All Folked Up: The Smiths
(With an exclusive track from new tribute Please, Please, Please)
December 3rd, 2011 — 02:31 pm
Flashback, 1987: I’m a freshman in high school, just finding my way into the dark underbelly of underground music thanks to the burgeoning alternative college radio scene in and around the Boston area and a younger brother whose musical tastes blossomed early. I hadn’t really noticed UK band The Smiths during middle school, but when Girlfriend in a Coma hit the airwaves, it touched me deeply, and I purchased the album from which it came, hardly aware that it would be their last, that the band was already disintegrating from the stress between an exhausted and increasingly alcoholic Marr and a series of agressive acts from the dismissive, inflexible Morrissey. And then, as I noted in a single-song set and analysis posted elseblog way back in 2007, I played the song incessantly for weeks on end, finding it a perfect outlet for my own adolescent relationship angst.
Though they only released 4 full-length studio albums in a startlingly short six year career, British alt-rockers The Smiths are rightly recognized today as seminal, groundbreaking players in the evolution of both the independent music scene and modern music writ large, thanks to the sensitive post-punk sensibility of songwriting team Morrissey and Johnny Marr, and an unprecedented number of non-album singles, b-sides, and compilations. Their ability to channel the tensions of the age, and the trapped feelings of loneliness in a culture on the brink, spoke clearly and deeply to a generation; long after their break-up, their songs continued to do so on radio, and on my turntable.
Over the last decade or so, in recognition of their influence and their brooding way with the emotional core of the darkest side of the soul, the works of The Smiths, and of Morrissey’s solo career, have found their way into the hands of a number of luminaries, from Joshua Radin and Billy Bragg to Colin Meloy of the Decemberists. And now, with the 25th anniversaries of their most influential albums Strangeaways, Here We Come (1986) and The Queen is Dead (1987) looming large, their influence has been recognized with not one, but two separate tribute albums. The first of these, The Queen is 25, a free-to-download mixed Greek artist tribute from fellow coverblog The Cover Lovers, is a mixed bag: mostly electro/indie stuff, and not really my style. But the second, Please, Please, Please: A Tribute to The Smiths, is a two-CD set from American Laundromat Records, who have a strong reputation for great indiefolk coverage – and having just received my pre-release in the mail this morning, I’m thrilled to announce that it’s stunningly successful, a genuine miracle.
As a handful of previously-released Smiths-as-folk covers has already aptly demonstrated, transforming those mournful, angst-ridden vocals and the urgency of those synthbeats and bass into folkier, sparser, and/or acoustic numbers is less difficult than their placement in the canon would imply. At heart, Morrissey was a crooner and cultural critic, a predecessor of the dark emo camps, whose personal struggles with the world found life in deeply personal narrative performance. As such, though it focuses its attention on alienation, the Smiths songbook is chock full of open imagery, and couched in eminently singable melodies that are eminently open to flexible interpretation.
And here, on the newest collection, we find magic indeed: tiny, sweet, hushed takes on Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want and Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me from William Fitzsimmons and Canadian girl duo Dala, respectively; a soaringly slow alt-country ballad interpretation of There Is Light That Never Goes Out from Trespassers William; beautifully hollow, haunting piano balladry from Greg Laswell, Joy Zipper, and Sixpence None The Richer; gypsy folkpop coverage from the aptly-named Girl in a Coma; light grunge from Tanya Donelly and Dylan at the Movies, and much, much more. As with previous covers collections and tributes to the Neil Young, The Cure, lullabies, and more, American Laundromat has solicited a powerhouse set of artists from the indie and indiefolk worlds and given them license to find their own hearts in the music of their influences – and the resulting record is a tight diamond of consistency that elevates both performers and songwriters, a gem absolutely worth your time and patronage, whether you, too, were an early fan, a latecomer like me, or simply a culturally-aware radio listener who recognizes the majority of the songs from the low end of the dial.
So here’s an exclusive track from Sara Lov off the newest tribute to cross the desk – a wonderfully melodic, contemporary folk production posted with permission from the kind folks at American Laundromat – and a full set of Smiths covers from the last decade or so to match it. Like Please, Please, Please: A Tribute to The Smiths, our own collection ranges from angered to tender, revealing the broad range of the original songs, and of the universal emotion they express so adeptly. But taken as a set, they speak to the recesses of the soul in ways which remind us that, while bands come and go, we are privileged to live in an age where we can own the recording and reintepretation of song, the better to channel our emotion, and share the human condition – a folk conceit, to be sure, and one which keeps us coming back week after week. The Queen may be dead, but with tributes like these, the legacy of the Smiths is stronger than ever.
- Sara Lov: Well I Wonder
(from Please, Please, Please: A Tribute To The Smiths, 2011)
- Scott Matthews: The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
(from Osef, 2002)
- Billy Bragg: Jeane
(from cassette single Greetings To The New Brunette, 1986) - Sandi Shaw: Jeane
(from vinyl single Hand In Glove, 1984)
- Mom’s Favorite Vase: London
(from The Demo Tapes, circa 1995)
- Shannon Wright: Asleep
(from Honeybee Girls, 2009) - Stars: Asleep
(from Sing Me To Sleep, 2010)
- Sharon Van Etten: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
(demo recording via soundcloud, 2010) - Eddi Reader, Clive Gregson & Bo Hewerdine: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
(from Wonderful Lie, 1993)
- Kings of Convenience: Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now
(live from Rome, 2009)
- Josh Rouse: Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
(live; unknown source) - Liam Bailey: Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
(via soundcloud, 2010) - Tom Baxter: Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
(unknown source; great folk artist) - Slow Moving Millie: Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
(from MySpace, 2011)
- Angie Hart: There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
(from Eat My Shadow, 2009) - Dan Mangan: There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
(unknown source; amazing Canadian singer-songwriter) - Joseph Arthur: There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
(from Sweetheart 2005: Love Songs [Starbucks compilation; out of print]) - Sara Lov: There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
(from I Already Love You, 2011)
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