The Smiths debut album: 30 years today
Alejandro De Luna
‘Born to suffer; born to write; born to sing’, writes Simon Goddard about Morrissey on his essential book Songs that saved your life – The art of The Smiths 1982-87. He continues: ‘Morrissey aged 22 and perishing fast. Unemployed and unemployable, his existence hangs in the balance of dwindling hope, barbitures and a box of seven-inch singles including Rita Pavone, Billy Fury and The Marvelettes’.
The story is well known. Johnny Marr; this talented kid obsessed with T. Rex, Iggy & The Stooges, Keith Richards and pop music from the 60s, decided to save his own life, Morrissey´s and ours after knocking that door – former Morrissey´s home in 384 Kings Road, Manchester. His mission: to convince Morrissey (even more lost and obsessed with pop music) on forming a band with the promise of providing him with unique timeless riffs. He passed the test and the last greatest partnership of pop music was born…
Morrissey´s witty genius, brutal honesty, unconventional look for a pop star looking more like a unfulfilled intellectual and androgynous lyrics mixed with Marr´s guitar, created the most original pop band in Britain. It was not glammy enough to be called glam, not punk-like enough to be called punk, not pop-like enough to be called pop, not rock-like enough to be called rock and not to something-like to be called whatever-like. The Smiths sounded like nobody else.This was unique. This was real.
It was time that someone spoke about everybody’s life like no one had the courage, the guts or the genius to do it. So they were called The Smiths as a celebration of ordinariness. They were working class, with Irish blood and English heart, with tons of talent and they had a lot to say. Poetry for working class people. For people like you and me; for everybody. A true independent and punk statement.
“Hand In Glove” Single
Signed by Rough Trade records in 1983, The Smiths with Andy Rourke´s thoughtful bass lines and Mike Joyce´s punk-like drums on board, released their essential single “Hand In Glove” with “Handsome Devil” as a B-side recorded at the legendary club, The Haçienda. With a guitar riff inspired by “Gimme Power” from Iggy & The Stooges and the androgynous lyrics written within 2 hours and inspired by the likes of Sandie Shaw and Shelagh Delaney´s work, this was the first piece of art delivered by the Manchester band recorded on black plastic.
The visual aesthetics of the single showing a nude model in a monochromatic Warholesque style instead of the band on the cover sleeve, proved something else: Morrissey´s obsession with pop culture. This is the first of a long list of singles that followed the same pattern: Monochromatic, beautiful and unique pop-art sleeves. Something that never occurred before.
The Lost Album
The lost album came. The so-called The Hands That Rock The Cradle produced by Troy Tate. Never released officially due to the disappointment of the band but worked as a draft for the full-length debut. ‘Tate´s rough and ready blueprint admittedly captured something of the thrilling rawness of the early Smiths in a way that their eventual eponymous debut perhaps failed to grasp’. (Simmon Goddard)
“This Charming Man” Single
After a failed attempt of releasing “Reel Around The Fountain” as a single, “This Charming Man” was next. Another timeless piece or art recorded on plastic with “Wonderful Woman” and “Accept Yourself” as B-sides for the 12-inch format and “Jeane” for the 7-inch. This would be the end of 1983.
Will nature make a man of me yet ?
This charming man
When the leather runs smooth
On the passenger seat
But I haven’t got a stitch to wear
This man said “It’s gruesome that someone so handsome should care”
“What Difference Does It Make?” Single
1984 came and with it another brilliant single: “What Difference Does It Make?” with “Back To The Old House” – one of Morrissey´s saddest songs – and “These Things Take Time” filled with cleverness and honesty.
All men have secrets and here is mine
So let it be known
For we have been through hell and high tide
I can surely rely on you …
And yet you start to recoil
Heavy words are so lightly thrown
But still I’d leap in front of a flying bullet for you
So, what difference does it make ?
So, what difference does it make ?
It makes none
But now you have gone
And you must be looking very old tonight
The Smiths – The Smiths: The full-length debut
With a faithful Manchester crew of fans, it was the moment to attack with a full-length album. Their debut and the rawest version from The Smiths on a studio as a polished production was called simply: The Smiths. Ten tracks recorded in 1983; John Porter as a producer and a cover sleeve from gay icon Joe Dallesandro as featured in Warhol 1968´s Flesh film.
Is clear that Morrissey dislikes the result as he wrote in his acclaimed autobiography: ‘I look back on the album that became The Smiths and I see nothing at all that had anything to do with me. Although the songs were very strong, the recording of those songs failed everyone. Live, Mike´s drumming had an incredible thunderbolt quality, and Andy´s bass had a pealing swagger – neither sound vaguely evident on The Smiths album. In fact the album sounds exactly how the Smiths were not: pasty and thin’.
Is not their best album; “Hand In Glove´s” and “What Difference Does It Make´s” version are inferior in comparison to the single versions but the album feels like a DIY-like satisfying experiment. A bunch of unexperienced musicians not knowing clearly what to do in a studio but with a masterplan in their minds for the future. Marr´s guitar is still not at his best and explosive as in Meat Is Murder or The Queen Is Dead and Rourke´s bass is not that sharpy as he proved after in tracks like “Barbarism Begins At Home” or the epic “The Death Of The Disco Dancer”.
This was the first time that essentials like “Miserable Lie”, “Still Ill”, “You´ve Got Everything Now” or “Pretty Girls Make Graves” were released but probably overshadowed by the melancholy and sadness of some Smiths obscurities like “Reel Around The Fountain” pedophile tale that feels like a good companion of The Velvet Underground´s “Venus In Furs” or “Suffer Little Children” inspired on the terrible case of the Moors murders.
This is definitely the darkest album from The Smiths with Morrissey at his most depressing compared only to future songs like “Asleep”, “Heaven Knows I´m Miserable Know” and “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me”. Maybe not even those ones…
This is an essential album to understand British pop music from 1984 onwards.
A band that saved many people´s lives including mine.
