In so very many ways I was a typical angst-filled teenager of the mid-1980s. I sulked and pouted, pierced my ears, shaved my head (but only half of it), wrote black poetry, etc. The angst-rock of the era was the soundtrack of my life: New Order, The Cure (their 1985 album, The Head on the Door, was a fixture in my tape deck), Tears For Fears.

I never bought all the way in, though: I didn’t like The Smiths. I didn’t hate The Smiths, but I couldn’t understand why my fellow sulksters worshipped them. The Smiths took whininess and depression to depths that I couldn’t fathom.

I liked one song by The Smiths. One song. (Presented in lower-case as a tribute to those angst-filled years…)

how soon is now
by the smiths

i am the son and the heir

of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
i am the son and the heir
of nothing in particular

you shut your mouth
how can you say
i go about things the wrong way
i am human and i need to be loved
just like everybody else does

there’s a club if you’d like to go
you could meet somebody who really loves you
so you go, and you stand on your own
and you leave on your own
and you go home, and you cry
and you want to die

when you say it’s gonna happen “now”
well, when exactly do you mean?

see i’ve already waited too long
and all my hope is gone

you shut your mouth
how can you say
i go about things the wrong way
i am human and i need to be loved
just like everybody else doesAdmittedly, I liked the song a lot, but it was just one song.

During these adolescent years, there was only a portion of me which was riddled by angst. It was a large part of my personality, indeed, but the whole time that part of me stood permanently beneath a black cloud, other parts of me were loving live, building friendships that last til this day.

Gradually, the angst-rock which had been a central part of my life faded into something of an accent, something that I listened to only now and then.

For a time I was a DJ at KWU, the college radio station. I found one song in the heavy rotation bin that I loved to play: Morrisey’s Every Day is Like Sunday. It took me a while to recollect that he was the lead singer for The Smiths.

every day is like sunday
by morrisey

trudging slowly over wet sand

back to the bench where your clothes were stolen
this is the coastal town
that they forgot to close down
armageddon – come armageddon!
come, armageddon! come!

every day is like sunday
every day is silent and grey

hide on the promenade

etch a postcard :
“how i dearly wish i was not here”
in the seaside town
that they forgot to bomb
come, come, come nuclear bomb

every day is like sunday
every day is silent and grey

trudging back over pebbles and sand

and a strange dust lands on your hands
(and on your face…)
(on your face …)
(on your face …)
(on your face …)

every day is like Sunday
“win yourself a cheap tray”
share some greased tea with me

every day is silent and greyJust as dark and depressing as always, but I loved it. And, a few years later, Morrisey produced this absolute gem:

the more you ignore me, the closer i get
by morrisey

the more you ignore me, the closer i get
you’re wasting your time
the more you ignore me, the closer i get
you’re wasting your time

i will be the in the bar with my head on the bar
i am now a central part of your mind’s landscape
whether you care or do not
yeah, I’ve made up your mind

the more you ignore me, the closer i get
you’re wasting your time
the more you ignore me, the closer i get
you’re wasting your time

beware! i bear more grudges than lonely high court judges
when you sleep i will creep into your thoughts
like a bad debt that you can’t pay
take the easy way and give in

yeah, and let me in
oh, let me in

it’s war, it’s war, it’s war

it’s war, it’s war, war war war war

oh, let me in As much as I like these three songs from Morrisey, I find that I prefer his music when it’s covered by other artists. For example, both The Pretenders and 10,000 Maniacs have covered “Every Day is Like Sunday”, and I find their versions superior to the original. More recently, the Russian lesbian duo (how strange does that sound?) t.A.T.u. have produced an outstanding cover of “How Soon is Now”, a cover that even Morrisey likes. This version rocks. I love it. It’s the most-played track on my iPod right now. Here’s a funny snippet from an interview with Morrisey (pilfered from a great t.A.T.u. fan site:

Morissey, former singer of The Smiths, who originally wrote and performed the song “How Soon Is Now?” in 1984 had this to say about t.A.T.u. in the U.K.’s Word Magazine:

Word: Did you hear t.A.T.u.’s version of “How Soon Is Now?”
Morissey: Yes, it was magnificent. Absolutely. Again, I don’t know much about them.
Word: They are teenage Russian lesbians.
Morissey: Well, aren’t we all?

And a bit from The Beat magazine:

“Morrissey and myself were far more fanatical about the band than even the most fanatical Smiths’ obsessive.” says guitarist and founder of The Smiths, Johnny Marr with surprising enthusiasm of the finest British band of the past two decades. “We were our biggest fans and everything that the band was about we really loved. It was a really, really amazing time. It wasn’t just kind of a bunch of young guys goofing around and the stuff that happened to us didn’t happen by accident. It was borne out of complete passion and ridiculous intensity and that’s why we sounded the way we did.”

Unfortunately, I just couldn’t identify with their complete passion and ridiculous intensity. I just wasn’t that angst-filled.