Did these Salford lads save your life?
So then, a completely unoriginal post to end the evening (I even flat out stole the title from a book by Simon Goddard). Name your three favorite Smiths songs. The only thing that’s been done more often in this world is name your ten favorite Doctor Who episodes (and your favorite supporting character from each, and your favorite assistant producer whose name rhymes with an ex-boyfriend, and then connect your least favorite companion from the Fifth Doctor era [um, can I choose all of them?] to Lily Allen in three steps, and then make an anagram of the answers…), and who gets tired of that?
Anyone with “indie” roots, if they sprouted them on the other side of the millennial divide, almost certainly owes, or has, some vested interest in the Smiths. They are, after all, a shockingly individual event in the history of British, disaffected, left of center, DIY… no, make that all music.
My little twist on this game is this: Name your favorite three Smiths songs that are not titled “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” (which is indisputably the best) or “How Soon Is Now?” (which is good, but clearly is horribly overrated and should be half as long as it is).
Here are mine then. Post a comment and tell me yours. If you don’t, the secret police will come and bludgeon you in your bed.
The Smiths: Still Ill
The Smiths: Rubber Ring
The Smiths: Sheila, Take A Bow
1. please please, please let me get what I want (I like the scene from Ferris Bueller when they are in the Art Institute and the string section from the song this song is playing. Nice tie in with the father/son angst that Cameron is experiencing, by the way.)
2. Ask
3. Half a person (do you have a vacancy, for a back scrubber!)
I distinctly remember walking over to meet Jay Datema during the freshman orientation at Wheaton because he was wearing a Smiths shirt.
I met Jay for the same reason! It was a blue Hatful of Hollow shirt. He was cool like that. The rest is history.
Half a Person, I swear to God, was thisclose to being my third pick over Sheila. Your other two were also in my top 20.
Ferris Bueller!! Smeg.
Cheers.
Top 3? That’s cruel Pete, I’ve been patting myself on the back for getting it down to 5 recently…but 3?! I apologize in advance if I fall afoul of the rules:
1) CEMETRY GATES: Not a terribly original pick but if I’m honest, have to go with it. It’s the one I fell in love with first, my way in, so it’s sacred. I bought TQID back in 86 on my 2-years-younger-but-always-more-cutting-edge friend’s suggestion – more like order (“enough with your f–king Depeche Mode, listen to some REAL music” he said) and for whatever reason this is the song that broke the synth barrier (I had a 50% rule at the time, if the amount of guitar was not at least matched by synth – no dice!). Of note, my friend is now a plastic surgeon who will gladly debate you on the relative merits of Music For The Masses and Violator, we do it all the time (Violator wins, please).
2) WILLIAM IT WAS REALLY NOTHING: All that genius packed into just over 2 minutes. Brilliant. In his position I’m sure I would have made the same famous mistake as Geoff Travis and declared this the obvious a-side and relegated How Soon As Now to the b-side, being clearly “unrepresentative of the Smiths’ brand” as he said (and yes Pete, way too long). In reality HSIN should have been a single from jump, which might have saved MIM from the fate of having HSIM jammed awkwardly into its gut by Sire (where it stays to this day, even in the UK I hear). A little story, I used to take synth lessons in HS (obviously) from this arrogant twit who would openly mock me for the music I listened to, which I would bring in for us to work out together (you know, if it wasn’t King Crimson it was useless). So to f–k with him one day I brought in WIWRN. I can still see his knotted sweaty brow as he tried in vain to follow the chord progression, stuttering excuses about capos and weird tunings (which in retrospect might have been somewhat valid…but still, he deserved it). He did get me into Eno, so it wasn’t all bad.
And in 3rd place…we have the utterly predictable 3-way tie:
SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN, THE HEADMASTER RITUAL, THIS CHARMING MAN.
Sorry, but how am I supposed to pick between these 3? Tell me? SLC was my morose soundtrack of choice for countless teen-angsty hours locked in my bedroom “yeah…I wanna go to the moors TOO” (before I’d figured out exactly what he was on about). Listening to THR I’d imagine that if I’d grown up in Manchester like Morrissey that those headmasters would have been just as mean to me, thwacking my knees mercilessly. And TCM, like WIWRN, is just super-concentrated Smiths brilliance (and like HSIN, wedged awkwardly, but less so, into the middle of an album it was never really on). And how the f–k did he come up with that guitar line? Capo or no capo, simply amazing.
P.S. I love the Still Ill and (especially) Rubber Ring picks Pete, but can’t get with Sheila Take Bow. I have another friend with whom I debate which years of the Smiths’ output are best. He loves 87 Smiths and I am lukewarm on almost all of it, the non-album singles, B-Sides, AND Strangeways too. To me, the clear peak was late 85. This is where you had that amazing run of singles and b-sides like Heaven Knows…, WIWRN, HSIN, PPPLMGWIW, TBWATIHS, RR, and also when they recorded TQID.
P.P.S. The Goddard book is terrific, if you don’t have it, get it.
Meant late 84-85, and forgot MIM. Can’t beat that era.
I don’t agree that “HSIN” is horribly overrated. Overplayed, yes. It’s their most commercially popular song in the US, and (therefore?) most disowned (we hate it when our bands become successful). Personally, it still works for me. It’s their “When the Levee Breaks,” and it can go on longer for all I care.
Anyway, big surprise, I’m not much of a fan, but I like them enough, so, hmmm, let’s see, “Stop Me If You Think etc.,” “Charming Man,” “WIWRN.” Or, what the hell, “Reel Around the Fountain.”
Ah yes, Hatfull of Hollow. I remember buying it at Smash! in DC senior year of high school. The shirt was just an after-thought, but I’m glad it served as a useful filter for meeting people freshman year of college.
On to the question;
Back to the Old House
I Won’t Share You
Accept Yourself.
And really, like specialmustard, it has to be 5, in which case:
This Charming Man
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.