This week sees the publication of a revised edition of Simon Goddard’s classic “Songs That Saved Your Life: The Art of The Smiths 1982-87” — which tells the stories behind every song from The Smiths’ catalog — and to mark the occasion publisher Titan Books has hooked us up with copies to award three lucky Slicing Up Eyeballs readers.
The 368-page compendium is due to be published Tuesday and “reveals the stories behind every track (including unreleased out-takes), catalogues all the group’s UK television, radio and concert appearances and features interviews with original band members, producers and associates.”
TO ENTER: Simply drop a comment at the bottom of this post explaining which song or songs by The Smiths saved your life and why. The more detail the better — although this will be a random drawing.
RULES: This contest is open to everyone in the world and we’ll take entries until 12 p.m. EST Friday, March 8. After that point, we’ll select 10 winners at random and contact them via e-mail — so please remember to use legit addresses when you enter. And if any winners don’t respond after one full week, we’ll select new ones. One entry per person, please.
UPDATE: Contest is now closed. Thank you all for entering and sharing your stories. The winners have been notified.
The Smiths are my all time favorite group, this book would be a great addition to my Smiths collection
I already own the 2 previous editions…so why not the 3rd!
hey I’d love to win this.
There is a light that never goes out .
Why – because I went to a Nerina Pallot gig where Joseph Arthur supported her & played a cover of There is a light that never goes out . Took my now husband to that gig – he’s a huge Morrissey fan. Fell in love at that gig 2096 Bristol lol after a terrible few years there was a light !!
“Meat is Murder” is the album that saved my life. I was literally having medical issues at the time this record came out. My doctors took me off of red meat to see how my body responded. It’s been over twenty five years now since I last ate meat and I am in better health now than ever. An album full of greats, “Meat is Murder”.
“How Soon is Now”, because it was the FIRST Smiths song I ever heard.
There is a Light…brings me right back to 16 everytime…first love, lost love, forever love…there is a light that will never go out…
Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want.
I was going through some really tough times, when this song came out. I guess I wallowed in some self pity for a while, and listening to this song really made me realize that I needed to do something about it. :o)
It’s going to sound cheesy, but “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.” I was a typical moody teen, working an absolute crap job in a warehouse, and this song just made me feel better about everything, especially the line “…kick in the eye…”
The juxtaposition of the dour lyrics and the downright bouncy guitar melody summed up the absurdity of my life then. Thanks for the memories, lads!
Morrissey’s lyrics are now and have always been a magic puzzle for solving. I still find myself actually AMAZED when I listen to certain songs. He is not just a writer and a poet, he is a sage, a magician, an outcast, a lover, a murderer, an alarmist, a pariah, an extremist…the list goes on. I remember being the 9 year old concert goer and impressing all of the grown people around my by knowing every word to every song, my father saw to that, of course. I love going to concerts now, most recently we saw him last October, and watching the entire crowd singing his words back to him. I am sure he loves it too. If I had to choose a top five for the sake of this posting I will go with Speedway, That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore, Why Don’t You Find Out for Yourself(the opening line is tattooed on my arm), Rusholme Ruffians, and My Love Life. Hearing any of these songs at any moment changes the course of my day for the better.
This Night Has Opened My Eyes, the saddest, most hauntingly beautiful song.
Half a Person – pretty much sums up all my teenage obsessions!
“Girl Afraid” and “Asleep” contributed greatly to my making it through the rough life of an American suburban teenager (read also “my first world problems”). Johnny Marr and Morrissey were speaking directly to me (and every other young person who has had the luck to be introduced to them at the right age). My mom got me into the Smiths, and eventually convinced me that her favorite track “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” was probably the most feelings packed into a song ever. But you could say that about all their songs. I guess they changed my life by putting words to the feelings I didn’t totally understand yet, and helping me see what was beautiful about feeling badly.
I’d say the Smiths saved my life by giving me something to love more than anything! A song that comes to mind would be “Girlfriend In A Coma”. My best friend and I at age 13 used to watch the video and listen to it all the time. We listened to ALL of The Smiths music non stop. We vowed to see Morrissey together one day. We finally did about 17 years later. A year and a half ago, I walked her down the isle to morrissey’s Happy Lovers United to marry her husband. So, thank you, The Smiths!
I don’t know why, but Stop Me if You Think That You’ve Heard This One Before is the greatest dive bar jukebox song. Try it.
“I know It’s Over” – “Oh mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head…” I’d play this song over and over on repeat just knowing I loved it and feeling not so alone. I’d take baths with the door locked and a dissolving marriage I did not want to see outside that door. In the tub, with the song, that clearly just says- “I know it’s over”, I found the courage and support of my dear constant friend (Morrissey) and was able to move forward with a life.
reel around the fountain. first song i heard.
Although there’s never just one song, I’m going to choose What Difference Does It Make & Meat is Murder. WDDIM was the first Smiths song I ever heard. It was unlike anything I’d ever listened to, and so raw lyrically. It changed my life and what I considered real music. It opened my eyes to a world of newness. I identified with the music and it opened up so much other music to listen to. Hearing Meat is Murder completely changed my life, as an avid vegetarian for the past 13 years and vegan for 2. The lyrics are so tender; I cry every time I hear it live.
If it wasn’t for This Charming Man, I’d have been condemned to listening to Culture Club for another 5 years. Thank you Morrissey, Marr, Joyce and O’Rourke.
Cemetery Gates as, after a few years of disillusionment and neglect, hearing it again re-ignited my love for classic indie which has improved the world for me nearly every day since.
As an aside though, I wonder how many animals’ lives have literally been saved by the track Meat Is Murder? I know more that a few people who’ve at least attempted to change their lifestyle prompted by that song alone.
‘Reel Around the Fountain’ probably saved my life in the late 90s…a lot of craptastic personal stuff going on then, and that song definitely served as a reminder that it was only temporary and things would get better!
The Headmaster Ritual
It was hit eerily close to home with regard to the ripple effect people can have on their charges
This Charming Man!
I love the song Jeane, but “I want the one I can’t have”, is the song for this, The Smiths were amazing, Morrissey for the first couple records, but it has been downhill ever since!
A couple of years back my mom had to go to the hospital because we thought she might have a btain tumor or cancer, and I was really going through a bad time emotionally and spiritually. I had been sexually harrassed at work, my parents had gone tgrough a brief seperation, and my sister had moved out. Throughout this time listening to Never Had No One Ever and really anything by the smiths got me through some of these trying times. If it hadn’t been for them, I don’t think I eould have gotten through any of that. I listened to that song every night and every morning along with I Know It’s Over. I owe everything to music, specifically the Smiths. And here recently I lost my dog, Frodo, to liver failure, and I found myself listening to the same tracks again. Yes, Never Had No One Ever really has saved my life and I don’t know how I would have ever recovered from any of this if it hadn’t been for them.
“The Headmaster Ritual”. 16 years old, 1985, midwestern alienation, missing the now-distant object of my first major crush. Can’t remember if I’d heard of the band from a nearby college radio station or from a far-flung friend who worked in a record shop, but I bought MIM, put it on the turntable and the first song was a lyrical and sonic revelation that left me feeling less alone.
“This Charming Man”, because I always found the lyrics so very fitting to my own life: “I would go out tonight, but I haven’t got a stitch to wear…”
I find it hard to name only on Smith’s song that saved my life. It might be easier to chose the album that I would go to more often at different times. The Smith’s as a whole were and a still the songs that save my life.
Best band ever. There Is a Light That Never Goes Out. Nuff said
The Headmaster Ritual,Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now; Hell, damn near everything on their first three albums were a landmark and comfort to my youth. Lately I’ve been comming back to those first three after I passed 40.
I Wont Share You, That Joke Isnt Funny Anymore, Reel Around The Fountain, I Know Its Over, Never Had Noone Ever, Unhappy Birthday, Oscillate Wildly. So many times these tracks kept me emotionally sane in a crazy time.
I was first really introduced to the Smiths when RANK came out. I was more of a Replacements, Husker Du type of guy but when my roommate put played the CD one time in the apartment, I was transfixed. I couldn’t get enough. I made a cassette of that disc and played it in my car over-and-over-and-over. One day I dropped the cassette on the floorboard of my car, reached down to get it and ran a stop sign. WHAM!!! No injuries but I totaled my car. It was towed to the impound lot to be demolished. I grabbed two things from that car. My license plate and my cassette of RANK which eventually wore out so I just went out and bought the disc. that was almost 25 years ago. Ahhhh… memories.
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out. It still burns as bright as ever.
“There Is A Light….” – pure poetry.
Unhappy Birthday, summer of 1988, my first exposure to The Smiths and I was immediately drawn in and hooked for life. Within weeks I had the complete catalog and was locking myself in my bedroom for hours on end listening. The Smiths, and Morrissey, saved my life by giving me one, prior to this I had no identity whatsoever.
It is very difficult for me to narrow down one life saving Smiths song. They have shaped my opinion about life, love, people, and daily life in so many ways. I learned the value of intelligent sarcasm, wit, and humor from The Smiths. I think sarcasm saved me in many ways because I was able to poke fun at my awkward self yet see the need to condem true stupidity in the world.
“How Soon Is Now?”
The lyrics and incredible groove helped make my difficult high school years bearable. Still love this song decades later.
“Stop Me if You Think That You’ve Heard This One Before”… Haunting piano intro, amazing lyrics, there were so many great songs on this album. Very difficult to choose just one.
It was a Friday night in the summer of 1984. I was driving around in my Race Orange Camaro looking for a party where I was meeting friends. The local rock radio station used to have a Friday night feature called “Rock Over London” where they would play five of the latest and greatest from Britain. They played Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now and I was ASTONISHED! I’d never heard ANYTHING like it….Within a month I’d cut off my waist length hair and owned everything I could find on vinyl and in print on The Smiths. Today I fancy myself the greatest Morrissey impersonator in the world as I front the Baltimore based tribute band, Girlfriend In A Coma http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zobknECFV9k
“Strangeways” LP got me through some tough times after the loss of my first child
The Smiths saved my life! If if wasn’t for hearing “This Charming Man” in JR high school, I would probably have fallen victim to pop music culture.
Like others above, I’d have to say the whole catalogue is important to me and did much to keep me from feeling so very alone thru my teenaged years and beyond. Tracey Thorne (of EBTG) and Morrissey’s voices were my security blanket. A friend once described The Smiths to me as ‘music that reminded him of when he was hating life.’ It’s true – but – there is still a such a beauty and a comfort to be found there. Hard as it is to pick one song, I have a special fondness for Stretch Out and Wait… lovely melody to sing along with, and oh, the lyrics! “Amid concrete and clay and general decay, nature must still find a way…”
I still remember crouching down in the back seat as my older hermano drove us, I could see the stars from where I was sitting. The windows were rolled down and it was another cool summer night in old San Antonio, Texas. Then it happened: I heard the words that changed my life forever.
“Take me out tonight/because I want to see people and I want to see life/driving in your car/I never ever want to go home because I haven’t got one/anymore…”
As soon as I heard those words, I finally felt like someone understands my life and how I feel. How could it be? This voice, this guy with an English accent could perfectly articulate how it feels to be an outsider not only in your own city, your own country and your own ethnicity, but also in your family. Whoever this person was, he understood the infinite complexities of my life.
“Who is this?” I asked getting up feeling the wind caressing my face as I heard the music wash over me with a melancholy-like calmness.
“It’s The Smiths…” my brother’s girlfriend said handing me the cassette cover. (Yes it was that long ago, remember when we would all go by the latest tapes and play them over and over until they warped on our tape decks. This was a more innocent time in our lives before CDs and MP3s.) I remember staring at the green cover, opening up the sleeve and trying to figure out who sung this song? It was some band called The Smiths. The singer was Morrissey, the song was called “There’s a Light that Never Goes Out,” and I was mesmerized.
That night opened my eyes. I was still trying to find myself and my place in the world. I still had yet to find my voice, but somehow the singer in that song shined a light that would never go out. It may have faded but it will always be there. I still remember that moment like I remember my first Valentine kiss with Laura in third grade or my first apartment in New Orleans; it meant that much to me.
This Charming Man – helped me realize how important confidence is when meeting new people, and therefore changed my life.
“There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” didn’t technically save my life, but it’s a refuge whenever I’m feeling shitty.
How Soon is Now? It made me feel like I was not alone.
This Charming Man – first Smiths song I heard and the lyrics seemed to speak directly to my 18-yo self at the time!
please please please let me get what i want. that was my go-to song during tough times.
The Queen Is Dead – that was the song that made The Smiths hit home for me. From then on, it opened a gateway to an amazing body of work that has stuck with me ever since.
And I mean, “How Soon Is Now” and “I Know It’s Over” were perfect soundtracks to, what we as teenagers thought was, the end of the world.
The Smiths are one of my favorite bands of all time, always loved Johnny’s guitar parts and Andy’s basslines and Morrissey’s lyrics are pretty cool, and while I couldn’t say exactly that their songs “saved my life”, they most definitely made it a tiny bit better, especially Still Ill/I Know It’s Over, which are my faves by them. It’d be great to win because I don’t have money very often, and when I do I can’t spend most of it on stuff like this, and I’d really like to own a copy. Thank you in advance x
Perhaps an obvious choice, but How Soon Is Now? really spoke to me as an awkward 7th grader in 1986.
Being a late Smiths bloomer, I’d have to say “Please, Please, Please” as the scene in Ferris Bueller intrigued me enough to find out what that piece of music was and introduced me to a new life-long love.
There is a light and it never goes out – a reminder that I’m not alone; that these feelings and desires are more or less universal
Rubber Ring – a reminder to not forget the people who have helped as we pass through life’s stages
A friend made me a tape with “The Queen Is Dead” on one side, and that album changed everything! It was the first I had heard of The Smiths, and as an alienated, artsy teen circa 1986 or so, it just spoke to me…
“How Soon is Now?” was the first Smiths song I remember hearing… I was hooked for life.
Cementry Gates. Where else can you go to be moody and broody and not feel alone.
Every track for Hatful of Hallow saved my life.
Cheesy but “I Know It’s Over” made me feel like I was less alone in my misery. That even people who have it all together feel misery, that sometimes it feels real but is an illusion and not worth your life or sadness.
This Charming Man – First introduction to the group and the sound. That meshing of jangley guitar and articulate lyrics were a panacea for sore ears and a harbinger of the greatness to come.
“Ask” is the first song in my memory.. :if it’s not love, than it’s the bomb” “Reel around the fountain” and “Suffer little children” and the instrumentals “Money Changes everything” and “Oscillate Wildely” saved my life. “Two lumps please, your the bee’s knees, but, so am I”
“A Rush and A Push” First Smith’s song and all I needed to hear when I was but a lad of 11. But there are so many more great ones.
you just haven’t heard it yet , baby
just for these lines of pure brilliance
Today I am remembering the time
When they pulled me back
And held me down
And looked me in the eyes and said
You just haven’t earned it yet, baby
I would agree with Tim421 that the entire Hatful of Hollow album saved my life and kept me sane. The cassette lived in my player at the time.
Meat is Murder, Rubber Ring, Death of a Disco Dancer helped me feel “Really So Strange.”
asleep, and there is a light…
there is a light was my favorite song to dance to at the club i frequented in college…
Still Ill. I saw the Smiths in ’86, and that’s what they opened with.
‘Still Ill’ from the Rank album: the lyrics and the sound of that version made me discover the Smithsonian universe
I was 16 when my sister received a mixtape from a suitor that included “Ask”. Listening to it opened up a whole new world for me.
“How Soon is Now?” – Perhaps an obvious one, but I still can remember the first time I heard it being completely amazed by it. Still one of my all-time favorites.
Pretty Girls Make Graves changed my life. The guitar coda altered the way I approach the guitar, and showed beauty in a whole new way.
the chorus of ‘Panic’-
Burn down the disco
Hang the blessed DJ
Because the music that they constantly play
IT SAYS NOTHING TO ME ABOUT MY LIFE
Meant allot to a friend of mine back in the 80’s. For me it was funny but to him given that he was coming to terms with his sexuality meant that here was a song that spoke about how he felt about most songs at that time (on the radio). As I said to me it was a great song to bounce around to and shout but he showed me that music could play a deeper moment in your life. Since then I have amasses what I think is a pretty damn good collection of music that says allot to me.
Half A Person. Always remember the day I bought the Shoplifters 12″ and heard it for the first time. One of those moments you think it was written for you.
Shoplifters Of The World Unite was the first Smiths song that I got hooked on, so it has a special place in my heart.
“Girlfriend in a coma” perfect love song which makes me shiver everytime I hear it. Truly lifesaver.
All of’em! ALL amazing and truly timeless! SMITHS FOREVER!!!!!!!
In my life
Why do I smile
At people who I’d much rather kick in the eye ?
“Frankly, Mr. Shankly” helped me power through what seemed like a dead-end wage slave existence with the knowledge that I could come out the other side unbroken.
“How Soon Is Now” is the quintessential song of my generation. :)
Heaven knows I’m miserable now always seems to wrap things up nicely!
“Some girls are bigger than others”.
The best Smiths’ song ever written.
The guitar riff is mesmerizing, the bass line is melodious and the lyrics are about boobs and pillows.
What else can be said?
I was a senior in high school looking for something different. I bought Meat is Murder based on the cover art… How soon is Now…changed me…for the better…I cant sing anything without a Moz tone. I changed my clothes,music,style,attitude all because of this. It was all for the better. Thanks
I first heard The Smiths in 1987 on my favorite show on MTV. It aired late at night the show was called The Cutting Edge. The song I heard was “How Soon Is Now “and it would forever change the way I looked at music. It was the most catchiest futuristic sonic boom of sound I had ever heard.. The hook just resonated with me long after. Shortly after I bought their albums and fell in love with The Smiths music.
The Queen is Dead
How Soon is Now is the 1st Smiths tune I heard. The rest is history.
There Is A Light…
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Not my first but definitely one of my favs.
Half A Person sums it up.
“Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”–a song about having to go through life obeying
societal conventions–on the outside pretending to be perky–in the inside screaming.
The message still holds true today!
“Ask” was released while I was in high school and the lyric “shyness is nice but shyness can stop you from doing all the things in life you’d like to” really resonated w/me.
The Smiths were the soundtrack to my high school years. These songs were a common ground for my friends and I as well as an escape into a world that only we shared in.
Asleep was always one to put me to rest after the wrath that Death Of A Disco Dancer gave me did not work out. Perfect bipolar music – to me.
‘Death Of A Disco Dancer’. At times in my life when I was down, I guess that haunting bass line and Muzz’s voice (combined with happy bitterness)cheered my up.
‘Panic’, because it kept me breathing!
Ask-Jangly guitars and great lyrics…enough said.
“There Is A Light…”. A little bit of sunshine from the pope of mope.
How Soon Is Now. Met my husband at a club where the beginning riff of this song was an immediate call to the dance floor.
The Smiths changed my life vith (this keyboard has no double-u vorking on it, damn it) the song Heaven Knous I’m Miserable Nou, on a time vhen I vhas on an all time lou, and it vhas probably the first time I heard a song vith lyrics I could vholly identify. The sickly aversion to vhomen vhich vhas both fear and shyiness, the nausea at the sight of couples holding each other like doves of love, the desperation of trying to look for a job, being pressured…stomped on the ground by reality and nothing vhorks out! Plus I fell in love vhith someone at this same tame, so it all added up…and hearing this song vhas liberating and empowering in all the sense of the word. It was like my melodramatic-funny battle cry for absolutely confusing, unstable times. It made me feel confident of my ‘small’ miseries, I could both embrace and laugh about them with a sort of sardonic disdain, which only Morrisey and Morrisey alone could achieve. And I played it around friends so, so, much that it stuck with them and it suddenly became a common hymn between us! The melodrama that made my life so much lighter. That’s what it changed.
“How Soon Is Now” because it opened a door to a lot of awesome music, where the late 80’s had been pretty dreary.
And “Cemetery Gates”, which gave a sense of context and humour to some desolate late college years.
Meat is murder. This track didn’t save my life, but it changed it. It changed me actually. No need to explain. The title says it all.
Cemetry Gates and Headmaster Ritual, because those were the songs that literally got me out of bed this morning
In high school, Robbie and Kevin were seniors, giving me a ride home when I asked what cassette they were playing. The immediately took me to JC Penny (because that’s where Ticketmaster was) and they bought me a ticket to The Smiths at the Aragon. Three weeks later, we saw the show (maybe 200 people in the audience) and I’ve been Johnny Marr’s biggest fan ever since. “Ask me why and I’ll spit in your eye” – Still Ill
Bigmouth Strikes Again
Oh, Unlovable for sure. My dad played it for me in 7th grade and I realized (and relished in) the existence of music outside the then-ubiquitous Panic at the Disco and Justin Timberlake.
“Cemetery Gates” saved my life. Prior to hearing this song, I assumed that Keats and Yates were on my side. Turns out they’re on your side — while Wilde is on mine. So you lose.
The Smiths song that I always turn to when I’m at my lowest is ‘I Know It’s Over.’ Sure, on the surface it might sound like the sort of song one should stay away from during the depths of depression, but I find a certain solace in it. The clincher is the lyrics: ‘It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate / It takes guts to be gentle and kind’ and ‘Love is natural and real but not for such as you and I, my love.’ It’s that special personal connection in Morrissey’s writing that makes me feel less alone, as if someone does truly understand. It might sound silly, but sometimes it’s all you’ve got.
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. The song so beautifully expresses exactly how I feel.
Growing up in a small town, just before the Internet was such a thing, I fell in love hard with the smiths. I had never heard them but I had read “Girlfriend In A Coma” by Douglas Coupland and in an interview he mentioned that the names of 30 or so smiths songs are hidden in the text of the book. I loved it! I read every article I could find about them (at the library, unbelievably) and eventually I went to the big city and found their cd at a local independent chain (now closed, obviously). I went to the back of the store and asked to sample “Strangeways here we come”. I listened to girlfriend in a coma and it validated me instantly. Their music has the same effect every time I hear it, even now.
What Differece Does It Make has to be The Smiths track that saved my life and started it also.As a 16 year old in England when i first heard this track my ears pricked up “this is my music” I thought.I went straight out and bought a copy of The Smiths, The Smiths LP and played it non-stop.Then to my delight Morrissey and co. came to play my local town to promote the album. Needless to say I had to be there and I was hooked forever. Now in my 40s the music still has as much meaning to me as it did all those years ago.
“Unhappy Birthday” – For some reason this song made my birthdays not suck so much.
Dont mean to be sappy, but Back To The Old House is mine. At 19, I witnessed my my father lose his life at our house on the street of Pepperwood Trail. The lyrics reflect my torn feelings of that place – I would rather not/love to go back… When it comes up on my my iPod shuffle, this 37 year old is transported back to 1994, and many feelings come along with that. Thanks for reading.
“Unloveable”. I was so crazy about someone who was also a Smiths fan and he toyed with me so much that I could only conclude that I was unloveable. The line “But I know that you would like me If only you could see me” resonated because I would become invisible to him when the woman he wanted came into view. Plus I wore black a lot of the time then too.
The first time I saw The Smiths was on italian tv performing Ask. That changed my life forever and still today Ask is ‘The Song’. The line ‘Because if it’s not Love – Then it’s the bomb – That will bring us together’ gets me a thrill everytime I listen to it. I love the artwork of their records too, it’s their trademark.
“Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want”: Used to listen this over and over on my drive from campus to home during breaks and holidays. The song kept me from crashing my car in a ditch on several occasions.
A long time ago, when I’d just arrived at a small college, I noticed a girl in the registration line with me, who seemed so different compared to all the others – her manner and dress were so unique, and she put off a different vibe than everyone else in line. I can laugh about it now (ha), but – I really had no basis at all for what I said to her: “I bet you like The Smiths.”
As it turned out, she did. A lot. As did I. And we probably were amongst just a handful at that school who even knew who The Smiths were.
We went on to have a great musical friendship, as well as an-almost romantic friendship. We would write each other notes limned with Smiths lyrics. And we recently reconnected, to continue the story…
Please, please, please, let me get what I want…
As a person afraid to fly, the entire album “Meat is Murder” has gotten me through every white-knuckled flight of my life.
Because reading is important.
I wouldn’t say it “saved My life” but “Handsome Devil” definitely gets me in a great mood.
“Unloveable” has saved my life more than once because it showed me that at least one other person exists on this planet has felt the way that I have.
As cliche as it may be, “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” has been an incredibly important song in my life, and it always plays in my mind whenever I see a double-decker bus (thankfully, none has crashed into “us” yet). But by far, my favorite has to be “Cemetry Gates”, an absolutely underrated song from one of the greatest albums. It has really influenced the way I look at lyrics, as it is one of the most literary complex songs I have heard.
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others effortlessly produces that “lost time” effect when you’re driving at night and suddenly you don’t remember the last half hour of the ride. Like you’re simultaneously present and absent…and quite content.
It’s a daunting task to choose just one song (from the many amazing ones) but the one that had and continues to have the biggest impact on me has to be: How Soon Is Now. Many was the time that I went to a club and yes, hoped that I might meet somebody who would really love me. But forlornly stood on my own and left on my own… for I am indeed human and need to be loved, just like everybody else does.
I’d have to say The Boy With The Thorn In His Side. That song reflects how I felt back when it came out, but also how I feel now as a mid-aged man. And it’s the perfectly crafted song, because even when others attempt to cover it, it sounds great. An example is Dinosaur Jr’s cover, which completely deconstructs the song and is marvelous, but always leads you back to the original.
This Charming Man. It made me buy the album and it was love at first listen. Johnny Marr brought guitar back to alternative music.
I’d love to have this book!
“Meat Is Murder” made me acknowledge how evil is the food industry. Never eat meat again. And I am a lot healthier now than I was then.
Shyness is nice, and
Shyness can stop you
From doing all the things in life
You’d like to
So, if there’s something you’d like to try
If there’s something you’d like to try
Ask me – I won’t say “no” – how could I?
Sums up the awkwardness of youth and the eagerness to please
“You’ve Got Everything Now” – was amazed that one song can relate so much to how i was feeling at the time. jealousy, self-pity, regret, anger….. “No, I’ve never had a job, Because I’m too shy, I’ve seen you smile, But I’ve never really heard you laugh”.
There is a Light That Never Goes Out – I can remember listening to it on my Walkman and just getting lost in the song.
this is a dreadful comp, there are to many and as I muse over others I want to choose theirs for all the same reasons. Aaaaaah although this charming man means very little to me(great tune but)
How Soon Is Now has the most beautiful and haunting lyrics of any song…ever. I love it.
Both the Strangeways and The Queen is Dead albums seriously shifted my shit when I got into The Smiths. There’s really no intellectualizing it; ever song on those albums just found me in the right place at the right time, particularly: “I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish,” “Last Night I Dreamt…” “I Know It’s Over,” and of course “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.” Also “Asleep,” the B-side to “The Boy With a Thorn in His Side” served as a lullaby to me for several months. Strange dreams.
Reel Around the Fountain (A-1 on their debut album)
The Boy With The Thorn in His Side – it’s difficult to explain, but that song just felt like me.
I Know it’s Over….summed up The Smiths for me. Beautiful music, beautiful lyrics.
At the hotel after prom, I popped in my CD of “Hatful of Hollow” on random play in a boombox. “Please, please, please, let me get what I want” was the first track to come on. Perfect timing, perfect track, perfect moment.
Stop Me…. got me through High school. Actually all The Smiths stop did, but Stop Me…. was a big one.
Death of a Disco Dancer. First song I heard by them love at first sound…
The boy with the thorn in his side…just timeless.
Might seem strange, but “Oscillate Wildly” is probably the Smiths song that has had the biggest impact on me. Something about it always remains rather elusive to me, like I can’t quite pin down what it’s about, yet it remains ever inspiring and comforting.
I’m probably gonna buy it anyway, so it’d be nice to get it for free.
After I finished college I saved up some money and headed to England. This Charming Man had just been released and I bought it without ever having hearing a note. When I got back home and played it I knew that I had stumbled on something great. A life-changer because this song shaped my musical tastes for years to come.
Half a Person : is there a better example of a “standard” Smiths song or better endorsement for the YWCA?
Reel Around The Fountain.
It’s all about love and redemption, ain’t it?
i’d love one day to sing
“Some girls are bigger than others”
on a karaoke machine,
does anyone now if have a similar kind of book telling about “the smiths” album’s cover?
love the ‘couple at the dinner”
How Soon is Now?
when I was a kid this was one always made me feel better on those angst-ridden teenage binges… just knowing other people felt that way, too.
Heaven Knows I’m miserable now , first time I heard it I thought it was some one taking the mickey out of The Smiths!
“William, It Was Really Nothing.”
It’s not one of my favorites, but it perfectly encapsulated the sort of mess in which I’d found myself. I was dating an absolutely dreadful woman who kept insisting I needed to marry her. She was so terribly domineering and smothering, and to hear the line “I don’t dream about anyone except myself” really showed the relationship for what it was. When I looked to the future I wanted to have, I didn’t see her in it at all. So, though it took me a while to finally be rid of her, it was the first listen to that song that made me realize I wanted out.
I’ve been very happy and very well since making that decision.
All the songs by The Smiths have always made me sooooo Happy to be soooo sad..lol But in all seriousness, those songs make me feel like i’m not alone.
Girl Afraid – couldn’t figure out women in my younger days, and this song was enlightening!
Nowhere Fast!
I’d like to drop my trousers to the world
I am a man of means (of slender means). . .
Every song saved my life. But “I Know It’s Over” helped me get over a high school heartbreak.
“there is a light…” was the first dance at my wedding which was taken over by my in-laws as a fundamentalist christian affair, at least it gave me some something of mine and solace
Still Ill. It makes me think of where I’ve come from and gives me a nostalgic hope for tomorrow. As in, if I can put up with what life’s misfortunes of the past that I can tackle anything.
last night i dreamt that somebody loved me
“The boy with the thorn in his side”
It was the 1st Smiths’song I heard in my life. That opening riff is amazing.
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before pulled me in when I first saw the video, but it was How Soon Is Now that I taped and re-watched 7 times the next day. How about Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me?
My first Smiths listen was “this charming man 12inch) i always got the limited lp + 7” but lost it somewhere in the 90s.
Either “The Headmaster Ritual” or “Shakespeare’s Sister” for their subtle approach to the “personal is political” campaigns at college in the 1980s.
OK, time’s up. Contest is closed. Thank you all for entering and sharing your thoughts and memories. Winners will be notified via e-mail.
“What Difference Does it Make”. The first Smiths tune I ever heard – from the V/A – “Survival Sampler” cassette. I still own it.
I wished I’d heard about this contest sooner, when it was still open. :(
The Smiths song that probably changed my life the most is ‘I Know It’s Over’. The lyrics ‘I know it’s over, and it never really began’ is touching and moving and just so so true in many instances in my life.