Sophia’s final Smiths song comes from the band’s final studio album, 1987’s Strangeways, Here We Come. This album was released months after the band had already broken up.
‘A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours’ is the album’s opening track, and it’s a stunner. Johnny Marr challenged himself to write a song without using guitar, so this one rocks along quite deliciously on piano, drums and a wicked bass (shades of Ben Folds Five).
Fiona’s final Smiths selection is one I did introduce to her (after she expressed an interest in the band). ‘Half a Person’ is an obscure B-side that shows up on the compilation Louder Than Bombs and it’s a favorite of mine.
The song finds Morrissey recounting the story of a girl he obsessed over when he was a teenager, only to hear from her years later and find that she is unimpressed with his now-famous self.
I was starting to get a little worried about Sophia after her first three Smiths selections. ‘Pretty Girls Make Graves,’ ‘Well I Wonder,’ and ‘Never Had No One Ever’ are bleak songs about failing to find love and connection in a cruel world.
With today’s selection she swerves into less morose territory, offering up ‘Sweet and Tender Hooligan,’ a punk-inflected satirical defense of a violent criminal on trial in the British justice system.
Fiona’s next Smiths selection gives us a break from the melancholy — the 1986 single ‘Ask’ is one of the peppiest songs in the band’s catalog.
That was by design. Morrissey worried that a dour single would be viewed as more of the same following the band’s recent releases. So the band came up with this bright anthem about getting past the crippling shyness usually depicted in his lyrics.
Continuing my look at The Smiths through the selections of my two daughters, we arrive at Sophia’s third pick, ‘Never Had No One Ever’ from the band’s 1986 classic The Queen is Dead.
The Queen is Dead is my favorite Smiths album and among my top five or ten albums of all-time. It doesn’t have a weak song, or even a weak moment. However, if there is an underdog on this album it’s today’s Song of the Day, and I’m thrilled that Sophia has chosen it.
Meet Me In Montauk 