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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Song of the Day #165: ‘Cemetry Gates’ – The Smiths

smiths2I started the Song of the Day series way back in July with a Smiths song and 164 songs later I’m returning to the band. Look for the next installment around song #329.

This track appears on The Queen is Dead which I consider one of the best albums recorded by anybody, ever. I can’t imagine a more clever, catchy, emotionally satisfying batch of songs. Those who think Morrissey is capable of only woe-is-me sob-fests need to give it a listen and realize how friggin’ hilarious he is.

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Song of the Day #1: ‘I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish’ – The Smiths

Inspired by this blog by the lovely and talented Malagueta, I’ve decided to write about a new song every day. I’m not sure how long I can keep this up… I currently have 7,798 songs in my iTunes library, so theoretically I can do this until I’m 56 using only my current collection. Throw in all the new music I’m sure to pick up over the next 21 years and it’s safe to say I can carry on for the rest of my life.

For now, I’ll concentrate on making it through next week.

To kick it off, I’ve chosen a song the title of which reflects my doubts that I’ll be able to carry out this daunting task. In the future I’ll choose songs pretty much at random.

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