The Guardian / Observer - 1000 Songs Everyone Must Hear

[Cowshed]

One entry has been covered on the main page, but I figured the whole series should have a thread.

There were 7 entries in the newspaper from Saturday 14th March to Friday 20th March, and each day had a different topic.

Disappointingly there were no solo songs, but plenty of Smiths entries. And shockingly there was no entry for ‘Life and Death’, but not so surprising that there was no entry for ‘Protest and Politics’.

(NB. This isn’t complete as I didn’t buy the Guardian on the 16th)

Love (14/03/09)

The Smiths – There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

This sublime ballad from The Queen is Dead defines the multi-dimensional brilliance of Morrissey’s lyrics. The poetic longing makes you cry; the black comedy of the chorus makes you laugh. But the delirious melodrama also implies that love and death are identical objects of desire. While Moz spins your head with “the pleasure and the privilege” of being mown down by double-decker buses and 10-ton trucks, Johnny Marr’s glistening guitars and exquisite orchestral arrangements cast their own mystical spell. (Garry Mullholland)

Heartbreak (15/03/09)

The Smiths – I Know It’s Over

Not even Woddy Allen twins love and death with such regularity as Morrissey. This grandiose Morrissey-Marr orchestral waltz from The Queen is Dead hinges on two sublime lines: the opening and repeated, “Oh mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head,” and the observation that, while ridicule and hatred are easy, “It takes guts to be gentle and kind.” None of this helps our hero as he insists that “natural and real” love is way beyond him. (Garry Mullholland)

The Smiths – Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want

Of all the heartbreaking songs in the Smiths’ oeuvre this one is, perhaps, the most heartbreaking of them all. The B-side to William, It Was Really Nothing, Please, Please, Please Let Me get What I Want sees Morrissey, 25 going on 15, assert his credentials as the ultimate bedsit bard. “See the luck I’ve had / Can make a good man turn bad,” he moans, endearing him to millions of lovelorn adolescents who seek solace in the soothing power of words. (Paul Mardles)

Sex (17/03/09)

The Smiths – Reel Around the Fountain

The stately opener to the Smiths’ debut LP, this song would have been a single were it not for a Sun newspaper campaign that accused it of condoning paedophilia. In fact it is (of course) a much more elusive piece of work, taking in a loss of innocence (“You took a child and you made him old”), but also mutual admiration and pleasure (“You’re the bees knees but so am I”). Oh, and a fair bit of sodomy, too – “You can pin and mount me like a butterfly” indeed. (Alex Needham)

Party Songs (20/03/09)

The Smiths – How Soon Is Now?

In retrospect, the Smiths’ sixth single seems an unlikely party record. Johnny Marr’s keening guitar paired with Morrissey’s despondent vocal are anything but upbeat. But mid-80s indie clubs were about who was the most misunderstood, not having fun. The lines, “There’s a club if you’d like top go / You could meet somebody who really loves you / So you go and you stand on your own / And you leave on your own / And you cry and you want to die”, captured the mood perfectly. Remember, this was before ecstasy. (Chris Cottingham)

 

[jesuisbryony]

Heartbreak

Morrissey - The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get

The song that broke Morrissey in the States, making the Billboard charts and pushing parent album Vauxhall and I into the top 20. Boasting widescreen production from sometime U2 producer Steve Lillywhite, this co-write with guitarist Boz Boorer is Morrissey at his best, managing to make a stalking anthem both funny and deliriously sexy. He even finds time to squeeze in a Smiths court case reference, with the insistence that he “bears more grudges/ Than lonely high court judges”.

I've checked the Guardian website there wasn't a mention on the 16th. On the whole, they were a pretty poor choice of songs, there is really no need for All Saints.

Thanks for doing this, as I forgot.

 

[Cowshed]

Heartbreak

Morrissey - The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get

Thanks for doing this, as I forgot.

Yikes! How did I not see this?! I retract my comment about the lack of solo songs!

Thanks for adding that one Bryony

 

[Vauxhall95]

Heartbreak

Morrissey - The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get

The song that broke Morrissey in the States, making the Billboard charts and pushing parent album Vauxhall and I into the top 20. Boasting widescreen production from sometime U2 producer Steve Lillywhite, this co-write with guitarist Boz Boorer is Morrissey at his best, managing to make a stalking anthem both funny and deliriously sexy. He even finds time to squeeze in a Smiths court case reference, with the insistence that he “bears more grudges/ Than lonely high court judges”.

Not to knit pick but didn't the "Your Arsenal" tour sell out the LA Hollywood Bowl faster than the Beatles? I realize "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" charted in the U.S., but I know I've heard "November Spawned a Monster" and "Everyday is Like Sunday" on the radio for far longer and far more frequently.

Also, what is widescreen production in the aural sense?

 

[Qvist]

As an aside - I see some of these entries were written by Garry Mulholland. If you don't have his Fear of Music - the 261 greatest albums since Punk and Disco, rush out and get it, it is a brilliant piece of music writing. Not only is he a massive Smiths fan who gives them the credit they are due (and two Morrissey albums included as well), he is at times blisteringly funny and at others really quite poignant.

On Japan's Tin Drum: "What they achieve on Tin Drum is an entirely believable idea of what the Far East sounds, looks and smells like for people who have no intention of ever going there. With added staring into the distance, enigmatically. And noodles."

On The Cramps' Off the Bone: "Made of mania, hysteria, diphteria and leopard-skin underwear, it believes that the whole world wants to be Elvis, and therefore is."

On Devo's Q: Are we not men? A: We are Devo: "For the Stones, the world was a dumb girl, there for the taking. For Devo, you were the one who got f***ed, and the pleasure was only in understanding the rules of engagement".

On Joy Division's Closer: "Closer is far beyond the reach of ninety-nine percent of popular music. I don't listen to it much."

On Killing Joke's Killing Joke: "In 1982...Jaz Coleman believed so strongly that the world was going to end that he fled to Iceland. Yeah, I know, Iceland is actually in the world, but it's a thin line between genius and madness, don't you know....And they stayed there a bit, presumably checking out their occult prophecy tomes and eating puffin, until one day, after a couple of months, they realised that the world was still, you know, there."

and, "Engaging absolutely with what you absolutely believe to be crucial to human existence, even if no-one else agrees - is a risk to your own mental health AND THE ENTIRE f***ING POINT OF MAKING ART."

and, "If you cop a listen to it and you do not wiggle your butt and feel completely mentally empowered and physically re-energised, then The Best Whinging Mewling Lickspittle Lighters-Aloft Corporate Festival Fake Indie Power(less) Ballads...Ever! is available at Tesco Express for a price your poor addled resigned mind is paying with your every waking breath. Have fun."

And finally, about Hatful of Hollow: "..."This night has opened my eyes", a sparkling ballad about a teenage mother abandoing her new-born baby, sung with an empathy for young women that was completely new to rock, and still would be, if any other male rock singers I can think of had displayed this much love and courage since, which they haven't".

cheers