As bombs were dropping in Libya, Americans were being held hostage in Lebanon and Mad Cow disease was first identified as an epidemic in Britain, the music industry was amplifying its synthesized pop and grunge sound that classically defines the decade of the 80s. We tend to idolize musicians such as Madonna, Michael Jackson and Fleetwood Mac.
But there’s a band – far less recognized than any of those poster-bands of the era – that created a fusion of 60s rock and a post punk, whose 1986 LP topped albums by The Beatles, The Stone Roses and the Pixies. They have been called the most important alternative rock band to emerge from the British indie scene of the 1980s. Formed in Manchester in 1982, vocalist Morrissey, guitarist Johnny Marr, bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce together became known as The Smiths.
The group signed with the independent record label Rough Trade Records and released some of what would later be recalled as the band’s greatest albums, The Smiths (1984), Meat Is Murder (1985), The Queen Is Dead (1986) and Strangeways, Here We Come (1987), all these reached the UK Top 5. In 2012, the band had four albums make the Rolling Stone’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” The combination of Morrissey’s vocal talent and Marr’s genius songwriting formed vivacious lyrical minutes, and developed a new, unique voice within pop music.
The Hatful of Hollow (released 1984) album falls anywhere from dismissive sorrows to narcissistic self pity. The hit song “How Soon Is Now” was adapted from Geroge Elliot’s novel Middlemarch. Morrissey sings “son and heir of nothing particular,” meaning the singer is a product of his own shyness, but realizes his legacy is in the making. The Queen Is Dead was their third studio album that addressed everything from fame (“Frankly, Mr. Shankly”) to celibacy (“Never Had No One Ever”).
“I had this moment also, you know, before we made the album, where I was standing in my kitchen, walking towards the sink or something and thought, ‘Holy shit. You’re gonna have to dig deep now,’” said Johnny Marr in an interview with SPIN (April 2012).
“It was both a little scary and humbling, but it was something to strive for. I think the reason that people point to The Queen Is Dead as being the best Smiths album is because it housed all the facets of the band. There’s an overloading ‘Smiths-ness’ to it, really.”
In 2013 Hub Pages recalls The Smiths as “quite simply one of the most important indie and alternative bands ever… just about every UK alternative band (commonly refer to as brit-pop) cited The Smiths as an influence, along with a number of U.S. indie and alternative artists [like] The Stone Roses, Suede, Blur, The Libertines, Beck, Modest Mouse [and] Death Cab for Cutie.”
The band broke up in 1987 and turned down several offers to reunite. They were never inducted into any Hall of Fame and failed to bust the mainstream barrier in the U.S. in their prime. Their fan base still loyally listens to the notorious Morrissey and Marr heavenly duo and is making efforts to establish the band among the rest of the unforgotten greats.
“In terms of the music, I think the first record is kinda like a time capsule. I don’t want to describe the music too much, because then I just sound like a journalist, but I like [The Smiths] because of what it meant and how people heard it as something new when it came out. But it really doesn’t represent how the group sounded at the time,” Marr said.
“We wanted to be a modern band and impress our friends who had good taste and I think we did that.”
