The Boy with the Thorn in His Side (song)
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| "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Single by The Smiths | ||
| from the album The Queen Is Dead | ||
| Released | 1985 | |
| Format | 7", 12" | |
| Recorded | Manchester, August 1985 | |
| Genre | Alternative rock | |
| Length | 3:15 | |
| Label | Rough Trade | |
| Writer(s) | Johnny Marr Morrissey |
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| Producer(s) | Stephen Street | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| The Smiths singles chronology | ||
| "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" (1985) |
"The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" (1985) |
"Bigmouth Strikes Again" (1986) |
"The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" is a song by The Smiths. It appears on their third album The Queen Is Dead but was released (albeit in a different mix) several months before the album, reaching #23 in the UK Singles Chart in 1985.
This was the first Smiths single to be accompanied by a promotional video, something the band had previously resisted. Some of the Smiths' more purist fans at the time derided this as a sell-out.
The following year, the New Musical Express greeted the news that the band had signed a contract with EMI with the headline "The Boy With The Thorn-EMI On His Side".
The jumping man on the cover of the single release is a young Truman Capote.
Margi Clarke asked Morrissey if this song was inspired by Oscar Wilde and Morrissey replied: "No that's not true. The thorn is the music industry and all those people who never believed anything I said, tried to get rid of me and wouldn't play the records. So I think we've reached a stage where we feel: if they don't believe me now, will they ever believe me? What more can a poor boy do?"[1]
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
[edit] 7": Rough Trade / RT191 (UK)
- "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side"
- "Asleep"
[edit] 12": Rough Trade / RTT191 (UK)
- "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side"
- "Rubber Ring"
- "Asleep"
The original 12" has "Rubber Ring" and "Asleep" segued into a continuous piece with the voice sample at the end of the former looped and faded into the wind noise preceding the latter. Described by Simon Goddard (in Songs That Saved Your Life, 2nd edition p154) as a "spectacular combination" - a suggestion with which Johnny Marr concurs - this carefully executed sequence can only be found on the original 12" single, the two tracks having been separated on all subsequent compilations.
[edit] References
[edit] Trivia
The song was featured in Episode 3 of the BBC musical drama series Blackpool.
The Boy With the Thorn in His Side is also the title of a book written by Pete Wentz, bassist of Fall Out Boy.
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| 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 |
