Which tune was a predictor that you would like The Smiths and/or Morrissey?

[Tingle3]

For me:

I remember clear as day discussing the pop charts in 1982 at school and saying I liked 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye' by Soft Cell and being ribbed about it by the other 13 year-olds who said it was 'gay'.

Just the other day I played Soft Cell's singles collection CD - which I hadn't for years - and I thought what a fantastic voice, what a great song, and how it kind of set the scene for liking The Smiths when they came along soon after. Marc Almond had a high, almost operatic voice, was sensitive and had great story-telling lyrics.

"You and I it, had to be the, standing joke of the year..."

For you it was.....?

[mcrickson]

Fittingly enough, "Hand in Glove." It was the first song by the Smiths that my brother played for me. Something about it just seemed so spectral to me, that it wasn't like another 80s band that had run its course. This was one of those standout groups.

[Qvist]

Nothing. My overriding impression upon first hearing and seeing them (it was a TV performance of This Charming Man) was that it was totally different from anything I had ever seen or heard.

[Uncleskinny]

Back To The Old House.

P.

[ACrackOnTheHead]

Well, it really wasn't long ago because i'm a young 'un. It was in late 2010, I was on iTunes, buying some song (I can't remember what it was) and when i'd brought it, suggestions for other songs I may like came up. I listened to the excerpts of them all. None caught my eye apart from one. This song by a band called The Smiths called 'This Charming Man'. I can't heard of the Smiths before at all. I really liked the sound of the song, so I brought it. Then I brought How Soon Is Now. Then There Is a Light. Then The Boy With The Thorn With His Side and it just grew from there. But I would say that 'This Charming Man' really began my love for them. I didn't know anything about them apart from their music for a bit, but when I found out, I remembed the name Morrissey. I was kind of aware of Morrissey because my uncle used to have a CD of songs he liked on it which he would play in the car whenever I went in my uncle's car and one of them was Everyday Is Like Sunday, which I always really loved. So Morrissey was very much a person I was aware of, but I knew nothing more than 'He sung Everyday Is Like Sunday' until I 'discovered' the Smiths. But yes, now i'm obsessed with The Smiths/Morrissey, so, erm, that's a happy ending for you.

[alabamy]

Very good topic.
For me there were rather elements of an imagined, mysterious Englishness that sounded like this:
Sisters of Mercy - Temple of Love
The Cure - A Forest
Joy Division - Disorder
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Arabian Nights
Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy

[Anaesthesine]

For me:

I remember clear as day discussing the pop charts in 1982 at school and saying I liked 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye' by Soft Cell and being ribbed about it by the other 13 year-olds who said it was 'gay'.

Just the other day I played Soft Cell's singles collection CD - which I hadn't for years - and I thought what a fantastic voice, what a great song, and how it kind of set the scene for liking The Smiths when they came along soon after. Marc Almond had a high, almost operatic voice, was sensitive and had great story-telling lyrics.

"You and I it, had to be the, standing joke of the year..."

For you it was.....?

I was a Soft Cell fan before I was a Smiths fan, and Marc Almond's brilliant lyrics, unapologetic intelligence, sparkling sense of humor, fearlessly transgressive presentation and wholehearted championing of life's underdogs certainly shared much with The Smiths. That said, I don't think of Soft Cell as a "predictor;" they were just another defiant indie band that celebrated difference.

Much of the best music in the '80s was considered "gay." Come to think of it, much of what I like right now is pretty "gay" too...

[Giselle]

For me, the best predictor that I would like Morrissey (and then very soon after, The Smiths) was actually oldies. As 12-13 year old, I eschewed all modern music, and was only listening to The Righteous Brothers, Elvis, Buddy Holly, and everything from our local oldies station. I was always quite partial to crooners...

[peptastic]

I think listening to David Bowie in the crib probably shaped my musical taste a great deal.

[Worm]

Much of the best music in the '80s was considered "gay." Come to think of it, much of what I like right now is pretty "gay" too...

:guitar:

I have to agree, sort of. For me the "predictor" song was "I Melt With You" by Modern English. That was the first track which broke through my consciousness and revealed a different world. What kind of a world? A world across the Atlantic, so different than the American music I knew; as phrased by Daniel Waters, immortal author of "Heathers", a world full of "tuneless Euro fags". I cite this affectionately, of course. As you say, at a certain point in the Eighties, lots of music was considered "gay", which in retrospect is completely ridiculous. But it has a certain truth to it, only because for music to be thought of as "gay" at that time simply meant it wasn't cock rock.

For lots of American Smiths/Morrissey fans-- of a certain age, cough cough-- the same effect was produced by the soundtrack to "Pretty In Pink". If you liked John Hughes films, that might have been a solid predictor. They had a certain openness to British music, and of course The Smiths were "quintessentially English", an overused but apt observation.

The irony of all this being that many of the kids I knew who derided New Wave or post-punk music as "queer" could be found rocking out to Judas Priest... :lbf: