The Smiths: Classic or Dud?

Suedehead

lol fuck that came out in 1988 nvm

Morrissey's 'iconic' solo songs after the 80s, please do list them for me here.

I mentioned Vauxhall & I already - I skip fewer tracks on that than The Smiths, so.

"Now My Heart Is Full" is my favourite Morrissey song.

It’s a beaut :)

Good chance that's my most-played Morrissey song. As far as later-era stuff goes, I love "Life is a Pigsty."

Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself, Speedway and Spring Heel Jim are great, plus loads of good stuff on Your Arsenal.

i used to like more morrissey songs

but i guess i've just narrowed it down to vauxhall and i, which is a pretty standard choice for a best morrissey album

, and the Pet Shop Boys thrown in as guest ringers, it better be

the PSB are only on one track on Electronic

also Mind Bomb & Dusk are better than all of Morrissey's solo career. Dusk is a better-recorded band than anything else in Marr's career.

Morrissey has always been so over-rated. Morrissey's lyric-writing/band-leading peers in the 80s were like Robyn Hitchcock, Shane McGowan, Kirsty MacColl, Nick Cave, Mark E. Smith, Paul Heaton, Michael Stipe, Paddy McAloon etc. It's a matter of taste but imo they're all better lyricists than Morrissey.

the PSB are only on one track on Electronic

well, two if you count Tennant on "Getting Away With It."

Shane McGowan

lol def a good substitute of yr wanting to get away from problematic Moz

well, two if you count Tennant on "Getting Away With It."

non-album singles added to CD re-releases as bonus tracks don't count

(or in foreign territories)

Kirsty MacColl fronting The Smiths is like dream level perfection. Wish it could've happened.

As close as you're gonna get: https://www.discogs.com/Kirsty-MacColl-The-Real-MacColl/release/2324631

This is a great EP.

Johnny Marr played on half a dozen tracks on Kirsty MacColl's album Kite. Brilliant stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfvVslecjwI

And he's playing on her version of You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby.

Forget how good Kite is. Need to get a copy as I think I only ever listened to my Dad's

non-album singles added to CD re-releases as bonus tracks don't count

― we used to get our kicks reading surfing MAGAzines (sic), Wednesday, May 23, 2018 12:59 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sure, dude

Marr is on Walking Down Madison and Children Of The Revolution on Electric Landlady too (with The The's David Palmer on drums).

Morrissey is an utter thundercunt, but it's difficult for me to imagine The Smiths without him. It would depend on the vocalist and what they could come up with over the backing tracks.

Doesn't Marr still call "Dusk" the best album he's ever played on? Definitely the best sounding!

a good bit of Kite is the core of The The's band. James Eller, David Palmer, and Johnny Marr.

Didn't The The have ABC's rhythm section for a while? That's Palmer, right, and ... ?

Also:

"Get the Message" is consistently cited as a defining track by Electronic. Allmusic picks it as a highlight of the Electronic album in a 4/5 review,[14] while bbc.co.uk states that "the excellent 'Get the Message' still holds its own alongside the best of early '90s Mancunian tunes".[15] In 2007 Johnny Marr said it was "...maybe the track I'm most proud of out of my whole career",[16] and in June 2009 reiterated that it is "the best song I've written".[17]

This is my favorite version of "Walking Down Madison," the one I heard on college radio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irgsx58SkJI

The demo is better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9JHeKyCoTw

a good bit of Kite is the core of The The's band. James Eller, David Palmer, and Johnny Marr.

Eller and Palmer are on four tracks together, Marr is on eight* overall (writing on two), they're all together on three: Free World, Mother's Ruin and Don't Come The Cowboy.

*nine for Alfred: three of the four Free World b-sides are bonus tracks on the 1989 CD

(the fourth, a Kirsty original, isn't even on the 2005 CD, which had NINE bonus tracks including remixes and demos, but is on the 2012 one, which has 17 on a second disc)

Marr is paired with Guy Pratt a bit on Kite and on Madison: good team, especially for that kind of deceptively tasteful pop.

And he's playing on her version of You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby.

Never realized that, but I've never owned a physical copy of the song. That really *is* about as close as it could come.

Morrissey really does lift a lot of MacColl's vocal quirks and melodic ideas, and I think she took a bit from him later on. Not really a symbiotic existence, but game recognizing game.

She didn't really cross paths with them until toward the end though, right? 1986/Bigmouth?

Yeah, she's on "Golden Lights."

And "Ask".

and those are all 1986.

Get The Message is a decent tune, but the actual song over it is pretty woeful. Awful words.. that chorus! And i mean get *what* message can i ask?

https://www.throwbacks.com/content/images/2017/06/Barney-the-Dinosaur.jpg

I have been particularly interested in Eletronic but went back to it following this thread and... I still don't really like it.
I don't hear much of Marr's greatness and input in the songs, including "Get the Message".
In a way, I find the album less interesting than it should be considering all the quality musicians/songwriters involved.
And nothing in it is better than New Order, Joy Division, the Smiths and PSB...
I guess it's just not for me !

Kirsty and Moz were great mates at the end. Heartbreaking bit in his book where he receives a postcard from her a week after she was killed, from the same holiday as.

Good old school ILM thread. Anyway, dud. Sounds like some tone deaf bar patron karaokeing over an overcompressed demo.

best English band of the 1980s no question

At this point Morrissey can go jump in a fire

xp: dude - Maiden?

Johnny Marr has gotten much better looking with time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0783yB5_V4

He was pretty in The Smiths and beautiful in The The, that’s just a bad look for him

(his wellend / LG sideburnsy looks in the early ‘00s were p hideous too

he has weird hairdos

He's a British indie guy of a certain age, of course he has weird hairdos.

Does he, particularly?

I mean ... I'd be impressed with myself if I had *hair* at "a certain age".

Marr was the ideal straight boy whom his best friend crushes on.

Has anyone read his memoir?