The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (1986) (1 Viewer)

[GO]

FANTASTIC CHOICE!

Now this is an album I can sink my teeth into

I'm having this right now,and I'm having loud and I may well have it all day.

 

[Anthony]

I always appreciated The Smiths even though I didn't like them. The people who liked them in my school days were at least into music.. In '86 in my school there was the GAA heads who were into sport and did their own thing, the Mods who thought they were the bosses and were generally pricks who picked on everyone else. Then the Cure/Smiths lot who cozied up to the mods to avoid hassle, then the handful of rockers that everyone looked down upon.
It wasn't til Girlfriend in a Coma and Ouija Board that I really wanted to get into this world. Which I did do.
Only recently I've realised that it is Marr that I dislike. I've never listened to a Smiths album all the way through. Here goes....

 

[GO]

Marr needed to stop tickling the guitar and play the fucking thing.

AHAHAHAHA

 

[GO]

This has already been the funniest thread in years.

The album club is complete success!

 

[egg_]

I've never understood the reverence for Marr. I came to love The Smiths on the dancefloor in McGonagle's in 1989/90, and the songs I love best I like primarily because of the bass and drums (like in What Difference Does I Make - not on this one I know, but whatever), after that it's the lyrics. To me the guitar is just harmonic context

 

[Anthony]

Likes for Mar dissers.

 

[egg_]

Actually now that Bigmouth is playing I do like the guitar in that. It's the bass that's really scratching my itch though. And I love the way "bigmouth strikes again" is all one note in the vocal but the harmony changes underneath on "strikes"

 

[egg_]

Isn't it mad how people's musical tastes reflect their tribal allegiances in school so much? Not so much if you're not from a big city though (fewer tribes in smaller schools I suppose)

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

Most of the lads who were into metal in my school weren't really into music, I'm pretty sure. They just wanted to write band names in cool scripts on their bags. In my day the most divisive schism was between Guns n roses and Nirvana

 

[therealjohnny]

I only paid attention to Marr's playing because everyone kept saying how great he is . It's very different from the stuff I play or am generally interested in but I have to give credit where it's due. Very much, to my mind, in the Andy Summers school of subtle lead work over what is primarily rhythm guitar. I've seen live stuff and he can certainly wail when he wants to. The Smiths would be a completely different band without his playing style and sound.
These days I play mainly 50s inspired stuff. The rockabilly and psychobilly scene is full of Smith's fans and many bands still do 50s style versions of Smith's songs. I was surprised at this at first and assumed they were all kids at the time of the UK rockabilly revival and they were mesmerized by Morrissey's quiff, but on closer examination Marr does indeed play a lot of 50s style riffs. e.g. The Loop, Headmaster Riual etc.. A discussion on the issue of this Smith's /Rockabilly thing on the Richard Hawley forum yielded one of my favourite ponderings. Basically a guy said," yes there is an influence but it's mainly aesthetic...you can just picture a teenage Morrissey wanking over picture of Billy Fury "

Anyway, this album. For me the hits stand out over what seems like a lot of filler. I give it a solid "good" with touches of "meh".

 

[egg_]

Most of the lads who were into metal in my school weren't really into music, I'm pretty sure. They just wanted to write band names in cool scripts on their bags

Haha fair point

Some girls are bigger than others actually sounds very REM-ish. Never noticed that before

 

[hugh]

As well the 50s stuff that Johnny mentioned there is also a big smack of The Byrds in Marr's guitar playing right? He's great for me because he eschewed riffs and solos. Even though riffs and solos are two of my favourite things.

 

[therealjohnny]

yep. I agree.

 

[travispickle]

Maybe this is controversial, but I always saw this more as a Johnny Marr album than a Morrissey album.

Great post Scutter and I completely agree with this statement. Marr's music is amazing on this record. Too often his music gets overlooked as The Smiths are generally spoken about in relation to Morrissey's lyrics; but Marr is astonishing on this record.
Needless to say it's an album I love and I was one of those Smiths fans who copied Mozz's look during those years, '84-87.
For me, it's their finest moment. I also loved The Smiths because they weren't just a backing band for a self-obsessed singer; every one of them could play and, like the Beatles, it was their combined talent that produced their sound and made what they had unique.

 

[MacDara]

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.

There's room for that thin guitar sound in my life, but it is very much of its time. Nothing wrong with the basic jangles - this was a pop band after all, they were on Top of the Pops all the feckin' time.

But I have to say it's only working for me on the faster tempo, more propulsive songs. The back half is far superior to the dreary balladry after the first track.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

This song would be a highpoint of any bands career. The lyrics are up there with the best in pop music

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[MacDara]

This song would be a highpoint of any bands career. The lyrics are up there with the best in pop music

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Now you see that's where you and I differ, because I'm far too distracted by the oompah bullshit melody to pay attention to anything else.

 

[Anthony]

Most of the lads who were into metal in my school weren't really into music, I'm pretty sure. They just wanted to write band names in cool scripts on their bags. In my day the most divisive schism was between Guns n roses and Nirvana

Interesting. As hard rock became dominant I'm sure this happened everywhere. Different story in '86. There were five rockers in my school. Of the four I can account for, one is dead and the other three are still very into music.
A good few of the cure/smiths guys are still playing music too.

 

[YoungHearts]

Hello Thumpeders, I have decided that 2016 has been so terrible so far in terms of losing David Bowie, that I need to do something positive relating to music, and perhaps the Thumped Album Club might be a good place to start, so just to contribute a tiny tuppence - this record, to my mind, is one of the most important of the twentieth century, and for me, it is because it is the perfect mingling of lyrics and melody - together they create something so beautiful. It is the fractious, profound, complicated dynamic of Morrissey and Marr.I just think it strikes a deeply moving, as well as blackly humorous atmosphere,and one that teenagers who don't feel understood relate to, and adults who were those teenagers, relate to, ooh and "Cemetery Gates", and the references to Keats, Yeats, and the triumph of Wilde - I suppose it harnesses the rambling romantic in me, that "dreaded sunny day". That probably makes no sense, but I suppose it's only a tuppence.

 

[travispickle]

Hello Thumpeders, I have decided that 2016 has been so terrible so far in terms of losing David Bowie, that I need to do something positive relating to music, and perhaps the Thumped Album Club might be a good place to start, so just to contribute a tiny tuppence - this record, to my mind, is one of the most important of the twentieth century, and for me, it is because it is the perfect mingling of lyrics and melody - together they create something so beautiful. It is the fractious, profound, complicated dynamic of Morrissey and Marr.I just think it strikes a deeply moving, as well as blackly humorous atmosphere,and one that teenagers who don't feel understood relate to, and adults who were those teenagers, relate to, ooh and "Cemetery Gates", and the references to Keats, Yeats, and the triumph of Wilde - I suppose it harnesses the rambling romantic in me, that "dreaded sunny day". That probably makes no sense, but I suppose it's only a tuppence.

I remember when this came out, taking the trip into town to buy it, not being able to wait to get home to play it and then in the quiet of my bedroom putting it on and just being blown away. I'm not sure I'd even heard a single track off it beforehand (but memory being what it is, I'd probably heard whatever single came out in advance). That moment in "I Know It's Over" when Morrissey hits the bass note on the "over"; I actually thought my heart would stop.