Which album "converted" you to Morrissey?

Fiona

Love Morrissey ♥
I am new to this forum and thought it'd be cool to find out which album got you into the work of Morrissey and converted you into the fan you are today?

The album that created the dedicated fan in me was Years of Refusal, in 2009. This album really gets me, on many levels. I absolutely love it. From there I rummaged around in his back catalogue (sounds a bit rude lol?), and have also really enjoyed his recent work.

I think now, as I've gotten to know his work more fully and in depth, my favourite albums are Years of Refusal, You are the Quarry and World Peace. I love The Smiths stuff but I personally rate Morrissey's work more highly.

Which album grabbed you into the world of fan-dom, and what are your favourites?
 
It wasn't an album, more those first couple of appearances on Top of the Pops. Favourite albums are Strangeways and Meat is Murder.
 
I was introduced to "proper music" by a chap called Jordan (permanently in his debt), who lent me a copy of Lou Reed's Transformer, and a couple of Dire Straits albums around ten years ago. Never did find the love for Dire Straits, but I digress. Shortly afterwards, he lent me The Queen Is Dead. It completely chewed me up and spat me out, and it remains my all time favourite album by a measurable distance. The first Morrissey album I bought shortly after this was You Are The Quarry, which didn't grab me as immediately as The Smiths work did, but grew and grew and became just as important to me with time. I do find that I listen to Morrissey's solo work more so than The Smiths, and it has been this way for five or six years now. His work just matures like a fine wine and becomes ever better with each listen.
 
YRTQ. Which I deeply regret. I'm only 30 so there's no way I could have seen the Smiths live or Moz's early solo tours but I could have been going to gigs from the late 90s onwards if I had discovered him sooner. I've missed out on so much. I even missed the Quarry tour because I didn't discover YRTQ until the end of 2004. It must have been so exciting to be a Morrissey fan during that "comeback" period.
 
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A combination of Viva Hate and the Bona Drag singles, I suppose. This all happened very quickly; discovering Morrissey and then immediately backtracking to the Smiths (who I regrettably missed out on completely when they were alive). If there are any real "moments" I can identify as having made it clear that he was going to be a part of my life forever, it's two in 1991: Riding around in my boyfriend's (who was not yet my boyfriend, but I knew he would be eventually) car listening to Meat Is Murder, and seeing Morrissey (alone) from the nosebleeds at Madison Square Garden. It was all-consuming. All I wanted was to be closer to him.
 
Honestly, The Smiths. It just grabbed me at the right time in my life.
 
Hatful of Hollow for the Smiths, then bought the Suedehead compilation and it all went wrong from there.
 
your arsenal. i was reading some mag and a guy was making t-shirts with song lyrics. one featured was everybody lies nobody minds so it was just the lyrics alone that got to me. went back and bought a smiths best of being aware of songs like hand in glove which was fine and the bought your arsenal after and thought it great and just went from there. bought the smiths debut and was a little confused as some songs did the fade away we dont know how to end the song thing but then i got meat is murder and was happy that the rest of it fell into place.
 
hi,

For me it was Your Arsenal which my girlfriend at the time (around 2000) brought for me from a charity shop for 50p on cassette. I was aware of the smiths but not a big fan (at that time) and was very surprised by how amazing his solo album was, in fact it didn't leave my stereo for 3 months and I know it word for word and it remains one of my favourite albums of all time.

The best 50p present of my life. She wouldn't agree, she hated it after a week of non-stop play.
 
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I was aware of Smiths in 1983, but living in a remote area (no record shop which sold British imports), I had to wait until March 1984 (release of the first album) finally had a chance to listen to the songs from radio.

However, it took me another 6 months to realise their greatness.
On16th September 1984 I heard William, It was really nothing on radio which changed my life.
 
Louder Than Bombs.

Wasn't old enough to experience The Smiths sadly, had turned 18 when someone gave me a copy and suggested I have a listen - instantly hooked. Moved on to Morrissey at pace.
 
Viva Hate

Up until that point, no band or song had ever truly spoken to me. I felt that I'd finally found a missing piece to the puzzle of my life. He's still here and will be until I take my last breath.
 
Strangeways Here We Come was the first Smiths/Morrissey album I purchased. I was aware of the Smiths/Morrissey, as I was really into some acts that frequently associated with them (The Cure), but never really got around to checking them out. First time I listened to "Strangeways" I wasn't really sure what all this Smiths stuff was about, but I gave it a second listen and it somehow really managed to hook me. Unquestionably became my favorite (at that time) and the Smiths quite possibly my favorite band. I bought The Queen is Dead soon after and the Smiths unquestionably were my favorite band.

Morrissey was a well-established solo artist at this time, so after I exhausted playing the four Smiths studio albums again and again and craving more I decided to check out first Viva Hate and than Your Arsenal.
 
Meat is Murder. I bought it on cassette with a friend of mine who wanted me to hear the drums on "How Soon is Now?" That was March of 1986. I thought they were going to be a punk band because of the cover!

I liked it enough to buy the first album and took them both to the summer camp I worked at where I played them constantly on my Walkman. At the end of the summer I bought The Queen is Dead and then of course Louder than Bombs the following March.

I still remember going down to my friend's house to listen to Strangeways on vinyl the day it came out.

I sometimes wonder if I would have gotten so hooked if there had been more material to listen to. Strange to think that that first year of intense fandom there were only about 36 songs to listen to. I guess that's how I got to know them so well, and why every new release was met with such anticipation! Louder than Bombs was like a frigging goldmine -- 24 (mostly) new songs at once for us Americans who never heard the singles on radio.
 
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'Hatful of Hollow' purchased on cassette as a 13 year old in 1986 on the advice of a slightly older mate who reckoned the Smiths were 'quite good.'

Ruined for life :lbf:
 
Well, first i saw the "Playboy" video in 1989, and the weirdness grabbed me - there was this really strange-looking guy singing "i am the last of the famous international playboys". I felt it can't be serious and it was so different from anything else that was around in 1989. Viva Hate was the current album which i purchased immediately so this is the one.
 
Another Hatful Of Hollow purchaser here. As a 15 year old. My Paper round was never the same again. Pity it was 3 years after The Smiths had split up
 
In 2004, a student of mine made me a cd compilation and it had "Asleep" on there. While I didn't get into Morrissey's music straight away, that song haunted me, but I couldn't get used to his voice because it was so different from everything else in the world of music (all over the radio). In 2005, I met Fred and he introduced me to "There is a Light" and "Suedehead." Then, in an extremely desperate romantic gesture, he bought me "The Best of Morrissey." I was sold after that.
 
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