Morrissey v The Smiths

[asta]

Am I very strange here, but I have at different periods of life I have lived and breathed The Smiths but have found Morrissey's solo work of no interest at all ..... EVER. (don't mean to offend anyone) For me they have NO relation to one another. Lots of people seem to be firmly on one side or other, I don't see how you can LOVE both,
am especially confused by the Marr haters out there. Can you love M and hate the Smiths ?

 

[Mozzer's Left Eyebrow]

Am I very strange here, but I have at different periods of life I have lived and breathed The Smiths but have found Morrissey's solo work of no interest at all ..... EVER. (don't mean to offend anyone) For me they have NO relation to one another. Lots of people seem to be firmly on one side or other, I don't see how you can LOVE both,
am especially confused by the Marr haters out there. Can you love M and hate the Smiths ?

No you can't, but you can hate Morrissey and love Johnny Marr at the same time.

Unfortunately you are dreaming of a different band. A lot of people I meet say this, that they like The Smiths but not Morrissey. To me, it's complete madness but there you go. Morrissey is quite a hard pop star to love, but he is well worth the effort.

If Johnny Marr does an album with her out of Sugababes it would be much better than anything The Smiths ever did....probably!

 

[sol]

morrissey is The Smiths

Everything created it in his room when young
but MORRISEY evolves sounds differently,
how something can be better if they are the same thing.

 

[georgina]

I love both, It's all about that beautiful, haunting voice. To me, that is the music. I am a fan of whoever he sings with.

 

[9 x Fined]

My listening habits:

5% with The Smiths
95% Solo

Been that way for years.

He has b-sides that are better than any smiths song out there. Period.

 

[westendgirl]

morrissey is The Smiths
Everything created it in his room when young
but MORRISEY evolves sounds differently,
how something can be better if they are the same thing.

I agree with that completely!
I personally love both time periods of his life...

And I believe I listen to him in both times of his life almost equally. I am addicted to all of everything Morrissey has ever played/sang.

 

[David]

Pound for pound, the Smiths are a better act I think. By that I mean, you can count the bad Smiths songs on one hand. Basically everything they recorded was a masterpiece. Moz has been sort of hit-or-miss at various points in his career. But he too has produced masterpieces on his own. He's also shown moderately more diversity than the Smiths showed (but that's primarily due to sheer longevity, I think). I have no idea how you can love the Smiths and hate Moz or vice versa. They're inseparable in my book.

 

[David]

He has b-sides that are better than any smiths song out there. Period.

Now this is just ridiculous.

The Smiths would never have released the utter shit that is, for example, "This Is Not Your Country," "Journalists Who Lie," "Get off the Stage," etc. Moz on his own could never have recorded "How Soon is Now?" either, for example. Even at Morrissey's best on his own, I see him as equaling the Smiths.

 

[westendgirl]

Pound for pound, the Smiths are a better act I think. By that I mean, you can count the bad Smiths songs on one hand. Basically everything they recorded was a masterpiece. Moz has been sort of hit-or-miss at various points in his career. But he too has produced masterpieces on his own. He's also shown moderately more diversity than the Smiths showed (but that's primarily due to sheer longevity, I think). I have no idea how you can love the Smiths and hate Moz or vice versa. They're inseparable in my book.

Exactly!!

 

[Mozzer's Left Eyebrow]

My listening habits:

5% with The Smiths
95% Solo

Been that way for years.

He has b-sides that are better than any smiths song out there. Period.

I can respect that shit. I don't agree with it but I definitely respect it.

 

[celibate]

morrissey is The Smiths

Morrissey; voice
Marr; guitars
Rourke; bass
Joyce; drumms

thats what stated on my Smiths albums, I'm curious about yours

 

[pandora_cocteau]

morrissey is The Smiths

Everything created it in his room when young
but MORRISEY evolves sounds differently,
how something can be better if they are the same thing.

100% agree

 

[Buzzetta]

Am I very strange here, but I have at different periods of life I have lived and breathed The Smiths but have found Morrissey's solo work of no interest at all ..... EVER. (don't mean to offend anyone) For me they have NO relation to one another. Lots of people seem to be firmly on one side or other, I don't see how you can LOVE both,
am especially confused by the Marr haters out there. Can you love M and hate the Smiths ?

I actually see Morrissey as the Smiths with Steven Patrick Morrissey having the control over the Smiths that he had with the Smiths for the first few years until Marr left the band.

One can view Morrissey as the continuation of Steven Patrick's image of what he wanted in his very own rock band.

 

[Buzzetta]

Now this is just ridiculous.

The Smiths would never have released the utter shit that is, for example, "This Is Not Your Country," "Journalists Who Lie," "Get off the Stage," etc. Moz on his own could never have recorded "How Soon is Now?" either, for example. Even at Morrissey's best on his own, I see him as equaling the Smiths.

One cannot completely evangilisize (sp?) the Smithes. There were quite a few songs that are utter crap. Accept Yourself, Jeane, Wonderful Woman, Work is a 4 Letter Word, and ______ _______ are generally accepted to be subpar than most anything he has created post 1987.

Dare I say.... there are a couple of Smiths songs that when I hear I instantly click <<Next>>.

I honestly believe that Morrissey's solo work is a fair representation of what the Smiths would have created had they stayed together. Keep in mind that Viva Hate contains a couple of songs (Bengali in Platforms is the only one admitted to) that had their roots created during the Morrissey-Marr alliance. Bona Drag featured a few songs that emulate the Smiths sound with some even written by Rourke. (I believe "He Knows..?" - Please correct if I am wrong)

 

[Danny]

I think some people just refuse to listen to Morrissey's work because they've read too many glib articles and comments about how his solo work is crap. They won't even give it a chance.

There's also the factor of personalities in there. When the band split some people felt they had to take sides and if they took Johnny's side that meant they had to believe that Morrissey was crap without him.

 

[Ilmarë]

Baby, with Morrissey or The Smiths?
BOTHHHH.

I think, Morrissey solo work is awesome, but I have noticed, that his lyrics nowadays are not so wonderful as when he was in The Smiths. I think.

 

[Maurice E]

Now this is just ridiculous.

The Smiths would never have released the utter shit that is, for example, "This Is Not Your Country," "Journalists Who Lie," "Get off the Stage," etc. Moz on his own could never have recorded "How Soon is Now?" either, for example. Even at Morrissey's best on his own, I see him as equaling the Smiths.

Ironically a Smith did indeed produce Get off the Stage. It was written by Andy Rourke!

Lord, this debate is tiresome.
Yes, the average quality of the Marr compositions is quite a bit higher than the Moz solo stuff (8.6 out of 10 as opposed to 7.5 according to Houdini's poll).

The majority (63%) of the Smiths songs were fantastic, only a minority of Morrissey songs (27%) are fantastic.

Due to sheer numbers, however, Moz has still produced a large number of brilliant songs even in recent times, in his 40's. Moz is still going and still capable of (occasional) genius. He plays a fantastic selection of songs in his live shows; Smiths stuff, early/mid period solo, recent stuff and a clutch of brand new songs. For these reasons, I'm still extremely 'interested' in the modern-day, living, breathing Morrissey and get bored when people say he's not as good as the Smiths.

As a final point, since the split Morrissey has recorded about 40-50 brilliant songs. Marr on the other hand has only made 7 truly great songs...

 

[Worm]

Morrissey; voice
Marr; guitars
Rourke; bass
Joyce; drumms

thats what stated on my Smiths albums, I'm curious about yours

Post of the Year.

 

[Worm]

Marr on the other hand has only made 7 truly great songs...

Which are...?

 

[mspendl828]

My listening habits:

5% with The Smiths
95% Solo

Been that way for years.

He has b-sides that are better than any smiths song out there. Period.

My new favourite poster!