Having graduated from high school less than a year earlier, I was at the time a fan of bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden and Guns N' Roses, and these new, "alternative" bands that I'd been hearing so much about around campus and on the radio (WRCM, Jasper Radio baby - big shout out to Bob Stei! - as well as 92.7 WLIR) - ranging from the Cure, the Cult, the Ramones and Depeche Mode, to name just a few - were quite a departure from the head-banging anthems I'd come to embrace. But, as typically happens in college, my horizons were being broadened whether it liked it or not, and things like my clothes, my hair and even my musical tastes were about to change.
Enter the Smiths - led by enigmatic front-man Morrissey and accompanied by guitar virtuoso Johnny Marr. Little did I know that these odd-sounding Englishmen singing songs with such bizarre titles and subject matter, would be the most important alternative rock band to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980's. That's a pretty bold statement, when you consider they only released four studio albums during the course of their all-too-short tenure and are still considered a major influence amongst several alternative bands today including Oasis, Belle & Sebastian, Blur, Radiohead and The Libertines.
I'll be honest: I didn't understand much of what they were singing about, but I did know it sounded very androgynous with a hint of proper-meets-cockney English (you may say it was cheeky, even tongue in cheek) - which I think was fed more by my fascination with Monty Python and Benny Hill, not to mention the Beatles and the Stones - basically anything British was interesting to me really - but more importantly, their music sounded very cool and different. Yes, it had a good beat and you could dance to it on $1 beer nights at local college watering holes like the Terminal or Characters.
And so began my love affair with the Smiths. How could I not love a band with lyrics like this:
And if a double-decker bus, crashes into us
To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-ton truck kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine
To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-ton truck kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine
From "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" Hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-cD4oLk_D0 (which was featured in the film "500 Days of Summer")
Or this lovely little ditty:
Burn down the disco
Hang the blessed DJ
Because the music that they constantly play
IT SAYS NOTHING TO ME ABOUT MY LIFE
Because the music that they constantly play
IT SAYS NOTHING TO ME ABOUT MY LIFE
From "Panic" Hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzs1CNy5SrU&feature=fvsr
And how many of us have ever felt this way before:
I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour but heaven knows I'm miserable now
I was looking for a job, and then I found a job and heaven knows I'm miserable now
In my life why do I give valuable time to people who don't care if I live or die
From "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PHQ5QdNj9U
As morbid and bizarre as these lyrics sound, when combined with the music, there was just something so right and unique versus everything else I was hearing on the radio - and this was NOT being played on the majority of stations in the greater NYC area in the mid-late 1980's. I'd like to think that part of my rebellious collegiate years was formed by the obscurity of the lyrics and the utter defiance by which the Smiths refused to play by the music industry's rules. They essentially released poppy sounding, dance-able hits, but when you dug deeper, you discovered the biting social commentary about the state of things in England and the rest of the world. Heady stuff for a young kid whose greatest musical impression to date was seeing Bon Jovi at Madison Square Garden the summer before I started college.
All this aside, at its heart, the Smiths made entertaining music that was never preachy, but said something, just done to a fun sound. This approach opened the door for me to bands like the aforementioned Depeche Mode and the Cure. Unfortunately, the Smiths' run ended all too early, in 1987 with their studio opus, "Strangeways, Here We come" - right around the end of my freshman year of college, so it was up to me to dig back to those early '80's gems "The Queen is Dead", "Meat is Murder" and discover what I had essentially missed. If you 're digging the songs above, or are just curious, please check out those earlier CDs and form your own opinion.
While former lead singer Morrissey still tours regularly as a solo artist and has only in recent years begun playing Smiths songs at his shows, the magic of those early albums has yet to be rediscovered. Personality clashes and in-fighting amongst the four members has prevented any new music from being released or even produced, but a deep down, a part of me keeps hoping to hear that Morrissey and Johnny Marr are going to work together again one day and rekindle some of that magic. Hey, a kid can dream can't he? It happened with the Eagles, right? We'll see...
In the meantime, some of the "essential" Smiths tunes (at least what one might consider the "hits" - although they never really had any in the U.S.):
And last thing, if you ever want to experience what it must have been like to see the Smiths live (I never got to), by all means check out The Sons and Heirs - the best Smiths/Morrissey cover band out there. Check out their site for live dates and song samples/videos at http://thesonsandheirs.com/wp/ - I've caught them a few times in the city and they're great. Ronnissey, Ravi Marr and the boys do a phenomenal job of re-creating that stage show and sound.
Hope to see you at a show soon - and let me know your thoughts on the music too!
Peace...
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