Tag Archives: The Smiths

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Song of the Day #365: ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ – The Smiths

strangewaysAnd so I have arrived at the entry that marks one full year of Songs of the Day… my 365th song. And by some cosmic coincidence — and I swear, I did not plan this at all — it comes from the same album I featured one year ago when I started this series.

Yes, it was The Smiths’ ‘I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish’ from their Strangeways, Here We Come album that kicked off the Songs of the Day. I chose it because I found the title particularly fitting considering the daunting task ahead. A year later, I’m surprised at how “easy” it was to come up with 365 songs. It took lots of time and effort, don’t get me wrong, but I never felt I was at a loss for songs, or for words.

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Song of the Day #364: ‘Rubber Ring’ – The Smiths

louderthanbombsThe Smiths released a lot of non-album singles and B-sides during their first few years, as well as a couple of Britain-only compilation albums. In 1987, American record company Sire Records compiled all of those tracks and released them in the U.S. on a double album titled Louder Than Bombs.

Only a couple of these tunes can be considered throwaways: a syrupy cover of Twinkle’s ‘Golden Lights’ and instrumental track ‘Oscillate Wildly.’ The rest are solid enough to make this collection of 24 odds and ends an unofficial fifth Smiths studio album.

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Song of the Day #363: ‘Frankly Mr. Shankly’ – The Smiths

queendead1986 saw the release of The Smiths’ third studio album, and their bona fide masterpiece, The Queen is Dead. Not only is this my favorite Smiths album but it’s a contender for my list of top ten favorite albums.

But my first memory of The Queen is Dead has nothing to do with the music. Rather, it’s of a girl in my tenth grade biology class who often wore a white shirt with this album cover on it. K___ was one of those quiet, pretty, smart girls who didn’t get much attention in high school but probably went on to fame and fortune. (Actually, I friended her on Facebook and she now works at the Library of Congress.)

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Song of the Day #362: ‘How Soon is Now?’ – The Smiths

meatmurderThe band’s second studio album, 1985’s Meat is Murder, was their most commercially successful and received widespread critical acclaim. It’s also my least favorite of their albums.

That’s not to say it isn’t a strong collection — it is — but it’s one for which you have to be in the mood. Marr really went to town on this album, stylistically jumping all over the map. The Elvis Presley rockabilly of ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ runs into the jangly alternative sound of ‘I Want the One I Can’t Have’ then crashes headlong into the rock shredding of ‘What She Said.’ The album’s title (and weakest) track is a dissonant, sound effect-fueled screed about vegetarianism.

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Song of the Day #361: ‘Hand in Glove’ – The Smiths

thesmithsThe band reunion I’d most like to see — more than Talking Heads, Ben Folds Five, Led Zeppelin or Simon and Garfunkel — is The Smiths. It’s so tantalizingly close to happening — all the members are alive and well and active in the music industry — yet it likely never will. Morrissey and Johnny Marr hate each other like poison and they reportedly turned down $5 million dollars to reunite for a single song at a recent festival.

It just seems wrong that a band so influential and creative should have lit up and flamed out over the course of only five years in the mid-80s. By now The Smiths could have been as big as U2, with as many albums under their belts. Sure, Morrissey has released a series of fine solo albums, but his work apart from Marr has never been quite up to the level of the stuff The Smiths put out.

This week I’ll feature a handful of those songs by one of my favorite bands.

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