Alternative Weekend: Focus on ‘The Smiths’

I have been posting most weekends using @detlev’s #metalweekend tag, but my main love of music is progressive and alternative music. Some of my posts have included these songs, but I feel they are not keeping with the spirit of metal.

I will continue to post article’s using #metalweekend occasionally but feel I have more to offer regarding these other genre’s that I am more familiar with.

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Introducing #alternativeweekend. Post an article that highlights THREE great songs that are either progressive or alternative and use the tag #alternativeweekend.

If you have a short story or something to offer regarding an opinion on your songs, then share it with us!

I first heard this band around 1984 and it was instant hate. I was more of a mainstream music person then, righteously followed the Top 40 and this was just weird shit.

‘He can’t sing’, ‘The music is depressing’ are two things that came to mind.

I largely ignored the band after my initial deduction of ‘crap’ until they released ‘Panic’ in 1986. OK, this is a little better, the voice is still depressing as hell but it’s got something.

A year later they were gone and I figured I wouldn’t miss them. Fast forward 10 years and I hear, ‘How Soon is Now’ somewhere, maybe on the TV or the radio.

The thing I was struck by was that melancholy guitar wailing chord that emanates throughout the song; how cool is that sound!

Also how did I miss this when it was released as a single in 1985 and reached number 24 in the charts?

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After playing said song to death I reached out a little further and bought, ‘Hatful of Hollow’ and ‘The Queen is Dead’.

The voice was no longer depressing and the ridiculous lyrics made me laugh. Talk about a polar effect, that voice and those lyrics.

What about that guitar? how had I have never noticed the Johnny Marr sound, and a sound of it's own it truly is.

My 14 yr old daughter, @dismayedworld loves The Smiths and has bought the ‘Hatful of Hollow’ album on vinyl. Music from 34 years ago is entertaining her. It just says something of the state of music now.

The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (The Queen is Dead – 1986)

And if a double-decker bus
Crashes in to us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die

What kind of lyrics are these, depressing or funny? I found them to be both but most important of all they are highly original.

Nobody writes lyrics like Morrisey and I don’t think anybody ever will again.

The Smiths - Never Had No One Ever (The Queen is Dead – 1986)

If you hadn’t guessed by now, ‘The Queen is Dead’ is my favourite Smiths album. I love the guitar work of Johnny Marr in this one.

He had a way of making everything sound so rhythmic and jangly. Morrissey’s lyrics speak of loneliness and despair but the song to me is not depressing, more harmonious.

The Smiths - Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me (Strangeways, Here We Come – 1987)

Right now this is probably my favourite track by the band. It’s a shame it doesn’t start until 1.55 minutes in. What is all the piano stuff with white noise accompaniment at the start?

When it does start, it’s really something. Harmonies, depressing lyrics and that awesome guitar work from Johnny Marr again. You can hear Morrissey’s pain in this one at the end.

The Smiths – How Soon is Now? (Hatful of Hollow – 1984)

As I mentioned this one a the start of this article, I thought I had better include it. This is the Single Edit version but at least there’s a video to watch.

I prefer the longer album version that is around 6.5 minutes long but this gets the sound across nicely. I will be surprised if you have never heard it before.

The TV series, 'Charmed' stole it for their show.