The Smiths

The Smiths
Morrissey, Marr, Rourke, Joyce
General information
origin	Manchester , England
Genre (s)	Indie rock , indie pop
founding	1982
resolution	1987
Founding members
Vocals , piano	Morrissey
guitar	Johnny Marr
bass	Andy Rourke
Drums	Mike Joyce
former members
bass	Dale Hibbert (1982)
guitar	Craig Gannon (1986)

The Smiths were a British rock band formed in 1982 in Manchester by guitarist Johnny Marr and singer Morrissey . After Marr left, the group disbanded in September 1987. The Smiths were named "Most Influential Artist Ever" by the British music magazine NME in 2004 , ahead of the Beatles .

The Smiths are often seen as the forerunners of indie rock. The band had a major impact on Britpop in the 1990s. The Smiths' music features elements of traditional rock, catchy refrains with distinctive hooklines and set pieces from punk and rockabilly . On the one hand, Johnny Marr's guitar playing is characteristic, in particular due to the harmonically complex pickings and the chord progressions, which are sometimes unusual for pop songs . On the other hand, Morrissey's singing style is distinctive, in which he combines bel canto elements, especially coloratura , and crooning traditions . On the text level there are often variations of topoi of melancholy, which are countered with ironic sarcasm . Morrissey advanced to become a pop icon in the 1980s thanks to his highly associative poetry, the sometimes extravagant performance and provocative statements to the music press .

Although the Smiths were hardly commercially successful outside of Great Britain , they are now a so-called cult band . Many rock bands and musicians (including Radiohead , Oasis , Deftones , Placebo , The Libertines , Belle and Sebastian , Muse , Suede , Blur , Paul van Dyk ) have attested the Smiths' influence on their music.

history

1982–1983: The founding of The Smiths

At the beginning of 1982 the then 18-year-old guitarist John Martin Maher (later: Johnny Marr), who worked as a salesman in a clothing store in Manchester , decided to form a band. As a member of the band he wanted Steven Patrick Morrissey, known in the music scene as an eccentric outsider figure, whom Maher had met in 1979 at a concert by the American rock singer Patti Smith . With the help of a friend, he is said to have located the then 23-year-old Morrissey and paid him a visit. Soon after, Marr and Morrissey began writing songs for their band together, with Marr responsible for the music and Morrissey for the lyrics and vocals. A short time later, Mike Joyce was hired as drummer and Dale Hibbert as bassist, who was soon replaced by Andy Rourke , a classmate of Marr. In the course of the band's formation Morrissey decided as a stage name , only his family name to be used. Maher, however, changed his name to Johnny Marr , allegedly because of confusion with John Maher, the drummer of the band Buzzcocks .

He chose The Smiths as the band name, said Morrissey in an interview, because it was a very common family name and it was time for common people to show their faces to the world. Fans interpreted the choice of the band name differently. It is widely believed that Morrissey and Marr paid homage to Patti Smith, the singer of The Fall Mark E. Smith, or David Smith, a brother-in-law of the serial killer Myra Hindley , who murdered at least five children with Ian Brady between 1963 and 1965 . Smith gave the police the decisive lead to their evacuation.

The Smiths had their first live appearance at the Ritz pub in Manchester; with the first appearances still the singer James Maker , a friend of Morrissey, acted as Gogo dancer on the stage, but later did not appear again. The first demo recordings soon followed. The Smiths allegedly turned down a contract with the style-defining record company Factory Records from Manchester, which released New Order and Joy Division among others . At the beginning of 1983 they received an offer from Rough Trade Records for the production of their first single: Hand in Glove was released on May 13, 1983 and was successful, although the song, like many later, was recommended by the English radio DJ John Peel , in the British charts only at number 124.

1984–1985: "The Smiths" , "Hatful of Hollow" and "Meat Is Murder"

Soon the group formed a small following and in February 1984 The Smiths released their first LP . The debut album , entitled only with the band name, reached second place on the British charts. The reception was ambivalent. Some fans claimed at the time that the songs lacked the artistic aura that The Smiths had as a live band due to the production and recording technology .

After the album was released, the English music press focused on Morrissey, who made his depressed youth, an ambiguous sexual orientation and his allegedly celibate lifestyle public. In addition, a discussion developed about the lyrics of the songs ( Reel Around the Fountain , The Hand That Rocks the Cradle , Handsome Devil ), which allegedly contained pedophile hints. The controversial song "Suffer Little Children", the text of which addressed the moor murders committed by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady in Manchester in the 1960s , met with outrage from the families of the victims.

In the same year the album Hatful of Hollow was also released. It contains B-sides of the first singles, BBC radio session recordings and previously unreleased songs, including the UK top 10 single William, It Was Really Nothing and How Soon Is Now, which was later released as a single ? .

The album Meat Is Murder , which was released at the beginning of 1985, contained specific socio-political statements. The title track Meat Is Murder , for example, is popular as a musical commitment in the vegetarian movement. Morrissey also increased his fame through verbal attacks on then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and against the aid project Band Aid , which was supported by numerous popular musicians.

1986–1987: "The Queen Is Dead" , "The World Won't Listen" , "Louder Than Bombs" and "Strangeways, Here We Come"

1986 was mainly characterized by extensive tours through Great Britain, the USA and Europe as well as work on the critically acclaimed album The Queen Is Dead . A big problem that almost rocked the Smiths during this exciting period was bassist Andy Rourke's addiction to heroin . Rourke's addiction now became so widespread that in some cases he was no longer able to stand on stage. After long discussions it was decided that it would be best to temporarily release Rourke from the band and hire bass player Craig Gannon in his place. However, the shocked Rourke recovered surprisingly quickly after a withdrawal and was accepted back into the band after only two weeks. Johnny Marr also struggled with health problems during this time: since the band had returned from their last US tour, he had adopted the habit of drinking a lot of alcohol on a regular basis. In addition, he had lost dangerous weight and had to vomit before almost every live performance of the band.

In the meantime, The Queen Is Dead climbed to number 2 on the UK charts and is now seen as a landmark in music history. Many music magazines such as NME and Rolling Stone placed it in the top ranks of the best rock albums, and in 1989 Spin Magazine even named it “Best Album Ever Made” ( “The best album ever recorded” ). The single Panic , which was not included on the album, brought the Smiths into the spotlight of the gossip magazines again, as the first-person narrator calls in it to hang disc jockeys and burn down discos (" Burn down the disco, hang the blessed DJ "). Morrissey and Marr wrote the song in April 1986 when radio DJ Steve Wright first announced the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and immediately afterwards the Wham! -Song I'm Your Man played, which they found cynical.

In 1987, the Smiths continued their success regardless of Marr's alcoholism and almost always entered the UK top 20 with their singles. During the year two compilation albums, The World Won't Listen (for the European market) and Louder Than Bombs (for the American market), which contain many singles and B-sides as well as some 12 "filler material, were released. Despite these successes, disagreements and conflicts between members of the group continued to grow. Musically in particular, Morrissey and Marr had developed in completely different directions. Marr wanted to incorporate new styles into the work of the Smiths and collaborate with other musicians, on the other hand Morrissey struggled. Although after the release of the group's fourth and final studio album, Strangeways, Here We Come , hardly anyone believed in the group's continued existence, it was a great shock to Morrissey when his artistic partner Marr left the band in early August Abruptly left in 1987. Morrissey, Rourke and Joyce then tried briefly to continue to umac with other guitarists hen, but quickly realized that The Smiths couldn't exist without Marr. The official separation therefore took place in September 1987.

The time after the separation and "Rank" (1988)

Shortly after the band split up, Morrissey began to work on his solo career and hired producer Stephen Street in 1988, who was also responsible for the last Smiths album Strangeways, Here We Come .

In the following years Marr played with various artists, including a. The The , Talking Heads , The Pretenders , Paul McCartney and Electronic . He is currently the band leader of Johnny Marr and The Healers , in which u. a. Zak Starkey (son of Ringo Starr of The Beatles ) plays. In 2006 Johnny Marr joined the indie rock band Modest Mouse , who released their first album together in 2007. Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce mostly worked as studio musicians after the separation. a. for Julian Cope, Sinéad O'Connor , Badly Drawn Boy (Andy Rourke only), Buzzcocks (Mike Joyce only) and Vinnie Peculiar.

In the first year after the breakup (1988), The Smiths' only official live album called Rank appeared suddenly and unexpectedly . This is a recording of one of the last Smiths concerts (Kilburn, October 23, 1986).

Recordings of the last concert (December 12, 1986, Brixton Academy, London) are also circulating as bootlegs . At this concert, The Smiths were the only time to play the fan-favorite song Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others from the '86 album The Queen Is Dead .

In the 50th anniversary edition of the most influential British music magazine New Musical Express, the Smiths were voted "Greatest Artist Of All Time", ahead of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The influence of the Smiths on music history was and is immense, from indie pop to Britpop. Over the years there have been rumors of a Smith reunion. When asked if he could imagine working with Johnny Marr again, Morrissey replied: "Let me put it this way: no".

The Smiths came back into media attention in 1996 when drummer Mike Joyce sued former bandmates Morrissey and Marr for compensation. During the band's existence there had never been any written agreements with Rourke and Joyce about their financial participation in the band. Because the group had officially only consisted of Morrissey and Marr, the other two band members only received the amount that the founders of the Smiths had earmarked for them - but that was only 10% of the total income of the Smiths each. Joyce felt this was a fraud and demanded a quarter of the band's total income, although he was never actually involved in the making of the songs. Even if the judge sentenced Morrissey and Marr to pay compensation, the legal dispute has not yet been clearly resolved.

Andy Rourke has been working with Peter Hook and Gary Mounfield on a new band project called "Freebass" since 2007 . In 2018 Mike Joyce, Andy Rourke and Craig Gannon announced that they would be performing again under “Classically Smiths” and playing the old songs with an orchestra.

style

Musical influences

The Smiths are now considered a co-founder of indie rock . Their style stems primarily from Morrissey's, but also from Johnny Marr's taste in music. Since Marr and Morrissey differed not only in character, but also in terms of their musical preferences, a mixture of opposites developed from Marr's music and Morrissey's lyrics, which defines the style of the Smiths.

Morrissey, who grew up as a working class child like the other three band members , had a keen interest in pop and rock music from an early age. What flowed into the Smiths' style in particular was his predilection for the punk and glam rock band New York Dolls and for 60s pop singers such as Sandie Shaw , Cilla Black , Billy Fury and Marianne Faithfull . Marr was more oriented towards classical rock music like that of the Rolling Stones and Patti Smith, but, like bassist Andy Rourke, also had a penchant for funk , which can be seen in the guitar riffs and an often springy bass line. Drummer Mike Joyce was more oriented towards punk rock and his technique was rather rough and unaffected.

Morrissey claims that the Smiths were stylistically not influenced by anyone and were musically something completely new.

Especially at the beginning of their careers, The Smiths relied almost exclusively on the possibilities of a typical rock band line-up with vocals, guitar, bass and drums. In addition to the technically adept playing of the guitarist Marr, who composed and arranged the music and layered several guitar tracks on top of each other for studio recordings, the expressive singing of Morrissey is characteristic.

Choice of subject matter for the texts

Morrissey had been interested in literature since childhood (he also wrote a few short books), which affected his work with the Smiths. He quoted his favorite authors such as Shelagh Delaney and Oscar Wilde in his texts. There is hardly a song from the early days of the Smiths that does not contain any lines of text from Delaney's play A Taste Of Honey (examples: “This Night Has Opened My Eyes”, “Reel Around The Fountain”).

The Smiths' texts are often characterized by irony , with realism and ridicule often juxtaposed with motives of longing . Topics are, among other things, the ambivalence of an attitude that on the one hand propagates withdrawal from society and on the other suffers from it, not belonging to it: outsiderhood, unrequited love, longing for a lost childhood, unfulfilled sexual desire, social rebellion, anger at authorities, social maladjustment, failed dreams. With some lines of text Morrissey provoked, for example, because the first-person narrator ironically asked to burn down discos and hang the DJs ('Panic') or loot shops ('Shoplifters of the World').

In addition to the much-discussed "undefined" sexuality of Morrissey, which also repeatedly flowed into the band's music, the Smiths are primarily known for their "miserabilism" (English for gloom , depression ), which gives them the reputation of especially shy, depressed teenagers to address, brought in. In fact, the defiant, self-deprecating melancholy that is basically typical of youthful emotions is the prevailing mood in most of the Smiths' texts. A well-known example is the ironic line of text "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" from the song of the same name.

Aesthetic style

Also exceptional is the aesthetic style of the Smiths, which was almost exclusively determined by Morrissey and is reflected above all in the design of the gigs and records of the band.

In the early days of the Smiths in particular, Morrissey stood out from other musicians because of his preference for wide, colorful ladies' blouses, thick glasses, a hearing aid and a quiff modeled on James Dean . When performing, he was in the habit of decorating the stage with flowers (especially daffodils and gladioli ) and swinging them around wildly during the performance. Morrissey, who was influenced by his idol Oscar Wilde's love of flowers, gave the reason that the world was bleak and gray enough and that the flowers would give it a little more beauty. Regarding the performances, the exalted singing and dancing style of the singer, which is essentially borrowed from glam rock ( David Johansen / New York Dolls), is also interesting .

The Smiths' records gained fame not least because of their extraordinary cover designs, which over time have become a kind of “Hall of Fame” for Morrissey's idols. Icons from music, film, literature or everyday culture (including Paul Morrissey , Joe Dallesandro , Shelagh Delaney, Alain Delon , Elvis Presley , Jean Marais and Candy Darling ) that the singer admired or his are depicted on the covers of all Smiths' records Had shaped youth and to whom he wanted to set a monument. Thanks to a graphically uniform design of the record cover using photos in duo tone and often only the lettering The Smiths - the title was not mentioned on the front of the cover for the singles - the band releases made a concise and unmistakable appearance.

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1984	The Smiths	-	-	-	UK2 gold (37 weeks)UK	US150 (11 weeks) US	First published: February 20, 1984
1985	Meat Is Murder	DE45 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	UK1 gold (17 weeks)UK	US110 (32 weeks) US	First published: February 11, 1985
1986	The Queen Is Dead	DE33 * (4 weeks) DE	-	-	UK2 platinum (29 weeks)UK	US70 gold (38 weeks)US	First published: June 16, 1986 (* highest ranking only 2017)
1987	Strangeways, Here We Come	DE33 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	UK2 gold (21 weeks)UK	US55 gold (27 weeks)US	First published: September 28, 1987

Compilations & live albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1984	Hatful of Hollow	-	-	-	UK7th platinum (50 weeks)UK	-	First published: November 12, 1984 compilation
1987	The World Won't Listen	DE41 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	UK2 gold (17 weeks)UK	-	First published: February 23, 1987 compilation
	Louder Than Bombs	-	-	-	UK38 gold (8 weeks)UK	US62 gold (25 weeks)US	First published: March 30, 1987 compilation
1988	Rank	DE47 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	UK2 gold (7 weeks)UK	US77 (8 weeks) US	First release: September 5th, 1988 live album
1992	Best ... I	-	-	-	UK1 gold (12 weeks)UK	US139 (3 weeks) US	First published: August 17th, 1992 compilation
	... Best II	-	-	-	UK29 gold (5 weeks)UK	-	First published: November 2nd, 1992 compilation
1995	Singles	-	-	-	UK5 platinum (18 weeks)UK	-	First published: February 20, 1995 compilation
2001	The very best of	-	-	-	UK30th platinum (20 weeks)UK	-	First published: June 4th, 2001 compilation
2008	The Sound of The Smiths	-	-	-	UK21st platinum (26 weeks)UK	US98 (2 weeks) US	First published: November 10, 2008 compilation
2011	Complete	DE91 (1 week) DE	-	-	UK63 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: September 26, 2011 compilation

more publishments

• 1984: GIV 1
• 1992: The Complete Picture
• 2008: Singles Box

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1983	This Charming Man	-	-	-	UK8th platinum (23 weeks)UK	-	First published: October 31, 1983
1984	What Difference Does It Make? The Smiths	-	-	-	UK12 (9 weeks) UK	-	First published: January 16, 1984
	Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now Hatful of Hollow	-	-	-	UK10 (8 weeks) UK	-	First published: May 21, 1984
	William, It Was Really Nothing Hatful of Hollow	-	-	-	UK17 (7 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 20, 1984
1985	How Soon Is Now? Hatful of Hollow	-	-	-	UK16 silver (13 weeks)UK	-	First published: January 28, 1985
	Shakespeare's sister	-	-	-	UK26 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: March 18, 1985
	That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore Meat Is Murder	-	-	-	UK49 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: July 1, 1985
	The Boy with the Thorn in His Side The Queen Is Dead	-	-	-	UK23 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: September 16, 1985
1986	Bigmouth Strikes Again The Queen Is Dead	-	-	-	UK26 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: May 22, 1986
	Panic The World Won't Listen	-	-	-	UK11 (8 weeks) UK	-	First published: July 21, 1986
	Ask The World Won't Listen	-	-	-	UK14 (10 weeks) UK	-	First published: October 20, 1986
1987	Shoplifters of the World Unite Louder Than Bombs	-	-	-	UK12 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: January 26, 1987
	Sheila Take a Bow Louder Than Bombs	-	-	-	UK10 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: April 13, 1987
	Girlfriend in a Coma Strangeways, Here We Come	-	-	-	UK13 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 10, 1987
	I Started Something I Couldn't Finish Strangeways, Here We Come	-	-	-	UK23 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: November 6, 1987
	Last Night I Dreamed That Somebody Loved Me Strangeways, Here We Come	-	-	-	UK30 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: December 7, 1987
1988	The Peel Sessions (EP)	-	-	-	UK90 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: October 1988
1992	There Is a Light That Never Goes Out ... Best II	-	-	-	UK25th gold (3 weeks)UK	-	First published: October 1992
2017	The Queen Is Dead The Queen Is Dead	-	-	-	UK87 (1 week) UK	-	Chart entry: June 2017

more publishments

• 1983: Hand in Glove
• 1985: Barbarism Begins at Home
• 1987: Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
• 1995: Sweet and Tender Hooligan
• 2007: Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want (UK:silver)

Video albums

• 2000: The Complete Pictures (UK:platinum)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Report on netzeitung.de from May 10, 2007 ( Memento from March 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ The Smiths: Reunion. Retrieved January 24, 2018 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: DE UK US
4. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK US

Web links

Commons : The Smiths  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Modern classics: Markus Zinsmaier on the Smiths' debut album in Zeit , October 25, 2007
• The Smiths at laut.de
• Morrissey stopped at Gummersbach - The soundtrack of my life mission of Germany radio on The Smiths and Morrissey
• The Smiths at Allmusic (English)
• The Smiths at Discogs (English)