Strangeways Here We Come came out the day before I started at University in 1987 and one of the major preparatory tasks before going away was to know it backwards already by the time I got there. There are lots of great songs on there, even within the context of The Smiths’ catalogue - in fact just about the only one I’m not sure about is ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ which has always sounded to me like the kind of thing a Smiths parody band would sing on a dodgy sketch show. I love the bile of ‘Unhappy Birthday’ and the high camp feel mixed with absolute deadly seriousness of ‘Last Night I Dreamt…’, the ‘look no guitars’ of the opening and the rush and push of ‘death at one’s elbow’ leading to the quiet plaintive coda of ‘i won’t share you’. And I know it gets written down a little as something musically too simple but I really love ‘Paint a Vulgar Picture’ with a perfect mixture of contempt for the industry they were leaving and respect for the fanbase they weren’t.
I think I like this best of all though, even more than the very very good ‘I started something I couldn’t finish’. Maybe the gloom and doom on this was even better than the bounce in the music of ‘i started something’ for me, sat in my new room on my new bed on my own, hearing noises all around but nobody quite venturing out yet. Love, peace and harmony, anyone?
June 3, 2009 at 9:17 pm
I bookend you – ‘Strangeways’ came out the year after I’d left University: it was a grim time of uncertain next steps and broken circles and the album served us well. I think ‘Disco Dancer’ is quite, quite magnificent.
June 4, 2009 at 1:45 pm
That weird, because DOADD is probably my least favourite song on the album.
Not that I dislike it; it’s still better than 90% of anything else I’ve ever listened to.
June 5, 2009 at 7:18 pm
It’s the one album that I cant make my mind up which is my favourite track. Its also become over time just about my favourite non-compliation Smiths LP.
In 1987 I was already out in the big bad world of local government, not too far away from a first very unsuccesful marriage.
June 29, 2009 at 11:05 am
I Won’t Share You is so incredibly sad. If only Morrissey and Marr could have talked properly, got their act together. It never should have ended that way.