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Smiths Appreciation Thread
I've been listening to a Smiths anthology tape a friend made for me years ago. Listening to it quite a lot, actually. I have come, yet again, to the realization, that they made really good, if lyrically offbeat, music.
Like many I suppose, I got into the Smiths during a very low point in my life, and the mind numbingly depressing lyrics went so well with my perpetually depressed state. Like the Elton John song says. . . it really does help if someone else is sufferin' enough to write it down. A bunch of us were havin' a "session" one afternoon, and someone requested I put the anthology in. It got to "I Know It's Over", and all 4 of us present admitted we had all WEPT openly to that song at least once. I'm certainly a lot more cheerful as a rule now, but to this day my wife complains I focus on the dark side of thngs, and have depressing taste in music (this stuff, my favorite band, Pink Floyd, lots of blues, etc.). But music like this definitely has its place. Sadness is a part of the human experience. It's certainly not good to dwell on it overmuch, but to give it voice & expression is a beautiful thing on occasion. And probably necessary. Few - save perhaps Floyd - do it as well.
But even beyond that, despite the lyrics, the music accompanying them is very well crafted. The quirky, bouncy slap bass line lead in to "Girlfriend in a Coma", for instance. I was playing that song one day, and my roommate, a VERY straitlaced, uptight sort who definitely never got into something so rebelious (once and only once, he asked me to play Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA album; his only request in the year we lived together). He heard that opening line: "Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know. . . it's serioussss. . . " and asked - incredulously - "Did he just say 'Girlfriend in a coma?'" "Yes", I replied. Laughing, he said: "Dude. . .what the HELL are you listening to?" It's such an absurd contrast, it IS funny. But it works. Just like the interplay of hot & cold works in a warm apple pie a la mode, for instance.
Or how about the waltz-like piano music in "Asleep"? With that obnoxious discordant note to start off the phrase each time it's repeated? The complex, intricate acoustic guitar work on "Back to the Old House"? The poppy, almost cheerful guitar/bass/drums lines on "Cemetery Gates"? Or that slow, simple, grave and powerful bass ostinato in "Death of a Disco Dancer"? And you can't hear "How Soon is Now?" without turning that grating synth WAAAAAAY up, good mood or bad. It's a damn shame that's the only song of theirs you ever hear on the radio (and that only on RXP, here in the NY Metro area).
Viva Hate was a great album. But, a few standout tracks aside, Morrissey never made a solo album that was as good overall as any Smiths album again after that.
I know this is totally an 80's new wave thing, and most o' you youngun's is prolly TOO young, unless you were ever inot the goth kind of scene, to have an appreciation for this stuff. But I thought I'd run this up the musical flagpole* and see who saluted. Post your thoughts here. Don't make me stand on my own. And leave on my own. And go home & cry and want to diiiiiieee. . . .
*As I typed it I realized "musical flagpole" is a term with perhaps different uses than what was intended.
Like many I suppose, I got into the Smiths during a very low point in my life, and the mind numbingly depressing lyrics went so well with my perpetually depressed state. Like the Elton John song says. . . it really does help if someone else is sufferin' enough to write it down. A bunch of us were havin' a "session" one afternoon, and someone requested I put the anthology in. It got to "I Know It's Over", and all 4 of us present admitted we had all WEPT openly to that song at least once. I'm certainly a lot more cheerful as a rule now, but to this day my wife complains I focus on the dark side of thngs, and have depressing taste in music (this stuff, my favorite band, Pink Floyd, lots of blues, etc.). But music like this definitely has its place. Sadness is a part of the human experience. It's certainly not good to dwell on it overmuch, but to give it voice & expression is a beautiful thing on occasion. And probably necessary. Few - save perhaps Floyd - do it as well.
But even beyond that, despite the lyrics, the music accompanying them is very well crafted. The quirky, bouncy slap bass line lead in to "Girlfriend in a Coma", for instance. I was playing that song one day, and my roommate, a VERY straitlaced, uptight sort who definitely never got into something so rebelious (once and only once, he asked me to play Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA album; his only request in the year we lived together). He heard that opening line: "Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know. . . it's serioussss. . . " and asked - incredulously - "Did he just say 'Girlfriend in a coma?'" "Yes", I replied. Laughing, he said: "Dude. . .what the HELL are you listening to?" It's such an absurd contrast, it IS funny. But it works. Just like the interplay of hot & cold works in a warm apple pie a la mode, for instance.
Or how about the waltz-like piano music in "Asleep"? With that obnoxious discordant note to start off the phrase each time it's repeated? The complex, intricate acoustic guitar work on "Back to the Old House"? The poppy, almost cheerful guitar/bass/drums lines on "Cemetery Gates"? Or that slow, simple, grave and powerful bass ostinato in "Death of a Disco Dancer"? And you can't hear "How Soon is Now?" without turning that grating synth WAAAAAAY up, good mood or bad. It's a damn shame that's the only song of theirs you ever hear on the radio (and that only on RXP, here in the NY Metro area).
Viva Hate was a great album. But, a few standout tracks aside, Morrissey never made a solo album that was as good overall as any Smiths album again after that.
I know this is totally an 80's new wave thing, and most o' you youngun's is prolly TOO young, unless you were ever inot the goth kind of scene, to have an appreciation for this stuff. But I thought I'd run this up the musical flagpole* and see who saluted. Post your thoughts here. Don't make me stand on my own. And leave on my own. And go home & cry and want to diiiiiieee. . . .
*As I typed it I realized "musical flagpole" is a term with perhaps different uses than what was intended.
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