

a few exceptions aside, this is a very accurate description of my position on Morrissey

Had a discussion about the Smiths with my girlfriend, who now rates them as duds. Her reason is that "Marr's guitar playing sounds like a machine." I can actually see her point, although I still love them.

kinda surprised we never did a Bona Drag poll.

I'd love to hear working versions of Viva Hate songs, particularly the ones with more Vini Reilly.

Meanwhile, looks like Morrissey's book is actually coming out in a couple of weeks: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Autobiography-Morrissey/dp/0141394811/.

Hmmm, it's not listed on Penguin's site.

"Full confirmation is expected from Penguin Books within the next 24 hours" it says on Morrissey Solo, so we'll see.

lol does this ever happen with books? like a book with a very major publisher may or may not exist at all?

Autobiography covers Morrissey's life from his birth until the present day.

well tbh Penguin's site has always been a fucking mess. You can now pre-order it from Amazon!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24396482

and everywhere, it seems, by mid oct.

Ha yes of course - I only mentioned that as I went to the link to look up the ISBN.

Jon Savage (or a sub editor) has swiped the thread title!
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/oct/16/morrissey-autobiography-smiths

I swiped the thread title for Jon's piece. Seemed perfectly apposite.

hahaha

Why didn't you just call it "Morrissey: Why Is He So Bad And Hated?"

cos he has a terribly annoying writing style. music and lyrical work was definitely the right option.

LOL . . .
http://i.imgur.com/cAiVbnn.jpg?1

Is this real?

http://www.passionsjustlikemine.com/legacy/legacy.htm

!!! official remasters of the troy tate shit??? damn

I'm not buying all of these again. Sorry, Smiths.

It's fake I think. An early April Fools thing or something.

no Golden Lights?