"PANIC" THE SMITHS (1986)

For the month of November, I’ll be selecting songs in conjunction with the music Twitter challenge: #WelcomeToTheOccupation.

The paradox of Marr’s upbeat guitar compositions and Morrissey’s lyrics is the magic of The Smiths. Nothings against Rourke & Joyce, those two certainly contributed greatly to The Smiths’ success. But it’s the Marr-Morrissey paradox that makes The Smiths unlike any other band on the planet. It’s the tension that you can’t put out of your mind. It occurs on nearly every Smiths track – and reaches boiling point on “Panic”.

Forget the social ills. Forget the social alienation. “Panic” is a revolt against bad music. Inspired by a moment when the band saw the news of Chernobyl followed by Wham!’s “I’m Your Man”, something about the music just didn’t sit right. “Panic” seems like an overstatement to the casual music fan. But to those who put more weight into what’s being played, “Panic” was fully justified and relevant. It is for me.

“Burn down the disco. Hang the blessed DJ
Because the music that they constantly play, It says nothing to me about my life.”

"THE HEADMASTER RITUAL" THE SMITHS (1985)

For the month of November, I’ll be selecting songs in conjunction with the music Twitter challenge: #WelcomeToTheOccupation.

Throughout the entire Smiths catalog runs a consistent tension between the upbeat, jangly guitar riffs of Johnny Marr and the bleak, dismal musings of Morrissey. Perhaps one of the most unusual pairings in rock history – and the paradox has not only served The Smiths well, it has helped them to become one of the most important bands of the eighties. “The Headmaster Ritual” is a microcosm of this beautiful tension.

The beginning of the song reminds me of how The Cure opens many of their songs. Letting the instruments do the introductions. Extremely uncharacteristic for the band, Morrissey doesn’t start singing until the :50 mark, allowing Marr’s Rickenbacker to set the tone. Like on many Smiths songs, the guitar riffs lift you up. When Morrissey finally enters the picture, he drags us down with an awful commentary on school life in Manchester. It’s this up-and-down tension that makes “The Headmaster Ritual” such a gem of a track.

“Belligerent ghouls Run Manchester schools. Spineless swines. Cemented minds.”

"OSCILLATE WILDLY" THE SMITHS (1987)

For October, the Mental Jukebox is dialing it way back to the eighties and going deep. Deep cuts have always been an important element of music listening to me because they’re often the songs that resonate with me most. Deep cuts are usually the ones that the true fans appreciate most. I like my singles and hits, but I love my deep cuts.

The U.K. had The World Won’t Listen. The U.S. had Louder Than Bombs, one of my all-time favorite compilations and albums, period. It might seem odd to call a track off a compilation as a deep cut – as compilations are often comprised of the hits or singles. However, just like New Order’s Substance, Louder Than Bombs contained a heavy dose of spectacular b-sides, including “Oscillate Wildly”.

More than any other song from the band, “Oscillate Wildly” demonstrated Johnny Marr’s musical intellect and diverse palette beyond traditional guitar riffs. It was the b-side to “How Soon is Now?” and sat quietly on the deep compilation album Louder Than Bombs. More notably, it was an instrumental. The subtle brilliance of “Oscillate Wildly” made me wish The Smiths recorded more instrumentals. To this day, it still remains one of my favorite Smiths tracks.

"THE QUEEN IS DEAD" THE SMITHS (1986)

A great title track is par for the course when it comes to great albums. If the title track doesn’t cut it, what does that say about the album itself? This month, the Mental Jukebox will be playing some of my favorite title tracks – inspired by @NicolaB_73’s music Twitter challenge, #TopTitleTracks.

Any time is a good time for The Queen Is Dead. But with Andy Rourke’s recent passing, I think it’s important to remember and celebrate how integral both he and Mike Joyce were to the sound of The Smiths. They were the engine room. Johnny Marr has commented on how significant a music moment it was when he first heard Rourke play the bass line for this title track from my favorite Smiths album. I felt the same way the first time I heard it.

It is an album opener that makes other album openers seem so inadequate. “The Queen Is Dead” kicks off with the sample from “Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty”. It was magnificent. Before long, Mike Joyce launches a barrage on the drum set and Andy Rourke creates a slinging, cutting bass line, both of which make you hate yourself for ever thinking The Smiths were all about Morrissey and Marr. They’re all firing on all cylinders here. And this title track sounds like nothing else that we’ve heard before. It’s luring us in. And our lives are never the same again because this is The Queen Is Dead.

“Life is very long when you're lonely.”

"CEMETRY GATES" THE SMITHS (1986)

This month, I’m jumping into the #APlaceInTheSong challenge from @JukeboxJohnny2. Great songs have that special ability to describe places in a way that makes us feel like we’re right there. Each day, I’ll pick a track that I think accomplishes that feat.

When I first discovered The Smiths, The Queen is Dead had already been released for about three years. I was late to the party, but it didn’t take long for me to absorb those songs into my brain. I played it nonstop. It’s probably one of my top ten favorite albums of all time. The Queen is Dead rocked with “Bigmouth Strikes Again” and the title track. It mastered mid-tempo with “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side”, “Some Girls are Bigger Than Others” and “Frankly Mr. Shankly”. It wallowed with “I Know It’s Over” and “Never Had No One Ever”. It elevated with “There is a Light That Never Goes Out”. And then there’s “Cemetry Gates”, arguably the quintessential Smiths song.

The song was built on the foundational paradox of The Smiths — this oddball and strangely irresistible juxtaposition between Marr’s bright and cheery riffs and Morrissey’s morbid lyrics. “Cemetry Gates” felt like the ultimate example of this pairing. Marr’s jangle-infused guitar playing netted a riff that lifted Morrissey’s vocals into a frolic through the graveyard. Inspired by a visit to a cemetery in Manchester, Morrissey wrote the song as a reaction to plagiarism. But more than that, “Cemetry Gates” allowed Morrissey to wear sadness, insecurity and bitterness on his sleeve — and do so with a little humor.

“A dreaded sunny day. So I meet you at the cemetry gates. Keats and Yeats are on your side.”

"THE QUEEN IS DEAD" THE SMITHS (1986)

This month on Twitter, @sotachetan hosts #BrandedInSongs – which is a head-on collision of my personal world of music and my professional world of branding and advertising. The challenge is to simply pick a song with a brand name in its lyrics or title. I added one more criteria to my picks, which is this: the songs themselves must be as iconic as the brands they mention. No filler here.

Any time is a good time for The Queen Is Dead. But with Andy Rourke’s passing, I think it’s important to remember and celebrate how integral both he and Mike Joyce were to the sound of The Smiths. They were the engine room. Johnny Marr has commented on how significant a music moment it was when he first heard Rourke play the bass line for this title track from my favorite Smiths album. I felt the same way the first time I heard it.

It is an album opener that makes other album openers seem so inadequate. “The Queen Is Dead” kicks off with the sample from “Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty”. It was magnificent. Before long, Mike Joyce launches a barrage on the drum set and Andy Rourke creates a slinging, cutting bass line, both of which make you hate yourself for ever thinking The Smiths were all about Morrissey and Marr. They’re all firing on all cylinders here. And this title track sounds like nothing else that we’ve heard before. It’s luring us in. And our lives are never the same again because this is The Queen Is Dead.

"I say, Charles, don't you ever crave To appear on the front of the Daily Mail
Dressed in your Mother's bridal veil?"

"THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT" THE SMITHS (1986)

This month, I’m looking back at movies and tv shows to rediscover songs that graced the screen. The scenes and the music are inseparable. They’re engrained in our heads and our hearts. And they’re proof that the best music we have doesn’t exist in isolation. It attaches itself to a moment or an experience. #SceneSongs

Movie: 500 Days Of Summer

Yesterday I covered a song from one chronically misunderstood band: Rush. Today I’m covering another. The Smiths are also one of my all-time favorite bands, an incredibly prolific band with an impressive album run and intense touring schedule in their short time together. In 500 Days Of Summer, the elevator scene succinctly encapsulates that strong connection and affinity that Smiths fans have for each other. No better song to illustrate that point with than “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”.

One weekend during high school, I bought the Queen is Dead cassette and then played it non-stop that very same night. The album, along with a small handful of others, helped spark my love for music. A record this good only comes out maybe once a decade. and “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” was the lynchpin to the whole thing. Many great smiths songs seem to be composed of stories of odd, sad characters and stunning guitar riffs by Johny Marr. But “There is a Light” created something moodier, more orchestrated, more epic. I know this is sorta expected, but it is undoubtedly my favorite Smiths song of all time.

“DRIVING IN YOUR CAR, OH, PLEASE DON'T DROP ME HOME. BECAUSE IT'S NOT MY HOME, IT'S THEIR HOME AND I'M WELCOME NO MORE.”

"SOME GIRLS ARE BIGGER THAN OTHERS" THE SMITHS (1986)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

I’ve written a few times before about the impact that The Queen Is Dead has had on my experience as a music fan. Hearing it for the first time was transformative. It was an album that I had to listen to from beginning to end from the moment I picked up my cassette at Tower Records that fateful Saturday evening. This is very much attributed to the strength of every track and the sequence in which they appear. The Queen Is Dead starts out with a banger and then takes the listener on a rollicky journey of mid-tempo, slow ballads, bangers and then culminates unexpectedly with the iconic closer “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others”.

The track picks up here where Morrissey left off with the historical references earlier in the album. With Keats, Yeats and Wilder in “Cemetry Gates” and Joan of Arc in “Bigmouth Strikes Again”, The Smiths rewrite the textbooks one more time in “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others” – this time with Anthony and Cleopatra. The lyrics are powerful in their witty, imaginative state. The music is unexpected with fade-ins and fade-outs on the volume and as expectantly jangly as we want it to be with Marr’s melodic guitar riff. It’s not my favorite Smiths anthem, but it is my favorite closer from these Manchester boys.

“As Anthony said to Cleopatra As he opened a crate of ale: ‘Oh I say, Some girls are bigger than others’.”

"THE QUEEN IS DEAD" THE SMITHS (1986)

Great album openers get the listeners to keep on listening. They can do this in any number of ways. Some openers set the tone by easing us in. Others jump right in and blow our minds from the very beginning. A great album opener isn’t an easy thing to create. More than a great song, it’s all about the sequence. Track 1 has to be the perfect starter. This month, I’m highlighting my favorites. #AlbumOpeningSongs

Before I got my Queen is Dead cassette on that fateful Saturday evening at Tower Records, I already knew the more well-known songs: “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others”, “The Boy With The Thorn in His Side”, “Bigmouth Strikes Again” and, of course, “There is a Light That Never Goes Out”. But, hearing the entire album was a completely different experience. From the very beginning, it was an album that I had to listen to from beginning to end. Perfectly sequenced with not a lackluster track on either side, The Queen is Dead opened with a banger: the song of the same name.

It is an album opener that makes other album openers seem so inadequate. “The Queen Is Dead” kicks off with the sample from “Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty”. It was magnificent. Before long, Mike Joyce launches a barrage on the drum set and Andy Rourke creates a slinging, cutting bass line, both of which make you hate yourself for ever thinking The Smiths were all about Morrissey and Marr. They’re all firing on all cylinders here. And this title track sounds like nothing else that we’ve heard before. It’s luring us in. And our lives are never the same again because this is The Queen Is Dead.

“Past the pub that saps your body. And the church who'll snatch your money. The Queen is dead, boys. And it's so lonely on a limb.”

"CEMETRY GATES" THE SMITHS (1986)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #31DaySongLyricChallenge

Day 4

The Queen is Dead is one of my favorite albums of all time. The remarkable sequencing of the songs took me on a journey that I didn’t want to end. The songwriting was superb – featuring some of the best instrumentation from Marr, Joyce and Rourke – and, of course, the brilliant lyrics of Morrissey. There are so many great lines in every song, including the brilliant ode to literary greats and slam on plagiarism on “Cemetry Gates”.

“A dreaded sunny day. So let's go where we're wanted, and I meet you at the cemetry gates. Keats and Yeats are on your side. But you lose 'cause Wilde is on mine.”

"BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN" THE SMITHS (1986)

One of the most powerful things about music is that it is the soundtrack of our lives. Fellow music fanatic Sharon Hepworth started a music challenge on Twitter for the month of July. Each day, fans around the world will select a song from their life and describe what it means to us. These are my songs. #SoundtrackToYourLife

Day 4

During my early high school years, there would be occasional weekends when my parents had shopping or errands to do in the city. I eventually found a way to turn this drudgery into an opportunity. I started asking my parents if we could stop off at Tower Records so I could use my allowance money to pick up a couple of new cassettes. Soon, these previously dreaded trips to the city became treasured moments. Well before the days of streaming and even before CDs were universal, I was building my cassette collection with albums I bought from Tower Records – ones that I was exposed to through Long Island’s WDRE/WLIR or via Spin Magazine. The Queen is Dead was my most treasured album – and the song that grabbed me the most from the outset was “Bigmouth Strikes Again”.

Johnny Marr’s opening guitar riff hooked me in immediately. Crafted and played with a sense of urgency, Marr showed that jangle pop could have razor sharp teeth. “Bigmouth Strikes Again”, as a title, piqued my interest immediately – and then held me captive with some of Morrissey’s most captivating lyrics. “Now I know how Joan of Arc felt. As the flames rose to her Roman nose and her Walkman started to melt.” No one else was writing songs like The Smiths. “Bigmouth” also highlighted every member of this legendary Manchester quartet – not just Moz and Marr. Rourke’s bass line snakes about like a live fire hose, while Joyce’s drum fill at the 2:03 mark transforms his snare kit into a machine gun.

“Now I know how Joan of Arc felt. As the flames rose to her Roman nose and her Walkman started to melt.”

"SHEILA TAKE A BOW" THE SMITHS (1987)

It’s time to get back to my favorite decade. For the month of March, I’ll be looking back at some of my favorite jams from the 80s. These songs often came to me via MTV or the radio. NYC-area stations WDRE, WPLJ, WNEW, K-ROCK and Z100 introduced me to everything from irresistible pop confections to under-the-radar post-punk anthems. I would not be who I am today if it weren’t for the 80s. It was the decade when I discovered music can be a truly powerful thing. #31DaysOf80sSongs

One of my favorite rock bands of the 80’s, The Smiths were a short-lived phenomenon akin to a romantic fling. It was amazing while it lasted. It went by so fast, but the days were packed. In about a five-year period, the band produced four studio albums, a live album and a couple of compilations. Louder Than Bombs, in particular, was a favorite of mine, one that I remember often playing late into the night. It pulled together a series of disparate Smiths singles and their b-sides that didn’t appear on any of their studio albums. On a record where every track was a standout, some of those b-sides were a-side worthy. But today, I’m playing the Smiths anthem “Sheila Take A Bow” on the Mental Jukebox.

I picked this Smiths track because on top of being a great track it carries the added significance of being the last song that the band performed live. It’s the swan song and, although unintentional, it also has a sense of urgency to it. Marr’s guitar hooks soar high and hover low. Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce play one their more ambitious songs together. And Morrissey penned a lyrical masterpiece. “Boot the grime of this world in the crotch, dear. And don't go home tonight. Come out and find the one that you love and who loves you.” It’s as if the band knew all along this would be their last performance and that they would have to make every second of it count. As Sheila took her bow, Morrissey, Marr, Joyce and Rourke would take one final one as well.

“Boot the grime of this world in the crotch, dear.”

"CEMETRY GATES" THE SMITHS (1986)

For the month of October, I’m selecting a song each day from the decade that has the most meaning to me: the 80s. It was the decade that I grew up in. The period of time where I discovered my love for music — and explored many different genres. For the next 31 days, I’ll highlight a handful of songs that I truly loved and that were representative of the decade. #31DaysOf80sSongs

When I first discovered The Smiths, The Queen is Dead had already been released for about three years. I was late to the party, but it didn’t take long for me to absorb those songs into my brain. I played it nonstop. It’s probably one of my top ten favorite albums of all time. The Queen is Dead rocked with “Bigmouth Strikes Again” and the title track. It mastered mid-tempo with “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side”, “Some Girls are Bigger Than Others” and “Frankly Mr. Shankly”. It wallowed with “I Know It’s Over” and “Never Had No One Ever”. It elevated with “There is a Light That Never Goes Out”. And then there’s “Cemetry Gates”, arguably the quintessential Smiths song.

The song was built on the foundational paradox of The Smiths — this oddball and strangely irresistible juxtaposition between Marr’s bright and cheery riffs and Morrissey’s morbid lyrics. “Cemetry Gates” felt like the ultimate example of this pairing. Marr’s jangle-infused guitar playing netted a riff that lifted Morrissey’s vocals into a frolic through the graveyard. Inspired by a visit to a cemetery in Manchester, Morrissey wrote the song as a reaction to plagiarism. But more than that, “Cemetry Gates” allowed Morrissey to wear sadness, insecurity and bitterness on his sleeve — and do so with a little humor.

"A RUSH AND A PUSH AND THE LAND IS OURS" THE SMITHS (1987)

Pick four songs from any band and you can tell a lot about their sound. This summer, I’m featuring #RockBlocks, four picks from bands across various genres. They might be wildly different from each other, but what binds them together is the fact that they’re all a part of my life soundtrack.

Strangeways, Here We Come is an album that has grown on me over time. It has gotten better with time. Strangeways didn’t feature the vintage Smiths sound, but instead it expanded and explored more than the other three albums combined. Interestingly, it also gave us a glimpse into some of the sounds that Morrissey would later lean on in his solo career. It all started with their unusual opening track from the band.

The Smiths were often either morose or mopey, but “A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours” was almost menacing. And it was a sign of a band that was doing a little pushing of its own into new musical territories. For a band that was driven largely by Marr’s jangle-pop infused guitar riffs, this song stuck out like a sore thumb. There wasn’t a guitar to be found on the entire track, instead Marr went with a keyboard sound that created a circus-like environment. Then there was Morrissey, singing, humming and even growling his way through the song, demonstrating incredible versatility on lead vocals.

“A rush and a push and the land. That we stand on is ours. It has been before so it shall be again.”

"THE BOY WITH THE THORN IN HIS SIDE" THE SMITHS (1986)

Pick four songs from any band and you can tell a lot about their sound. This summer, I’m featuring #RockBlocks, four picks from bands across various genres. They might be wildly different from each other, but what binds them together is the fact that they’re all a part of my life soundtrack.

I still remember the day I picked up The Queen is Dead from Tower Records in Manhattan's Upper Westside. My family had a day trip in the city and I wisely convinced my parents to stop off at the then mecca of recorded music before heading back. I remember pressing play and knowing right away that the album deserved all the hype and acclaim that it got. It’s rightfully considered one of the greatest albums of all time, and it’s certainly the greatest Smiths record in my mind. I also believe that Side B was the greatest Side B of the 80’s — and “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side” is a big part of it.

Morrissey has stated that it’s his favorite Smiths song. It’s probably one of my favorites too because it was personal. I think Morrissey’s greatest lyrics are either about him or about The Smiths. In this case, the thorn is the music industry. And the boy is representative of Morrissey and the band. This was a song about an industry that wouldn’t and couldn’t accept The Smiths and just believe in them. The irony is that the song and the entire The Queen is Dead album went on to achieve critical acclaim. “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side” proved the naysayers wrong.

“And if they don't believe us now, will they ever believe us?”

"BARBARISM BEGINS AT HOME" THE SMITHS (1985)

Pick four songs from any band and you can tell a lot about their sound. This summer, I’m featuring #RockBlocks, four picks from bands across various genres. They might be wildly different from each other, but what binds them together is the fact that they’re all a part of my life soundtrack.

There are more natural choices when it comes to choosing a song off of The Smiths second studio release Meat is Murder. On the U.S. version, “How Soon is Now?” forever remains a monumental achievement in alt rock history. The melodramatic “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore” is, in many ways, the quintessential Smiths anthem. And “The Headmaster Ritual” is is one of Morrissey’s biggest and most beautiful poetic statements. But I deliberately picked “Barbarism Begins at Home” because it seems like the antithesis of The Smiths’ aesthetic.

When I play it, the first band I think of is Duran Duran, a band that could not be more different from The Smiths. “Barbarism Begins at Home” showed us that these boys were willing to step far beyond their comfort zone and, dare we say, have a little fun in the process. Play it along with Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” and the similarities are noticeable and downright eerie. Andy Rourke’s bass line sounds just like John Taylor. Joyce is in lock step with Roger Taylor. Marr mirrors Andy Taylor. And while Morrissey may not sound like Simon Le Bon, the melody that he totes around certainly feels like something Le Bon would’ve sung in all his new wave splendor.

“A crack on the head is what you get for asking.”

"REEL AROUND THE FOUNTAIN" THE SMITHS (1984)

Pick four songs from any band and you can tell a lot about their sound. This summer, I’m featuring #RockBlocks, four picks from bands across various genres. They might be wildly different from each other, but what binds them together is the fact that they’re all a part of my life soundtrack.

The juxtaposition of Morrissey and Johnny Marr made for one of the most unique unions in music. On paper, it didn’t make sense. Mopey vocals and lyrics. Jangly guitar riffs. But upon hearing it, there’s no denying that together they’re far greater than the sum of their parts. Sadly I never got to see The Smiths live, given the fact that they disbanded two years before I first heard “This Charming Man”. From the same debut album, “Reel Around the Fountain” was often overshadowed by the aforementioned classic as well as other Smiths staples over the years. But I’ve come to enjoy it with a newfound sense of appreciation.

“Reel Around the Fountain” isn’t Morrissey’s best work. Nor is it Marr’s best. But the two came together almost in lock step here. In many Smiths songs, Morrissey and Marr often seem at odds with each other, which creates that beautiful tension that is so irresistible. But on this opening track, they seemed more in sync than on any other track on their debut album - or on any of their remaining albums, for that matter. It seemed that, for one brief moment in time, these two extremely talented music artists were on the same wavelength.

“I dreamt about you last night and I fell out of bed twice.”

"PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, LET ME GET WHAT I WANT" THE SMITHS (1984)

Exceptional soundtracks can make good movies great. They can also take on a life of their own, becoming a greater highlight than their respective films. In this series, I’m selecting some of my favorite soundtrack songs. While quite a few are well-known recordings, I’m also including a few that have flown under the radar over the years.

“Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want” has a history with movies. First, it was covered in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’s museum scene by The Dream Academy. Then nearly 25 years later, the original recording was one of two Smiths songs to appear on 500 Days of Summer, a movie that references the greatness of the band and the unique affinity its fans had with its music.

This is a very different side to The Smiths - musically and literally. It was the b-side to the more palatable “William, It Was Really Nothing”. But “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want” eventually rose to become the more renowned song and got covered by numerous artists — everyone from Deftones to Hootie & the Blowfish. The lyrics have Morrissey’s drab, morose mindset written all over it. But what made the song stand out from the rest of The Smiths canon is the instrumentation. About a minute into the track, Johnny Marr trades out his jangly guitar riffs for an unexpected interlude with a mandolin. It didn’t rock. It wallowed.

“So for once in my life let me get what I want. Lord knows, it would be the first time.”

"OSCILLATE WILDLY" THE SMITHS (1987)

This week I’m featuring 80’s deep cuts on Mental Jukebox. They’re the non-charting singles. The forgotten b-sides. The unheralded album staples. While they may not be the first songs that come to mind when you think of the 80’s, they’re some of the most important musical statements of the decade.

it may seem strange to highlight an instrumental from The Smiths. But more than any other song from the band, “Oscillate Wildly” demonstrated Johnny Marr’s musical intellect and diverse palette beyond traditional guitar riffs.

It was the b-side to “How Soon is Now?” and sat quietly on the deep compilation album Louder Than Bombs. To this day, it still remains one of my favorite Smiths tracks. It was the manifestation of an anti-rock persona which they had all along, but only let out for a brief, wonderful moment in time.

"THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT" THE SMITHS (1986)

One weekend during high school, I bought The Queen is Dead” cassette and then played it non-stop that very same night. An album this good only comes out maybe once a decade. And “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” was the lynchpin to the whole thing. Many great Smiths songs seem to be composed of stories of odd, sad characters and stunning guitar riffs by Johny Marr. But “There is a Light…” created something moodier, more orchestrated, more epic. This is my favorite Smiths song of all time.

“Take me out tonight because I want to see people and I want to see life. Driving in your car, oh, please don't drop me home because it's not my home, it's their home and I'm welcome no more.”