A
ann coates
Guest
I don't know if this has already been posted (and my apologies if it has!), but The Smiths are featured several times (and Morrissey only once! ) in this issue. Here are the excerpts:
The Artist Speaks
314 How Soon Is Now?
Johnny Marr tells us which he thinks is better: Morrissey's voice or his guitar.
"I was always looking to do something that was recognisable in the first three seconds - like many of my favourite songs - and with How Soon Is Now? we did it. It's among my favourite Smiths songs, probably because it's stood the test of time so well. It's a cracking riff and I've got a lot of affection for it. What's to go off? It's all there really.
How Soon Is Now doesn't really tip it's hat to any reference - it was just our own psychedelia - although there's a ping-pong harmonic guitar tune towards the end which was a nod to Lovebug Starski, an early hip hop guy whom I met when we played New York for thr first time.
The song was done in two distinct frames of mind. I demoed it on a Portastudio and it was called Swamp - it had a very low-key atmosphere. Then by the time we recorded it properly, it was the middle of the night in the studio and the top line developed into something more uptight and tense. There's two different feelings going on which adds to the sense of confusion. I don't think we could put our finger on quite where it came from.
There was some resistance in, or around, the group - I can't say who - to it being an A-side in the first place. It was originally just the extra track on the William, It Was Really Nothing 12-inch, but it was so popular that the opinions were conveniently changed. Then the American label with their usual mixture of tact, taste and wisdom stuck it on the US version of Meat is Murder, which I think affected the album's balance.
What did I think of the lyrics? I was blown away when it first started. It was unusual territory for us, though as it developed we got back into Smiths land, which is fine. It's all good, though. Would I say the guitar's the star? Course.
I heard t.A.T.u.'s recent cover a couple of times. It's OK, an inspired choice. Has it made me rich? Nah, there's probably some lawyer who's already got his hands on it.
Best For Showing How Well Read You Were As A Student
951 Cemetry Gates
What it does - hotwires the canny feyness of Morrissey's voice directly to the brain. Johnny Marr's guitar is so understated - and Morrissey is so dominant - it's almost unregistered at first, but on repeated listening it blossoms.
Fact - In March 2003 Marr was playing in Berlin when the PA went down. To keep the audience amused Marr played some acoustic blues, then - insisting it would be the only time he would ever do it - whipped off unplugged versions of Bigmouth Strikes Again and Cemetry Gates. Boomtime for bootleggers.
Best For Feeling You're Not Alone
640 I Know It's Over
What it does - Delivers rock music's greatest expression of desolation ("Oh mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head") before the magisterial melody and vocal makes you feel like it's happening to you as well. The links with another human's pain is hugely comforting.
Fact - I Know It's Over is the only known link between Jeff Buckley, The Trash Can Sinatras, Rosewater Elizabeth and violinist/pianist Emilie Autumn, theirs being the four known recorded covers. Oh, and Johnny Marr reckoned Morrissey's vocal was "one of the highlights of my life".
Krishnan Guru-Murthy's Top 5 Indie Disco Tunes
597 Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
The Smiths made really good nobody-understands-me music, though at the time I didn't pick up on the humour: I took it all very seriously. These days, their songs often give me a laugh.
Best When the leather runs smooth...
077 This Charming Man
What it does - Begins with that anxiety-laden Johnny Marr jangle-riff, then rearranges your mental furniture when Morrissey bursts through the door hollering of bicycle tyres punctured and hillsides desolate. The Smiths were never more evocative, nor more full of life.
Fact - The line "A jumped-up pantry boy who never knew his place" was an insult gun-toting Sir Laurence Olivier levelled at Michael Caine in the 1972 movie Sleuth.
739-730 Top Ten Funny Songs
06 Disappointed - Morrissey
"This is the last song I will ever sing", croons Moz to massed cheers. "No, I've changed my mind again." A crescendo of groans. "Goodnight... and thank you!"
The Artist Speaks
314 How Soon Is Now?
Johnny Marr tells us which he thinks is better: Morrissey's voice or his guitar.
"I was always looking to do something that was recognisable in the first three seconds - like many of my favourite songs - and with How Soon Is Now? we did it. It's among my favourite Smiths songs, probably because it's stood the test of time so well. It's a cracking riff and I've got a lot of affection for it. What's to go off? It's all there really.
How Soon Is Now doesn't really tip it's hat to any reference - it was just our own psychedelia - although there's a ping-pong harmonic guitar tune towards the end which was a nod to Lovebug Starski, an early hip hop guy whom I met when we played New York for thr first time.
The song was done in two distinct frames of mind. I demoed it on a Portastudio and it was called Swamp - it had a very low-key atmosphere. Then by the time we recorded it properly, it was the middle of the night in the studio and the top line developed into something more uptight and tense. There's two different feelings going on which adds to the sense of confusion. I don't think we could put our finger on quite where it came from.
There was some resistance in, or around, the group - I can't say who - to it being an A-side in the first place. It was originally just the extra track on the William, It Was Really Nothing 12-inch, but it was so popular that the opinions were conveniently changed. Then the American label with their usual mixture of tact, taste and wisdom stuck it on the US version of Meat is Murder, which I think affected the album's balance.
What did I think of the lyrics? I was blown away when it first started. It was unusual territory for us, though as it developed we got back into Smiths land, which is fine. It's all good, though. Would I say the guitar's the star? Course.
I heard t.A.T.u.'s recent cover a couple of times. It's OK, an inspired choice. Has it made me rich? Nah, there's probably some lawyer who's already got his hands on it.
Best For Showing How Well Read You Were As A Student
951 Cemetry Gates
What it does - hotwires the canny feyness of Morrissey's voice directly to the brain. Johnny Marr's guitar is so understated - and Morrissey is so dominant - it's almost unregistered at first, but on repeated listening it blossoms.
Fact - In March 2003 Marr was playing in Berlin when the PA went down. To keep the audience amused Marr played some acoustic blues, then - insisting it would be the only time he would ever do it - whipped off unplugged versions of Bigmouth Strikes Again and Cemetry Gates. Boomtime for bootleggers.
Best For Feeling You're Not Alone
640 I Know It's Over
What it does - Delivers rock music's greatest expression of desolation ("Oh mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head") before the magisterial melody and vocal makes you feel like it's happening to you as well. The links with another human's pain is hugely comforting.
Fact - I Know It's Over is the only known link between Jeff Buckley, The Trash Can Sinatras, Rosewater Elizabeth and violinist/pianist Emilie Autumn, theirs being the four known recorded covers. Oh, and Johnny Marr reckoned Morrissey's vocal was "one of the highlights of my life".
Krishnan Guru-Murthy's Top 5 Indie Disco Tunes
597 Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
The Smiths made really good nobody-understands-me music, though at the time I didn't pick up on the humour: I took it all very seriously. These days, their songs often give me a laugh.
Best When the leather runs smooth...
077 This Charming Man
What it does - Begins with that anxiety-laden Johnny Marr jangle-riff, then rearranges your mental furniture when Morrissey bursts through the door hollering of bicycle tyres punctured and hillsides desolate. The Smiths were never more evocative, nor more full of life.
Fact - The line "A jumped-up pantry boy who never knew his place" was an insult gun-toting Sir Laurence Olivier levelled at Michael Caine in the 1972 movie Sleuth.
739-730 Top Ten Funny Songs
06 Disappointed - Morrissey
"This is the last song I will ever sing", croons Moz to massed cheers. "No, I've changed my mind again." A crescendo of groans. "Goodnight... and thank you!"
