Smithstory Lesson

Back in May, Mrs. Jaybee and I caught a Smiths/Morrissey cover band at the Bell House and had such a nice time I decided it was time to finally break down and get a Smiths record.

Oh, we already had a couple of compilations that I later found out were not considered representative of the band’s best music.  

So which record would I get? How about the one that topped the 2013 NME 500 Greatest Albums of All Time poll? Seriously. They beat out the Beatles! (fill in your own favorite artist there if you like, but you’d be wrong. It's the Beatles.) Hilarious.

Those Brits are really weird sometimes, and it’s for such differences that we fought for our independence. Well, that’s how I remember it. Yes, I was there.


The Smiths: The Queen is Dead

And it’s okay. Kind of uneven, actually.

The Smiths were a tight - if a bit fussy - little band. With the bass and drums more than adequate, and  Johnny Marr’s guitar sterling all the way through, they stand or fall on how well Morrissey fits his words/voice/melodies into this scheme.

And, well, some tunes are better than others. Once I get past the songs I already know from the compilations, there’s only one or two others that even remotely compare to them. And Morrissey is more annoying than interesting.

So my supposedly lame compilations seemed to have pulled all the good songs from this supposed masterpiece. Maybe I should just stick with them.

So in the wars with the Brits, we kicked ass in 1776, happily surrendered in 1964, and somehow beat them in the 1980s when they managed to produce even worse music that we did.

Now that’s saying something.

B

“The Boy With the Thorn in His Side”