The Smiths

from: https://rockandrollglobe.com/new-wave/left-of-center-the-pretty-in-pink-soundtrack-at-35/

Left of Center: the Pretty in Pink Soundtrack at 35​

Director John Hughes’s curatorial powers got college rock higher than ever on the charts

Remember when the Smiths, New Order, and the Psychedelic Furs made the top 5 on Billboard’s album chart?

The album has a number of now-iconic UK college rock artists on it, none of whom had come anywhere near the tops of the US pops in 1986: New Order (who actually had a trio of songs featured in the film, though only “Shell-Shock” appears on its soundtrack), Echo and the Bunnymen, the Smiths, Psychedelic Furs (who re-recorded “Pretty in Pink,” originally from their ‘81 album Talk Talk Talk, in a slightly more pop-friendly version for the film; the new single peaked at #41 in the US), and most of all, British synthpop stars Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, a/k/a OMD, whose “If You Leave”...

Shoplifterromo sends the link:


Excerpt:

The Smiths, ‘Hand In Glove’ (1983)

Remember your first relationship? Very “us versus the world”, wasn’t it? That spirit is bottled by this song, which Moz and Marr wrote after their second gig as The Smiths.

Gooiest moment: “Hand in glove I’ll stake my claim / I’ll fight to my last breath.”

Shoplifterromo sends the link:


Excerpt:

2. The Smiths – “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”

The Smiths’ “angry young man” anthem perfectly captures the confusion and drama of teenage lust: Johnny Marr’s timeless, jangling guitar has given rise to countless solemn YouTube covers. Morrissey’s hyper-literate lyrics were influenced by Karel Reisz’s 1960 film, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, written by Alan Sillitoe, whose short story “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner” inspired everyone from Iron Maiden to Belle & Sebastian. “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” makes an excellent choice for any road trip playlist — just watch out for those double-decker buses. – J.P.B.

I don’t feel at all guilty about tinkering with the "classical canon" – David LePage

"Violinist David Le Page explains how he found the connections between Rameau and Radiohead, Schubert and The Smiths through arrangements for Orchestra of the Swan’s new album Timelapse."


Salient part:

"On Timelapse I have ‘reimagined’ well-known songs by David Bowie/Brian Eno and The Smiths. The process I have used is different from working out a carbon copy arrangement or a cover version. The Bowie/Eno song Heroes, in its original form, is a driven, yearning and almost uncomfortably layered slice of pop/rock; euphoric and poetic in equal measures. I wanted to preserve the ‘feel’ of course but in my version I have substantially slowed everything down so that aspects of the music can be examined in an entirely different...

(Perhaps a nod to the debated release date? I remember buying it on the Monday back then, but what do I know!?).
Regards,
FWD.

38 second mark and on

---

Related item:

• Saint Laurent Smiths shirt - June 19, 2019

“How Soon is Now?” was written by The Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr and singer Morrissey.
Marr’s haunting, tremolo and sliding guitar part prepares the perfect sonic atmosphere for Morrissey’s angst-ridden lyrics.
“I am the song and the heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar,” the singer croons to his listeners.
Upon the band’s break-up, writer Simon Reynolds named this dark tone as the key element that made the band so appealing:
“Why were The Smiths ‘important’? Because of their misery….The Smiths finest moments - ‘Hand in Glove,’ ‘How Soon is Now?’, ‘Still Ill’, ‘I Know Its Over’ - were moments of reproachful, avenging misery, naked desperation, unbearable reverence - free from the ‘saving grace’ of quips and camp self-consciousness.
If there was laughter it was black, scornful scathing….they were like those gauche youths who turn up to house parties only to cling to the dark corners in...