the Smiths

When I got to college in 1985, college radio opened up a new realm of musical sounds to me. Some of the major strands were: R.E.M. and other jangle pop from the Southeast, synth/dance pop from UK/Europe (best exemplified by New Order), various strains of heavier music from the U.S. (Dinosaur Jr., Husker Du, Sonic Youth, the Pixies, the beginnings of grunge), but another unique sound that stood out by itself was the Smiths. This was a blend of three crucial elements: Johnny Marr’s guitar sound (like Peter Buck of R.E.M., he stripped rock down to the basic instrument and built up something completely new), Morrissey’s lilting voice, and Morrissey’s sophisticated, literary lyrics. The band (especially Morrissey) has taken a lot of crap over the years for being too trendy or too melodramatic, but musically no band has ever really sounded like them before or since. There’s a sad sweetness and beauty that they own.

Here’s the first Smiths song that I ever heard, “Cemetry Gates”, which contains all the crucial elements (I couldn’t find the original video, but the sound on this one is good. You can ignore the two dorks who made the film, or not; they are kind of endearing actually.)



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrissey