The Smiths A-Z: "What She Said"

Famous when dead

Vulgarian
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(Above featuring a difficult to identify backdrop, but eventually...: Rita Renoir).


More influence via Elizabeth Smart's By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept:

"I have learned to smoke because I need something to hold on to. I dare not be without a cigarette in my hand."

"Perhaps I am his hope. But then she is his present. And if then she is his present, I am not his present. Therefore, I am not, and I wonder why no one has noticed I am dead and taken the trouble to bury me. For I am utterly collapsed. I lounge with glazed eyes, or weep tears of sheer weakness."


Played ~90 times by The Smiths.
Played 98 times by Morrissey.

The sandwiching between the never played in full Rubber Ring - a good idea or not??
The example on Rank being a prime example.
Blurt a comment below - if you are so inclined.
Regards,
FWD.


 
The WSS/Rubber Ring medley, specifically the version on Rank, is one of my favorite ever Smiths songs. Its shrill, rising guitar line and the hammering drums, Morrissey’s lyrics verging on black humor… it’s just perfection. I’m not keen on the studio version tho, it’s always seemed too muddy for my liking
 
At my school, in the mid 80s, the music tribes were basically divided into metal kids and indie kids. (Of course there were plenty who just liked chart pop, and plenty who didn't really care about music at all.)

When Meat Is Murder came out, I remember seizing upon "What She Said" as an example of how indie music wasn't wimpy at all, and could actually sound a bit, you know, Metal. I played the song to some of the metal kids, one afternoon, full of hope that our divides could be bridged. But oh, how they laughed!

I still think it's a brilliant song, though. (Even if Morrissey nicked some of the best lines, as per FWD post above.)
 
Good track, but probably my least favourite from MIM, if I'm honest. That said, the lyrics are amongst my favourites - some lovely 'quotables' - but I find the music is a bit screechy, messy and manic when compared to the other tracks on the album. When I first got MIM, I always looked forward to WSS finishing so we could move onto the more tranquil waters of TJIFA.
 
At my school, in the mid 80s, the music tribes were basically divided into metal kids and indie kids. (Of course there were plenty who just liked chart pop, and plenty who didn't really care about music at all.)

When Meat Is Murder came out, I remember seizing upon "What She Said" as an example of how indie music wasn't wimpy at all, and could actually sound a bit, you know, Metal. I played the song to some of the metal kids, one afternoon, full of hope that our divides could be bridged. But oh, how they laughed!

I still think it's a brilliant song, though. (Even if Morrissey nicked some of the best lines, as per FWD post above.)
An old social media mate loves that book by Smart. I never got into it.
I think the young are better with music today. The whole tribe's thang is so f***ing lame. I never got why people buy into it. Its so much healthier now. It makes 80s kids look like cavepeople
Take Paul Weller fans, they honestly think calling yourself a "mod" is a good thing. They do not see its a mark of weakness,in some ways. It's like being a child. My friends were awesome, we listened to music because we liked it, and never got conned by the image part. I can see why people do, they want to belong
So, we listened to Smiths, M, Hip Hop, Guns and Roses, 60s girl bands, Kraftwerk, Bowie, Noel Coward, Goerge Formby, cliff Ricard, ACDC what the f*** ever. The point was the song, the art. Shit Phils Collins Lp No Jacket required is cool beans. Rod Stewart was great Who gives a shit what the NME thinks?
Most people I know though were like us, as well. Maybe Bristol just breeds people who aren't easily conned, at least in the 60s and 70s?
I have met people from different tribes in later life and guess what, I didn't meet one person who didn't like this song. Not one, at least The Rank version.
The version on Rank is beyond fire. Marr setting it up and M making that noise and the band storming into the song. It kills. No matter what type of person you are. I swear I have had people become smiths fans based on The Rank version of the song
 
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