Smiths Victims

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My friend has a term for people who spent the 80s in a state of prevarication and paralysed uselessness when it came to potential romantic situations. He calls such people Smiths Victims. He blames Morrissey for the fact the inertia and wallowing seemed like such a cool option. To what extent are The Smiths (or any other band) responsible for your state of mind at a particular time or your personality in general? Maybe you are/were a Smiths Victim and would like to share it with us.

― Daniel (dancity), Thursday, 29 August 2002 07:50 (twenty-three years ago)

i am a field mice victim

― gareth (gareth), Thursday, 29 August 2002 07:57 (twenty-three years ago)

well, actually, more like an another sunny day victim

― gareth (gareth), Thursday, 29 August 2002 07:57 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm an Iron Maiden victim.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 29 August 2002 08:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Manic Street Preachers. Age 15 at Holy Bible's time of release. Say no more.

― Anna, Thursday, 29 August 2002 08:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I am yet another in the endless list of victims who have suffered and will continue to suffer at the hands of "I Want You Back" by the Jackson Five.

(good thread topic by the way)

― J0hn Darn1elle, Thursday, 29 August 2002 09:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Back in the day I fell foul of Metallica.

― Roger Fascist, Thursday, 29 August 2002 10:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Age 15 at B*witched's time of release. Say no more.

― Graham (graham), Thursday, 29 August 2002 10:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I'll with Gareth on this - basically a Bob Wratton / Harvey Williams victim. Sigh.

― Rob M, Thursday, 29 August 2002 11:31 (twenty-three years ago)

i'm a weasels ripped my flesh victim

― george gosset (gegoss), Thursday, 29 August 2002 11:33 (twenty-three years ago)

I grew up in a very strange way--I had severe restrictions in where I could go (just around the block, basicly), who I could date (no one, unless my parents met them first--a very archaic restriction by the eighties), and what I could watch, but I could listen to or read anything I wanted. At nine, I was already holed up in my room most of the day listening to the radio, and it progressed from there: REM and Husker Du had gotten to me by the time I was 15, and at 16 or so I started the great indie label buying and listening frenzy that lasted until I got married several years later. I'm still not sure weither it was a fair tradeoff or a bad tradeoff or something in between, but the fact remains that there are a few major emotions, including lust, that I first experienced from records and books.

― Christine "Green Leafy Dragon" Indigo (cindigo), Thursday, 29 August 2002 17:04 (twenty-three years ago)

In the 70s would these be "James Taylor Victims?"

― hstencil, Thursday, 29 August 2002 20:03 (twenty-three years ago)

I was a Van Halen victim.

― paul cox, Thursday, 29 August 2002 20:07 (twenty-three years ago)

How could the band who sang "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" possibly stunt your skillz with the opposite sex?

― hstencil, Thursday, 29 August 2002 20:10 (twenty-three years ago)

I was a victim of shoegazing.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 29 August 2002 23:09 (twenty-three years ago)

I was a Smiths Victim............and an Iggy Victim,and an Ian Curtis Victim, and a Marc Bolan Victim, and a Bowie Victim and a Nick Drake Victim............is that wrong?

― gazza, Friday, 30 August 2002 08:28 (twenty-three years ago)

No Gazza, not wrong. It just seems to me and my friend (See question above) that we missed out on a lot of action and what might be termed real living and growing up, because it was easy to become fixated on the notion of the romantic depressive, the heroic failure, who was more concerned with weighty matters, such as reading romantic French literature (I actually wanted to be Gerard de Nerval at one stage - he was the bloke who walked his lobster every day and died penniless despite being a literary genius and ended up impaled on a Paris railing in the freezing winter) wallowing in divine misery, than with the fun and frolics of shallow, mundane activities like going on dates, going to parties and generally interacting with one's contemporaries. The Smiths, great wits though they were, glorified this and it took me an awfully long time to extricate myself from this unhealthy mindset. Is it The Smiths' fault? Would I have been a saddo teenager anyway? One suspects so. To come back to Gazza's question, I'm trying to imagine what being a Bowie 'Victim' must be like...

― Daniel (dancity), Friday, 30 August 2002 09:34 (twenty-three years ago)

this question is stupid. So-called Smiths victims gravitated towards the Smiths because the band addressed their concerns, not the other way around.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 30 August 2002 11:10 (twenty-three years ago)

The word victim is just a turn of phrase to describe a particular state of mind. I never really suggested that The Smiths were actually responsible for screwing up my life or anyone else's (although that's an interesting question in itself). I just look back on what a fool I was when I was a teenager in the 80s and yeah the Smiths were there for me, but they also glamorised ineptitude, heroic failure. Suffering is a damn sight more interesting than having a good time, I was wont to think. The intention of the question was to examine relationships people have with bands. Not that stupid really.

― Daniel (dancity), Friday, 30 August 2002 20:27 (twenty-three years ago)

R.E.M. victim, and proud.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 30 August 2002 20:37 (twenty-three years ago)

DV: piffle

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 30 August 2002 20:39 (twenty-three years ago)

DV: I think you're right but I think finding sympathetic voices can prolong emotional concerns beyond their otherwise natural 'lifespan'.

I can easily imagine a 'Bowie Victim' - actually I think Suzy (one-time ILx regular) described herself in exactly those terms! Though with a positive spin too.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 30 August 2002 23:40 (twenty-three years ago)

14 & a Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness victim. GRRRRRR.

― Ess Kay (esskay), Saturday, 31 August 2002 05:10 (twenty-three years ago)

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