Long live the Queen!

This is a great poll, but in all probability this last round will be a walkover for The Queen Is Dead, having shown it's muscle in previous rounds.

So any sporting bets on the margin of it's victory?

To loose to Strangeways - 15/1
Less than 45% of vote - 7/1.
Less than 30% of vote - 9/2 fav.
Less than 20% of vote - 6/1.
Less than 10% of vote - 20/1

I did vote Strangeways out here, as I did in the previous round. Meat Vs Queen would have been a worthy final. But the fans have spoken!

Anyone remember the 'Q' magazine interview in 1994 where Morrissey stated that he and Johnny both felt that Strangeways was the best album? Interesting to see if his fave makes any impression on TQID's path to victory.

So where's your money?

Let the internecine peace begin for the next round (er, battle?) should be among all Moz/Smiths albums. I would hope for a finish between Vauxhall and The Queen at which point I could not in good conscience cast a vote against either. Akin to Sophie's Choice.

the case for:
'The Queen Is Dead' is home to many of The Smiths' greatest moments. "I Know It's Over", "Bigmouth Strikes Again", "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side", "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" and the thundering title track are all undeniably amongst The Smiths greatest and most celebrated songs.

songs like "Frankly, Mr. Shankly" and "Cemetry Gates" are lyrical gems which may be overlooked by the casual fan, but are often highly praised by those who know.

despite the claims of some, there is no such thing as a weak or filler track on the album. "Never Had No One Ever" is a tremendous song and a unique piece of music within The Smiths' catalogue. "Vicar In A Tutu" is a wonderfully roaring riot of song and is only slighted by those who simply take themselves and The Smiths too seriously and simply dont get it. "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" is one of The Smiths' most sonically pleasing songs ever and while it is perhaps a little scant on the lyrical side it is still perfectly enjoyable if again you dont take it all so seriously.

'The Queen Is Dead' likely boasts more of The Smiths' singualrly greatest moments than any other album.

the case against:
unfortunatley, 'The Queen Is Dead' is also hampered by The Smiths' most ineffective tracklisting. infact, it is more than juste ineffective, it is a significant detriment to the album.

obviously, the biggest mistake is not having the album close with "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out". what shouldve been the shoe-in choice to end the album was instead passed up for, of all songs, "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others". its not interesting or refreshing to hav "Some Girls..." close- its bloody frustrating. finishing with "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" would hav beeen so much more satisfying on every level- juste finishing on that line would make you feel that the album never really ends- its juste the perfect sentiment... and they blew it.

there are other problems too, like having "I Know It's Over" followed up by "Never Had No One Ever"- and on the a-side! like Stephen Street said, "Looking back, as good as I know that album is, we just weren't playing to our strengths with that running order." they got the opening right, but almost everything after is off.

they shouldve ran this order:

The Queen Is Dead
Frankly, Mr. Shankly
Cemetry Gates
Bigmouth Strikes Again
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
Never Had No One Ever
Vicar In A Tutu
I Know It's Over
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

if this had been the tracklisting ithink more people would havan easier time picking 'The Queen Is Dead' as The Smiths' best.

I have really been enjoying these polls, Once Queen wins we should vote out the songs from that album to see which one pulls out ahead.

The Queen - Rush and push = The Queen
Frankly Mr - I Started something = I Started
I know its over - Death of a = know its over
Never had no one - Girlfriend = Girlfriend
Cemetry Gates - Stop me if u = Stop me
Bigmouth - Last night i dreamt = Last Night
The Boy w` - UnHappy Birthday = unhappy
Vicar in tutu - Paint a Vulgar Pic = Paint a Pic
There Is a Light - Death at One's = There is a
Some Girls R - I Wont Share U = Some Girls

I voted to boot out the album that will win it all- The Queen Is Dead. I voted to boot out 'Queen' because as I said before, 'Strangeways' was the first Smiths album I heard, the first one I bought and the first one I fell for. I just can't bring myself to vote for 'Stangeways' though I know 'Queen' will outlast it.

the case for:
the arguement for 'Strangeways, Here We Come' being The Smiths' best is very sound one and those making it are amongst excellent company. ibelieve it is still maintained by all four members of The Smiths that 'Strangeways...' is indeed their greatest album. it is home to what is of the opinion of Morrissey, Marr and David Bowie to be The Smiths' greatest song, "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me". think what you may of him, but Simon Goddard- likely the world's leading Smiths scholar- also feels that 'Strangeways...' is their greatest album.

'Strangeways, Here We Come' is The Smiths' strongest album for singles with "Girlfriend In A Coma" being their second highest charting album single [sixth highest overall] with "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" and "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" both cracking the top30 in the UK despite the news of the split.

like 'The Queen Is Dead' [and unlike any other albums] there is not a weak or filler track on the album. depite what some suggest, "Death At One's Elbow" is a great track which is often unfairly chided by the same uptight fnas who would make stabs at 'The Queen...''s "Vicar In A Tutu". though ive come to hear it often, how anyone can express displease over the outrageously fun "Unhappy Birthday" is still beyond me. ive even heard a fair number of people try and take shots at Morrissey's first [and ibelieve last] entry into instrumental performance beyond the tambourine, "Death Of A Disco Dancer". i'll say it again, there is not a poor track on either of The Smiths' final two proper studio albums.

with widley celebrated classics like the aforementioned "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish", "Girlfriend In A Coma" and "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" as well as "Stop Me If You Think You;ve Heard This One Before" and "Paint A Vulgar Picture", 'Strangeways...' is 'The Queen...'s only real competition for star-studdedness.

along with the lovely studio album swan song "I Won't Share You" to round out a perfectly ordered tracklisting, there's really nothing bad you can honestly say about this album.

the case against:
so then why do so many, including the vast majority of critics and seemingly the majority of fans as well, feel that 'Strangeways, Here We Come' is at best The Smiths' second greatest album? well, ihonestly dont know other than to say that despite all of its incredible merits it may still somehow fall short of her majesty, 'The Queen...'.

itoo remain torn, never having been able to solidly state an opinion on which album isee to be the greatest of all. im sure its down to these two, but the final decision continually eludes me. still, this time ithink ithink iwill side with Morrissey and choose 'Strangeways, Here We Come'.

The good news: My two favorite Smiths albums.
The bad news: Like being asked to choose your favorite child.

Although it was the first Smiths album I ever listened to I had to vote out Strangeways, because in the end how can I vote out TQID, when I Know It's Over and There Is A Light That Never Goes Out are on it?

For fuck shake, Strangeways here we come is the owrst album of 1987 even Kiss me Kiss me Kiss me is better!

only subscibers on this web-site should have
the right to vote

this poll has been too much influenced by
anonymous voters, who log in and out, and can vote
20 times an hour or so

Therefore this poll should be done over.

Meat is Murder shall be the winning album in
a clean vote, this one already got the florida voting disease.

I have written!

Why? Because I can. Strangeways, for purely sentimental reasons, should win. It was the first CD I ever bought and my true fave went out in the last round so come on Strangeways.

Definitely the best.
The one and only album that I play in its entirety.

Chrisarclack obviously has far to much time on his (or her) hands.

They should arrange a Morrissey poll featuring Maladjusted, Southpaw Grammar and Kill Uncle. I'd be interested to see which one of these is best liked.

The Queen is dead studio drum roll into into...
1 The Queen is Dead (rank version)
This is the perfect Queen is dead - it's powerful, punky and ascerbic. The Prokofiev intro and the roar of the crowd just add to the impact. The studio version pales in comparison.

2 You Just Haven't Earned It yet Baby
Wittier and more melodic than Frankly, Mr Shankly.

3 Bigmouth Strikes Again (rank)
Powerful, and a lot better than the studio version

4 Cemetry gates

5 Asleep
Gorgeous and poignant, and serves as a wonderful bridge between the witty "cemetry" and the stunning "Rubber ring."

6 Rubber Ring
One of the greatest lyrics of all time - and quite avant-garde for the 80s.

7 Never had Noone Ever

8 The Boy With The Thorn in His Side

9 Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

10 I Know It's Over

11 There is a Light That Will Never Go Out

I just think your crazy for voting out Meat is Murder. Musicly spell bounding, Lyricly outstanding. Strangeways although amazing (the album I used to think was the best!) is the one i voted out..............no..................wait...........Ive changed my mind!.................no I cant vote for the Queen...............yes I can...............no I cant............................................Bugger!

The title would be

The Smiths Meat the Queen in Strangeways

Cover featuring Diana Doors' corpse.

tracklisting (in a very particular order)

Reel around the fountain .
Headmaster ritual .
Queen is dead .
Rush and a push and the land is ours
You've got everything now .
Rusholme ruffians .
Frankly Mr Shankly .
I started something I couldn't finish
Miserable lie .
I want the one I can't have .
I know it's over .
Death of a disco dancer.
Pretty girls make graves.
What she said .
Never had no one ever .
Girlfriend in a coma
Hand that rocks the cradle.
Nowhere fast
Cemetry gates
Stop me if you think you've heard this one before
This charming man
That joke isn't funny anymore
Bigmouth strikes again
Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me
Still ill
Well I wonder
Boy with the thorn in his side
Unhappy birthday
Hand in glove
Barbarism begins at home
Vicar in a tu tu
Paint a vulgar picture
What difference does it make
Meat is murder
There is a light that never goes out
Death at one's elbow
I don't owe you anything
Some girls are bigger than others
I won't share you
Suffer little children

Hidden last track of The Smiths all wetting thmeselves.

By A Man Called Clark, (with too much time on his hands)

...this isn't over yet.

I think there may be some cheating going on...

Somebody's cheating.
Some people have got no pride...

...it would be great if Strangeways could win. This would be a newsworthy event...to challenge the cliched and perceived wisdom that Smith's fans regard TQID as their magnum opus. It may also to serve to raise the profile of Strangeways in the wider community.

...HIstory also looks a bit different (and perhaps clearer?) on reflection

As difficult as it has been, this was a great poll! I had to go for Queen on this one. I based it on the number of favourites from each and Queen won by two.

I voted out the Queen because I love her
only slighty less than I use to!

Haha, I just can't wait for the Morrissey-solo poll of albums, which should be great.. I'm just waiting for Southpaw to unrightly go down at the first hurdle, then I'll get really mad. Btw, is there some kind of forum to go somewhere where there is a lot of Morrissey discussion? Ever since Morrisseymusic forums went down, I've never quite recovered. :(

Given the voting trends so far in the polls, it seems like the margin should not be nearly this close. sorrow will come. . .

All the Smiths albums are great but "Strangeways..." is my personal fave- and I believe it is Moz and Marr's as well... very interesting to see such a close vote here between "Queen..." and "Strangeways..." - both are very deserving...

How can anyone vote out TQID? The best song ever written, TIALTNGO, is on that album. While S,HWC has some catchy tune they just don't hold up. Please reconsider.

It looks like all of us who are tired of The Queen Is Dead getting all the hype are making this closer than anyone thought!

Meat Is Murder should've won.

Now lets do the same for the solo albums, and then put the winning solo album against the winning Smiths.

It's 12:04 pm new york time and the poll is interesting as ever been, so far is a tied 712 pts.
50%. Let's kill the queen. I mean the real queen.

I've voted loads of times.
This poll means nothing.
Praise The Lord.

....My GOD half of you are just dumbass f*cks!

this poll is being ruined by ballot stuffing. too bad. this was really neat otherwise.

given all the passion (and treachery) at issue, the poll should be conducted again, but only by those who have registered before the polling begins. This may ensure 1 registrant/ 1 vote and the preemption of new accounts being made for the purpose of ballot stuffing while the polling is taken place. I should be a lawyer.

It is sad that most of the tracks this album will never be played live.

I listened to The Queen Is Dead last night and it was so perfect. Suddenly the tracklisting made sense to me. It truly is the greatest album ever made. It seems like I'm some casual fan by saying this, but it's true. Strangways has several duds (Unhappy Birthday, Death At One's Elbow) and The Queen Is Dead has absolutely none. Last night I was very affected by The Queen Is Dead infinitely.

I've just voted.

The scores are;

The Queen Is Dead... 1186 votes.
Strangeways......... 1187 votes.

Two Great Albums!

Strangeways here we come have some of the worst songs from The Smiths(Death at someones Elbow, Death Of Disco Dancer)How can you vote out Queen is Dead?Strangeways here we come is an ATROCITY, even Kiss me Kiss me Kiss me is better, ffs even The Miracle or A Kind Of Magic is BETTER!!!
Misearble Smith fans i hate them they deastroy the image of the band.The Smiths/Morrissey dosnt need sucha kind of fans!!

...to popular belief, Death of A Disco Dancer is an absolute masterpiece. So climactically brilliant.

'Since when did chart positions have anything to do with an album being any good?'
No, never, fucking never!! Some of the worst albums are now is position 1 or 2.Example: How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb(#1), You Are the Quarry(#2)

I was introduced to the Smiths via TQID. A friend made me a tape and I photocopied the words from his cassette. I listened to that music and read along and was blown away by how it all seemed to speak directly to me. (I later bought the gatefold LP and then the CD.)

Later, Smiths albums, even when hailed in the press, were always pleasant, but never had the power of "The Queen".

Nice to see a close race, and I can understand how your first Smiths album is likely to be your favorite. Go Queen!

Strangeways is a masterpiece. Ok, it has it's lowpoints (Death at ones elbow for starters), but more importantly it has Paint a vulgar picture - one of the very best tunes Morrissey has ever sung in his entire career. One of my top five Smiths songs of all time, that one.
And when he did it live in 1997 I nearly died every time I watched him sing that one on stage.
Spine chilling stuff! (And the riff is absolutely superb too).

Paint a vulgar picture is a one of the most boring songs from Marr/Morrissey.How can someone like such a misearable album like Strangeways Here We Come.Miseasrable Smiths Fans

Fan Gurls/Bois V Musos

Musos like myself vote for Strangeways.

The Fan-person votes for The Queen.

It could go either way- even with the obvious cheating. Strangeways rules- no bum tunes obviously a little too eclectic and dark for some of you folks.

Please The Queen In Dead. Don't just click the mouse, wack it .. just to make sure your vote is casted. ( correct word or not? )

Well, the two best Smiths album are out, so I must vote at least no to put Strangeways wich is the 4th best, in 1st place. Queen is a masterpiece, but so is Meat is Murder, wich is more strong than Queen. Cheers, Marco

Round 1 - the opening salvo: The Queen Is Dead v. A Rush And A Push
- Largely a matter of personal preference. We'll call it even. (1-1)

Round 2 - the heavyweight masterpiece: There Is A Light v. Last Night I Dreamt
- TIALTNGO with a big victory for Queen (2-1)

Round 3 - battle of the big singles: Bigmouth Strikes Again v. Girlfriend In A Coma
- Bigmouth puts TQID up (3-1)

Round 4 - battle of the should-have-been singles: Cemetry Gates v. Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
- Stop Me gets the nod slightly for Strangeways (3-2)

Round 5 - the lighthearted romps: Vicar in a Tutu v. I Started Something I couldn't finish
- Strangeways begins to show some life in the battle (3-3)

Round 6 - the epics: I Know It's Over v. Death of a Disco Dancer
Both are quality, but IKIO is better both lyrically and musically. (4-3)

Round 7 - the 7 spots: The Boy With the Thorn v. Unhappy Birthday
- easily (5-3) Queen

Round 8 - the humour battle: Frankly, Mr. Shankly vs. Paint A Vulgar Picture
Frankly is the better comedy, but Paint is the kind of song to make a more solid impression beyond the sarcasm. (5-4)

Round 9: - the weaker moments: Never Had No One Ever v. Death at One's Elbow
DAOE is the weakest in the Smiths career. NHNOE wins for the Queen. (6-4)

Round 10 - the closing battle: Some Girls v. I Won't Share You
- a tossup. Some Girls closes strong, but IWSY is a better quality over the whole song. (6-5)

Final tally: 6-5 for The Queen Is Dead. Much closer than I expected, as are the votes.

I know why this is close. First, they are both great albums. Second, all of the people who didn't want "TQID' to win are now voting it off. 'Strangeways' is the Ralph Nader of this poll. Also, fans don't want critics telling them what they think. Let's face it, the only Smiths album a music critic ever talked about is 'TQID'. Even I get tired of hearing about it. There are other GOOD Smiths albums. That's why this poll is so close.

Surely this poll has been up longer than two days, and it gets more and more farcical as people vote over and over again and try to manipulate the result (Christ it might as well be Florida during a presidential election). Pull the plug, let the appropriate people bask in the reflective splender of their own genius for musical analysis and let's move on.

Great album, but it was the Smith's comedy album, really. Some Girls, Vicar, Mr Shankly. Even I Know It's Over was funny in its tragedy.

...Next poll- Moz solo album survivor!

2 days are up already!!
Strangeways wins.

why do most of the sad kids on this site spend their time whining about tacklisting, then trolling people who actually suggest how tracklistings can be improved?

I suspect it's because these are rather immature Americans gimps who take re-ordering the tracklist to be a personal attack on Morrissey.

Chill out, as they say in the big apple.

broken

This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.

As we can't split the last two we can agree to disagree.

What a great poll this has been. I have listened to the four studio albums over and over again as a result of the debate that has raged around each knockout stage.

All four albums are special and different to each other. We are all very lucky to be obsessed with the same remarkable band.

Dead heat 2153 each. How long can this poll go on for???

Young Jim wants a Smiths compilation. He has heard none of their songs but wants to learn more. He has asked me to burn him a disc. I have 75 minutes to grace. Here is my tracklisting, suggestions welcome.

Queen is
How Soon
Bigmouth
William
Hand in Glove
The Headmaster Ritual
This Charming Man
You Just Haven't
I Want the One
Well I Wonder
Death of a
There is a light
Rubber Ring
Last night
I Know its Over
I Won't Share You.

People are complaining about cheating - saying that people must be voiting numerous times as based on the previous survivor polls queen is dead should be decisively winning. not necessarily the case. out of the remaining albums perhaps more people prefer strangeways. the previous pols were not what people's favourite album is but which one should go, and so are not in any way indicative of how many people prefer queen is dead to strangeways. on all the previous polls i voted for different albums and on this one the queen is dead as it is the one i like less out of the remaining two. for what it is worth i think strangeways as an album holds together and plays as a whole better than queen. queen has songs better than anything on strangeways (i know its over, there is a light) but in its totality is less impressive.

next poll please!

all previous polls had around 1700 voters, this one is already around 4400. Who's counting? Jeb? This poll is Bushed!

The Queen Is Dead 2228 / 50%
Strangeways, Here We Come 2228 / 50%

Unlike with American Idol or The Apprentice, there isn't going to be any fanfare surrounding the "winner" of this poll. All that will happen is that the next poll will go up. Meanwhile, if the precedent set with the last rounds' polls persists, people can still go on voting on old rounds' polls ad infinitum: changing the results in ways that defy the next polls' candidates. There will never be closure on this topic, so why bother, eh? ;)

Congrats everyone and your fine taste! Except for the tossers who voted for TQID of course.

; )

this has gone way beyond 2 days. strangeways was the winner when it should have ended. a surprise but a nice one. time to move on to the solo albums. and i hope the people who think vauxhall and i is a foregone conclusion are wrong (as were people about queen is dead). i would love to see a viva hate strangeways final. the 2 greatest albums morrissey has done and perhaps not surprisingly they come one after the other.

seems like it's been down to these two for more than two days...

How has it been tied so many times? I wanted TQID to win, but let's just give it to Strangeways. Now Viva Hate... THAT should win best solo album.

this really is a tie. Both albums are loved by different people for different reasons. I don't think that it's fair to declare a winner with so much multiple voting going on. Let's proceed to the Morrissey-solo poll please.

I just checked the main page and strangeways is up by 20 or 30 votes. An hour ago Queen was winning by about 15. Here's a few things that have become abundantly clear to me during this poll;
*Poll manipulation and ballot stuffing are rampant(and I suspect some folks on the west coast are having fun making things swing back and forth - seen it before)I've voted 10-15 times myself(consistantly for the same candidate - must be how democrats feel)
*The results of this poll are positive shit(like most other polls I suspect) not the first time i've voted multiple times, you see, and i'm a technical idiot. I'm sure there are a number of folks who frequent this sight who are far more capable of cheating than I.
*Chris R. Clark has got to be the dumbist, most useless, hopeless, can't write English for toffee Twat this site has ever seen(and i've seen a few whoppers over the last 9 years)
I can only hope this poll is being allowed to drag out by Mssr.David so he can get to the bottom of the problem.
I don't want to participate in the cheating I just want to try to even the playing field and system keeps letting me.

... and all of its sickening crimes ...

shouldn't this poll be over already? or is it active until the Queen is winning?

STRANGEWAYS, HERE YOU ARE!

2k.

The same people voting several times at least has absolutely ruined this poll.

It was meant to be a near accurate view from Morrissey-solo visitors, but nothing from this poll can be believed.

I enjoyed the early rounds and I was looking forward to the solo thing, but my question is, why bother?

Surely these people have other things to do than tp keep logging in, voting, deleting the cookie/restarting and voting again. Well perhaps they have not. If we were trying to keep the Tories out, I could understand.

A complete waste of time.

What did the other 1% vote for?

This poll was all very good to begin with, but it's been going on too long now...I suggest a new one.

Hands up who hates chrisarclark.

I voted more than once for Strangeways, but because it is the better of the two in my opinion.

this feels more like 2 weeks!, somethings is a bit wrong here.

Longest... two days... ever.

Are we (or I guess more specifically "you" David T) just gonna leave this up unitl there is a result that certain people agree with and then call it or what? Or is it an endurance exercise ie the people who are obsessed enough (or can be bothered) to continually vote several times a day over a long period are the winners and those who get bored and give up are the losers. Just wondering...