THE SMITHS – THIS CHARMING MAN (rare full clip)
This week in 2011 saw the release of COMPLETE, a box set compilation by The Smiths, released by Rhino Records in the UK, (September 2011)
Standard versions contained the band's four studio albums, the live album (Rank) and three compilations, on 8 CDs or 8 LPs.
A deluxe version contained the albums on both CD and LP formats, as well as 25 7-inch vinyl singles and a DVD.
THIS CHARMING MAN
With a line that Morrissey lifted from the 1972 film adaptation of the play, Sleuth, starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, "A jumped-up pantry boy, who never knew his place," (the film itself referencing the 1945 novel, Loving, by Henry Green), Johnny Marr, composed this especially for a BBC radio session for John Peel.
"I remember writing it, it was in preparation for a John Peel single," recalled Johnny. "I wrote it the same night as 'Pretty Girls Make Graves' and 'Still Ill.'" After performing it on the radio, The Smiths' record label, Rough Trade, suggested that the band release it as a single rather than their original choice of "Reel Around the Fountain."
"A couple of days before I wrote 'This Charming Man' I'd heard 'Walk Out To Winter' by Aztec Camera on BBC Radio 1, and I felt a little jealous. My competitive urges kicked in. I felt that we needed something up-beat and in a major key for Rough Trade to get behind. That's why I wrote it in the key of G, which to this day I rarely do. I knew that 'This Charming Man' would be our next single."
"People thought the main guitar part was a Rickenbacker, but it's really a '54 Tele. There are three tracks of acoustic, a backwards guitar with a really long reverb, and the effect of dropping knives on the guitar - that comes in at the end of the chorus."