I expect the occasional Morrissey single with a lyric so simple and repetitive that I hate it even as I can’t get it out of my head. Is tossing rhyming out the window in the middle of the song bratty, playful, or just plain lazy? And is he bellowing even louder than usual? Hearing it from across the room, CG said it sounded like someone trying to sound like Morrissey.
Pissin’ people off again, stock in trade - good show, Moz.
There is a certain tongue-in-cheek element to his presentation that just make me laugh. I’ve never enjoyed Morrissey in this way before, he often seemed a bit too self-indulgent for my liking.
Big reason I love Morrissey (when I do) is the tongue-in-cheek aspect of his lyrics and his delivery - this video performance definitely has that, though I thought it kinda hasty this time around. Get him when he’s ranting about "Meat Is Murder" or November spawning a monster and he’s intolerable, and I think lots of folks who hear him just think he’s earnest like this all the time. Doesn’t mean he can’t pull off genuinely serious and haunting lyrics ("Back to the Old House" is one of the most haunting songs I’ve ever heard), but when he’s being silly, he’s so OTT that I just have to have a laugh. I mean, he’s such a pompous ass, and he knows it!
From all reports, though, I wouldn’t want to be in his band.
I really don’t get it. Never have! Somebody—tell me what you love about them. I’m just curious. I know so many people who love them and I just can’t figure out what it is that my ears are missing! The Smiths have always seemed REALLY unmelodious to me. I’m not saying this to be a baiter or a twit. I’m seriously curious to know what it is about the Smiths that engenders such devotion and adoration.
Then, if need be, you can ask me the same question about REGGAE! Or WORLDBEAT (such a horrible term) or any other form that you despise that I might secretly love!
For me old Smiths is less about the music and more about triggering memories of time and place. I was exposed to them a bit late(1985) when I went off to college. I not a big fan and have really only heard the hits while friends were overplaying them on the stereo. I don’t actually own any of their stuff, but when I hear them (along with a few other bands) it takes me back to a time of real freedom of identity, being who I wanted to be without people enforcing social hierchys that were established in junior high on me. It was a time where everything was new, music was dramatically different from the metal/rock/pop that had been on mainstream radio. Hairstyles were outlandish and I remember thinking how modern we seemed in our frizzy mullets and bleached jeans. You know, being young and stupid in college.
I don’t know if you would consider Smiths pre-shoegaze or what but when I’m in the mood for such things it’s a textural thing, like floating on a cloud of sound and musical breezes flitting like hummingbirds through the tall grass, you try to grasp on to one and it’s gone, better just enjoy it as it passes.
Sometimes it is hard to admit, but yes, I love the Smiths. Dingey we had this conversation over poker many times with Mr. Jass in your corner, and Mr. Linc0ln and Mr. F#rdyce in the Smith lover area. It is hard to say why. I liked, oddly, the rythm section more. I guess it hit my 16 year old male ears well. It is so difficult to be misunderstood, especially when you live a very cushy life (me). Morrisey solo is not good, but the Smiths are near and dear…. still.
Did anyone else hear the Mudhoney riff throughout that video on the top of this conversation. The song was "Suck You Dry" off of Every Good Boy and it is weird to hear Morrisey when you expect Mark Arm.
Submitted by Herb Tarlick on Thu, 06/19/2008 - 1:40pm.
I think the Smiths are the direct legacy of late ’70s British punk and early post-punk, especially the Manchester variety. The sentiments in the lyrics are often very similar to the Buzzcocks (gay frustration and associated drama) while the sound of the music post-punk pop with a slight folky (like in the early Byrds) type layer interspersed, not unlike other Manchester bands like Josef K. I think their sound is very melodic and catchy and in spite of the occasional cheap dramatic overtones often deep on an emotional level. I agree with mOnz though that a lot of my love of the Smiths comes from the band (in my case Johnny Marr) more than Morrissey himself. I haven’t really connected so much with Mozz’s solo work but I do admire him in kind of a punk elder statesman way…
"…like floating on a cloud of sound and musical breezes flitting like hummingbirds through the tall grass, you try to grasp on to one and it’s gone, better just enjoy it as it passes."
Submitted by wizzybit on Thu, 06/19/2008 - 5:41pm.
Social anxiety. Or at least, that was the teenage appeal. Oh yeah, I was The Smiths biggest high school fan, at my high school anyway. I also liked the guitar noises. I felt like all of the songs were either about me, or by me, if I were a handsome young English man who might be gay.
I still love The Smiths, too, but now it’s more in that forgiving, "oh, I was an insufferable depressive twit in my youth" sort of way.
Keep em coming. It all makes sense, and all answers are very entertaining.
I think maybe I just heard them too late. For some reason my misfit highschool years involved an unhealthy obsession with the Beatles, followed by a deep love for the seemingly incongruous pairing of cow punk and laurie anderson….
catchy, yeah...
… but man, is it dumb!
I expect the occasional Morrissey single with a lyric so simple and repetitive that I hate it even as I can’t get it out of my head. Is tossing rhyming out the window in the middle of the song bratty, playful, or just plain lazy? And is he bellowing even louder than usual? Hearing it from across the room, CG said it sounded like someone trying to sound like Morrissey.
Pissin’ people off again, stock in trade - good show, Moz.
tongue-in-cheek?
There is a certain tongue-in-cheek element to his presentation that just make me laugh. I’ve never enjoyed Morrissey in this way before, he often seemed a bit too self-indulgent for my liking.
totally
Big reason I love Morrissey (when I do) is the tongue-in-cheek aspect of his lyrics and his delivery - this video performance definitely has that, though I thought it kinda hasty this time around. Get him when he’s ranting about "Meat Is Murder" or November spawning a monster and he’s intolerable, and I think lots of folks who hear him just think he’s earnest like this all the time. Doesn’t mean he can’t pull off genuinely serious and haunting lyrics ("Back to the Old House" is one of the most haunting songs I’ve ever heard), but when he’s being silly, he’s so OTT that I just have to have a laugh. I mean, he’s such a pompous ass, and he knows it!
From all reports, though, I wouldn’t want to be in his band.
MOZZY FOZZY
RE: the Smiths, Morrisey, et. al.
Man.
I really don’t get it. Never have! Somebody—tell me what you love about them. I’m just curious. I know so many people who love them and I just can’t figure out what it is that my ears are missing! The Smiths have always seemed REALLY unmelodious to me. I’m not saying this to be a baiter or a twit. I’m seriously curious to know what it is about the Smiths that engenders such devotion and adoration.
Then, if need be, you can ask me the same question about REGGAE! Or WORLDBEAT (such a horrible term) or any other form that you despise that I might secretly love!
triggers of time and place
For me old Smiths is less about the music and more about triggering memories of time and place. I was exposed to them a bit late(1985) when I went off to college. I not a big fan and have really only heard the hits while friends were overplaying them on the stereo. I don’t actually own any of their stuff, but when I hear them (along with a few other bands) it takes me back to a time of real freedom of identity, being who I wanted to be without people enforcing social hierchys that were established in junior high on me. It was a time where everything was new, music was dramatically different from the metal/rock/pop that had been on mainstream radio. Hairstyles were outlandish and I remember thinking how modern we seemed in our frizzy mullets and bleached jeans. You know, being young and stupid in college.
pre-shoegaze?
I don’t know if you would consider Smiths pre-shoegaze or what but when I’m in the mood for such things it’s a textural thing, like floating on a cloud of sound and musical breezes flitting like hummingbirds through the tall grass, you try to grasp on to one and it’s gone, better just enjoy it as it passes.
I am a fan
Sometimes it is hard to admit, but yes, I love the Smiths. Dingey we had this conversation over poker many times with Mr. Jass in your corner, and Mr. Linc0ln and Mr. F#rdyce in the Smith lover area. It is hard to say why. I liked, oddly, the rythm section more. I guess it hit my 16 year old male ears well. It is so difficult to be misunderstood, especially when you live a very cushy life (me). Morrisey solo is not good, but the Smiths are near and dear…. still.
Did anyone else hear the Mudhoney riff throughout that video on the top of this conversation. The song was "Suck You Dry" off of Every Good Boy and it is weird to hear Morrisey when you expect Mark Arm.
I am the son, and the heir....
I think the Smiths are the direct legacy of late ’70s British punk and early post-punk, especially the Manchester variety. The sentiments in the lyrics are often very similar to the Buzzcocks (gay frustration and associated drama) while the sound of the music post-punk pop with a slight folky (like in the early Byrds) type layer interspersed, not unlike other Manchester bands like Josef K. I think their sound is very melodic and catchy and in spite of the occasional cheap dramatic overtones often deep on an emotional level. I agree with mOnz though that a lot of my love of the Smiths comes from the band (in my case Johnny Marr) more than Morrissey himself. I haven’t really connected so much with Mozz’s solo work but I do admire him in kind of a punk elder statesman way…
Tijuana Brass!
"…like floating on a cloud of sound and musical breezes flitting like hummingbirds through the tall grass, you try to grasp on to one and it’s gone, better just enjoy it as it passes."
That’s why I like Herb Apert.
—your radio friend, Bat Guano
Digum
I do! At first, it was tough to get past Moz’s voice, but the more I listened, the more I liked it, and the band really rocks.
The melodies are sometimes limited to a few notes. You could probably play their whole catalog on a kid’s xylophone,
(Sweet and Tender Hooligan? Sure! That’s Orange Orange Red Orange Yellow Orange Red Yellow Orange Orange!)
but you could say the same about a lot of bands.
I really have nothing more to add here. I like ‘em. Louder Than Bombs is an awesome collection.
Two words:
Social anxiety. Or at least, that was the teenage appeal. Oh yeah, I was The Smiths biggest high school fan, at my high school anyway. I also liked the guitar noises. I felt like all of the songs were either about me, or by me, if I were a handsome young English man who might be gay.
I still love The Smiths, too, but now it’s more in that forgiving, "oh, I was an insufferable depressive twit in my youth" sort of way.
thanks everybody!
Keep em coming. It all makes sense, and all answers are very entertaining.
I think maybe I just heard them too late. For some reason my misfit highschool years involved an unhealthy obsession with the Beatles, followed by a deep love for the seemingly incongruous pairing of cow punk and laurie anderson….