What's your favorite Smiths song?

Love them all, but That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore is a masterpiece.
Back to the Old House
Well I Wonder
Boy with the Thorn

I also love What Difference Does it Make? - sad that Moz isn't keen.
Morrissey hated the John Porter version of What Difference Does It Make? because it was too polished and his vocals were pretty low in the mix. John was more interested in establishing Marr's signature guitar sound. He especially wanted an iconic intro, that would immediately identify the song whenever it was played on radio. A lot of 80s hits started with a distinctive intro.

Morrissey much preferred the raunchy Hatful version. It fits with his liking of under produced, quirky music to this day. When he talks about Marr's 'rolling chords' in the Importance of being Morrissey, there seems to be a sense of admiration, but also, weariness, that Marr's remit never seemed to stretch further than producing beautiful, exuberant music that was easy on the ears 'like drinking margarita's through your ears,' as one person put it. Morrissey has always seemed to be the more experimental one to me, and not afraid to let his product be seen, warts and all.
 
I also love What Difference Does it Make? - sad that Moz isn't keen.

I read that in old interviews ... but did he ever say why he stopped liking the song? It was certainly a staple in early Smiths shows.
 
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Morrissey hated the John Porter version of What Difference Does It Make? because it was too polished and his vocals were pretty low in the mix. John was more interested in establishing Marr's signature guitar sound. He especially wanted an iconic intro, that would immediately identify the song whenever it was played on radio. A lot of 80s hits started with a distinctive intro.

Morrissey much preferred the raunchy Hatful version. It fits with his liking of under produced, quirky music to this day. When he talks about Marr's 'rolling chords' in the Importance of being Morrissey, there seems to be a sense of admiration, but also, weariness, that Marr's remit never seemed to stretch further than producing beautiful, exuberant music that was easy on the ears 'like drinking margarita's through your ears,' as one person put it. Morrissey has always seemed to be the more experimental one to me, and not afraid to let his product be seen, warts and all.

I remember - he also hated the lyrics, didn't he? Because they were cliched, and his voice was flat.

I wouldn't say he sounded weary in The Importance, though - God knows, I wish a few more people in his orbit produced beautiful, exuberant music that was easy on the ears. Johnny's guitar sounds makes WDDIM? - his 'experimental' side makes, well, Boomslang. Many of Morrissey's experiments just sound unfinished. Give me a good pop record over some avant-garde dreck any day.

Quote from Importance: "It was a magical chemistry. I always heard great sadness in his rolling chords and great beauty.”
 
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HUGE lack of appreciation for Stretch Out And Wait in this thread. The song is a smiths and Morrissey staple.

Anyone up to debate this on the high rise estate?
 
I remember - he also hated the lyrics, didn't he? Because they were cliched, and his voice was flat.

Yeah, I could see him thinking his lyrics were kind of simple on that one in comparison to other songs from that period. However, it was certainly a wise choice as single - it was definitely one of the most radio-friendly on the debut album (more so than Hand in Glove, IMO).
 
HUGE lack of appreciation for Stretch Out And Wait in this thread. The song is a smiths and Morrissey staple.

Anyone up to debate this on the high rise estate?

It's a very good song. I don't know about it being a Morrissey staple though. He played it on one tour and not played live since 2008 as far as I can tell. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see him bring it back live.
 
I reckon ya'll I hate the Smiths as much as The California Son does, but the Purple Haze versions that showed up on Smiths bootleg soundchecks are my favorite just for the comedic value of it. Reckon it is a poppy cock c*** tit thick wacker how The Oregon Son thinks he is some type of guitar god in n n nnn n n nnn n n n n din't n n n it m8.
 
Every fooking one, greetings from Sweden. Never have his fans heard a better version of a Smiths tune than when me and some english guy were singing along aloud at Star and Garter 1999.
If you weren't there you missed the performance of a lifetime.
People not into The Smiths but into Morrissey are the saddest lying bastards ever seen.
 
Johnny said that the studio version was so perfect, the whole band knew that they could never reproduce the same atmosphere live.

Really? I hadn’t heard that before.
 
Really? I hadn’t heard that before.
I paraphrase but members have said so much at various junctures. On the week before the release of Meat Is Murder there was a radio one programme previewing 4 songs (I think it was with Simon Bates) from the album, and interviewing Morrissey and Marr. They played, Headmaster Ritual, That Joke, Nowhere Fast and Meat is Murder. Johnny said that there were some tracks that were virtually spontaneous, but singled out Well I Wonder, as one that was quite obviously a studio track, that was more considered, and took quite a while to get just right. Again, I paraphrase and I'm going back 33yrs!
 
I remember - he also hated the lyrics, didn't he? Because they were cliched, and his voice was flat.

I wouldn't say he sounded weary in The Importance, though - God knows, I wish a few more people in his orbit produced beautiful, exuberant music that was easy on the ears. Johnny's guitar sounds makes WDDIM? - his 'experimental' side makes, well, Boomslang. Many of Morrissey's experiments just sound unfinished. Give me a good pop record over some avant-garde dreck any day.

Quote from Importance: "It was a magical chemistry. I always heard great sadness in his rolling chords and great beauty.”
I go on a lot about this, but I don't think Marr would have been considered half the songwriter he is today, if Andy hadn't lent some dynamism to the songs. I'm not disparaging Johnny Marr and The Smiths, but music doesn't have to sound epic all of the time. There's room for jagged edges, and for music to be ponderous and hard going, and even clumsy. It can still be interesting. I agree that Morrissey recently is perhaps mistaking laziness for spontaneity. He doesn't seem to want to think too much about what he's doing. Maybe that's why it's time to do the covers. No one can be original all the time, especially when you've had nearly 40 years in your trade. Every artist has common themes, it's just that we know Morrissey inside out. I bet if you studied any other artist as intensely, you'd find them circling around the same ideas, and going off on tangents occasionally. From the outside, they look completely kaleidoscopic, but enter their worlds and you see common threads and calling cards. I've even tried reading philosophy, and even great philosophers repeat themselves, and can write whole books on themes they've established in the first few pages. No one appears to be relentlessly original and interesting all of the time. The more you reveal yourself, the more you say, the more productive you are, the more prone you are to being dissected and people will label you boring and insignificant simply because your voice is so prominent.
 
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Roy's Keen....Oh, favorite Smiths' song....

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