Strangeways, Here We Come

Untitled

In 1987, The Smiths released their final studio album, Strangeways, Here We Come. Named after Manchester's notorious (and now renamed) Strangeways Prison, the first side of the album is regarded as superb by many fans, while the second side is maligned as evidence of the breakdown within the group.

About the album

The Smiths recorded what was to be their final studio album at the Wool Hall studios in Bath, England. Although still firmly an indie record, it finds the band (and especially musical director Johnny Marr) pushing the envelope as far as possible within those constraints, experimenting with overtly synthesized saxophone and string arrangements and drum machine additions.

Had this not been the band's final album, it would have been considered a transitional effort. Between the record's recording in March and its release in September, 1987, however, the band had broken up after Johnny Marr announced in August that he had left the band. Despite (or perhaps thanks to) the break-up shock, the album rose to No. 2 in the British and No. 55 in the American charts.

Strangeways, Here We Come may be The Smiths' last album, but it does not feature their last-ever recordings, as a final two songs were recorded in May 1987 to provide B-sides for the album's lead single, "Girlfriend in a Coma" (see the entry on "I Keep Mine Hidden", B-side for this single and the last song The Smiths ever recorded). Two more singles were taken off Strangeways, Here We Come; they were supplemented on their B-sides by archive recordings.

Cover

The sleeve for Strangeways, Here We Come, which was designed by Morrissey, features a murky shot of East of Eden co-star Richard Davalos. Davalos is looking at James Dean, who is cropped from the image. Dean was a hero of Morrissey's, about whom the singer wrote a book called "James Dean Is Not Dead". Five years later, when designing the sleeve for WEA's "Best" compilations, Morrissey again chose Davalos as a cover star, and Davalos is looking at Dean, who is once again cropped.

As revealed in Jo Slee's collection of Smiths and Morrissey sleeve artwork, "Peepholism", Davalos was not the original choice for cover star. Morrissey wanted to use a still of Harvey Keitel in Martin Scorsese's "Who's That Knocking At My Door?" (1967), but Keitel declined to allow him to use the image. In 1991 Keitel relented, and the image was used on t-shirts and stage backdrops for Morrissey's 1991 solo tour.

The CD booklet contained an additional photo of Johnny Marr in the studio, lying on his stomach on a chair, seemingly exhausted and possibly breaking down. Whatever the actual facts behind the taking of the photo, it remains a striking emblem of the stress which led the guitarist to break up The Smiths.

Track-by-track description

1. The album starts off with "A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours", one of the few Smiths songs to feature no guitar. The track maintains the quality of "The Queen Is Dead", the opening track on the last Smiths studio album. The title is borrowed from a poem by Speranza, a nineteenth century Irish nationalist and mother of Oscar Wilde.
2. The second track is the guitar-laden glam rock-esque "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish", a single which hit No. 23 in the UK. Both it and the first track feature some strange new glottal growling from Morrissey, which would appear again on his solo song "Hairdresser on Fire" and then never be heard from again. At the end of the song, Morrissey can be heard in the recording studio asking producer Stephen Street "Stephen, Should we do that one again?"
3. "Death of a Disco Dancer", ostensibly about AIDS, is both uncharacteristic of the Smiths and pleasantly surprising. The first half of the song is filled with bass and is extremely subdued for a Smiths song. The second half features a demented Morrissey piano part and a riveting drum solo from Mike Joyce. This song is the place where The Smiths' influence on Radiohead is most obvious.

4. 

   The sleeve of "Girlfriend in a Coma" featuring playwright Shelagh Delaney.

   Track four, "Girlfriend in a Coma", is a tongue-in-cheek, music hall inflected song that clocks in at a mere two minutes and two seconds. Though "lightweight", the song is extremely catchy and features some excellent guitar work from Johnny Marr. Because of this, it was able to reach No. 13 in the UK. The video, featuring clips from the film "The Leather Boys" (starring Rita Tushingham, the star of "A Taste of Honey"), was directed by Tim Broad.
5. The fifth track is the excellent "Stop Me if You've Heard This One Before". A classic Smiths song, it is considered by fans to be both funny and musically compelling. Marr achieved the chiming effect at the end of the track by dropping butter knives on the strings of his oddly-tuned guitar. Slated to be released as a single, it appeared as the fourth and final Smiths single only in the US and Europe, but not in the UK, where the song wasn't released for fear of a backlash over the line about "mass murder" following the Hungerford murders. The US video, again directed by Tim Broad, featured Morrissey-- flanked by an army of "lookalikes"-- riding bicycles around Manchester, visiting key sites in The Smiths' iconography, such as the famous Salford Lads Club photo. In the UK the same video was used for "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish".

The second side of the album represents a dramatic, mostly negative change in terms of quality and style.

1. "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" commences with two minutes of noise from a Miners Strike (supplied by a BBC Sound Affects album]] with intermittent piano chords. It eventually develops into an emotional and powerful song, which when released (in a single edit) hit No. 30 in the United Kingdom.
2. This is followed by the by-the-books spite of "Unhappy Birthday", in which Morrissey revels in a fantasy about the untimely death of some unnamed adversary. With its upbeat and jangly guitars, the song is the one instance where lyrics and music do not sit happily together.
3. Next comes "Paint a Vulgar Picture", commonly considered the standout track from the second side. The story of a record company's attempt to make money from a dead pop star by touting his back-catalogue ("Reissue! Re-package!... Extra-Track and a tacky badge"), and of a devoted fan's reaction, it became foreshadowing in the light of subsequent issuings of multiple Best of Smiths compilations. The title Paint a Vulgar Picture was briefly considered as a title for the Best compilations by the chiefs at WEA.
4. "Death at One's Elbow", though jangly, is generally considered musically bleak, repetitive, and lyrically lacking. The lyrics are partly based on the diaries of Joe Orton.
5. The album concludes with "I Won't Share You", a simple and melodic song featuring only vocals, sparse bass notes and an autoharp. Its lyrics contain a typically maudlin lament about the "sick and cruel" nature of life, alongside flashes of the self-aware pride associated with Morrissey ("with the drive and the dreams inside / this is my time"); the track is a fitting close to the career of the Smiths. It has been assumed by many that the lyrics are Morrissey's farewall to Johnny Marr.

Track listing

All songs written by Morrissey/Marr.

LP

Side A

1. "A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours"
2. "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"
3. "Death of a Disco Dancer"
4. "Girlfriend in a Coma"
5. "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before"

Side B

1. "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me"
2. "Unhappy Birthday"
3. "Paint a Vulgar Picture"
4. "Death at One's Elbow"
5. "I Won't Share You"

Compact disc

Same as LP.

Personnel

The band

• Morrissey - vocals, piano on "Death of a Disco Dancer"
• Johnny Marr - guitar, keyboards, harmonica, synthesized strings and saxophone arrangements
• Andy Rourke - bass guitar
• Mike Joyce - drums

Additional musicians

• Stephen Street – additional drum machine programming on "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish", "Paint a Vulgar Picture" and "Death at One's Elbow", and strings arrangement for "Girlfriend in a Coma"

The sleeve notes list Orchestrazia Ardwick as being responsible for performance of the strings and saxophone arrangements; in reality, this is Johnny Marr and his synthesizer.

Technical staff

• Johnny Marr, Morrissey and Stephen Street – producers
• Steve Williams – assistant engineer