Classic duh duh duh
― Atnevon (Atnevon), Friday, 24 December 2004 04:53 (nineteen years ago) link
it's more to do with the emotional milieu in which the bands work: the poor indie loser out of step with the world. mind you, even that's not much of a comparison, i admit. i'm not sure where my patented "poor man's weddding present" comparison came from, but it certainly winds people up in the pub. perhaps that's the only reason i came up with it, actually ;)
― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 27 December 2004 23:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Bimble..., Monday, 27 December 2004 23:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― -- (688), Sunday, 13 August 2006 05:35 (eighteen years ago) link
Now if they had only ever made a song as beautifully melodic and harmonic as "Made Of Stone" or "Bye Bye Badman"...
GREATEST. TROLL POST. EVER.
― Domenico Buttez (ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!!), Sunday, 13 August 2006 05:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Sunday, 13 August 2006 07:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― Kiss My Grits! (Bimble...), Sunday, 13 August 2006 08:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― gem (trisk), Sunday, 13 August 2006 08:13 (eighteen years ago) link
I say Classic.
― Daniel, Esq., Friday, 18 January 2008 05:10 (sixteen years ago) link
could someone explain bo diddley in how soon is now (according to the nyt)? humming would be okay.
― youn, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 23:43 (sixteen years ago) link
the rotochorus (or whatever it is) on the main guitar kind of does a bump babump babump babump-bump thing
that's less cringey than reuters' subhead of 'influenced rockers from elvis to u2'
― gff, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 23:59 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah the accents resemble the Bo Diddley beat with all the swing taken out
― Curt1s Stephens, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 01:35 (sixteen years ago) link
one of the greatest bands in history. not just for the mystique or their singularly unique sound, but for the quality and depth of the songs.
― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 05:21 (sixteen years ago) link
haha i'm gonna hear them in a brand new way now that you've said that
― Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 13:32 (sixteen years ago) link
was morrissey really that good a writer? or did he just have a distinct persona/writing voice?
― mr x, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 13:43 (sixteen years ago) link
NO/YES
― asey, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 14:13 (sixteen years ago) link
eyeball, look no further than 'i know it's over' when re-evaluating the smiths' work :) listen for when those big drums enter and morrissey's delivery builds in intensity. it's that cascading, restrained guitar line that keeps everything in check and prevents the song from collapsing under its own weight. really powerful stuff. the song is really poignant and introspective with a sort of resigned, sad sense of humour underpinning it... one of many examples of the band's multi-dimensional approach to songwriting.
― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 14:57 (sixteen years ago) link
Morrissey was a good writer, yes. Why he doesn't seem to be such a good lyricist anymore, I don't know.
― Bimble, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 15:53 (sixteen years ago) link
he's just lazier these days. still has some poignant insights every now and then
― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 16:02 (sixteen years ago) link
is he actually that funny? (in a good way) or is he still funny (in a bad, hahah, oh god that is so terrible but i cant believe he just said that old-timey bingo hall entertainer kind of way)?
(am debating this after listening to the song about americans on quarry).
― mr x, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 16:49 (sixteen years ago) link
For all the praise Morrissey and Marr get, it was quite often the Rhythm section that made The Smiths interesting. Morrissey's lyrics are intermittently quite witty, but he's not much cop at writing melodies, he just kind of wobbles up and down.
― chap, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 16:57 (sixteen years ago) link
sometimes hes witty. other times his humour is just ropey.
― mr x, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 16:59 (sixteen years ago) link
i think he's a lot funnier (even when he's not trying particularly hard) than your average wordy joe schmuck fishing for laughs
― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 17:00 (sixteen years ago) link
I went to see Andy Rourke do a DJ set tonight. I had a great time. At the end of the night he let me put on his glasses! He has the coolest glasses, I'm sorry. They're prescription he said, but they're sortof...half sunglasses, half not. They make him look sortof Lennon-ish or Liam-ish from far away I guess. Just slightly square in shape. I love them. He played two Pixies tracks (both from Doolittle), Devo's "Whip It", T-Rex's "Telegram Sam", a mashup of Blondie's Rapture and Doors' Riders On The Storm, ended the set with Stone Roses "I Am The Resurrection" and Doves "M62". There was also a new-ish song I liked and didn't know and went to his computer screen to find out what it was. It was by The New Young Pony Club called "The Get Go". He also played a bunch of other dance music I didn't recognize but was fun to dance to.
Oh also, I asked him what was on his T-shirt because he had a sportcoat and you couldn't see it. So he showed me and it was an arty colorful silhouette pic of Betty Page with something else on top of it.
There were some pretty cool bands who played as well. That is all.
― Sleep Tundra (Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You), Saturday, 23 May 2009 09:58 (fifteen years ago) link
Also the only Smiths song he played was Bigmouth.
― Sleep Tundra (Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You), Saturday, 23 May 2009 09:59 (fifteen years ago) link
What I fail to understand, though, is Morrissey's new arrangement of some of the old Smiths songs. I don't even want to *link* to the new version of This Charming Man I heard the other day on youtube. It sounded like the fucking Jonas Brothers.
― Turangalila, Saturday, 23 May 2009 14:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Hahah. I dunno, man. I can't help you. I tried his new album one time and I couldn't even get through half of it. Sorry.
― Sacriligiously Dead (Bimble), Saturday, 23 May 2009 16:11 (fifteen years ago) link
;)
― Sacriligiously Dead (Bimble), Saturday, 23 May 2009 16:12 (fifteen years ago) link
I went to see Andy Rourke do a DJ set tonight
Jealous of this. Didn't know Rourke was DJ'ing now. I assume he's financially secure (despite hostilities between the band members on money-matters), so maybe he's just having fun.
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 24 May 2009 02:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, he's doing this in other cities as well, and what was more interesting to me was learning that he actually came out here two years ago to this Brit Pop thing my friend DJ'd at.
― Sacriligiously Dead (Bimble), Sunday, 24 May 2009 10:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh yeah I forgot to mention he played two Clash tracks, too. Maginificent Seven...and...was it Train In Vain?
― Sacriligiously Dead (Bimble), Sunday, 24 May 2009 11:57 (fifteen years ago) link
http://bandwidth.wamu.org/there-at-a-special-time-a-d-c-punk-on-her-teen-years-touring-with-the-smiths/
http://www.studio1469.com/events
In 1985 and into 1986 then 17 year-old DC photographer Nalinee Darmrong traveled with and captured The Smiths during the height of their : the Meat Is Murder and The Queen Is Dead tours.
Now she has a book out with photos and ephemera, and a gallery exhibit
― curmudgeon, Friday, 17 June 2016 16:56 (eight years ago) link
I love arguing with Morrissey fans about how The Smiths would've had a perfectly satisfactory career with any other singer in Moz's place because the musicians in the band were good at their jobs and Marr was/is something of a guitar savant. They're not having it, of course.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 23:14 (six years ago) link
depends what you mean by "satisfactory" I guess
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 23:16 (six years ago) link
w out Moz there's none of the iconography, no foregrounding of transgressive gender/sexuality, no ridiculous song titles/lyrical hooks. Marr needed a co-writer/lyricist, as his solo career has borne out.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 23:18 (six years ago) link
Would they be legendary? Unlikely. But they would have fared perfectly fine in that mid-80s London guitar pop climate. Morrissey contributed fuck all to the actual music of The Smiths, that's all Marr. Plenty of other singers could have stepped in and done a capable job with those songs.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 23:21 (six years ago) link
probably true, but they'd have been on the level of Heaven 17 or Aztec Camera or something.
Morrissey's vocal melodies run all over Marr's songs in really strange and unique ways, I don't think that's "fuck all" - it's just one more thing that makes them interesting. He doesn't structure a lot of his melodies in standard verse-chorus-hook ways, things repeat (or don't) at odd intervals, etc.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 23:26 (six years ago) link
christ on a fucking something
― calzino, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 23:32 (six years ago) link
What a tsunami of wank
― PaulTMA, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 23:34 (six years ago) link
Shakey, uh, otm
we know Moz is a doddering loon now, but curb your revisionism
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 23 May 2018 00:02 (six years ago) link
yeah that is a ridiculous thing to argue
i assume it's only a matter of time till ppl start saying "the beatles would have been just fine without john lennon"
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 23 May 2018 00:07 (six years ago) link
lol yeah Smiths would have been huge without Morrissey just like Chapterhouse
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 23 May 2018 00:39 (six years ago) link
perfectly satisfactory career
You guys have totally twisted my position, but ok.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 01:52 (six years ago) link
they would have fared perfectly fine in that mid-80s London guitar pop climate. why would they have even moved to London without Morrissey's lyrics, drive, and personality
― we used to get our kicks reading surfing MAGAzines (sic), Wednesday, 23 May 2018 02:08 (six years ago) link
Dud
― you bet, nancy (map), Wednesday, 23 May 2018 04:43 (six years ago) link
Morrissey and Marr clearly needed each other and complimented each other perfectly. And they would be forgotten by now without Morrissey.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 05:15 (six years ago) link
The musicians in most canonical rock bands are probably accomplished enough that they could have had "perfectly satisfactory careers" with different lead singers.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Wednesday, 23 May 2018 06:04 (six years ago) link
i assume it's only a matter of time till ppl start saying "the beatles would have been just fine without john lennon"― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, May 23, 2018 12:07 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, May 23, 2018 12:07 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
There have been TV dramas framed around answering this question already.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 06:48 (six years ago) link
The other three could've carried on as the Smiths with a different singer. Marr is the greater of the two. Would've been fine.
― everything, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 07:36 (six years ago) link
Morrissey’s most important contribution as an individual was his lyrics, not his voice. Together he and Marr were better than apart. Anything else is laughable revisionism.
― gyac, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 07:53 (six years ago) link