For the past week I have been listening to almost nothing but The Smiths, as i’m listening to all of their albums in this new light that had never appeared to me before.
Over the past weekend, a friend and I were sitting around talking and listening to all kinds of music before I was asked to check out this live performance of The Smiths from 1984. The performance was on this German music show called Rockpalast, and this had to be one of the greatest things i’ve ever watched. I use the term ‘greatest’ for one, i’ve never watched any live footage of the band (yeah…laugh it up); second, we were watching it on this large high-definition television.
Seriously, that’s just a shocking sight to behold; walking into a room and seeing two people sitting around talking shit while watching Morrissey sing his tales of young, angry misery on this huge fucking television. Yes, all masculinity is lost on us.
Now, i’m not a die-hard fan of The Smiths in all honesty. Though I do happen to own all of their albums, and consider them one of the most influential bands of the past 25 or so years; I just wouldn’t be able to tell you much regarding the band itself nor could I recognize every song of theirs off the top of my head. The Smiths simply made fantastic music together, with Morrissey providing his lyrics and Johnny Marr with the music. They were a perfect tandem, complimenting each other in the best way possible. This is something I never truly realized until watching this live performance.
The band performs so effortlessly on stage, with Morrissey and his stage antics along with Marr and Andy Rourke sounding crystal clear with their guitar and bass playing, respectively. Every song sounds so magnificent here in this live setting, and at times I felt that a lot of these were just a whole lot better than the album versions.
Check out the videos for yourself, as every part of their performance is up on YouTube. If anyone happens to have the audio of this, I would be eternally grateful for it.
“Girl Afraid” :: The Smiths
“This Charming Man” :: The Smiths
“Pretty Girls Make Graves” :: The Smiths
Additional posts you may be interested in:
Entries (RSS)
I have these audio files you were talking about. Drop me an email if still interested.
For more Smiths, check out this 1987 documentary from Tony Knox’s South Bank show with lots of live performance and interviews with Morrissey and Johnny Marr. link http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6287819103590496366
Oh gracious. Thank you so much for sharing this. Where’s the queue for audio of this? I want to join it. It’s like a Holy Grail.
Ben – Singapore