The Guardian: "‘An astounding rush of real-time creativity’: 40 years of the Smiths’ Peel Sessions" by Michael Hann (May 31, 2023)

The Guardian has a new article by Michael Hann, celebrating the power of the first Smiths radio sessions.

Not everyone finds it easy to listen to the Smiths now, but those early transmissions were utterly formative for this vital new band and their enraptured fans

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It’s 40 years this month since anyone bar the attenders at their handful of gigs heard the Smiths. On 13 May 1983, they released their first single, Hand in Glove, on Rough Trade. Then, on 31 May, John Peel broadcast their first session for his BBC Radio 1 show. Before the year was out, they would have recorded one more for him, as well as two for David Jensen. A total of 14 songs were broadcast, all being heard for the first time, apart from a new version of Handsome Devil, the B-side to Hand in Glove.

The Smiths’ radio sessions were as astounding a rush of real-time creativity as pop has witnessed. When they released their first album the following year, only two of its 10 tracks had not previously been recorded for Radio 1. It was those sessions that built up their following so rapidly and so rabidly.

The late David Cavanagh wrote of the sessions, in his Peel biography Good Night and Good Riddance, that they “have given the Smiths so much momentum that an album is almost superfluous. There’s no question that the momentum began with Peel. The Smiths’ universe is at odds with almost everything happening on a cultural or commercial level in Britain’s 80s, and Peel is the arbiter of taste in the alternative society.” (The truth of that was proved by the utter lack of success of another hugely idiosyncratic but gorgeously melodic provincial indie band with an eccentric singer – Peel did not care for Felt and their career went nowhere.)

I didn’t hear Hand in Glove when it was released because I wasn’t yet listening to night-time Radio 1. A few weeks later though, I was: I had noticed that there were often heavy metal bands on Top of the Pops when Peel presented it and I wondered whether he might play any of it on the radio. (I was 13 and fondly imagined that the presenters picked at least some of the acts for Top of the Pops.) He didn’t – not at that point in time, anyway – but on one of the first shows I listened to I heard a repeat of that first Smiths session. I had never heard music that sounded like that before, and I had never heard a singer whose words – in any way at all – actually reflected my life, as a bullied, lonely kid who had no idea how to navigate the world safely, let alone confidently.

Of course, countless kids around the country responded the same way as I did. I wasn’t allowed to stay up until midnight, when Peel finished, so I would go to bed and turn the light off, then plug the headphones into the radio-cassette recorder. I had a handful of C90s that I filled with Peel sessions, one finger poised over the pause button. But it was only with the Smiths’ sessions that I would diligently transcribe the lyrics when I came home from school the next day.

And the songs! Those strange and beautiful songs. Peel described them as “a band with no obvious influences whatsoever”. Well, this is true and yet it’s false. The Smiths sounded like nothing because they sounded like so much: Marr brought Motown and the Stooges and the Patti Smith Group and Bert Jansch and Buffalo Springfield and so many more things into his writing, but because the juxtapositions were so unexpected, they went unheard, and because the influences were filtered through his playing (“fractured yet fluid”, I recall Morrissey calling it in an early interview with Sounds), the Smiths sounded only like the Smiths.

Sometimes the Smiths evolved from their sessions, and sometimes they went backwards. Reel Around the Fountain was one of the latter cases. Recorded for the first Peel session, it was a grave and stately thing, with Marr’s spectral and sparse guitar-playing draped over the song like gauze. A couple of months later they recorded it for Jensen (though this version was not broadcast for two years owing to a tabloid claim that it was a paedophile anthem), and there are acoustic guitars drowning out those spidery lead lines. The following year, on their self-titled debut album, the bassline had changed and it was no longer a strange, misty message from the ether, but a wholly conventional country-pop song. Shame.

This Charming Man, recorded for the second Peel session, underwent the reverse process. Marr wrote the track specifically for the session, trying to create something reminiscent of Rough Trade labelmates Aztec Camera, but with the bass rhythm of the Supremes’ You Can’t Hurry Love (and, of course, it ended up sounding like neither). But that version of This Charming Man is an unopened flower compared to the version released as a single just a few weeks later. For the single version, producer John Porter advised them to change the rhythm from that Motown bounce to a stricter, more rigid style, which foregrounded Andy Rourke’s brilliant bassline, and to introduce the sudden pauses that give the song drama. That’s how fleet-footed the Smiths were at this point: from sketch to one of the decade’s great singles in weeks.

And there were the songs that got away – the sternly empathic This Night Has Opened My Eyes, one of Morrissey’s Shelagh Delaney homages, which was never recorded for Rough Trade. “In a river the colour of lead / Immerse the baby’s head,” he sang, prompting producer Roger Pusey to stop the session to check he wasn’t about to record a song celebrating the drowning of infants.

Each of these songs arrived a few weeks apart. The Smiths were, truly, a teenage semaphore, sending out messages of hope: you are not alone. (Morrissey later remembered how Accept Yourself, recorded for Jensen, prompted a rash of letters from fans thanking him for telling them they were fine as they were). In the conflict zone that is adolescence, the songs were comfort packages. And you could get these joys simply by tuning into Radio 1 of an evening.

I rarely listen to the Smiths these days. I know the songs too well. And too many of them have been coloured by the current views of their singer. But every so often I am taken on the time machine again. In autumn of 2021, I saw Rick Astley singing the songs of the Smiths with the Stockport band Blossoms. My friends and I had thought we would be at the centre of the demographic. In fact, we were among the older people there. The teenage semaphore never stopped communicating. The miracle of the Smiths is too profound to ever truly be overshadowed.
 
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You're cherry-picking here. You bizarrely called the Smiths "an Irish Catholic band" when virtually everyone who isn't you would surely scratch their head at that one. The Smiths were a British band. You can make your esoteric connections all you want. Morrissey is by his own admission "Irish blood, English heart," so we know where his heart is.

Of course his preoccupations were varied, and the Americana and gay culture are there for sure, but a lot of the references are distinctly English. A Taste of Honey, The Collector, Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, &c. Viv Nicholson was a cover star unknown to most Americans, I'm sure. As has already pointed out above, Morrissey was a Briton of Irish extraction frequently commenting on Britain, like Shelagh Delaney, and the interloper Oscar Wilde.

Anglophiles like me love the Smiths in part because they were so very and uniquely British. They'd be lesser if they were anything else.

Makes one wonder. If Morrissey was born elsewhere and formed a band with a guitarist as great as Marr, would they be any lesser ? I don’t see how they would be.
 
Makes one wonder. If Morrissey was born elsewhere and formed a band with a guitarist as great as Marr, would they be any lesser ? I don’t see how they would be.

The lyrics would've been different for sure, and presumably the alternative-history Marr would've had different musical influences if he grew up in this different locale, and that would change everything. We'll assume the same music and that Morrissey is still singing in English in this hypothetical band, since I'm not sure what the Smiths would've sounded like if they'd been Chinese or Brazilian. But if Morrissey's cultural obsessions were different, I'm not sure I'd have found them as interesting. The Governor of Connecticut Is Dead or Saskatchewan Ruffians wouldn't have the right flavor.
 
People who need other people to label their sexuality have serious problems

EDIT: People who feel they need to assign labels to other people’s sexuality have serious problems
 
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Morrissey is gay. I can understand his reluctance to coming out in the eighties. But we don’t live in the eighties anymore. And these days his whole “humasexual” thing is just a cop-out.
He's never been "in" so he's never needed to come out. He just doesn't like labels.
 
It's not at all odd when they grew up in the Irish Catholic diaspora.
Yes but the point is that you’re arguing about semantics which sure, the nuance will be meaningful and description will differ when discussing locally or domestically, versus in the context of bands being discussed more broadly or in the context of global music type/ band categorizations - and the Smiths were and are known globally.

So what is the point of always having these endless pages of contradiction where the point you object to unfailingly always morphs into arguing for the sake of arguing?

Unless your argument is that Morrissey today in 2023 actively objects to The Smiths being thought of/referenced/discussed/called a British band, then there is no point to this painful-as-always marathon of posts
 
Because thoughtcrime is the worst crime in the eyes of the fanatic. Nothing is worse: sexual abuse, violence against women, even murder. All of that can be forgotten and forgiven. Wrong thought? Now that's unforgivable.

Just see how not a negative word was said about John Peel in the article, who admitted to sleeping with numerous underage girls.

BTW no one would think they agree with Morrissey's politics if they didn't put that disclaimer there. It's not a logical conclusion at all. Fear of the mob comes into it.
Some people are forgiven sooner than others though, Martin Amis a case in point.
https://www.medialens.org/2023/raising-the-price-martin-amis-and-the-post-9-11-cataclysm/
 
It's amazing to me that folks take such offense at people who write Morrissey off as someone with unfortunate views, but take no offense when Morrissey writes off reggae as "vile", the Chinese as a "subspecies" and Berlin as "the rape capital of the world". I'm still a massive fan of Moz, but I have the right to disagree with what he says. And I agree with the writer in the sense that I can no longer enjoy certain songs as much as a used to due to the stupid things that Moz has said and done. For example, I think that "The National Front Disco" is a brilliant song as long as you don't actually think that the songwriter agrees with the chorus "England for the English". It loses its power as art when Moz goes and supports Britain First.


Give over you wazzock

You're no different to the guy that wrote the article.
 
It's amazing to me that folks take such offense at people who write Morrissey off as someone with unfortunate views, but take no offense when Morrissey writes off reggae as "vile", the Chinese as a "subspecies" and Berlin as "the rape capital of the world". I'm still a massive fan of Moz, but I have the right to disagree with what he says. And I agree with the writer in the sense that I can no longer enjoy certain songs as much as a used to due to the stupid things that Moz has said and done. For example, I think that "The National Front Disco" is a brilliant song as long as you don't actually think that the songwriter agrees with the chorus "England for the English". It loses its power as art when Moz goes and supports Britain First.
I'm always amazed when people take such offense at his "subspecies" comment instead of taking offense at the absolutely appallingly cruel treatment of animals in China. One would think any decent person would be way more deeply upset and perturbed by that and not by his comment on it...

Guess it shows how much (how little) most people care about animals.

BTW, no one has said people - you, the writer of the article or whoever - does not have a right to disagree with whatever he says. But that's different from people acting like the holders of some universal truth which is a deadly sin to challenge.
 
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The lyrics would've been different for sure, and presumably the alternative-history Marr would've had different musical influences if he grew up in this different locale, and that would change everything. We'll assume the same music and that Morrissey is still singing in English in this hypothetical band, since I'm not sure what the Smiths would've sounded like if they'd been Chinese or Brazilian. But if Morrissey's cultural obsessions were different, I'm not sure I'd have found them as interesting. The Governor of Connecticut Is Dead or Saskatchewan Ruffians wouldn't have the right flavor.

Still don’t believe The Smiths would be any lesser if they sprouted from a different country. Have you forgotten how many people he has moved that don’t even speak English? Just that voice and music transcends language and the culture background they come from. And when the words are translated, the subject matter which is about the human condition, etc is universal.
 
Still don’t believe The Smiths would be any lesser if they sprouted from a different country. Have you forgotten how many people he has moved that don’t even speak English? Just that voice and music transcends language and the culture background they come from. And when the words are translated, the subject matter which is about the human condition, etc is universal.

Some of the subject matter is truly universal. I'm aware they're globally popular. But at the same time, a lot of the references and concerns are specifically English. I can't believe I'm siding with Dirk Blaggard, but he is to some extent right about this: the Smiths are best understood by Britons first, Anglophones second, and all others last. And translation is an imperfect vessel. Like for me, I know I'll never fully appreciate the wit and puns and wordplay of Nietzsche, because I can't read him in German. We tend to understand art best when it uses our shibboleths and signposts. Not always, but it's a good rule of thumb. It's why scholars will forever debate what the Lascaux cave artists were up to. We're just too far removed from their world. From there, it's all a matter of degree, depending on how familiar we are with the culture.
 
Some of the subject matter is truly universal. I'm aware they're globally popular. But at the same time, a lot of the references and concerns are specifically English. I can't believe I'm siding with Dirk Blaggard, but he is to some extent right about this: the Smiths are best understood by Britons first, Anglophones second, and all others last. And translation is an imperfect vessel. Like for me, I know I'll never fully appreciate the wit and puns and wordplay of Nietzsche, because I can't read him in German. We tend to understand art best when it uses our shibboleths and signposts. Not always, but it's a good rule of thumb. It's why scholars will forever debate what the Lascaux cave artists were up to. We're just too far removed from their world. From there, it's all a matter of degree, depending on how familiar we are with the culture.

Most definitely. Morrissey’s most famous lament of unrequited love, There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, resembles so many Mexican torch songs – for example Mi Destino Fue Quererte, written by Felipe Valdés Leal. Not just in theme, but almost thought for thought.

And yet the association between Mexican folk music and Morrissey is just the beginning. The real linkages lie with Mexican-Americans; with Chicanos. Although I’ve never been further south than Monterrey, my family has myriad tales of living in a golden Mexico during the 1940s and 1950s. Those stories helped foster a deep-seated melancholy within me about where I truly belong. Not quite American; not wholly Latino, living in all the spaces in between. Growing up in rural Ohio, these duelling identities caused me an incredible amount of angst, as I tried to traverse the space between home and school.


 
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Most definitely. Morrissey’s most famous lament of unrequited love, There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, resembles so many Mexican torch songs – for example Mi Destino Fue Quererte, written by Felipe Valdés Leal. Not just in theme, but almost thought for thought.

And yet the association between Mexican folk music and Morrissey is just the beginning. The real linkages lie with Mexican-Americans; with Chicanos. Although I’ve never been further south than Monterrey, my family has myriad tales of living in a golden Mexico during the 1940s and 1950s. Those stories helped foster a deep-seated melancholy within me about where I truly belong. Not quite American; not wholly Latino, living in all the spaces in between. Growing up in rural Ohio, these duelling identities caused me an incredible amount of angst, as I tried to traverse the space between home and school.



Of course there's a lot of material that Mexicans and Mexican-Americans respond to. What are you trying to prove? I never said the Smiths were exclusive. There's obviously a lot in Morrissey's lyrics that outsiders of any stripe can respond to. All I said was that to get the most out of the Smiths' cultural references and atmospherics, it helps to know England and English. Poetry often loses something in translation. I didn't invent this problem.
 
On the Peel version of Miserable Lie, Moz was kinda goin' off.
It's better then the album version, where the vocal got slicked down.
"Ah-o ah ah o..." :D



Yep. The album version of Miserable Lie is hot! I used to fall asleep to it playing that album on cassette with headphones :) The best thing about the Peel version is after the first 'I need advice, I need advice' there's this phantom lead-in vocal effect into the next lyric, reminding me of Twilight by U2 right after the first 'Twilight' in the first chorus. That's a very cool technique/effect. The Cure used it a lot too.
 
Some of the subject matter is truly universal. I'm aware they're globally popular. But at the same time, a lot of the references and concerns are specifically English. I can't believe I'm siding with Dirk Blaggard, but he is to some extent right about this: the Smiths are best understood by Britons first, Anglophones second, and all others last. And translation is an imperfect vessel. Like for me, I know I'll never fully appreciate the wit and puns and wordplay of Nietzsche, because I can't read him in German. We tend to understand art best when it uses our shibboleths and signposts. Not always, but it's a good rule of thumb. It's why scholars will forever debate what the Lascaux cave artists were up to. We're just too far removed from their world. From there, it's all a matter of degree, depending on how familiar we are with the culture.

It’s not important. What’s important is, being deeply moved, not just relating to similar cultural references. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, but the art of The Smiths and Morrissey transcend that.
 
It’s not important. What’s important is, being deeply moved, not just relating to similar cultural references. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, but the art of The Smiths and Morrissey transcend that.
I don't think anyone would argue that they would be lesser - but they would be very definitely different. Artists are infused with the world around them. What would The Velvet Underground have sounded like in a city other than New York? What poems would Baudelaire have written in a city other than Paris?
David Bowie once said in an interview that what British bands do so well is irony. They know that rock and roll is really American and they feel a bit like impostors - so they do irony really well to make up for that. I think that's very true. It's probably true about British humour too. The Smiths did irony really well. As does Moz, of course. It's why so many people never 'got' The Smiths, or 'get' Morrissey.
 
It’s not important. What’s important is, being deeply moved, not just relating to similar cultural references. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, but the art of The Smiths and Morrissey transcend that.

I agree: being deeply moved is more important than relating to cultural references. I've been deeply moved by instrumental music &/or music where I don't understand the language of the singer. But with a poet like Morrissey, it's more than just his voice as an instrument. The lyrics really matter—and not only the lyrics themselves, but the unique phraseology and nuances he uses.
 
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I agree: being deeply moved is more important than relating to cultural references. I've been deeply moved by instrumental music &/or music where I don't understand the language of the singer.
(y)
But with a poet like Morrissey, it's more than just his voice as an instrument. The lyrics really matter—and not only the lyrics themselves, but the unique phraseology and nuances he uses.

I don’t entirely agree. For it’s really the voice that firstly draws people in. Then if they care enough, they will investigate further. It transcends language. Though understanding the lyric can add a different dimension to enjoying and appreciating the art, sure.

When I first heard The Smiths, it was a WTF is this?! moment. Coming from listening mostly to American punk, The Smiths music sounded strange, but then that voice! What a peculiar sound that was, and like a moth to a flame I was hooked ! and needed to know more.

Though back to the subject of lyrics. I’ve noticed this in my evolving musical tastes, that I needed less and less to understand, to control, by needing to know what the words were, the need for meaning, studying the lyric sheet. I’m thinking that for some, when one is a teenager, that the lyrics are important because they help to sculpt and support one’s identity, building a sense of self and an understanding of their place in the world, for better or worse.
 

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