Sunday, October 17, 2010
The Smiths: Reel Around the Fountain
It is funny how the history of popular music gets rewritten. Ask now who the greatest band of the 1980s was and it is likely that The Smiths will be the most popular choice. Yet in their day they hardly troubled the top 10 at all.
But then their rivals for that accolade, at least in my mind, The Housemartins needed the novelty of the a cappella Caravan of Love no get them to number one.
This is This Smiths at their darkest and was recorded at the Hacienda to boot. All that and a quotation from A Taste of Honey too.
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7 comments:
"Ask now who the greatest band of the 1980s was and it is likely that The Smiths will be the most popular choice."
Says who?
They were (and still are) trendy amongst the NME types but are they really considered greater (or even more influentail) than, amongst others, REM, Nirvana, Guns n Roses, NWA, Metallica, Duran Duran, The Cure, The Police, Culture Club, Run DMC, U2, Dire Straits, INXS, Iron Maiden, Bon Jovi, or any one of fifty other bands that sold more records at the time and since and have influenced their successors more?
Says who?
Says me. This is my blog.
In terms of influence I think that The Smiths have a VERY strong claim in the UK. Without the Smiths I'm not sure you would have had: Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Charlatans, Pulp and therefore Blur, Oasis, Suede, etc, and in turn the emotional content of bands such as Snow Patrol, Travis, Coldplay etc.
All of these bands look back to The Smiths.
Pet Shop Boys, anyone?
Though I do love the Smiths, but would rate How Soon Is Now?, There Is a Light Which Never Goes Out and Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me above this rather disturbing dirge.
Come to that, I suspect the best Smiths song is This Charming Man. But I try to avoid the obvious at least some weeks.
And the fact that The Smiths could be "disturbing" is part of what makes them so interesting.
No way...
My fav Smiths track... along with Last night I dreamt....
How freaky is that?!
We are so having a Smiths party at CyberMummy... we wont promote but the depressives will follow. x
The smiths certainly have their place in the legacy of great british music. this charming man is one of their best song too but really they wouldnt be anyones favourite. most influencial maybe.
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