Originally posted on 6 October 2009
Picture the scene. Student Flat, August 1984.
It was back in the days of student grants and not loans, and the months of July and August could be as laid-back as you wanted them to be (assuming you had no re-sits). One flat mate comes in late one night with a 7" copy of the new single by The Smiths - the band whose debut LP and first four singles had been the sound of the summer. The rest of us scream at him to hurry up and shove it on the turntable....
It turns out to be astonishing for a number of reasons. The music and singing are every bit as joyous as the uptempo stuff the band have previously released, but its all over far too quickly for our liking. We play it again, and there's a consensus that while it's not as good as This Charming Man, its an improvement on Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now, the band's previous 45. On third playing, there's a view that it is in fact a classic that we will soon be throwing shapes to over at the student union disco within days.
Time for the b-side. Oh, its a slow one with Johnny Marr on acoustic guitar - I'm looking forward to this. Morrissey is singing like an angel. Fucking hell. This could be just about the best thing they've done so far. And is that a mandolin?
The song ends, again all too quickly. I applaud. Seven other people join in. Why didn't the band make this a double A sided single so that it would have got twice the plays on Radio 1 and appealed to a bigger audience? This has got Top 10 written all over it....
The next day I'm in Glasgow city centre on the look out for the 12" single. I take it home. There's only two other flatmates in. We see from the label that the two songs on the 7" single will have identical versions on the 12". But the other track seems to be almost 7 minutes long....which we all reckon must be a misprint. After all, this is the band that more or less wants to get back to the short sharp perfect pop songs. The needle is put into the groove.
What emerges from the speakers shocks and stuns us. This is unlike anything any of us have in any of our modest record collections. It is completely unexpected. It is also, as far as I'm concerned, the most stunning song I've heard in years. This time there is no applause at the end....just a huge cry of 'FUCKING BRILLIANT' at the top of my voice. It is immediately played again, This time, instead of just sitting listening, someone (not me I'm sorry to say) gets up and starts doing the Morrissey dance around the living room....before running out into his own room from where he brings back a handful of blank cassettes and demands it be taped there are then as this is a song that demands to be blasting out of every room in the flat.
So as every other member of the household comes home over the next few hours they are greeted with a cacophony of noise which is the same song being played in six different locations with six different starting times....and in the main living room with the big speakers, it is being sung along to with gusto now that we've written down and learned all the words.
Well, that's how I would love it to have happened. It's how I would ask for it to be filmed in the story of my life. In reality, I brought the 12" back to an empty flat and played the three songs to myself. Over and over again. It was about three or four hours before someone else came home - I simply passed the 12" single to him and said he should listen to this while I nip out to the shops for a packet of biscuits and a carton of milk. I come back ten minutes later and he looks at me and says 'Best thing they've ever done mate. No question.'
mp3 : The Smiths - William, It Was Really Nothing
mp3 : The Smiths - Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
mp3 : The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?
I'm not going to sit here and claim that any of these are the best or most important songs the band ever released. But c'mon, has there ever been a more perfect 12" single?
It was a shock to the system that it only reached #17 in the UK charts. And as I mentioned above, if the 7" had been a double-A side, then it surely would have been massive as the melody and lyrics of 'Please...' would surely have appealed beyond the band's immediate fanbase. And I'll repeat what others have said over the years....it's amazing that something as ground-breaking as How Soon Is Now? could initially be placed only as the extra track on the 12".
And what about the fantastic appearance on TOTP to promote the song......a shirtless Morrissey while Johnny Marr strums away on a guitar given to him by Elvis Costello....
Sigh..............................
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