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— Sian Pattenden
There's a stiff price to paid from enjoying Morrissey's music and that is having to be a fan of Morrissey. My knowledge of him was minimal growing up in Canada and this proved to be advantageous. It's obvious listening to even his best work that he probably isn't a great human being, which is only confirmed when you come upon an interview with the man. And forget about his problematic views for now, Morrissey is such a antisocial turd that I can't fathom anyone thinking he has any redeeming qualities beyond his considerable talents as a singer and songwriter (and maybe as an armchair music critic).
And this comes from the man's solo career which was already kind of patchy. The Viva Hate album was good enough but 1991's Kill Uncle was poor and forgettable and Your Arsenal from the following year was a supposed return to form that was nevertheless blighted by few genuinely brilliant moments. The only thing by him I treasured was the Bona Drag compilation of singles and select B sides, especially the peerless trilogy of 45's "Suedehead", "Everyday Is Like Sunday" and "The Last of the Famous International Playboys. Just as his old band — more on them soon — put out the popular comps Hatful of Hollow and Louder Than Bombs, which many rightly think are better than their actual albums, Moz's answer to them proved that he was still capable of churning out some wonderful singles even as his LP's kind of sucked.
So strong was Morrissey as a solo artist that his old band was already in danger of becoming an afterthought. Even compared to artists who were much more popular this is difficult to believe. George Michael and Sting may have been superstars but no one had forgotten that they had been launched by Wham! and The Police respectively. "Paul McCartney was in a band prior to Wings?" was a corny joke you'd sometimes hear but no one actually believed it. Yet, Morrissey seemed to have escaped the shadow of the once-mighty Smiths.
Not that I knew much about what he had previously been up to. Sure, I was aware that he had been in a group called The Smiths but I couldn't tell you anything about them. Okay, I knew that their guitarist was Johnny Marr who had subsequently been a member of The The and Electronic. The point is, I didn't know any Smiths' songs and I was strangely uninterested in correcting this lapse of mine.
One issue was that there wasn't much available in the early nineties. The racks of CDs and tapes at some of my regular record shops only seemed to have the horribly-titled Rank, which I discovered was a live album. Their studio albums (the outstanding self-titled debut, the patchy Meat Is Murder, the overrated The Queen Is Dead and the mostly great Strangeways, Here We Come) never seemed available. Though I wasn't to know it at the time, it probably helped that his solo material wasn't a whole lot different to his stuff with The Smiths (albeit mostly of inferior quality).
"How Soon Is Now?" has served in all capacities for The Smiths. It was originally a B side, and even then it was only made available on the 12" of "William, It Was Really Nothing" (whose real flip side has already been written about in this space). It then appeared on the superlative odds and sods comp Hatful of Hollow. American label Sire liked it and had it issued as a single in its own right in the US. Though it struggled Stateside, it would soon come out on its own back in the UK. North American editions of the Meat Is Murder album included it as well. While it didn't exactly set the charts alight, it did manage to appear as part of two separate Top 30 singles and on a pair of Top 10 albums.
It's generally highly regarded; I would imagine that among people who profess to hate The Smiths that it's the exception. Johnny Marr's presence had always been a benefit in terms of their critical reputation: hacks may have loathed Morrissey but they'd still give the group's extraordinary guitar hero his due. Fans of The Smiths also regard it highly, though they may place it just a notch below beloved faves like "This Charming Man" and "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out". But for all the acclaim it has rightful earned, "How Soon Is Now?" isn't the greatest entry point into one the finest groups of the eighties. As the closest they ever came to a stadium rock anthem, it hardly represents their jagged take on good old jangle pop. Morrissey's words are scattered and lack any semblance of a narrative. (Turns out, he just added various chunks of lyrics he had jotted down which explains why the "there's a club if you'd like to go..." section doesn't quite fit)
The Best 1 and Best 2 compilations ended up being flawed (songs like "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" and "Nowhere Fast" have no business being on any kind of 'Best of The Smiths' sets) but they got young fans of Morrissey and/or current alternative rock into one of the great indie bands of all time. Those of us who had looked up to Moz were astonished to discover that this earlier period was even better than his solo work; people who didn't care all that much for him could look past his many flaws (and, I dare say, some of their own prejudices in some instances) due to the star guitarist and rather underrated rhythm section that could churn out some sublimely intricate recordings and could even be something of a live powerhouse. At best, the albums were adequate samplers and The Smiths wouldn't be compiled well until 1995's essential Singles, which was my jumping off point into their back catalog.
As Sian Pattenden says, "How Soon Is Now?" exposed just how weak the current pop landscape had become — and this was even the case when it came to the current indie scene. But it also began to expose the weaknesses of Morrissey's own output. Your Arsenal had been tipped to be his best album yet but it suddenly seemed of little consequence when held up against his old band whose brief existence had been all peak. He had spent the first four years of his solo career proving that he could live up to The Smiths only for it all to come crashing down when we finally got to listen to them.
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Also Reviewed This Fortnight
ABBA: "Dancing Queen"
1992 did produce a number of quality singles but to my mind only five albums from that year are worthy of my time. They are Automatic for the People by R.E.M., Nonsuch by XTC, ABBA Gold, Divine Madness and A Life of Surprises: The Best of Prefab Sprout. Two big takeaways: (a) you can't go wrong if you happen to use initials in your band name and (b) it was a good year for greatest hits packages. (I actually prefer More ABBA Gold myself but there's no arguing with the likes of "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "One of Us" even if I still don't know why everyone makes such a fuss over "The Winner Takes It All") As much of a classic as "How Soon Is Now?" but with the added feather in the cap of also having been a monster hit way back in its day, "Dancing Queen" didn't quite hit as hard fifteen years later though it did really start to solidify its place as a wedding dance staple just as people were beginning to realise that ABBA wasn't the guilty pleasure they had initially thought.
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