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Smiths, The ?– The Boy With The Thorn In His Side

• Label: Rough Trade ?– RT 191 Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single, Solid Centre 
  Country: UK Released: 16 Sep 1985 Genre: Rock Style: Indie Rock

Tracklist

• A The Boy With The Thorn In His Side 3:17 B Asleep 4:10

Companies etc

• • Copyright (c) – Warner Bros. Music Ltd.

Credits

• • Bass Guitar – Andy Rourke
  • Drums – Mike Joyce
  • Engineer – Stephen Street
  • Guitar, Piano – Johnny Marr
  • Layout – Caryn Gough
  • Music By – Johnny Marr
  • Orchestrated By – Smiths, The
  • Other [Cover Star] – Truman
  • Photography By – Cecil Beaton
  • Producer – Marr*, Morrissey
  • Sleeve – Morrissey
  • Voice – Morrissey
  • Words By – Morrissey

Notes

• © 1985 
  Made in England 
  
  [Additional printed on sleeve] 
  Special thanks to Grant Showbiz 
  Recorded in Manchester August 1985 
  Rough Trade Records, 61-71 Collier Street, London, N1   Cecil Beaton photograph courtesy of Sotheby's London 
  
  [Note on Runout Side A, stamped] 
  The "1" before "x1" is rotated 90° counter-clockwise. 

• 
  (DISCOGS.COM)
  

  The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. The band consisted of vocalist Morrissey, guitarist Johnny Marr, bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce. Critics have called them the most importantalternative rock band to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s.[1] Q magazine's Simon Goddard argued in 2007 that The Smiths were "the one truly vital voice of the '80s", "the most influential British guitar group of the decade" and the "first indie outsiders to achieve mainstream success on their own terms".[2] The NMEnamed the Smiths the "most influential artist ever" in a 2002 poll, even topping the Beatles.[3]

  Based on the songwriting partnership of Morrissey and Marr, the group signed to the independent record label Rough Trade Records, on which they released four studio albums, The Smiths (1984), Meat Is Murder (1985), The Queen Is Dead (1986) and Strangeways, Here We Come (1987). Four of their albums (including three studio albums) appeared on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. They have also released several compilations, and numerous non-LP singles.

  The Smiths had several singles reach the UK top twenty and all four of their studio albums reached the UK top five, including one which topped the charts. They won a significant following and remain cult favourites, although they had limited commercial success outside the UK while they were still together. The band broke up in 1987 and have turned down several offers to reunite.

  The band's focus on a guitar, bass, and drum sound, and their fusion of 1960s rock and post-punk, were a repudiation of synthesizer-based contemporary dance-pop – the style popular in the early 1980s. Marr's guitar-playing on hisRickenbacker often had a jangly sound reminiscent of Roger McGuinn of the Byrds.[4] Marr's guitar-playing influenced later Manchester bands, including The Stone Roses and Oasis. Morrissey and Marr's songs combined themes about ordinary people with complex, literate lyrics delivered by Morrissey with a mordant sense of humour.

Contents

•   [hide] 
  • 1 History
    • 1.1 Formation and early singles
    • 1.2 The Smiths
    • 1.3 Meat Is Murder
    • 1.4 The Queen Is Dead
    • 1.5 Strangeways, Here We Come and break-up
    • 1.6 Post-Smiths careers
  • 2 Later controversies
    • 2.1 Royalties dispute
    • 2.2 Reunion speculation
    • 2.3 Repackaging
  • 3 Musical style
  • 4 Visual imagery
  • 5 Legacy
  • 6 Discography
  • 7 Notes
  • 8 References
  • 9 External links

History[edit]

Formation and early singles[edit]

• The Smiths were formed in early 1982 by Steven Patrick Morrissey, a writer who had briefly fronted punk rock band The Nosebleeds (which included guitarist Billy Duffy, who later was a member of The Cult); and John Maher, a guitarist and songwriter. Maher changed his name to Johnny Marr to avoid confusion with Buzzcocksdrummer John Maher, and Morrissey performed under his surname alone. After recording several demo tapes with Simon Wolstencroft (later of The Fall) on drums, Morrissey and Marr recruited drummer Mike Joyce in the autumn of 1982. Joyce had formerly been a member of punk bands The Hoax and Victim. They also added bass player Dale Hibbert, who provided the group with demo recording facilities at the studio where he worked as a recording engineer.[5] Hibbert was replaced after one gig by Marr's friend Andy Rourke, because Marr felt that neither Hibbert's bass playing nor his personality fitted the group.

  The band picked their name in part as a reaction against those used by synthpop bands of the early 1980s, such as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Spandau Ballet, which they considered pretentious. In a 1984 interview Morrissey said that he chose The Smiths "because it was the most ordinary name" and because he thought that it was "time that the ordinary folk of the world showed their faces."[6] Signing to indie label Rough Trade Records, they released their first single, "Hand in Glove", in May 1983. The record was championed by DJ John Peel, as were all of their later singles, but failed to chart. The follow-up singles "This Charming Man" and "What Difference Does It Make?" fared better when they reached numbers 25 and 12 respectively on the UK Singles Chart.[7]

The Smiths[edit]

• In February 1984, the group released their debut album The Smiths, which reached number two on the UK Albums Chart.[8] Both "Reel Around the Fountain" and "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" met with controversy, with some tabloid newspapers alleging the songs were suggestive of paedophilia, a claim strongly denied by the group.

  The album was followed the same year by the non-album singles "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" and "William, It Was Really Nothing", which featured "How Soon Is Now?" on its B-side. Securing the band's first top ten placing, "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" was also significant for marking the beginning of engineer and producer Stephen Street's long-term working relationship with the band.[9]

  More controversy followed when "Suffer Little Children", the B-side to "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now", touched on the theme of the Moors murders. This caused an uproar after the grandfather of one of the murdered children heard the song on a pub jukebox and felt the band was trying to commercialise the murders. After meeting with Morrissey, he accepted that the song was a sincere exploration of the impact of the murders. Morrissey subsequently established a friendship with Ann West, the mother of victim Lesley Ann Downey, who is mentioned by name in the song.[10]

  The year ended with the compilation album Hatful of Hollow. This collected singles, B-sides and the versions of songs that had been recorded throughout the previous year for the Peel and Jensen shows.

Meat Is Murder[edit]

• Early in 1985 the band released their second album, Meat Is Murder. This album was more strident and political than its predecessor, including the pro-vegetarian title track (Morrissey forbade the rest of the group from being photographed eating meat), the light-hearted republicanism of "Nowhere Fast", and the anti-corporal punishment "The Headmaster Ritual" and "Barbarism Begins at Home". The band had also grown more diverse musically, with Marr adding rockabilly riffs to "RusholmeRuffians" and Rourke playing a funk bass solo on "Barbarism Begins at Home". The album was preceded by the re-release of the B-side "How Soon Is Now?" as a single, and although that song was not on the original LP, it has been added to subsequent releases. Meat Is Murder was the band's only album (barring compilations) to reach number one in the UK charts.[8] In 2003, the album was ranked number 295 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[11]

  Morrissey brought a political stance to many of his interviews, courting further controversy. Among his targets were the Thatcher government, the British monarchy, and the famine relief project Band Aid. Morrissey famously quipped of the last, "One can have great concern for the people of Ethiopia, but it's another thing to inflict daily torture on the people of England"[12] ("torture" being a reference to the music that resulted from the project). The subsequent single-only release "Shakespeare's Sister" reached number 26 on the UK Singles Chart, although the only single taken from the album, "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore", was less successful, barely making the top 50.[7]

The Queen Is Dead[edit]

• During 1985 the band completed lengthy tours of the UK and the US while recording their next studio record, The Queen Is Dead. The album was released in June 1986, shortly after the single "Bigmouth Strikes Again". The single again featured Marr's strident acoustic guitar rhythms and lead melody guitar lines with wide leaps.The Queen Is Dead reached number two in the UK charts,[8] and consisted of a mixture of mordant bleakness (e.g. "Never Had No One Ever", which seemed to play up to stereotypes of the band), dry humour (e.g. "Frankly, Mr. Shankly", allegedly a message to Rough Trade boss Geoff Travis disguised as a letter of resignation from a worker to his superior), and synthesis of both, such as in "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" and "Cemetry Gates".

  However, all was not well within the group. A legal dispute with Rough Trade had delayed the album by almost seven months (it had been completed in November 1985), and Marr was beginning to feel the stress of the band's exhausting touring and recording schedule. He later told NME, "'Worse for wear' wasn't the half of it: I was extremely ill. By the time the tour actually finished it was all getting a little bit ... dangerous. I was just drinking more than I could handle."[13] Meanwhile, Rourke was fired from the band in early 1986 due to his use of heroin. He allegedly received notice of his dismissal via a Post-it note stuck to the windscreen of his car. It read, "Andy – you have left The Smiths. Goodbye and good luck, Morrissey."[14] Morrissey himself, however, denies this.

  Rourke was replaced on bass by Craig Gannon (formerly a member of Scottish new wave band Aztec Camera), but was reinstated two weeks later. Gannon stayed in the band, switching to rhythm guitar. This five-piece recorded the singles "Panic" and "Ask" (the latter with Kirsty MacColl on backing vocals) which reached numbers 11 and 14 respectively on the UK Singles Chart,[7] and toured the UK. After the tour ended in October 1986, Gannon left the band, having played on six studio tracks and was thereafter regularly referred to as 'The Fifth Smith'.

  The group had become frustrated with Rough Trade and sought a record deal with a major label. Marr told NME in early 1987, "Every single label came to see us. It was small-talk, bribes, the whole number. I really enjoyed it." The band ultimately signed with EMI, which drew criticism from their fanbase and from elements of the music press.[13]

Strangeways, Here We Come and break-up[edit]

• In early 1987 the single "Shoplifters of the World Unite" was released and reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart.[7] It was followed by a second compilation, The World Won't Listen – the title was Morrissey's comment on his frustration with the band's lack of mainstream recognition, although the album reached number two in the charts[8] – and the single "Sheila Take a Bow", the band's second (and last during the band's lifetime) UK top-10 hit.[7] Another compilation, Louder Than Bombs, was intended for the overseas market and covered much the same material as The World Won't Listen, with the addition of "Sheila Take a Bow" and material from Hatful of Hollow, as that compilation was yet to be released in the US

  Despite their continued success, a variety of tensions emerged within the band to threaten their split. Johnny Marr was exhausted and took a break from the band in June 1987, which he felt was negatively perceived by the other Smiths. In July 1987, Marr left the group permanently because he thought an NME article entitled "Smiths to Split" was planted by Morrissey, when in fact it was not.[15] That article, written by Danny Kelly, alleged that Morrissey disliked Marr working with other musicians, and that Marr and Morrissey's personal relationship had reached breaking point. Marr contacted NME to explain that he did not leave the band due to personal tensions but because he wanted wider musical scope.[16]

  Former Easterhouse guitarist Ivor Perry was brought in to replace Marr,[17] and the band recorded some new material with him which was never completed, including an early version of "Bengali in Platforms" that was originally intended as the B-side of "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before".[18] Perry was uncomfortable with the situation, stating "it was like they wanted another Johnny Marr", and the sessions ended with (according to Perry) "Morrissey running out of the studio".[19] By the time the group's fourth album Strangeways, Here We Come was released in September, the band had split up.

  The breakdown in the relationship has been primarily attributed to Morrissey becoming annoyed by Marr's work with other artists and Marr growing frustrated by Morrissey's musical inflexibility. Marr particularly hated Morrissey's obsession with covering 1960s pop artists such as Twinkle and Cilla Black. Marr recalled in 1992, "That was the last straw, really. I didn't form a group to perform Cilla Black songs."[20] In a 1989 interview, Morrissey cited the lack of a managerial figure and business problems as reasons for the band's split.[21]

  Strangeways, Here We Come peaked at number two in the UK[8] and was their most successful album in the US, reaching number 55 on the Billboard 200.[22] It received a lukewarm reception from critics, but both Morrissey and Marr name it as their favourite Smiths album.[23] A couple of further singles from Strangeways were released with earlier live, session and demo tracks as B-sides, and the following year the live recording Rank (recorded in 1986 while Gannon was in the band) repeated the UK chart success of previous albums.

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