The Smiths expanded their sound and came to the end of the road with the grim and glorious pop accomplishments of their sad and strange swansong. 'Strangeways, Here We Come' was recorded at the Wool Hall in Beckington, Somerset with Morrissey on vocals and piano; Johnny Marr on guitar, keyboards, harmonica, autoharp, synthesized strings and saxophone arrangements; Andy Rourke on bass guitar; and Mike Joyce on drums. Stephen Street provided additional drum machine programming and string arrangements. "Orchestrazia Ardwick" is listed for performance of the strings and saxophone arrangements; but this was merely Marr and his synthesizer. Marr, Morrissey, and Street co-produced the sessions with Steve Williams as assistant engineer.
Joyce remembers: "Obviously Johnny had some riffs he'd been working on and Morrissey always had his notebook of lyrics on the go, but it was all on the hoof. Most of 'Strangeways' was written in the studio through a lot of jams coming together. 'Death Of A Disco Dancer' was one of the first. I remember playing away with Johnny, really excited, looking at me over the drum kit spurring me on, saying, 'Carry on, more, more!' We'd got to that point as musicians where we just played together brilliantly, whatever we did."
Rourke attests: "Everybody thinks we were falling apart, but we weren't. 'Strangeways' was the best time the four of us ever had as a group."
Street explains: "All this crap about it being the last album, that it must have been depressing. Well it wasn't. It was a fantastic session and a fantastic time. 'Strangeways' was just ... just a laugh!...They were going through a big 'Spinal Tap' phase at the time. Mike, Andy and Johnny could play anything from the 'Spinal Tap' soundtrack. They'd suddenly launch into 'Big Bottom' - but again, only when Morrissey wasn't in the room. They used to keep building Stonehenges with fag packets, dotted around the studio. There's videotape of it somewhere as Johnny had just bought himself a camcorder which was cutting-edge at the time. He must have hours of footage...There was a bit of a crack-up in the studio when we were doing overdubs on 'I Started Something I Couldn't Finish'. I'd spent an afternoon working with Johnny, doing bits and bobs with guitars, and I took a cassette of it across to the cottage attached to the studio, where Morrissey was watching TV. I played it to him and he started complaining, 'Oh no, I don't like that bit' and 'I don't like this bit'. So I took the tape back to Johnny and said, 'Mozzer doesn't like these things.' And Johnny flipped. He snapped back, 'Well, fuck him! Let him think of something!' I think he was getting exhausted always having to be the one to come up with musical ideas. It was weird because I'd been working with them for three years and that was the first time I'd ever seen a crack between Morrissey and Johnny...That aside, I always remember that session as great fun. I think there was a feeling within the group that they were making a fantastic piece of work, that they were still together after everything that had gone on the year before. But there was this thing looming in the background. This Ken Friedman situation...Johnny was obviously sick and tired of managing their affairs, having to be the person to do all the hiring and firing of people, and rightly so. Ken Friedman was supposedly going to be their manager so he turned up at the studio. And that's when it became quite obvious to me that Morrissey didn't want Ken around. He didn't like him, whereas Johnny felt that Ken was somebody who could come in and clear up all the affairs and take a bit of pressure off him. He just wanted to get on with being a great musician, he didn't want to deal with the hassle of all this stuff. I think Johnny felt like Morrissey was being unreasonable."
Marr focused on the completion of the album; but when it was finished he called a band meeting at Geales fish 'n' chip restaurant in Notting Hill.
Rourke remembers, "We actually split up in a chippy."
Joyce adds: "Johnny told us that he wanted some time off, but it was obvious he just wanted to leave. And I said, 'Can't we just do one more album?' I don't think he was prepared for that. He wanted back-up, but we wouldn't give him any. It was out of the blue. None of us wanted to split the band up."
Rourke interjects: "But even if Johnny had decided to stay, everybody knew that he wasn't happy - so it was bound to fall apart anyway. But Morrissey was devastated. We all had private lives whereas Morrissey really didn't. The Smiths was his life. Mind you, it was all our lives. I didn't know what to do with myself for years. I still don't."
Marr said at the time: "I'm not denying that there weren't certain problems involving the band, and it's also very true that a group like The Smiths can begin to take over your whole life and all your energy. That's certainly happened to me, but the major reason for me going was simply that there are things I want to do, musically, that there is just not scope for in The Smiths...I've got absolutely no problem with what The Smiths are doing. The stuff we've just done for the new album is great, the best we've ever done. I'm really proud of it. But there are things that I want to do that can only happen outside of The Smiths."
Morrissey admits: "To a certain extent I'm upset and it's quite harrowing, but it's really just something I have to live with. I'm certainly not going to lie down and die, not by any means. Sorry. Most of what I ever felt about The Smiths came from within me anyway, and it can't really be touched by, shall we say, any comings and goings. It was brewing for a long time, and although many people didn't realise it, I certainly did. It was less of a blow really... not terribly surprising..."
Mike Joyce considers: "I sometimes think about it, and the way I see it is that maybe it had just run its course anyway. Instead of asking who was to blame, I think The Smiths and the relationship between Johnny and Morrissey was too intense to have any longevity. That's why Johnny didn't want to do it any more, because ultimately what used to make him happy was making him sad. Maybe we'd done as much as we could have done. Maybe after 'Strangeways' we just didn't have anywhere else to go. I'd rather it did have an end than let it go sour, so maybe with 'Strangeways' we went out the way we should have. On top."
Marr muses: "I don't want to get too over-emotional about this but I really am massively proud of all the things that The Smiths have done and achieved and so from that point of view, of course, it's all really sad, especially for the group's fans who've always been brilliant. But on the other hand, I'm looking forward to doing new things, and to hearing what Morrissey will come up with. I think the change will actually do him a lot of good. I certainly hope so. But, in the final analysis, the thing that used to make me happy was making me miserable and so I just had to get out."
Morrissey attests: "'Strangeways' perfects every lyrical and musical notion The Smiths have ever had. It isn't dramatically, obsessively different in any way and I'm quite glad it isn't because I've been happy with the structure we've had until now. It's far and away the best record we've ever made."
'Strangeways, Here We Come' went to number fifty-five in the US, thirty-three in Germany, twenty-eight in Australia, twenty-seven in Canada, twenty in the Netherlands, fourteen in New Zealand, thirteen in Sweden, and number two in the UK. It has been certified gold in the UK and the US. "Strangeways" is the name of a large prison in the Smiths' hometown of Manchester, England. The cover photo is Richard Davalos, on location during the filming of Elia Kazan's 'East of Eden'.
"Girlfriend in a Coma" languished at number thirteen in the UK and twelve in Ireland.
Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know - it's serious
Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know - it's really serious
There were times when I could
Have "murdered" her
(But you know, I would hate
Anything to happen to her)
NO, I DON'T WANT TO SEE HER
Do you really think
She'll pull through ?
Do you really think
She'll pull through ?
Do you...?
Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know - it's serious
My, my, my, my, my, my baby, goodbye
There were times when I could
Have "strangled" her
(But you know, I would hate
Anything to happen to her)
WOULD YOU PLEASE LET ME SEE HER !
Do you really think
She'll pull through ?
Do you really think
She'll pull through ?
Do you...?
Let me whisper my last goodbyes
I know - IT'S SERIOUS
"I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" ended up at number twenty-three in the UK and thirteen in Ireland.
"Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" went to number thirty in the UK and seventeen in Ireland.
"Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" only charted at number ninety-one in Australia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naos7it_bl0
'Strangeways, Here We Come'
full album:
All tracks written by Morrissey and Johnny Marr.
1. "A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours" 3:00
2. "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" 3:47
3. "Death of a Disco Dancer" 5:26
4. "Girlfriend in a Coma" 2:03
5. "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" 3:32
6. "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" 5:03
7. "Unhappy Birthday" 2:46
8. "Paint a Vulgar Picture" 5:35
9. "Death at One's Elbow" 2:01
10. "I Won't Share You" 2:48
outtakes:
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