Ignoring the Morrissey issue (for now, I certainly donât ignore it generally) a straightforward 5 for me. The most important band of my teens and a genuinely brilliant, revelatory band on any terms. They probably sound less exciting to people who have only heard them retrospectively precisely because almost every indie guitar band that has followed has been massively influenced by them - their sound has become the default sound of âindie guitar musicâ but that very much wasnât the case at the time they emerged. There obviously were precursor bands (a lot of the Postcard bands, for instance) but âindieâ didnât really exist as a genre (as opposed to a simple description of a means of distribution) when The Smiths started.
For me they were, for a short glorious period, almost a perfect band - clever, funny, moving lyrics, thrilling, catchy but deceptively complex music. They looked like a gang and had a swaggering, outsider chic to them. Everyone at my school hated them with a passion that it is hard to convey. Every time they appeared on Top of the Pops it sparked off a wave of mockery and derision that made me love them even more.
The quality of their songwriting in their first 18 months - 2 years of making records is just unsurpassed. Just remember that during that period they were putting songs like How Soon is Now? and Please, Please, Please on the B-Sides of singles because amazing songs were just pouring out of them.
In some ways their imperfections make them even greater - they never quite made a perfect studio album (the first record is appallingly produced and by the time of the later ones the songwriting has slipped slightly into formula at times). If you doubt them though just listen to Hatful of Hollow - basically the first 16 songs they wrote, recorded fast and dirty and 100% perfect from start to finish.
Morrissey was like a different person back then so, for me, I can disassociate the group from the enormobell heâs become. As such, fucking great band. The songs, the lyrics, the image⊠super influential and a big part of British pop/rock history. Also, re. the music, I absolutely love Marrâs guitar sound ang think itâs integral to the bandâs greatness. 5
Of course. Itâs much better of course but I do have some sympathy with the Geoff Travis opinion that it âsounds like a demoâ. One version of the story is that John Porter was just told to tidy it up a bit rather than completely re-recording it as he did. Whatever he did completely ruined it.
Itâs always been a extraordinary cock-up when you consider how great the Peel sessions on Hatful sound - you literally just had to set up the mics and let them record to get a great album out of them but Rough Trade contrived time mess it up.
I think their peak as a studio band is the first two thirds of Meat is Murder - great songs, brilliantly played and produced. Shame about the second half of the second side.
Reel Around The Fountain is the biggest example of this for me. The drums on the studio version - yikes! Sounds like a completely different song on HOH.
I think Strangeways⊠is as close as they got for me album-wise but there is still some awful guff on there (Unhappy Birthday!)
Although âIâve come to wish you an unhappy birthday, because youâre evil and you lie, and if you should die, I might be slightly sad but I wonât cryâ is a great opening line.
All of the band seem to think that Strangeways is their best work but I donât think the songs stand up. You see some of the later nastiness of Morrisseyâs personality show up on songs like Unhappy Birthday and Paint a Vulgar Picture (and all songs ever where artists moan about the record industry are awful). In other places he is writing to a formula. There are two absolutely great songs - Last Night and I Wonât Share You - but Iâm not mad on the rest of it.
Iâve always been utterly baffled by the adoration theyâve received. Tried listening to them a whole bunch of times to see what I missing, but nope, nothing.
How Soon Is Now is pretty much the only song I even come close to enjoying.
At least thatâs meant I havenât had to wrestle with the whole Morrissey being a fucking prick issue.
