The Smiths/Morrissey are, by far, the most overrated band in history.

frankly mr. craply wrote:

OP here.

You're all wrong about my taste in music. I can recognize a good production. I can also recognize things that simply have an APPEARANCE of being "good", but are truly just exercises in style. I would consider Morrissey to have the same sort of artistic heart as someone like Kanye West. Lots of artsy "images", but no real heartfelt depth to it. Pretentious in every way.

+1. there is no soul in the smiths music - just tricks and emoty stuff.

But they are not the most overrated rock(ish)band ever - that title can only be held by Radiohead. They won it and put it away,lock and key.

jjjjjjjjj wrote:

they were among the most underrated bands in their time, hardly heard by anyone as we were all subject to blue oester cult and bryan adams and peter gabriel and so on, and didn't get to hear any of the great '80s alternative bands. Danceable and peppy, yet with heavily depressing lyrics, but you don't think that is some kind of feat???

C'mon man... They were as unheard of in the "alternative" realm as The Cure. While hardly the most overrated as the OP contends, they certainly weren't the most brilliant or fresh either.

Dave Matthews Band.

I know you're trolling, but the Smiths are brilliant and the most underrated band in history. How do you overate a band that doesn't make any American music publication's top greatest all-time artists? Rolling Stone doesn't even put them in the top 100!

The Smiths have B-sides that out-rock anything put out by:

Pink Floyd

Nirvana

The Who

Guns N' Roses

Metallica

U2

Van Halen

NIN

Tom Petty

The Police

Aerosmith

...and on and on...

They wrote, perhaps, the greatest Alt Rock/Rock song of the 80s in "How Soon Is Now?" and have been covered by bands ranging from Anthrax to The Shins.

You may think they're tacky, smug, foolish, and annoying, but that doesn't make their music any less accomplished.

For my money, they're a top 10 all-time rock band.

Styx, Journey, Rush, Foreigner bands that sucked the first time around and continue to suck on their geriatric tours.

There will be panic in the streets of London. The Smiths were surely not mainstream and only for the selected few in the 80s and early 90s.

I was a big fan in the 80s and 90s. And I mean big, as in one of the hardcore fans. You probably are aware that the Smiths/ Morrissey fans were/are extremely passionate, and have been considered the most passionate of all the music fans. For example, see this clip from the Manchester "Smiths farewell" show in Dec. 1988:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxO1sNzkRnQ

Having said that, I haven't cared much at all for his stuff for the last 15 years or so. Seems pretty much garbage lately. ("Lately" being since 1997, after the album "Maladjusted.") But maybe that's just me getting older, losing interest in music in general.

So I could see how Morrissey's recent stuff could in fact be considered "overrated" -- but surely not the Smiths nor Morrissey's early solo stuff.

Great band that's certain.

How can you go wrong with lyrics like:

The last night of the fair

By the big wheel generator

A boy is stabbed

And his money is grabbed

And the air hangs heavy like a dulling wine

Great guitar, bass, and drums, then add in lyrics like this = one of the greatest bands that ever existed!

Longtime fan here wrote:

I was a big fan in the 80s and 90s. And I mean big, as in one of the hardcore fans. You probably are aware that the Smiths/ Morrissey fans were/are extremely passionate, and have been considered the most passionate of all the music fans. For example, see this clip from the Manchester "Smiths farewell" show in Dec. 1988:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxO1sNzkRnQ

Having said that, I haven't cared much at all for his stuff for the last 15 years or so. Seems pretty much garbage lately. ("Lately" being since 1997, after the album "Maladjusted.") But maybe that's just me getting older, losing interest in music in general.

So I could see how Morrissey's recent stuff could in fact be considered "overrated" -- but surely not the Smiths nor Morrissey's early solo stuff.

for pete's sake - that is hardly any fan adulation. I walk by the set of Good Morning America every day and even the B listers have that many people chasing them and screaming.

A true famous person like Lady Gaga has people jumping on her SUV and racing after it down the street.

That said, yes, Smiths fans are insistent that the group is great, embarassingly so.

I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour

But heaven knows I'm miserable now

I was looking for a job, and then I found a job

And heaven knows I'm miserable now

In my life

Why do I give valuable time

To people who don't care if I live or die ?

Two lovers entwined pass me by

And heaven knows I'm miserable now

I was looking for a job, and then I found a job

And heaven knows I'm miserable now

In my life

Oh, why do I give valuable time

To people who don't care if I live or die ?

What she asked of me at the end of the day

Caligula would have blushed

"You've been in the house too long" she said

And I (naturally) fled

In my life

Why do I smile

At people who I'd much rather kick in the eye ?

I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour

But heaven knows I'm miserable now

"You've been in the house too long" she said

And I (naturally) fled

In my life

Why do I give valuable time

To people who don't care if I live or die ?

acker wrote:

That said, yes, Smiths fans are insistent that the group is great, embarassingly so.

In what ways are The Smiths not great?

werwe wrote:

acker wrote:

That said, yes, Smiths fans are insistent that the group is great, embarassingly so.

In what ways are The Smiths not great?

The Hand that Rocks the Cradle is a work of sublime genius. I mean it's really a string of tired cliché but I cannot express how much I love that song and the entire first three albums. Pure genius and most certainly not for everyone. De gustibus...

I must not think bad thoughts wrote:

werwe wrote:

In what ways are The Smiths not great?

How embarassing.

...That you spelled "embarrassing" wrong or that you couldn't give a single example of how The Smiths aren't a great band?

agip wrote:

frankly mr. craply wrote:

OP here.

You're all wrong about my taste in music. I can recognize a good production. I can also recognize things that simply have an APPEARANCE of being "good", but are truly just exercises in style. I would consider Morrissey to have the same sort of artistic heart as someone like Kanye West. Lots of artsy "images", but no real heartfelt depth to it. Pretentious in every way.

+1. there is no soul in the smiths music - just tricks and emoty stuff.

But they are not the most overrated rock(ish)band ever - that title can only be held by Radiohead. They won it and put it away,lock and key.

Haha, well, I love Kanye West, The Smiths AND Radiohead. Do I win a prize for having the worst taste in music ever?

The Smiths - no heartfelt depth ?! Have you listened to their lyrics ? Do you not understand why emo kids of the '80's went nuts for them? They were utterly new. Singing about northern kids who didn't give a crap about Thatcher and "opportunities" and a career. Life was passing these kids by and The Smiths sang THEIR songs.

Sorry, Morrissey's a self-indulgent tool but for 5 years or so, he wrote some of the most singularly brilliant pop music ever written.

I see your point about fans of Lady Gaga fans jumping on her SUV, and running after it, but the Smiths/Morrissey fans were (maybe still are?) on a whole level of intensity and love. Here is an example:

Longtime fan here wrote:

acker wrote:

for pete's sake - that is hardly any fan adulation. I walk by the set of Good Morning America every day and even the B listers have that many people chasing them and screaming.

A true famous person like Lady Gaga has people jumping on her SUV and racing after it down the street.

That said, yes, Smiths fans are insistent that the group is great, embarassingly so.

I see your point about fans of Lady Gaga fans jumping on her SUV, and running after it, but the Smiths/Morrissey fans were (maybe still are?) on a whole level of intensity and love. Here is an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6UH02hCyjc

er...I think those onstage hugs are as much for his role as a gay pioneer than for his music.

Look, clearly his fans are rabid. But so were fans for lots of people who were rubbish. The Monkees. leif garret. Bieber. I know that isn't fair because the Smiths were not bubblegum makers, but the point is that adulation means nothing in popland.

Fact is, I have been listenign to music seriously for 30+ years and I can hum ONE smiths song - the 'I am human' part of 'how soon is now'. Which means they wrote very very few memorable songs.

here's my take:

the songwriting is crap with the smiths. They got the mood right and the lyrics seemed to hit home with sad people, but the actual music? bland and empty.

I see your point about fans of Lady Gaga fans jumping on her SUV, and running after it, but the Smiths/Morrissey fans were (maybe still are?) on a whole level of intensity and love. Here is an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6UH02hCyjc

[/quote]

Sorry, of course I meant to say that the fans were on a "whole different level" or "whole 'nother level" of intensity, compared to the average music fans of, say, Madonna, etc. See the youtube video from about 30 seconds in.