I'll echo the 'How Soon Is Now' sentiment. Not a big Smiths/Morrissey fan overall, but that's one of my favorite songs of all-time.
Isn't there a song about some dude getting hit by a bus? Very uplifting. I remember that too, that's when I started to wonder what was up with this guy. I remember seeing guys actually crying when they met him. I would never cry* about meeting some rock star. *unless it was Stewart Copeland
There is...it is called "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" and it is an absolute tremendous song. It is probably my favorite Smiths song ever - hell, it is one of my favorite songs by ANY artist ever. And the "dude" is Morrissey and his lover.
The Smiths is different than Morrissey. The Smiths had Johnny Marr's brilliance. They had catchy tunes, and good melodies as well. Even as I was listening to them I would sometimes laugh at how melodramatic Morrissey's words were. But they were usually cleverly put together, and not every song was like that. There was a nice contrast of the music sometimes being very poppy, and totally upbeat, while a moaning melodramatic singer talked draoned on with 'woe is me' lyrics. The melding of the two was something unique and different. Morrissey solo has some of the melody I like, and some of the humor in the lyrics. The music is ok, but not that great. That stuff alone makes it better than 85% of the music out there today. I don't like it as much as I do the Smiths, but it is alright.
"And if a double decker bus, crashes into us....." Morrissey manages to pull off these types of lyrics with such sarcasm and beauty to me. At first I didnt understand the Smiths until I got to college and a buddy turned me on to them. They wrote some interesting pop melodies and pushed the boundaries in every direction (lyrically, musically, and spiritually). Please, please, please, Let me get what I want. - Freaking great tune.
I was never a huge Morrissey or Smiths fan, but I love How Soon is Now. That song is so incredibly atmospheric. It will always be associated with one of my happiest memories from high school. Just driving around Houston on a beautiful fall Saturday with two of my best friends- Sheri and Lisa. Smoking a doobie. Going to a Greek festival. Drinking a bottle of wine in Herman park. Hitting a party that night and hooking up with a girl I had really liked for a long time. How Soon is Now was the soundtrack for the day.
i guess i can understand the gay sissy comments about the smiths but it certainly never got in the way of my enjoyment of them or any other band, like belle and sebastian or rufus wainwright for examples. in high school, i was listening to the smiths and listening to and attending punk rocks shows. to me it was all the same. in fact, many of the dudes i knew in punk bands openly loved the smiths. for me, they sounded like something totally and utterly original. i saw them play at hoffeinz pavilion on the queen is dead tour, front row tickets courtesy of a friend in a punk band . it was an amazing show, i even shook the guys hand but no, i didn't cry. i kind of lost track after the smiths broke but i still listen to the smiths and they sound as unique as ever. to each his own i guess. This song is called is it really so strange ? Euh I left the north I travelled south I found a tiny house And I can’t help the way that I feel Oh yes, you can kick me And you can punch me And you can break my face But you won’t change the way I feel ’cause I love you Oh ... And is it really so strange ? Oh, is it really so strange ? Oh, is it really so, really so strange ? I say no, you say yes (but you will change your mind) I left the south I travelled north I got confused - I killed a horse I can’t help the way that I feel Oh yes, you can kick me And you can butt me And you can break my spine But you won’t change the way I feel ’cause I love you Oh ... And is it really so strange ? Oh, is it really so strange ? Oh, is it really so, really so strange ? I say no, you say yes (but you will change your mind) I left the north again I travelled south again And I got confused - I killed a nun I can’t help the way that I feel I can’t help the way I feel I can’t help the way I feel (I lost my bag in newport pagnell) Why is the last mile the hardest mile ? My throat was dry, with the sun in my eyes And I realised, I realised I could never I could never, never, go back home again Thankyou ! thankyou
Listening to the Smiths is like reading a Russian Novel. They somehow capture the feeling of what its like to always be on the losing team. All the beauty of suffering, for instance living in the YWCA and not being able to enjoy it, is present in their catalogue. They're wonderful.
Interesting analogy but I would have not used "reading a Russian Novel". I would have used "watching the French military in action".
Is that the song with the guitar that sounds like a buzzsaw and the lyrics that say "I am human and I want to be loved"? If so, I do like that song.
This brings ups a good topic of why people like certain artists. I don't understand why people love Dave Matthews so much. Some of his songs are good (Crash, Satellite) but most are impossible to understand. It is not really dance music. Just stuff people sit around to and listen. My friends used to always clown me for listening to Rap saying things like you can't even understand Bone Thugs and stuff. I played some Dave and asked them what he was saying and no one really knew. They just knew they liked the sound. Which is a valid reason, but in my mind, you can't really sing along. You can't dance to it. It is not exactly bob your head in the car music. But somehow every college coed has a Dave CD. Is it because I never smoked bud that I will not have a full appreciation for Dave? I don't only feel this about Dave, why the hell are people loving that Laffy Taffy song? It is garbage. That guy make the Ying Yang Twins look like Aristotle and Sophocles. If Biggie was alive he would shoot himself after hearing a song like that. Why doesn’t Jay-Z address the nation and say, “Hey, guys, you suck. You are causing the development of ill willed sentiment against the hip hop nation.”
I saw an interview with Morrissey once in which he basically said he's completely a sexual. That he resented people trying to force him into the category of hetero- or homo- when he truly wasn't interested in sex at all. Interesting, FWIW.
I read somewhere that he has a boyfriend currently. I do remember hearing that a while back he had claimed to be asexual.
I didn't realize that so many others appreciated Johnny Marr. The guys got some really intrinsic chord changes. Stairway to heavan is easier to learn than some of Marrs stuff. The Smiths were probably the band that I most related to in High School. How Soon is Now will always remind me of #'s. man..did I have some good times there. Anybody else here used to go to an after-hours club called Therapy in High School? The first time I went was when I was fifteen, and they let me & my girlfriend in...but then carded the preppy looking girls behind us. Thought it was too funny. We ended up going there just about every weekend for about 2yrs.
