The Smiths are the best band ever

Talk about any music other than Pink Floyd/Solo Stuff

The Smiths are the best band ever?

yes
2
9%
no
17
74%
I don't care
4
17%
 
Total votes: 23

FreeFour
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Re: The Smiths are the best band ever

Post by FreeFour »

I thought I'd logged into the wrong forum for a second.

I voted No, buts that not to say I dislike The Smiths, I am fairly ambivalent about them and tend to prefer progressive music.
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Re: The Smiths are the best band ever

Post by black bobble »

I met them a few times many years ago. Never thought they were that great but they were different which made them stick out and morrissey was an interesting character (not how many people thought of him) which again made them stand out. However compare them with the greats and they re just ok.
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Re: The Smiths are the best band ever

Post by kjek1 »

They have a couple of decent songs but The Smiths are by and large emo crap.

Musically they're incredibly boring and I find Morrissey's voice get's very irritating, it's also very limited.

To me it's strange to compare Gilmour and Marr, not because of the varying styles but because to me Gilmour is lightyears ahead. I've also seen both of them live and Gilmour was incredibly to watch and listen to as a guitar fantatic. Marr was really quite dull.
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Re: The Smiths are the best band ever

Post by my breakfast. »

Booooom. The Smiths.

So, I just got in from the pub. Wahey. Whilst I was there, a Smiths song came on and it encapsulated everything I don't admire about the Smiths. The problem here is that by criticising the Smiths it would appear that I actively dislike them. The truth is far more simple yet, online at least, the fanbase of the Smiths seems the least able to withstand criticism of their sacred cow band.

This Smiths song comes on. I don't know which one, and frankly I don't give a fuck. What I've noticed about all Smiths songs is that they have no dynamic range. They start of at the exact tempo and volume that the entire song will follow, straight out the gate. The guitars are jangly in a way that could lazily be compared to The Byrds, yet they are more frantic and 'present' in the mix. At the same time they aren't properly driving the song. If anything, the bass and the drums drive the song, yet again they only do it to a certain degree, always with a foot half on the gas. By way of example, Husker Du, a similarly homo-erotic naval gazing post/alt/whatever '80s band dealt with complex social themes, had a strong 'heart on sleeve' following and perhaps questioned macho gender roles with similar narratives, but they ROCKED OUT.

The Smiths tuned their guitars and basses up, to F standard or even F# standard. The bottom end is missing off Smiths tracks. This creates an almost impenetrable music concrete wall of frantically jangling guitars, booming snare drum and wiry bass work over which Morrissey delivers his off-kilter and behind-tempo lyrical observations.

If I had to pick a favorite Smiths song I would probably go with This Night Has Opened My Eyes. Again the song title is plainly overwrought and far too fucking long, but I like the jazzy cadences within the music. To a degree. But then those lyrics ruin it for me.

In a river the color of lead
Immerse the baby's head
Wrap her up in the News Of The World
Dump her on a doorstep, girl


Here is why I despise Morrissey. What is with those lyrics? A river the colour of lead? Lead is a deep shade of grey, so far so good, but I think he was shopping around for any word that rhymes with 'head'. Next, that mention of the News of the World. That is the sort of faux-worldly pish I hate about Morrissey. Why the News of the World? What does that exact paper evoke? If it had been the Guardian, Daily Star or Financial Times would it change the whole meter of the song? Who cares! Morrissey takes these random stabs at social commentary to try and underpin and validate his otherwise fairly abstract and dull lyrics.

To continue;

Oh, he said he'd cure your ills
But he didn't and he never will
Oh, save your life
Because you've only got one

The dream has gone
But the baby is real
Oh, you did a good thing
She could have been a poet


These lyrics are just circular, have a really stolid rhyme scheme and say very little. To trail off with "She could have been a poet" is about as valid a line as those anti-abortion psychos who trumpet out "you might have killed the next Einstein" to teenage girls. Pish and nonsense. And "oh, save your life because you've only got one" is stating the bleeding obvious over a very awkward meter, cramming "because you've only got one" into an awkwardly small space within the music whilst the "oh" of the preceding line is given more room. This is awkward. This is amateur poetry night set to a shapeless jangling soundtrack.
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wiped
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Re: The Smiths are the best band ever

Post by wiped »

Have to say , I've missed my breakfasts posts when tackling "sacred cows" :D
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thefinalcut
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Re: The Smiths are the best band ever

Post by thefinalcut »

To me Johnny Marr is the best thing that ever happened to music. Like a modern Mozart. GENIUS. :D
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vgonis
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Re: The Smiths are the best band ever

Post by vgonis »

I guess it is plain peculiar to ask if The Smiths is our favorite band question in a PF forum and getting a Yes answer. The members spending their time in such a forum obviously do it because PF is their favorite band! Anyway, after a certain age you learn a couple of things. First the notion of having a favorite band has more to do with the time you've spent listening to a band since your youth and second that you can have as many favorite bands as you want but it isn't the same as when you were young. For instance my default favorite bands (including the member's personal works and side projects) are Dire straits, Pink Floyd, Belle and Sebastian, Hefner and Television. Beatles and Kinks are the two from the UK 60ies, but hardly my all time favorite.

Favorite has to do more with the experienced time while listening to the music. Favorite band has to do with the bulk of the material. Although I have most of Smiths albums and enjoy listening to some of them occasionally, I simply haven't managed to extract the same level of pleasure from them. I wouldn't go as far as analyzing their lyrics, since English is not my first language, but like most pop songs, I was disappointed when reading them. I remember Bigmouth strikes again (one of my first Smiths experiences). What a let down, the lyrics. But I do enjoy it, because I don't focus on the lyrics. I like many of their songs and I can appreciate the innovations of Marr's guitar input in a pop structured song, (How soon is now, comes to mind) but I can hardly call them my best band, just for these reasons.

Last but not least, Smiths are not archetypical, they were just the most successful of their kind. The 80ies is a great era, often neglected due to crappy production and awful DIY orchestration. But there are countless examples (Smiths included) with great songs. Do you know Durutti Column's LC?