From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V19 #92 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Saturday, October 8 2011 Volume 19 : Number 092 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: How do you work this thing? [Rex Broome ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2011 18:33:59 -0700 From: Rex Broome Subject: Re: How do you work this thing? On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 10:00 AM, lep wrote: > The Smiths fans were more of the vibe that they loved the The Smiths > SO much that they actually didn't want YOU to listen to them, because > you're certainly not that cool In this they seem to actually take their cues from le Moz lui-meme; his lyrics always strongly suggested to me that if you didn't do exactly as he did, you were beneath contempt. Of course there's that surface-level putdown of all things popular and banal, which is normal for an "underground" band, but beyond that there seemed to be many, many strict proscriptions as to *how specifically* to be countercultural, and a sneering suggestion that if you did so in some other less-Morrissistic fashion, you were doing it wrong. Actually, "Cemetry Gates" is one of the prime offenders, strongly suggesting that it's not enough to be unfashionably bookish, but that you really had to worship the *right* dead poets or "you lose". Yeesh. A difference between Smiths and R.E.M. followers at that level was that the Smiths had their "how-to" guide right there, intelligibly, in their lyrics, whereas who knew what Stipe was even saying. That of course didn't stop some of us from being just as slavish in our ways... certainly I spent at least two years buying records by every band Peter Buck mentioned in interviews (between, of course, his anti-Tom Clark tirades, which were much more strident and unhinged in those young days). > It took SPIN magazine's voting The Queen is Dead the > best record ever made (or something) (this was probably the early to > mid-'90s?) for me to give the band a chance It's funny, but I remember the early critical opinion on the Smiths being very, very divided, and that it was kind of cool to hate them for most of their active career; they only really became canonized critically unassailable holy cattle after breaking up. And yeah, that seemed to cement itself during the grunge era, at which time I was disenchanted enough with current rock that I tried to get into the Smiths "for real"-- I think I got their whole back catalog on CD in one of my Columbia House go-rounds-- but it just didn't take. I could go on, but I won't. Smiths music is just not "for" me... I just feel like Morrissey would hate me. I mean, MES would probably hate me, too, but I think Morrissey would like me if I started acting more like him whereas MES could never be paid to care, so he wins. ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V19 #92 *******************************