The Smiths / Hatful Of Hollow poll

Argh so many to choose from. This Night Has Opened My Eyes.

love that photo

What Diff vs Back To The Old House vs Hand In Glove vs How Soon vs Reel. For me. Crap. that's a lot of vs.

What Difference Does It Make? (John Peel session, 5/18/83)
How Soon Is Now? (single A-side)
Handsome Devil (John Peel session, 5/18/83)
Hand in Glove (single A-side)
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (single A-side)
This Night Has Opened My Eyes (John Peel session, 9/14/83)
Girl Afraid (B-side of Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now)
Reel Around the Fountain (John Peel session, 5/18/83)

these are my faves on here; I don't see how I can keep from voting "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" although the 5/18/83 Peel session is making me second guess a little

Reel Around The Fountain

William.. for me. Girl Afraid close behind.

i like Taylor Parkes here http://thequietus.com/articles/00656-the-smiths on William:
..an astonishing piece of music, blindingly bright, brimming with Marr's most restless and glorious guitar (that fanfare rising to the second chorus, like a bouquet blooming from thin air - crowned with a cry of real abandon from an audibly transported Morrissey – remains, perhaps, The Smiths' most magical moment.

"William..." would have been a contender had I not then heard the rest of HOH; this is the definitive Smiths release for me

Hand in Glove (single A-side)

This version of Back to the Old House is seriously underrated.

yeah the original version is rubbish by comparison.

Freakin' love this album. Just utterly perfect. And "How Soon Is Now" is one of my all-time favorites, I NEVER NEVER NEVER get tired of that opening.

Came to vote for 'William...', stayed to vote for 'Reel...'

maybe.

"In a river the colour of lead..."

x-post Me too except I've never really rated HSIS very highly.

What Difference Does It Make? (John Peel session, 5/18/83)

err HSIN, rather

'Girl Afraid', followed by 'William...'

Have to say I prefer the original/album versions of most of the BBC session tracks here ('Back to the Old House' and maybe 'What Difference Does it Make?' would be the exceptions).

"Still Ill."

"Girl Afraid"

yeah the BBC sessions aren't as good as some folk make out, ..Old House is definitely the Peel keeper. i think the final, finished version of This Night.. that was unearthed last Christmas is better than the BBC version too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BacOW42b7WM

probably the best other BBC improvement on an original that isn't featured on Hatful (or indeed on any CD/vinyl) is this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bie785GQok

this was hands down my fave record that i bought on import when i was 16. was the soundtrack to a very rainy winter when i lived in Santa Cruz for a bit. it fit the time in my life *perfectly*. i might be predictable and go w/ William

Have to say I prefer the original/album versions of most of the BBC session tracks here

This album rendered The Smiths unlistenable for me.

even Suffer Little Children and The Hand That Rocks The Cradle? 2 cracking tunes those.

tbh I don't remember either of those because I never made it past "Reel Around The Fountain" when I tried to play the album

I was too young for The Smiths when this came out. I remember seeing Morrisey on TOTP with a sapling in the back of his trousers when I was about 10 years old and thinking they were awful. I don't recall seeing or hearing anything by them for a few years after that, although they were often talked about: the lyrics to songs I never heard like 'The Boy With The Thorn In His Side' would be printed in Smash Hits and there was graffiti saying 'Meat Is Murder' all over the bus station in my town centre. The only song of theirs I can remember hearing and liking *at the time* was Girlfriend In A Coma, right near the end.

Anyway, I got into them in 1992 while at university, borrowing a friend's homemade compilation cassette of the best tunes. IIRC the only tune it had from the official first album was Reel Around The Fountain, all the other early stuff was the Hatful of Hollow versions. I loved it and bought it (on vinyl from a second hand record shop in Manchester) - the only Smiths album I ever bothered to buy (my obsessive housemate bought absolutely everything else and I just taped it). I *much* prefer the Hatful of Hollow versions of This Charming Man, What Difference Does It Make, etc.

There isn't really a weak tune on this album, and they're all so short (apart from How Soon Is Now) that nothing outstays its welcome. It's very difficult to choose one winner, but it'll come from one of these: What Difference Does It Make?, This Charming Man, Hand In Glove, and Still Ill. I'll mull it over for a bit.

"Still Ill," bitches.

results came in during the outage!

biggest shocker; a toss-up between

Back to the Old House (John Peel session, 9/14/83) 0
and
This Night Has Opened My Eyes (John Peel session, 9/14/83) 6

how did i miss this? anyways this is the best Smiths album.

Corny as it sounds, this album and Kafka's The Trial are forever wed in my neurons because it's what I was listening to nonstop while reading the book in high school. They actually make a good pair.

This Night Has Opened My Eyes is a ridiculously brilliant song. Everything from the lyric, the opening five seconds, to that chorus lick that gets repeated in the coda... a true masterpiece.

yup

wow these results bear no correlation with mine

yeah, bizarre poll results