by Noonan McKane » Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:51 am
'Hate' is a pretty extreme term, but I can easily live without "Work Is A 4 Letter Word" (Johnny: "I didn't start a band to do Cilla Black covers.") And "Golden Lights". These covers are just Morrissey's indulgences and don't really count. I like the sound that Stephen Street gets on "Work....", perversely. (Was S.Street, wasn't it? Bath Woolhall during 'Strangeways' sessions? Sure it was..)
Leafing through these pages, I'm astonished at how often "The Queen Is Dead" crops up. TQID is absolutely perfect, flawless. An absolute milestone. If you 'hate' it, throw yer stereo away. It's not working properly.
I can understand the ill will people feel for "How Soon Is Now?"
As a B-side, it was a mildly interesting, slightly overworked demo. As the A-side of a 12" single, the time between it wearing out it's welcome and the end of it is punishingly long.
What really annoys me about 'HSIN?' is the fact that Warners stuck it onto the CD reissue of "Meat Is Murder", giving hundreds of thousands of 'new' listeners the impression that the Smiths 2nd LP is almost perfect, except for that mishapen lump of an overworked demo in the middle....
They got away with sticking "This Charming Man" in the middle of "The Smiths", even if it still somehow doesn't seem to 'belong' there. The bloody annoyance is that on neither of the CDs liner notes do they bother to mention the late additions. Not even a wee asterisk.....*non album single........*punishingly long slightly overworked demo.......*Don't blame us. Greedy pair of bastards insisted on further royalty........*Think yourselves lucky 'Strangeways Here We Come' hasn't got 9 minute cover of Cilla's "Surprise Surprise" as a bonus track.........etc. That kind of thing
i shouted out 'who killed the kennedys?' when after all it was you and me