Thursday 26 April 2007



I started something that Blogger wouldn’t let me finish


Last night I was working on a pretty good post about an article in the most recent issue of Q magazine about the last days of The Smiths, and their rumoured induction into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2008. I focused quite a bit on what I believe is–and according to the article, Morrissey and Johnny Marr both agree with me on this–the definitive Smiths album, Strangeways, Here We Come. I made some great observations about how, if you listen to the album divorced of all the history we already know, you’ll hear the sound of a band on the verge of reinvention, ready to move into the next phase of their career. They were about to leave jangle-pop behind and widen the scope of their sound through more lush orchestrations. The proof is in the pudding on tracks that I had linked to for downloading, all you had to do was click and listen.

But then Blogger freakin’ crapped out on me and just as the post was ready to go, it disappeared into the void of nonexistence–much the same way the band fell into the dark hole that was slowing consuming them, sprialing towards an end that was simultaneously the last thing anybody wanted and the only recourse any of them had. Poignant, isn’t it?

So this may be no where as elegant, and may not include links to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and articles on legal action being taken by ‘the other two” on Morrissey and Marr, or be as eloquent as my original post, but here’s the tracks I wanted to post:

The Smiths, “A Rush And A Push And the Land Is Ours”

The Smiths, “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me”

The Smiths, “Paint A Vulgar Picture”

and for good measure, I threw in:

Mark Ronson, “Stop Me”, his recent cover of:

The Smiths, “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before”

The long and the short of it? Check out the Q article, it’s really quite good, and…
The Smiths Are Dead. Long Live The Smiths.





by J. Di Gioia | 3 Comments »

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 8:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “I started something that Blogger wouldn’t let me finish”

Matthew April 27th, 2007 at 8:24 am

That is one of the most offensively, punchably awful covers I’ve heard in a very long time.

Strangeways, though, is an absolutely wonderful album. I did come at it without the history because I never knew that much about The Smiths beyond their greatest hits, before reading about that record, and starting with that one – brilliant stuff.

Jad April 29th, 2007 at 2:08 am

“Paint A Vulgar Picture” is a fave of mine. Thanks for all of these, except that Ronson cover, that one sucks.

Keep it up!

Faye May 7th, 2007 at 1:56 pm

I had only heard the cover of stop me if u think that uve heard this one before, and the smiths one is MUCH better, i absolutly lve the smiths one and could listen to it constantly