The weekly dribble of previously unreleased live versions of tracks off The Smiths’ classic The Queen is Dead continues this week, though, for some reason, this latest cut — “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,” recorded at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom on Aug. 15, 1986 — was released on Spotify and not YouTube like its nine predecessors.
Nevertheless, you can hear what Slicing Up Eyeballs readers concluded is the best Smiths song ever in all its live glory below. And next week should see the conclusion of this series, presumably with the one and only live performance of “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others.”
This latest track, like its weekly predecessors (see links below), won’t be included in the 3CD/1DVD reissue of The Queen is Dead. But the band’s label did recently release one of the tracks that will appear on the Live in Boston bonus disc: a 4-minute medley “Rubber Ring/What She Said/Rubber Ring.”
The Queen is Dead reissue is due out Oct. 20.
Below, check out the new (old) version of “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.”
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Listen: The Smiths, ‘Vicar in a Tutu’ — unreleased live take from Canada 1986
- Listen: The Smiths, ‘The Boy With the Thorn in His Side’ — unreleased live take from 1986
- Listen: The Smiths, ‘Rubber Ring/What She Said/Rubber Ring’ — off ‘Live in Boston’
- Listen: The Smiths, ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ — unreleased live take from Berkeley 1986
- Listen: The Smiths, ‘Cemetry Gates’ — unreleased live take from Manchester 1986
- Listen: The Smiths, ‘Never Had No One Ever’ — unreleased live take from Nottingham 1986
- Listen: The Smiths, ‘I Know It’s Over’ — unreleased live take from Los Angeles 1986
- Listen: The Smiths, ‘Frankly Mr. Shankly’ — unreleased live take from Milwaukee 1986
- Listen: The Smiths, ‘The Queen is Dead’ — previously unreleased live recording
- The Smiths’ ‘The Queen is Dead’ 3CD/1DVD reissue to include unreleased 1986 live album
Typo or joke (that isn’t funny anymore)???
Are some girls really better than others? Or are they just bigger? ;-)
Saw the Smiths at Aragon this show…most remember Morissey smashing roses on the stage and my brother facing the crowd for most of the show!