Album: Strangeways, Here We Come
Year: 1987
. . .
“On their hands – at last! – a dead star”
Have you ever had a relationship that seemed to end because a switch went off? And somebody who loved you suddenly didn’t?
That’s kinda what happened with Johnny Marr just after the recording of Strangeways, Here We Come in May of 1987. In the previous , they’d recorded two albums worth of high-quality material (if you count all of the singles & b-sides, and you know you should) as well as embarked on long tours. And he was also kinda managing the band. And Morrissey. The upshot was that he needed some time off, and was planning to take a couple of weeks vacation here in sunny Southern California. Two weeks! Recharge, and figure out what was next for The Smiths.
My guess is that the next album would have gone even deeper on the relative lack of guitar and the over orchestrated songs that characterized Strangeways, Here We Come, and I might have disliked it. But I would have loved their 6th album, the return to their roots.
At the record company meeting
On their hands – a dead star
And oh, the plans they weave
And oh, the sickening greed< At the record company party On their hands - a dead star The sycophantic slags all say : "I knew him first, and I knew him well"/em>
But instead of saying “good on ya, Johnny, see you in a couple of weeks” the rest of the band freaked right up. And because taking some time off seemed so out of character, they assumed that he was resigning instead of recharging, and countered with demanding they all hustle back into the studio and record the b-sides for the “Girlfriend in a Coma” single, which wasn’t coming out until August. Why this couldn’t wait is beyond me. I mean, had they let Marr have a couple of weeks — even a month off — to get his shit together, the Smiths might have gone a few more years instead of a few more weeks.
But, of course, everybody involved was in their twenties, and that’s a terrible age at which to think rationally.
Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package!
Re-evaluate the songs
Double-pack with a photograph
Extra track (and a tacky badge)A-list, playlist
“Please them, please them!”
“Please them!”
(sadly, this was your life)
Instead, the sessions were so disastrous — producing a not-good cover and the music hall “I Keep Mine Hidden” — that when Marr finally went away, communication just totally broke down, and in late July, Rough Trade announced that Marr had left The Smiths, though it seems uncertain where that actually came from. But for Marr, the switch had been thrown, and the Smiths were done. Goodbye. For keeps. Forever.
I just realized that something like this happened to me once. It was in May of 1989, when I abruptly quit KFSR because instead of doing my Friday evening airshift as per normal, they wanted me to spend three hours manning the boards for a baseball game, something that had traditionally been the bailiwick of the Sports department. I walked out, and never went back. In retrospect, it was a bit of a prima donna move, but that incident threw a switch in my head — insert reminder that I was an asshole in my 20s, but so were you — making me realize that I was done with something that dominated my life for nearly the entire decade. I still think that KSFR was perhaps the most important thing that happened to me in my life until that point, and changed and defined me in countless ways, and I’m damn proud of pretty much everything I did there. But I was done, and ready for whatever was next.
But you could have said no
If you’d wanted to
You could have said no
If you’d wanted toBPI, MTV, BBC
“Please them! Please then!”
(sadly this was your life)
But you could have said no
If you’d wanted to
You could have walked away
…Couldn’t you?
All of this, of course, makes “Paint a Vulgar Picture,” the centerpiece of side two of Strangeways, Here We Come both prescient and ironic. But mostly ironic, I think, because all four Smiths loved the experience of recording that album, which you can hear on this song, which is basically a mid-tempo guitar-based chug over which Morrissey rants about the evils of record companies and — in a callback to “Rubber Ring” — the exquisite pain of fandom.
I touched you at the soundcheck
You had no real way of knowing
In my heart I begged “Take me with you…
I don’t care where you’re going… ”But to you I was faceless
I was fawning, I was boring
Just a child from those ugly new houses
Who could never begin to knowWho could never really know
Oh…
After this verse, the strangest thing happens: Johnny Marr takes a long guitar solo, easily his longest as a member of The Smiths. Part of this was because Morrissey decided to cut out a verse after the backing track was finished, and in fact, during most of solo, they removed Mike Joyce’s drums, and it’s just Marr soloing over all four Smiths doing handclaps (!), which I think was one of the few times they did that as well.
Best of! Most of!
Satiate the need
Slip them into different sleeves!
Buy both, and feel deceivedClimber – new entry, re-entry
World tour! (“media whore”)
“Please the Press in Belgium!”
(This was your life…)And when it fails to recoup ?
Well, maybe:
You just haven’t earned it yet, baby
The callback to “You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby” was just grist for the mill for those who thought that the specific record company Morrissey was singing about was Rough Trade, though Morrissey denied it.
I walked a pace behind you at the soundcheck
You’re just the same as I am
What makes most people feel happy
Leads us headlong into harmSo, in my bedroom in those ‘ugly new houses’
I danced my legs down to the knees
But me and my ‘true love’
Will never meet again…
And so The Smiths just broke up, though there was some talk of replacing Johnny Marr with either Ivor Perry of Easterhouse — who sounded like the Smiths had the Smiths wanted to sound like U2 — or Craig Gannon, but except for one concert and a couple of aborted sessions, that all went nowhere, and as half owner of the name “The Smiths,” Marr was never going to let that happen anyways.
At the record company meeting
On their hands – at last! – A dead star !
But they can never taint you in my eyes
No, they can never touch you nowNo, they cannot hurt you, my darling
They cannot touch you now
But me and my ‘true love’
Will never meet again
And so, with the help of producer Stephen Street, Morrissey launched a solo career where in both the late 1980s and early 2000s, he dropped several songs into the U.K. Top Ten singles — and once, in 2004, an almost hit single in the U.S. with “The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get” which made it to #46 here. And, of course, became a notorious crank, and I’ve lost track of his music in the past decade.
Johnny Marr, meanwhile joined the Pretenders for awhile — I saw them open for U2, then formed Electronic with Bernard Sumner, which left me cold. He later joined bands like The The and Modest Mouse and The Cribs, and finally in 2013, released his first proper solo album, The Messenger. Which I liked a lot, but couldn’t help but think could have used better lyrics, though I’ve continued to enjoy his solo records, including the one that just came out a couple of weeks ago.
Over the long years, Morrissey & Marr saw each other a couple of times, including the 1996 trial where Mike Joyce sued for more royalties because when the Smiths started, Morrissey & Marr took 40% each, leaving 10% each for Rourke & Joyce. Joyce eventually won, because there was no proof anywhere that was the deal. Andy Rourke didn’t sue, but took a deal instead. And the judge continually insulted Morrissey, which is why the trial takes upThat effectively destroyed any chance of a reunion, though when I joined the William Morris Endeavor talent agency (as a Product Manager, don’t get excited) in 2012, somebody insisted to me that a reunion was basically a done deal.
Yeah, surrrre. On the same bill as The Jam and Oasis. When British bands break up, they break up hard. Hell, as I started writing these posts, Morrissey posted an open letter on his website asking Marr to not mention him in interviews anymore, and Marr tweeted back making fun of the whole concept of open letters in 2022. They broke up 35 years ago.
Anyways, that a wrap on The Smiths. I hope that those of you who share my love enjoyed them, and those of you who hate read any of these at least had the tiniest cause for reevaluating one of the greatest bands to ever come out of the U.K.
“Paint a Vulgar Picture”
“Paint a Vulgar Picture” early take
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