Because a 23 song album takes long to download, I resorted to listening to the dulcet tunes of The Smiths, on YouTube. I don’t know anyone who listens to them nowadays which is rather unfortunate because they were colossal in England during the 80’s and still hold a sublime spot in musical history. This charming band from Manchester, England has unleashed 5 albums and 14 hit singles, has been recognized as ‘the most important band in the last 50 years’ by NME and has inspired a barrage of artists. Yet, it’s not just the hype surrounding them that makes them fascinating. They’re the melodious rebels, the ones who blatantly refuse to conform, calling themselves ‘The Smiths’ for the simple reason that their contemporaries chose convoluted ones like Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. They were known to traipse onto stage to the classical tune of ‘Montagues and Capulets’ and were famed for having ingeniously welded heart-felt, reflective, humorous, often depressing lyrics that elucidate the carnage of life, together with sprightly, upbeat tunes and buoyant instrumentations. I like the fact that the cover art for their singles and albums never featured pictures of them, yet displayed portraits of others including Elvis.
Lead singer Morrissey’s voice and powerful lyrics, the jangly accent of Johnny Marr’s guitar, Mike Joyce’s drumming and Andy Rourke’s bass, simply, conspire to inspire.
Their first single ‘Hand in Glove’ illuminates the working class of the North with lines like ‘Though we may be hidden by rags/We’ll have something they’ll never have’ against a backdrop of sturdy and evocative music.
‘Panic on the streets of London/Panic on the streets of Birmingham’, sings Morrissey cheerfully on ‘Panic’, a little ditty with the intent to revolutionize. The line ‘Burn down the disco/Hang the blessed DJ/ because the music that they constantly play/It says nothing to me about my life’ melodically chides the commercial hit-makers of that time.
‘This Charming Man’ makes it a point to employ lines like ‘Punctured bicycle/ On a hillside desolate/ Will nature make a man of me yet?’ or ’I would go out tonight/But I haven’t got a stitch to wear’, language that has been rendered obsolete by up and coming songwriters. Their 1983 performance of the song on ‘Top of the Pops’ features Morrissey dangerously wielding a bouquet of gladioli flowers like an AK-47. Cool, eh?
‘Good times for a change/See the luck I’ve had can make a good man turn bad’ opens the number ‘Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’. One minute and fifty-two seconds is awfully short for this charming melody. The loveliness of the song lies with the lyrics and with Morrissey’s voice which gives the song a slightly aged and weighty quality, as though a weather beaten old man was musing on his experiences of life. Yet it’s the youth that relates more to this song, as each ‘please’ conveys that sense of urgency, yearning and strength.
‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ elicits some chuckles with its dark and ironical humour and ‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’ talks about how ‘heavenly’ and pleasurable it would be to die by a double decker bus.
The Smiths were, and still are, essentially the people’s band, making a point to highlighting issues like heartbreak, loneliness, self-pity, the pain of adolescence and Thatcherism. Being someone who sees adolescence as a painful way to judge whether or not you belong to the human race, their music is helpful in translating certain thoughts that would’ve crossed your mind at some point in life.
