The Moz/Smiths Top 100, Part 275: SMILER WITH KNIFE

How do you rate Smiler With Knife?


  • Total voters
    50

Houdini

Junior Member
In 2007, and early 2008, we put up polls for all 234 then released Morrissey and The Smiths-songs. More than 40,000 votes were cast and this resulted in The Morrissey/Smiths Top 100, or indeed, The Morrissey/The Smiths Top 234. In 2009/2010 we updated this chart with the 25 new songs that were released in 2008-2010. The final results of 2010, the 'Top 259', can be viewed here. Now, 4 years on, many people have asked me to continue with the polls as since the last one 25 new Morrissey-songs have been released.
So we'll start with the songs that were released in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and we'll end with the 18 songs from World Peace Is None of Your Business.

So here it goes. Let's hope for as big a turn-out as in 2007 and 2010 and, once again, vote with your heart, not with your mind.

Song 275: Smiler With Knife (Morrissey/Jesse Tobias)



See in me the side of you
that sometimes makes you jump with fright
smiler with knife it's your big night
Sinking bed all warm and clean
only sadness waits for me
smiler with knife, you're just in time
you're just in time

Press the blade against my skin
never to make love again
smiler with knife, it's alright

Surrendered will I am before you
I am sick to death of life
smiler with knife - alight
alight

If such things weren't meant to be
then they would never come to me
smiler, oh, don't worry so

Slam-in one-shot gentle pain
someone calling out my name
sex and love are not the same
are not the same

Time has frittered long and slow
all I am and was will go
but where to?
and why now?

When my last breath falls away
smiler trust me when I say
you'll be OK
you'll be OK.


Previous polls:

Part 274: Kiss Me A Lot
Part 273: Staircase at the University
Part 272: I'm Not a Man
Part 271: Neal Cassady Drops Dead
Part 270: The Bullfighter Dies
Part 269: Earth is the Loneliest Planet
Part 268: Istanbul
Part 267: World Peace is None of Your Business
Part 266: You Say You Don't Love Me
Part 265: Satellite of Love
Part 264: The Kid's a Looker
Part 263: Action is My Middle Name
Part 262: People Are The Same Everywhere
Part 261: Safe, Warm Lancashire Home
Part 260: Treat Me Like a Human Being
Polls 259-1

EACH TIME YOU VOTE, YOU SUPPORT THE PROCESS!
 
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I think this will be a divisive poll. I went with a 7. I do like the song and think it's musically interesting, but it's not something I need to hear everyday. I guess I'm just an uptempo kind of guy.
 
This track immediately stood out from the rest when I first listened to WPINOYB.

The lyrics are imbued with an aching, desperate longing and carry a sinister and intriguing edge. I like the apparent use of death as sexual metaphor, and also the possible literary allusions (thanks for pointing that out in the lyric analysis thread a few months ago, hand in glove).

I really like the sparse instrumentation, too, which draws attention to and beautifully emphasizes the vocal.

This one gets an 8 from me.
 
I probably rated it a bit high (9) out of guilt for trying to sink Kiss Me a Lot and Instanbul in the previous polls (I just don't like those songs). It's probably more of an 8 or even 7, but the instrumentation is great -- especially the guitar solo at the end, which reminds me of a more languorous version of the Boxers solo....
 
10. Grew on me like nobody's business. Love.
 
It's ok but not better than an 8.
 
Several tracks on this album are "growers", but this more than any other. Possibly the best lyric on the album, and the most interesting piece of music. A strange, threatening 10.
 
my least fav song on album. i give it a six as it doesnt interest me much beyond the lyrics.
 
I gave it a 7 didn't like it at first but it's grown on me, not a favourite from the album but still a good song. Quite different :)
 
This song is an absolute beauty - the music, the arrangement, the singing, and the words. 10/10
How Jesse could compose something as subtle, fragile and beautiful as this, given his previous form, is baffling but massive plaudits to him.
It's the best Morrissey song of the 21st century - it wouldn't have sounded out of place on Hatful of Hollow.
 
10/10. This is a true masterpiece that blurs the lines between poetry and music. It's one of those cathartic Morrissey songs that exposes his inner turmoil and lays bare his neuroses, but it does so with such beauty. The closing guitar section is tonally perfect and suggestive of an ongoing drama...until it fades (death?)
 
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