travispickle
Well-Known Member
Ah now.
I listened to Slayer ffs and nary a bad word said.
The QID is deadly!!
Get on it!!!
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The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (1986) (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter pete
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I listened to Slayer ffs and nary a bad word said.
The QID is deadly!!
Get on it!!!
David Kronenbourg
Well-Known Member
you are a flatulent pain in the arse
I'm going a bit off topic here, but it might help me with Slayer so I'm going for it anyway.
One of the things I love so much about Queen is Moz's completely over the top morose and poncy lyrics. I find it to be an album full of humour. He is holding up a mirror to any and all teenage namby pamby feelings I might have wallowed in.
At the same time. They are also beautiful and real. (PONCE ALERT). It really does take strength to be gentle and kind!
Now, I didn't find any humour in the Slayer album. All that shouting about eye gouging and swastikas just wore me out. But, I can see they are also mad over the top. Are you lads getting lols out of those slayer lyrics like I get from the Smiths?
This album is always in my top 5 favourites ever. I'd chop and change one or two, but not this one. This remains.
I heard it soon enough after it came out but I drifted away from it. The first Smiths album I heard was the one that came after this, Strangeways Here we Come. I remember getting the 15A bus into town with a school buddy back in 1987, the two of heading into Waterstones bookshop. He was a Smiths head. The 4 Of Us had just put out an album too, and we both had liking that in common. He suggested to me that if I liked that album, I'd like the Smiths, and he let me listen to a song on his walkman. That song was 'I started Something I Couldn't Finish'. The first ever Smiths song I heard, ever.
My reaction to liking something I'd just heard in 1987 was very different to my reaction to liking something I'd just heard in more recent times. You'd certainly make note of it and would probably hope to hear it again. Maybe ask for the album for your birthday or christmas. In 1987 I got 1 pound a week pocket money. Half of that usually went on bus fare in and out of town on a saturday morning to browse through records. No one my age had money to be buying music.
But, I had an older brother. That could work one of two ways. If you get along and have similar music tastes, you could listen to the music he was bringing home. And he brought home a shiny copy of The Queen is Dead on vinyl.
That should have been a good thing, but he and I had rather different personalities, and ones which would prove anything but compatible. It wasn't long before I despised everything he liked, whether I actually did or not. That included The Smiths.
Later he became a punk, and turned his back on anything remotely indie or mainstream. That left the door open for me to get back into The Smiths. But I didn't, not right away. I think I remember not being overly-enamoured with how Smiths fans carried themselves back then. By 'carried themselves' I mean how they copied Morrissey, down to his puny persona.
I can't remember when I did get back into the Smiths though. Probably my late teens/early 20s (mid to late 90s). And I preferred Strangeways over this album, at least initially.
But I snapped out of that soon enough.
I don't think theres a bad song on this album. Bigmouth and There is a Light, are 2 of the greatest songs in the history of the entire world. Even begrudging haters would have a hard time making a compelling argument against their merits.
And though every song is bleak as hell, its not a sad album. It never makes me sad anyway. How can a song with the lyrics 'Oh mother, I can feel, the soil falling over my head' be uplifting? I have no idea. But I find it uplifting. Maybe because I subconsciously associate it with an album I like so much.
Maybe this is controversial, but I always saw this more as a Johnny Marr album than a Morrissey album. Actually, I don't think thats controversial at all. Marr is fantastic on it. I never got to see the Smiths live. At this point I hope I never do. But I have seen Johnny Marr play live 3 times in the past 2/3 years. What an absolute joy to hear him playing There is a Light. I couldn't give a fuck that he can't sing. That guitar. Just, amazing.
And I remember that Morrissey gig in the Point several years back where he opened and closed the gig with that song (as in he bookended his set with it, rather than playing it, then walking off). Also great.
Its hard not to be cynical about Morrissey these days. Marr seems dead sound and dead level-headed. But even if he was an asshole too, I don't think it could ever put me off liking the Smiths.
The most Irish, non-Irish band ever. Why did we not try and claim these lads as our own?
This album gets a solid 10/10 from me
I heard it soon enough after it came out but I drifted away from it. The first Smiths album I heard was the one that came after this, Strangeways Here we Come. I remember getting the 15A bus into town with a school buddy back in 1987, the two of heading into Waterstones bookshop. He was a Smiths head. The 4 Of Us had just put out an album too, and we both had liking that in common. He suggested to me that if I liked that album, I'd like the Smiths, and he let me listen to a song on his walkman. That song was 'I started Something I Couldn't Finish'. The first ever Smiths song I heard, ever.
My reaction to liking something I'd just heard in 1987 was very different to my reaction to liking something I'd just heard in more recent times. You'd certainly make note of it and would probably hope to hear it again. Maybe ask for the album for your birthday or christmas. In 1987 I got 1 pound a week pocket money. Half of that usually went on bus fare in and out of town on a saturday morning to browse through records. No one my age had money to be buying music.
But, I had an older brother. That could work one of two ways. If you get along and have similar music tastes, you could listen to the music he was bringing home. And he brought home a shiny copy of The Queen is Dead on vinyl.
That should have been a good thing, but he and I had rather different personalities, and ones which would prove anything but compatible. It wasn't long before I despised everything he liked, whether I actually did or not. That included The Smiths.
Later he became a punk, and turned his back on anything remotely indie or mainstream. That left the door open for me to get back into The Smiths. But I didn't, not right away. I think I remember not being overly-enamoured with how Smiths fans carried themselves back then. By 'carried themselves' I mean how they copied Morrissey, down to his puny persona.
I can't remember when I did get back into the Smiths though. Probably my late teens/early 20s (mid to late 90s). And I preferred Strangeways over this album, at least initially.
But I snapped out of that soon enough.
I don't think theres a bad song on this album. Bigmouth and There is a Light, are 2 of the greatest songs in the history of the entire world. Even begrudging haters would have a hard time making a compelling argument against their merits.
And though every song is bleak as hell, its not a sad album. It never makes me sad anyway. How can a song with the lyrics 'Oh mother, I can feel, the soil falling over my head' be uplifting? I have no idea. But I find it uplifting. Maybe because I subconsciously associate it with an album I like so much.
Maybe this is controversial, but I always saw this more as a Johnny Marr album than a Morrissey album. Actually, I don't think thats controversial at all. Marr is fantastic on it. I never got to see the Smiths live. At this point I hope I never do. But I have seen Johnny Marr play live 3 times in the past 2/3 years. What an absolute joy to hear him playing There is a Light. I couldn't give a fuck that he can't sing. That guitar. Just, amazing.
And I remember that Morrissey gig in the Point several years back where he opened and closed the gig with that song (as in he bookended his set with it, rather than playing it, then walking off). Also great.
Its hard not to be cynical about Morrissey these days. Marr seems dead sound and dead level-headed. But even if he was an asshole too, I don't think it could ever put me off liking the Smiths.
The most Irish, non-Irish band ever. Why did we not try and claim these lads as our own?
This album gets a solid 10/10 from me
Neither have I, but I know their hit singles and all that, kinda hard not to absorb that stuff, it's always been in the air. 'How Soon Is Now' has great guitar. Morrissey's voice, though, it's a dealbreaker, you either get it you don't, I suppose.
First track in so far - great bass playing, I like Marr's wiry guitar (the wah pedal not so much) and that dry '80s production. The drums could do with some more punch, though. And can someone give Moz some Vicks for his nose?
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Cemetery Gates?? They do a Pantera cover? Cool!
тхеодоре кацзынски
Well-Known Member
Good post Scutter. I'm gonna upgrade that Like to a Winner.
Not in the same way - lyrics, for me, are completely secondary to the RIFFS.
But yeah, it's all Tales from the Crypt imagery. Not meant to be taken seriously in the slightest. It's not poetry.
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Actually I was going to say the opposite. I'm not that familiar with QID. I love the big songs on it like "There Is A Light" etc but this morning was the first time I listened to it the whole way through. It struck me that the first couple of songs were ALL about Morrissey's lyrics and delivery as opposed to Marr's musical inventiveness. But going to listen through again later ... carry on.
- Thread starter
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Marr needed to stop tickling the guitar and play the fucking thing.
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hahahaha
David Kronenbourg
Well-Known Member
you're not really, @pete , it's just a line from one of the many terrific songs on this album
Hah @pete.
I'm finding this first listen very tough, it's so incredibly dreary and fey. The production is utterly horrible, every guitar tone is destroyed and thinned out. The melodies are playground jangles, there is nothing inspirational or passionate or innovative in this music. Morrissey's voice is a shit in my ear.
In school, I was the outsider of the gangs of outsiders scrawling this crap on their school bags. *This* is the music I wanted to rebel against.
I will listen two more times but.....urge to kill (my stereo) rising.
I'm finding this first listen very tough, it's so incredibly dreary and fey. The production is utterly horrible, every guitar tone is destroyed and thinned out. The melodies are playground jangles, there is nothing inspirational or passionate or innovative in this music. Morrissey's voice is a shit in my ear.
In school, I was the outsider of the gangs of outsiders scrawling this crap on their school bags. *This* is the music I wanted to rebel against.
I will listen two more times but.....urge to kill (my stereo) rising.
Vicar in a fucking tutu......
This is the Terry and June of indie rock.
This is the Terry and June of indie rock.
I'm dreading this album
David Kronenbourg
Well-Known Member
That’s a great song!
It's absolutely ruined my morning. Me and Thumped Album Club are not going to get along well....
Advice to @dudley: perhaps you should treat Frankly Mr. Shankly and Vicar In A Tutu as you would Bring Back That Leroy Brown or Seaside Rendezvous. Hope that helps.
I love The Queen Is Dead, me.
jesus, with this level of whinging I'd thought you'd have made MASSIVE Smiths fans.
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