The Smiths

The Smiths: The Open Secret of 'Girlfriend in a Coma' - Rolling Stone
How a unique alternative-rock tune became the Smiths' most controversial song
By Armond White

Excerpt:

"It's a new kind of love song, stranger – and more strangely affecting – than most because it zeroes in on the complex vagaries of love: Love equal to friendship; friendship equal to love. This understanding of human relations is more advanced than everyday pop. Morrissey opens up pop heterosexual clichés – queers them – with an open mind and kind-heartedness that reveals the song's true meaning, its open secret. Girlfriend in a Coma" is an AIDS song. It's a response to the crisis that took the lives and broke the hearts of so many friends and lovers – the holocaust of the 1980s. In contradistinction to Elvis Costello's notion that Morrissey could not complete an introductory thought...

Why It's Great the Smiths Broke Up - Rolling Stone
Celebrating the breakup of the Manchester foursome – Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce – 30 years later
By Mark Simpson

Via:
http://www.officialsmiths.co.uk/tqid/#

Again, doesn't feature on the deluxe edition:
Recorded live at the Performing Arts Center, Milwaukee on 16th August, 1986.

With a link to the full track on YouTube:



Use the hashtag #FranklyMrShankly (Twitter/Instagram) to be included in the 'memories' section.
Regards,
FWD.

(I hope all 550 Smiths Official subscribers appreciate this track! Why this isn't being shared via Rhino and their Twitter acc is still privated is just beyond daft).

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Also on Spotify:

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Related item:

• Share memories using the hashtag to appear on The Official Smiths site; new live track every Monday - July 31, 2017

...why not, eh? Have a go.

The Smiths: All 73 Songs, Ranked - Rolling Stone
Morrissey and Johnny Marr lasted only five years as a songwriting team, but these Manchester lads left a lifetime's worth of absurdly great songs behind
by Rob Sheffield

#TheQueenIsDead

http://www.officialsmiths.co.uk/tqid/

Each Monday until release of the upcoming deluxe reissue of The Queen Is Dead, The Smiths will be releasing a previously unreleased live single version of each track from the album.

Share your memories of each track using the relevant hashtags to appear on the site.

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Posted by Famous when dead in the comments:

"Recorded live at the Irvine Meadows, Laguna Hills on 28th August, 1986. Live track does not feature on Deluxe Edition. Pre-order The Queen Is Dead (Deluxe):"
https://lnk.to/TQIDMP

The full 'video' just placed on YT:

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Related items:

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Taken from UbuWeb -

"British artist Phil Collins has made work in conflicted geopolitical sites around the world, including Baghdad, Belfast, Bogotá, and Ramallah, creating nuanced representations of people and places. In a departure from much documentary and site-specific practice, Collins engages politics and pop culture in tandem, often soliciting the participation of the communities in which he works. His video installation dünya dinlemiyor (Turkish for "the world won't listen") features young people in Istanbul performing karaoke versions of songs by the 1980s band The Smiths. Within the politically fraught context of Istanbul, The Smiths' melancholic pop takes on new poignancy, asking us to listen to what the rest of the world won't. Collins was a nominee for the 2006 Turner Prize."

Link via post by @claretini / Instagram:

Both hilarious and moving, we watched all of Phil Collins'...

The site super deluxe edition, have this extra info....
A five-LP box set (good value in the UK at £57) includes all the audio listed above, and a two-CD edition pairs the remaster with the bonus disc of demos etc.

Five LP vinyl release, with 2 cds sounds nice.

The Smiths / The Queen is Dead reissue - SuperDeluxeEdition
by Paul Sinclair

Excerpt:

First Smiths deluxe • 3CD+DVD • 5LP vinyl • hi-res on DVD
Warners will issue a four-disc deluxe edition of The Smiths‘ 1986 album The Queen Is Dead in October this year.

The album is generally considered to be the band’s best work (although for this writer...

UPDATE July 20:

Link posted by Famous when dead:

Johnny Marr on The Smiths reunion: “Get a grip” - NME