Strangeways, Here We Come
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| Strangeways, Here We Come | ||
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| Studio album by The Smiths | ||
| Released | September 28, 1987 | |
| Recorded | Early 1987, Bath, England | |
| Genre | Alternative rock | |
| Length | 36:37 | |
| Label | Rough Trade Records | |
| Producer(s) | Johnny Marr, Morrissey and Stephen Street | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| The Smiths chronology | ||
| Louder Than Bombs (1987) |
Strangeways, Here We Come (1987) |
Stop Me (1988) |
Strangeways, Here We Come is the final studio album by The Smiths, originally released in 1987. The album takes its title from Manchester's notorious (and now renamed) Strangeways Prison, while the line "Borstal, here we come" is taken from Billy Liar.
Contents |
[edit] About the album
The Smiths recorded what was to be their final studio album at the Wool Hall studios in Bath, England. Although still firmly an indie record, it finds the band (and especially musical directors Johnny Marr and Andrew Breiner) pushing the envelope as far as possible within those constraints, experimenting with overtly synthesized saxophone and string arrangements and drum machine additions.
Had this not been the band's final album, it would have been considered a transitional effort. Between the record's recording in March and its release in September, 1987, however, the band had broken up after Johnny Marr announced in August that he had left the band. Despite (or perhaps thanks to) the break-up shock, the album rose to No. 2 in the British and No. 55 in the American charts.
Strangeways, Here We Come may be The Smiths' last album, but it does not feature their last-ever recordings, as a final two songs were recorded in May 1987 to provide B-sides for the album's lead single, "Girlfriend in a Coma" (see the entry on "I Keep Mine Hidden", B-side for this single and the last song The Smiths ever recorded). Two more singles were taken off Strangeways, Here We Come; they were supplemented on their B-sides by archive recordings.
[edit] Cover
The sleeve for Strangeways, Here We Come, which was designed by Morrissey, features a murky shot of East of Eden co-star Richard Davalos. Davalos is looking at James Dean, who is cropped from the image. Dean was a hero of Morrissey's, about whom the singer wrote a book called "James Dean Is Not Dead". Five years later, when designing the sleeve for WEA's Best of compilations, Morrissey again chose Davalos as a cover star, and Davalos is looking at Dean, who is once again cropped.
As revealed in Jo Slee's collection of Smiths and Morrissey sleeve artwork, "Peepholism", Davalos was not the original choice for cover star. Morrissey wanted to use a still of Harvey Keitel in Martin Scorsese's "I Call First" (also known as "Who's That Knocking At My Door"(1967)), but Keitel declined to allow him to use the image. In 1991 Keitel relented, and the image was used on t-shirts and stage backdrops for Morrissey's 1991 solo tour.
The CD booklet contained an additional photo of Johnny Marr in the studio, lying on his stomach on a chair, being sick from drunkeness. Whatever the actual facts behind the taking of the photo, it remains a striking emblem of the stress which led the guitarist to break up The Smiths.
[edit] Track-by-track description
- The album starts off with "A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours", one of the few Smiths songs not to feature guitar. The title is borrowed from a poem by Speranza, the nineteenth century Irish nationalist and mother of Oscar Wilde.
- The second track is the guitar-laden glam rock-esque "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish", a single which hit No. 23 in the UK. Both it and the first track feature glottal growling from Morrissey, which would appear again on his solo song "Hairdresser on Fire" and then never be heard from again. At the end of this song, Morrissey can be heard in the recording studio asking producer Stephen Street "Hey Stephen, should we do that again?"
- "Death of a Disco Dancer" follows, the first half of which is filled with a bass that is extremely subdued by Smiths standards. The second half features a piano part written by Morrissey.
- Track four, "Girlfriend in a Coma", is a tongue-in-cheek, music hall inflected song that clocks in at a mere two minutes and two seconds. Though seemingly "lightweight" and catchy, the song features acidic, ambiguous lyrics. The song also contains peak guitar work by Johnny Marr. Reaching No. 13 in the UK charts, its video, which featured clips from the film "The Leather Boys" (starring Rita Tushingham, the star of "A Taste of Honey"), was directed by Tim Broad.
- The fifth track, "Stop Me if You've Heard This One Before", is a classic Smiths song, considered by fans to be both funny and musically compelling. Marr achieved the chiming effect at the end of the track by dropping butter knives on the strings of his oddly-tuned guitar. Slated to be released as a single, it appeared as the fourth and final Smiths single only in the US and Europe, but not in the UK, where the song wasn't released for fear of a backlash over the line about "mass murder" following the Hungerford massacre. The US video, again directed by Tim Broad, featured Morrissey-- flanked by an army of "lookalikes"-- riding bicycles around Manchester, visiting key sites in The Smiths' iconography, such as the famous Salford Lads Club photo. The Coronation Street featured in the video is not the set of the popular British soap opera, but the street in Salford where the club is situated. In the UK the same video was used for "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish".
- "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" commences with two minutes of noise from a miners' strike (supplied by a BBC sound effects album) with intermittent piano chords. It eventually develops into an emotional and powerful song, which when released (in a single edit) hit No. 30 in the United Kingdom.
- This is followed by the by-the-books spite of "Unhappy Birthday", in which Morrissey revels in a fantasy about the untimely death of some unnamed adversary. With its upbeat and jangly guitars, the song is the one instance where lyrics and music do not sit happily together.
- Next comes "Paint a Vulgar Picture", commonly considered the standout track from the second side. The story of a record company's attempt to make money from a dead pop star by touting his back-catalogue ("Reissue! Re-package!... Extra-Track and a tacky badge"), and of a devoted fan's reaction, it became foreshadowing in the light of subsequent issuings of multiple Best of Smiths compilations. The title Paint a Vulgar Picture was briefly considered as a title for the Best of compilations by the chiefs at WEA.
- "Death at One's Elbow", though jangly, is generally considered musically bleak, repetitive, and lyrically lacking. The lyrics are partly based on the diaries of Joe Orton.
- The album concludes with "I Won't Share You", a simple and melodic song featuring only vocals, sparse bass notes and an autoharp. Its lyrics contain a typically maudlin lament about the "sick and cruel" nature of life, alongside flashes of the self-aware pride associated with Morrissey ("with the drive and the dreams inside / this is my time"). The track's final lyrics ("I'll see you somewhere, I'll see you sometime, darling") do not appear in the liner notes. The track is a fitting close to the career of the Smiths. It has been assumed by many that the lyrics are Morrissey's farewell to Johnny Marr.
[edit] Trivia
Polish band Myslovitz wrote a song called Death of the Cocaine Dancer (2004) which seems a likely reference to "Death of a Disco Dancer".
[edit] Track listing
All songs written by Morrissey/Marr.
[edit] LP
[edit] Side A
- "A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours"
- "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"
- "Death of a Disco Dancer"
- "Girlfriend in a Coma"
- "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before"
[edit] Side B
- "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me"
- "Unhappy Birthday"
- "Paint a Vulgar Picture"
- "Death at One's Elbow"
- "I Won't Share You"
[edit] Compact disc
- "A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours"
- "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"
- "Death of a Disco Dancer"
- "Girlfriend in a Coma"
- "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before"
- "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me"
- "Unhappy Birthday"
- "Paint a Vulgar Picture"
- "Death at One's Elbow"
- "I Won't Share You"
[edit] Personnel
[edit] The band
- Morrissey - vocals, piano on "Death of a Disco Dancer"
- Johnny Marr - guitar, keyboards, harmonica, synthesized strings and saxophone arrangements
- Andy Rourke - bass guitar
- Mike Joyce - drums
[edit] Additional musicians
- Stephen Street – additional drum machine programming on "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish", "Paint a Vulgar Picture" and "Death at One's Elbow", and strings arrangement for "Girlfriend in a Coma"
The sleeve notes list Orchestrazia Ardwick as being responsible for performance of the strings and saxophone arrangements; in reality, this is Johnny Marr and his synthesizer.
[edit] Technical staff
- Johnny Marr, Morrissey, and Stephen Street – producers
- Steve Williams – assistant engineer
| The Smiths |
| Morrissey - Johnny Marr - Andy Rourke - Mike Joyce |
| Craig Gannon - Dale Hibbert |
| Discography |
|---|
| Albums: The Smiths | Meat Is Murder | The Queen Is Dead | Strangeways, Here We Come | Rank (live) |
| Singles: Hand in Glove | This Charming Man | What Difference Does It Make? | Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now | William, It Was Really Nothing | How Soon Is Now? | Shakespeare's Sister | That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore | The Boy with the Thorn in His Side | Bigmouth Strikes Again | Panic | Ask | Shoplifters of the World Unite | Sheila Take a Bow | Girlfriend in a Coma | I Started Something I Couldn't Finish | Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me | There Is a Light That Never Goes Out |
| Band-assembled compilations: Hatful of Hollow | The World Won't Listen | Louder Than Bombs |
| Other compilations: Stop Me | Best...I | ...Best II | Singles | The Very Best of The Smiths |
| Related |
| Rough Trade Records |
