# The Smiths!



## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

In the Radiohead thread, a couple of posters called them "whiny", which made me think of The Smiths, my favorite band (and one of Thom Yorke's favorites as well, as it happens). They may be "whiny" and depressing sometimes, but the humor and wit are what I think of most when I think of The Smiths.

Use this thread to post whatever you'd like about them! I'll start.

- My favorite of the studio albums in order are _The Queen is Dead_, _Meat is Murder_, _The Smiths_, and _Strangeways, Here We Come_.

- My favorite songs? Too many to list. If forced, "This Charming Man", "Barbarism Begins at Home", "Vicar in a tutu"


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Not familiar with them so I should check those guys out then.


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

Well...The Smiths were _the_ coolest band amongst my fellow teens in the mid to late eighties.

My favorite album of theirs is still the uncollected singles and b-sides round-up "Louder Than Bombs" double lp, which I still like to give a spin about once a year.

I suspect you need to hear them for the first time as an angsty teen to love rather than like them.










edit: Though my favorite song of theirs may be "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" from Meat Is Murder


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Dude, love The Smiths. There's something about Morrissey that fascinates me. He satirizes a lot of our strongly held social conditionings in a bizarre way.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

SimonNZ said:


> I suspect you need to hear them for the first time as an angsty teen to love rather than like them.


I suspect that that is why neither Radiohead nor the Smiths ever worked on me. I was not far from 30 when the Smiths came out and they sounded like light (dance) pop. Didn't I say that about Radiohead this morning?  One of these days, I'm going to have to give them a try.

I did scan a Radiohead Best Of on YT this morning and I thought that about every second or third song sounded pretty decent  but it could have just been luck in stopping the slider at the right spots :lol:


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

One of my favorite rock bands. _Hatful of Hollow_ is my favorite album by a good margin, almost every song on there is a favorite next up would be _Meat is Murder_ and _The Queen is Dead_. I enjoy all of their albums.

Its hard for me to pick favorite songs with them, a few great ones that haven't yet been mentioned are _Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before_, _This Night Has Opened My Eyes _and _Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others_ - too many to mention I feel like I'm short changing other great songs already. I agree with the OP that _Vicar in a Tutu_ is amazing - I think the version on the live album _Rank_ is the best.


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

tdc said:


> One of my favorite rock bands. [*I]Hatful of Hollow[/I] is my favorite album by a good margin, almost every song on there is a favorite* next up would be _Meat is Murder_ and _The Queen is Dead_. I enjoy all of their albums.
> 
> Its hard for me to pick favorite songs with them, a few great ones that haven't yet been mentioned are _Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before_, _This Night Has Opened My Eyes _and _Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others_ - too many to mention I feel like I'm short changing other great songs already. I agree with the OP that _Vicar in a Tutu_ is amazing - I think the version on the live album _Rank_ is the best.


Agreed on _Hatful of Hollow_, if I included it with the studio albums, it'd be my top pick, as well. There are two songs on there that are underrated, "Handsome Devil" and "Girl Afraid". Even their B-side material was top-notch!


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

They´ve got a good double-CD in a local store here, and as a matter of fact I was planning to buy it one of these days. 
In spite of them being at the top of many rock/pop recommendation lists, I haven´t heard their albums yet. Due to extremely low prices here for second-hand pop/rock CDs, I am currently working my way through some of those lists .


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

DiesIraeVIX said:


> Even their B-side material was top-notch!


After the first album it seemed to me that practically any of their songs could have been a single, the overall quality/consistency was so high, and that the actual b-sides usually sound like "double a-sides".


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

joen_cph said:


> They´ve got a good double-CD in a local store here, and as a matter of fact I was planning to buy it one of these days.
> In spite of them being at the top of many rock/pop recommendation lists, I haven´t heard their albums yet. Due to extremely low prices here for second-hand pop/rock CDs, I am currently working my way through some of those lists .


Keep an eye out for the 8-cd Rhino box "The Smiths Complete" which out my way at least usually sells at a remarkable budget price:


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

My favourite song of the Smiths.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I liked them a lot rather than loved them totally, but they were a top-notch singles band - one great 45 after another (just as well bearing in mind how lame the UK top 30 chart was during much of the 80s). My favourite track was How Soon Is Now? - a psychedelic stunner. And Panic with its 'hang the DJ' refrain always makes me smile.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Oh, heaven knows I'm miserable now...


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

Johnny Marr is partly responsible for me giving up the guitar (well, I picked it up again...). Tried so hard to master that intro, to no avail. Great gitarist, great band !


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Blake said:


> Oh, heaven knows I'm miserable now...


If I were a country, that song would have to be the national anthem! Brilliant, hilarious stuff!


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

Strangeways, Here I Come is a brilliant album. Don't know why it doesn't have the plaudits of their earlier stuff. Every song is a gem.


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

I must admit that I can't stand their music. It's like some half-atonal crap and all 'songs' are the same. Morrissey sounds like a zombie with his monotonous singing. It's more like they pretend to make music than to actually make music.


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

nikola said:


> I must admit that I can't stand their music. It's like some half-atonal crap and all 'songs' are the same. Morrissey sounds like a zombie with his monotonous singing. It's more like they pretend to make music than to actually make music.


:lol: The Smiths "_half-atonal_" crap? What? If you think they're crap, that's absolutely fine, but "_half-atonal_" crap? lol

Morrissey had one of those dynamic and unique voices in rock, from quirky to falsetto to jibberish to gorgeous, all in the same song!



> Bono said that when he first heard Morrissey singing the Smiths' acid-tongued "Girlfriend in a Coma," "I nearly crashed my car and ended up in a coma. He has that gift." An icon of New Wave from his days in the Smiths and in his solo career, Morrissey owns a voice that's mannered, ironic, even consciously feminine - his phrasing owes more to tuxedoed crooners than to any rock singers before him. But his rejection of convention is also why he redefined the sound of British rock for the past quarter-century. With his falsetto cries, rolled r's and warbling yodels, he pulled off lyrics few other singers could possibly have gotten away with, and he opened up possibilities for rockers who've followed him, from Oasis to Interpol.


Could you elaborate on what you mean by "_It's like they pretend to make music than to actually make music_"? Because that one thoroughly confused me.


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

DiesIraeVIX said:


> :lol: The Smiths "_half-atonal_" crap? What? If you think they're crap, that's absolutely fine, but "half-atonal" crap? lol
> 
> Morrissey had one of those dynamic and unique voices in rock, from quirky to falsetto to jibberish to gorgeous, all in the same song!
> 
> Could you elaborate on what you mean by "_It's like they pretend to make music than to actually make music_"? Because that one thoroughly confused me.


Bono is mediocre musician so his opinion doesn't mean much to me. Many people I love praise The Smiths, but I still believe that they're musically completely worthless.

By 'pretending' I mean that they are releasing some sounds, but there isn't any cohesive or meaningful or interesting melodic or harmonic structure in their music at all. It doesn't have anything that music should have. Their songs go nowhere and they have nothing. It's not even like some 'high art' that is hard to understand (like autistic music from Bjork for example). It's simply an epitome of bad music... or something that tries to sound like a music.

The fact that The Smiths were responsible for many new and mediocre indie-rock bands in 90's that still couldn't be worse than The Smiths no matter how much they try is even bigger minus for them.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

nikola said:


> By 'pretending' I mean that they are releasing some sounds, but there isn't any cohesive or meaningful or interesting melodic or harmonic structure in their music at all. It doesn't have anything that music should have. Their songs go nowhere and they have nothing.


I can totally understand why some people wouldn't enjoy The Smiths music, but these statements are just wrong. Comparing them to other pop and rock bands of their day - they were ahead of the curve. The songs are tight and very sophisticated (more so than they often seem on the surface) Marr was quite adept at layering riffs - "no interesting harmonic structure" are you kidding?! As a lyricist Morrissey was very unique, clever and multi-faceted.

Artistically the band was excellent. Try to learn to play some of their songs and you'll see what I mean, you'll be eating crow.


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

Lyrics about cows or how they will end under 2 tone truck may be interesting to some people, but I'm talking about music here, not lyrics. If people love them, that's great.
I would never try to learn to play something that doesn't evoke any emotions in me or something that I found musically truly crappy. 
Just because it's hard to play, it doesn't mean it's good. It's not an argument and it never will be. I've heard in few simple tones many times more creativity than in whole Smiths discography. 
I appreciate enough myself, so trying to compete musically with those lost and tuneless hipsters would be really an insult for me.


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