It's very difficult for me to separate The Smiths and Morrissey and my ideal LP would be a compilation of my favourite tracks from the group and solo act. Unfortunately that doesn't exist that I know of, so to get 'Girlfriend in a Coma' AND 'The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get' there's a need to gather a number of different albums.
That being the case, these 3 are a great place to start.
Forming in 1982 and disbanding in 1987 The Smiths managed to produce 4 studio albums and 22 singles. There have been re-releases and 10 compilation albums to keep the name alive - probably the most comprehensive would be the CD 'Sound of the Smiths' in 2008.
On all 4 of their albums Morrissey was the lyricist, with Johnny Marr composing the music.
There's all sorts of controversy surrounding Morrissey because of his attitudes, anti-establishment views, weird black humour and just general .. um ... oddness, but there's no denying he and Johnny wrote some great songs together. Morrisseys sexual ambiguity in his lyrics, often not being gender specific, came through in the groups 2nd single 'This Charming Man' where a cyclist with a puncture is picked up by a motorist and as they drive along they start to flirt. The song lyrics were also unusual with Morrisseys choice of language and phrase, using older terms and references.
'How Soon Is Now' covers the complex topic of an extremely shy person who seems never to be able to find anyone. The original is a seven minute song but the single that was released got cut down to less than 4 minutes and had only one verse repeated twice and a 5 line chorus. It seems longer, deeper and fuller and is a brilliant piece of music.
'Bigmouth Strikes Again' is classic Morrissey. Self-deprecating and almost .. what's the word I want .. weasely?! .. trying to fob off cutting nasty remarks by saying he was joking and then comparing himself to Joan of Arc when he's brought to task. He ends up whining about being a bigmouth with no right to take his place in the human race.
"Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking
When I said I'd like to smash every tooth
In your head
Oh oh oh"
One song sometimes overlooked is, to me, one of their best and most poignant. 'Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want' tends to appear on compilations and has also been recorded by other artists.
Dream Academy did a version in 1985 and an instrumental of it was included in the movie "Ferris Beuller's Day Off" in 1986.
A cover by She & Him (Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward) was included with the original version by the Smiths on the soundtrack for the 2009 movie (500) Days of Summer.
Oooh ... M. Ward. I'm going to have to review him soon!
A version was used for the famous John Lewis Christmas ad in 2011.
1987 brought the amazingly cringe-worthy startlingly horrific phenomenal single 'Girlfriend in a Coma'. There's a massive conflict going on between the man's love for his girlfriend (who, unsurprisingly, is in a coma) where he wants to see her, doesn't want to see her, says he could have killed her but then says he doesn't want anything to happen to her ..
"Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know, it's serious ...
... There were times when I could
have murdered her".
When BBC Radio 1 refused to play it, Morrissey said "You're not really supposed to like those songs. They're very depressing and not supposed to be played on radio."
After Morrissey left The Smiths in '87 he started out on a long and generally successful solo career. He almost fell foul though with his first album, 'Viva Hate' in 1988. The last track 'Margaret on the Guillotine' wishing for an end to a certain Iron Lady ended up with him being interviewed by Special Branch.
Despite all his political and personal views, the one lyric I have a problem with is from his song 'We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful' where he states ..
'And if they're Northern, that makes it even worse'.
REALLY !
In 2019 Morrissey released perhaps his most surprising album of all, 'California Son', a collection of covers from songwriters as diverse as Bob Dylan and Burt Bacharach. He does a credible version of the Roy Orbison classic 'It's Over', bursts into Laura Nyro's 'Wedding Bell Blues' and includes 'Lady Willpower' made famous by Gary Puckett.
The Smiths - and more specifically Morrissey - music to slash your wrists by.
Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get
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