C/D: Smiths' "Meat Is Murder"

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Released 20 years ago -- 11 February 1985.

http://sgfm.elcorteingles.es/SGFM/88/61/4/05167588614/05167588614000m01011.jpg

Opinions? Does it hold up, or it is a flop when contrasted with 1986's The Queen Is Dead?

For me, "Headmaster Ritual," "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore," and "Barbarism Begins at Home" are classic tunes, darker and somehow druggier (in some indefinable way) than some of their other well-known tunes. They seem more direct lyrically here than in a lot of Morriseey's stuff. (Whether that's a virtue or not is another debate.)

― ffirehorse (firehorse), Monday, 7 March 2005 03:47 (twenty years ago)

holy fuck! 20 years! i was 13 and i don't think i took this off my turntable for 3 months.

THAT JOKE ISN'T FUNNY ANYMORE.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 7 March 2005 03:57 (twenty years ago)

Yeah. I feel exactly the same way.

― ffirehorse (firehorse), Monday, 7 March 2005 03:59 (twenty years ago)

id have to say that this is my least favourite smiths LP but has one of the greatest songs ever recorded on it. when that weeping guitar comes back in for the coda on "that joke..." well....

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:00 (twenty years ago)

when that weeping guitar comes back in for the coda on "that joke..." well....

Yep! Perfection!

― ffirehorse (firehorse), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:02 (twenty years ago)

Meat Is Murder is their best album, yes, even better than The Queen Is Dead. It has the energy of the debut, better production, some of the best lyrics ever put to tape, and, of course "How Soon Is Now," their finest moment by far.

― Mr. Jones, Monday, 7 March 2005 04:02 (twenty years ago)

"How soon is now" probably is their finest moment but wasn't actually on the album-as-recorded. i think it was tagged on by the U.S. label.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:04 (twenty years ago)

True. "How Soon Is Now" was released in the US shortly before Meat, though, so it will always be associated by a lot of US listeners with that album. I recall having a real hard time finding the 12-inch of "How Soon Is Now" until Meat came out.

― ffirehorse (firehorse), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:08 (twenty years ago)

I hate trying to pick a "worst" or even "best" Smiths album, as it's all apples and oranges really, but for some reason this one...ends up at the bottom of the totem pole for me. It's the one I just don't think about as much as the others. Though again I can't say it's necessarily worse.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:09 (twenty years ago)

not weeping but growling.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:10 (twenty years ago)

Jed, you are correct, sir, and you are not being pedantic. Regardless of the latter-day edition of the single, it is now the centerpiece of the best Smiths album (with the best bass solo on a Smiths album, too, I might add).

― Mr. Jones, Monday, 7 March 2005 04:10 (twenty years ago)

I think I would have rather had How Soon Is Now separately, actually.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:11 (twenty years ago)

and how would you have it separately?

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:14 (twenty years ago)

I love "Nowhere Fast". Well, all of them minus the title track.

In my mind, Queen is Dead is seperate from the rest of the Smiths discography. I reckon it's the production -- but it's just not a real Smiths album to me.

― Aaron A., Monday, 7 March 2005 04:14 (twenty years ago)

This would be my third favorite Smiths album. Hatful first and then Queen Is Dead.
I played this album non-stop when it came out, and to this day, the guitar work enchants me to no end. The only weak spot is the title track.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:18 (twenty years ago)

There is a very classic ILM Smiths thread where (i think) nabisco makes an argument for MIM as the best Smiths album.

It is the only Smiths album I don't own, despite having heard it before and enjoying it. As a vegetarian I am too embarrassed by the title track.. and even the title.. and the cover to purchase it. Also, it is never on sale.

xpost, but obviously the best is hatful!

― Sonny, Ah!!1 (Sonny A.), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:21 (twenty years ago)

and how would you have it separately?

Not sure if you're joking here. I mean I think I would have rather had the How Soon Is Now 12" and the UK version of the Meat Is Murder LP. It would have been interesting to experience the album without that on there.

I think the title track might actually be the one Smiths song I find it hard to like.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:43 (twenty years ago)

And I'm vegetarian too.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:43 (twenty years ago)

"Meat is Murder" is the best song the Smiths ever recorded.

― dickwad, Monday, 7 March 2005 04:49 (twenty years ago)

hahahahahaha

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Monday, 7 March 2005 05:05 (twenty years ago)

If I was being pedantic earlier, I apologize ..... sometimes I get carried away.

― ffirehorse (firehorse), Monday, 7 March 2005 05:07 (twenty years ago)

"Rusholme Ruffians" is very good. I think it has so much of the feel of England's past, which I don't know except from films like Cathy Come Home.

― youn, Monday, 7 March 2005 05:18 (twenty years ago)

"Barbarism Begins At Home" has proven to have a kind of staying power over the years that I never would have guessed it'd have at the time.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Monday, 7 March 2005 05:24 (twenty years ago)

What She Said is, in a way, my favorite Smiths song. (also consistantly overlooked)

I'd say MIM is probably the Smiths album that was most important to me.

― scout (scout), Monday, 7 March 2005 05:43 (twenty years ago)

I used to live in Rusholme, so I say it's classic just for that, because I'm a solipsist. And what's this "How Soon is Now?" on Meat is Murder horse pucky? A lamentable travesty!

― David A. (Davant), Monday, 7 March 2005 06:04 (twenty years ago)

When I said "Nowhere Fast" I meant "What She Said". (Now I can't remember which song "Nowhere Fast" is)

― Aaron A., Monday, 7 March 2005 06:08 (twenty years ago)

It would have been interesting to experience the album without that on there.

1) Rip Meat Is Murder to your hard drive.
2) Delete "How Soon Is Now" mp3.

voila.

― Don't Ever Antagonize The Horny (AaronHz), Monday, 7 March 2005 06:32 (twenty years ago)

I think this is probably my favorite Smiths album.

The last two tracks are pretty questionable, but the music is still great. And the first seven are all fabulous.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 7 March 2005 06:41 (twenty years ago)

this is probably actually my least favourite smiths album...

― Andrzej B. (Andrzej B.), Monday, 7 March 2005 07:33 (twenty years ago)

Rather two-dimenionsal and not enough jokes. Not classic.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 7 March 2005 12:10 (twenty years ago)

It would have been interesting to experience the album without that on there.
1) Rip Meat Is Murder to your hard drive.
2) Delete "How Soon Is Now" mp3.

voila.

I mean at the time I originally experienced the song and the album. The idea of doing this now bores me to tears, I'm afraid. But thanks for your brilliant idea.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Monday, 7 March 2005 12:43 (twenty years ago)

When I said "Nowhere Fast" I meant "What She Said". (Now I can't remember which song "Nowhere Fast" is)

Nowhere Fast is probably the best song on it. I'd like to drop my trousers to the world and all that.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Monday, 7 March 2005 12:45 (twenty years ago)

Barbarism Begins at Home is duff, too. That bass solo - why does any group think a bass solo is a good idea? I'm not keen on The Headmaster Ritual either. So a qualified thumbs up from me (What She Said is my favourite Smiths song, and That Joke... would be somewhere in the top ten). They seemed to have run out of steam slightly around then (Shakespeare's Sister, instrumental B-sides, etc).

― Andrew Norman, Monday, 7 March 2005 13:14 (twenty years ago)

This is a great Smiths album. A few months ago, I read Joe Pernice's 33 1/3 book about the album, and I obsessed about the album again for a few weeks. This album is classic, and the book comes highly recommended as well.

― Jonathan (Jonathan), Monday, 7 March 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

You people need to stop bashing the song "Meat Is Murder" because the chord progression in the chorus is just sheer bloody brilliance (especially the way it slams into the phrase "The meat in your mouth/As you savour the flavour/Of MURDER"; that particular instance is pure magic). Also, the alliteration the first time it goes into the chorus ("the flesh you so fancifully fry") is really, really nice.

Yeah, overall it's lyrically banal and flawed but the end result is so much more than the sum of its parts it isn't even funny.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 7 March 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

Meat is Murder is the best Smiths album boyeeee

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 7 March 2005 14:39 (twenty years ago)

Sorry, I really did do a thread search before posting ..... and missed that thread. Apologies.

― ffirehorse (firehorse), Monday, 7 March 2005 14:58 (twenty years ago)

S'ok - just pointing it out. You know the title search option allows you to match an exact string of characters (eg. meat is murder) in a way that the full keyword search doesn't? It's handy (and incidentally, it allows you to search for words less than four letters long too).

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 7 March 2005 15:04 (twenty years ago)

Classic, my second favorite Smiths LP. The only low points for me are the last two tracks. I'm going to get lynched for this, but "How Soon Is Now" has never been one of my favorite Smiths songs so I like the album just as much with or without that track being considered on the album. For some reason, I just always find myself coming back to this album of theirs more than any other.

― dronez are not ours to eat, dronez are not ours to wear (smile), Monday, 7 March 2005 16:20 (twenty years ago)

but obviously the best is hatful!

Hatful of Hollow
The Queen is Dead
Meat is Murder
The Smiths
Strangeways, Here We Come

In that order.

One day in high school, I had 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore' stuck in my head and I began absentmindedly writing the lyrics out during a tedius moment in English class. I left that sheet on the desk or on the floor or something, and the teacher, with whom I was relatively close as teachers went, insisted on talking to me after class the next day 'cause she thought I had written it and she was worried. I was quite flattered and told her so.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 7 March 2005 17:35 (twenty years ago)

BTW, 'How Soon Is Now' is a great track that has been so over-played that I can barely hear it without wincing.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 7 March 2005 17:36 (twenty years ago)

That's why you fookin delete or skip HSIN, duh.

― Don't Ever Antagonize The Horny (AaronHz), Monday, 7 March 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

The title track is one of the five best proofs of how loving the Morrissey necessarily included laughing at him, here and there. I wish more songwriters would shoot for that kind of relationship.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 7 March 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

it would be the best Smiths album, but unfortunately "Frankly Mr. Shankly" and "Unhappy Birthday" are not on it. so therefore, no dice.

― JD from CDepot, Tuesday, 8 March 2005 00:51 (twenty years ago)

"Barbarism" is awful. Side 1 is prob'ly their best 20 minutes. JD, I respect your right to be an individical, but do you smoke a lot of crack?

― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 01:35 (twenty years ago)

Isn't Hatful of Hollow a singles compilation? If that counts, then the best Smiths album, by miles, is Louder Than Bombs.

― Aztec Disemboweller, Tuesday, 8 March 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

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