The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths

[lbworshiper]

In the the expansive recessions and economic hardships of 1980's Britain, two musical forces stood out: The Jam and the Smiths. The Jam inflicted pride among the working-class through their everyman, political lyrics in their punk inflicted aggressive or slick soulful outings. Whereas The Jam spoke volumes of the crumbling empire, the Smiths outlined the British musical stratosphere with a sound as grey as the English skyline. Their sound lyrically is one of either macabre humour or woeful sorrow; whilst their melodic nature was one of either doeful cascading notes or cheery skip-a-long, pacy rhythms.

When The Jam fell apart in 1982, the Smiths vaulted into the Jam's place as Britain's premier band. A collection of arty, working-class Mancunians, whose sound portrayed the stark decay of industrial northern England, while their lyrics came out of a style bearing the hallmark of Wilde's "The Portrait of Dorian Gray". The Smiths led by Britain's most consistent songwriting partnership since Lennon/McCartney in diresome vocalist(Stephen) Morrissey and crafty guitarist Johnny Marr, alongside the stern rhythmn section of Andy Rourke on bass and Mike Joyce on drums created some of the most intelligent and wonderful tunes ever assembled to tape.

In 1986, the Smiths would reach the apex of their career with their stunning third album "The Queen is Dead". After the critical success of their 1982 self-titled debut, and 1984's critical and commercial disaster of "Meat is Murder", the Smiths reconvened to record the best album of the eighties amassing their love of standards, 50's/60's rock and roll, glam rock and the Velvet Underground.

Recorded in the winter of 1985, "The Queen is Dead" was the Smiths at their most lyrically biting and musically in depth. The album opens with the stunning, glorious "The Queen is Dead": an early U2 sounding marathon awash in rapid, shimmering layers of guitar, amazingly all done in one take. The song has Morrissey crying out his Republican dreams for the end of the monarchy as he chats it up with The Queen in a hilarious romp, including the unforgettable line "She said: "Eh, i know you and you cannot sing?"/ I said: "That's nothing you should hear me play piano?". Before ending the song howling the refrain "Life is very long when your lonely". Lyrically the album can be seen in three parts: evoking Morrissey's jovial dreams, his silly imagination or his miserable nightmares.

The dreams can be again seen in the almost medieval plucking sound of "Cemetry Gates" in which he decries plagiarism of 19th century poetry, whilst organizing a team of poetic giants to face him, of which "you lose, because Wilde is on mine". The successor to the album's snarling title track, is "Frankly, Mr Shankly", an distasteful ode to Rough Trade records founder Geoff Travis, and not to the legendary football manager. Written during a period of unrest between Smiths and record company, Morrissey berates his label's boss, claiming he'd "feel more fulfilled, making Christmas cards with the mentally ill" than continuing on Rough Trade. All set to a lovely, bouncing rock-a-billy beat. A common Smiths trait of setting sad lyrical content to a happy beat.

The most talked about facet of Morrissey's song writing is his almost unbearable misery. He aches and pains and yelps throughout the glossy guitar of"I Know its Over", slender acoustics of "The Boy with a Thorn in His Side" and the doomed echoes of "Never Had No One Ever": in which he swans about his lack of fortune in love, whilst Johnny Marr and co. dish up melody after melody after gloomy, sparse, tumbling melody to back him up leaving the viewer about as glum and depressed as Morrissey himself. Similarly is the haunting orchestration of "There is a Light That Never Goes Out": a beautiful piece of melancholic lyrics and gasping vocal and melody in which Morrissey claims "If a double-decker bus crashes into us/ To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die". His oft macabre worded outlook is seen as suicidal, however it appears due to his self-inflicted personality its is nothing but an in-joke for which the audience is intended not to be amused by.

This dearth premise exposes itself in the fruitful delights of "Bigmouth Strikes Again". Set to a turgid, rapid acoustic guitar rhythm with a distorted electric guitar break, "Bigmouth.." displays more of his feverish humour when he points out "Now I know how Joan of Arc felt/ As the flames rose to her Roman nose and her Walkman started to melt".

Morrissey's self-imposed connection to Oscar Wilde and all things camp continues in his snickering snaps rock-a-billy romp "Vicar in a Tutu" as he talks about letting the Vicar live his life his way. Like Wilde, Morrissey's sexual orientation had been questioned. His fliratation with gay imagery in his lyrics and his choice of gay icons such as Truman Capote for album and single covers had aroused suspicions in the British press. Though Morrissey asserted he was simply a "celibate", he hopes unlike Wilde, but like the Vicar, we will let him live his life his way.

Morrissey is not always stealing the album. Marr in "The Queen is Dead", "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" and "Cemetry Gates" takes his ambitious, fresh style to a listening audience. An economic guitarist, Marr allows his guitar to sound like a classical instrument: haughty, timeless and picturesque. He favours complex melodic structure to wild solos. No more is that evident in the gorgeous piece "Some Girls Are Bigger than Others". Set to a clumsy Morrissey lyric, Marr's guitar picks and plucks and weaves in out of the track seamlessly with grace and honour. It should be noted that the track also contains an error, which was never fixed during production. In which the fade in during its intro is faded out and re-faded in; a technique commonly used by producers to ensure their royalties and payment for their work is paid. Though bizarrely with Morrissey/Marr commandeering, it seems as though the mistake is a forgotten accident.

"The Queen is Dead" is by far one the best album of the eighties hands down. Unlike today's whining sounds found in Korn and Limp Bizkit, Morrissey does not deride life itself through a parental advisory warning, nor does Marr trash his guitar to pieces. Instead the Smiths represented the melancholy and echoed musically the depression economically and socially of 1980's Britain in a manner so eloquent and articulate that alone make it a great album. But it is the chemistry and the tight songwriting that makes this album so brilliant. Every song has single potential. Every song is unforgettable. Every hook is catchy. The music is never long or too unformulated. It is pop music at its penultimate peak. And certainly set the foundations for the elegiac pop of Radiohead, Coldplay, Pulp and the Verve during the mid-nineties Britpop movemement. One of the best ever.

[SwampThing]

Another excellent review. Great job!

[MARV]

Wow, what an extraordinary review of one of my favorite albums! It's funny, I was studying The Queen Is Dead a few days ago and what suddenly struck me is that half the album is either deep, dramatic & depressing while the other half is happy, hilarious &

[lbworshiper]

I know that this is a New Wave board, I gotta tell that you guys seems to be paying more attention to a Flock of Seagulls review than a Smiths one. Hehe. Glad you like this one![:D]

[MARV]

No way dude! Smiths over the 'Gulls any day of the week and twice on Sundays [;)]

[Rubbeet921]

[quote][i]Originally posted by marvymarv[/i]
<br>No way dude! Smiths over the 'Gulls any day of the week and twice on Sundays [;)]
<hr hei

[2Nu]

Another 'Slam Dunk' review LBW.[;)] The Smiths are one of those bands that for many, are an 'Acquired' Taste. Your well stated analysis of the socio-economic context in which their music was crafted gives much insight to the mood and tone of this particul

[mygreen]

[quote][i]Originally posted by lbworshiper[/i]
<br>I know that this is a New Wave board, I gotta tell that you guys seems to be paying more