#296 - The Smiths - Meat Is Murder (1985)
MUSIC HISTORY COMPILED BY ADAM BERNARD:
BACKGROUND – THE SMITHS
The Smiths formed in Manchester, England in 1982. The group comprised of singer Morrissey, guitarist Johnny Marr, bassist Andy Rourke, and drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s. The seeds of the band were planted after Steven Morrissey and Marr met at a Patti Smith concert in 1978. They bonded over a mutual love of poetry, literature, and the New York Dolls. They decided to form a band, and decided on the name "The Smiths" because "it was the most ordinary name and I thought it was time that the ordinary folk of the world showed their faces". Around the time of the band's formation, Morrissey decided that he would be publicly known only by his surname, and by 1983, he forbade those around him from using the name "Steven", which he despised. They played their first public gig in 1982, and by 1984 released their self-titled debut album. It reached #2 on the UK Charts. After releasing a couple of singles later on that year, that leads us to today's album.
The Smiths released two more albums after Meat Is Murder (The Queen Is Dead in 1986, Strangeways, Here We Come in 1987) before breaking up in 1987. Despite their continued success, tensions emerged within the band. Marr was exhausted and took a break in June 1987, which he felt was negatively perceived by his bandmates. In July, he left the group because he erroneously believed an NME article entitled "Smiths to Split" was planted by Morrissey. Marr contacted NME to explain that he had not left the band due to personal tensions but because he wanted wider musical scope. The band tried to replace him temporarily with former Easterhouse guitarist Ivor Perry, but he felt uncomfortable, saying "it was like they wanted another Johnny Marr", and the sessions ended with Morrisey running out of the studio. By the time the Strangeways, Here We Come album was released in September, the Smiths had split. The breakdown has been primarily attributed to Morrissey's irritation with Marr's work with other artists and Marr's frustration with Morrissey's musical inflexibility. Marr particularly hated Morrissey's obsession with covering 1960s pop artists such as Twinkle and Cilla Black, saying "That was the last straw, really. I didn't form a group to perform Cilla Black songs." In a 1989 interview, Morrissey cited the lack of a managerial figure and business problems as reasons for the split.
The Smiths have sold over 4 million albums, including 1.5 million in the US and over 2 million in the UK. Not counting compilation releases, this is their 2nd best-selling album behind The Queen Is Dead.
ALBUM BACKGROUND – MEAT IS MURDER
Meat Is Murder is the second studio album by English rock band the Smiths, released in February 1985. It became the band's only studio album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart, and stayed on the chart for 13 weeks. The album was an international success: it spent 11 weeks in the European Top 100 Albums chart, peaking at number 29. It also reached number 110 on the US Billboard 200, in the United States.
Meat Is Murder was more strident and political than its predecessor, including the pro-vegetarian title track (Morrissey forbade the rest of the group from being photographed eating meat),[ and the anti-corporal punishment "The Headmaster Ritual". Musically, the band had grown more adventurous, with Marr and Rourke channeling rockabilly and funk influences in "Rusholme Ruffians" and "Barbarism Begins at Home" respectively.
Marr discussed why Meat Is Murder is the only album to top the UK LP charts and regularly featuring on best album lists, yet no hit single came from the initial release. "When we made the album, we weren't thinking that we needed to pull a single from it. That's the prerequisite these days, and maybe even then. Because we were also writing singles. We wrote albums to be albums and if some singles came off them coincidentally then fair enough. We assumed that most people who followed the band were the same as us, and presumed that they didn't need to be spoonfed a commercial track to buy an interesting piece of work. So that's why Meat Is Murder is the way it is - almost unfettered by chart considerations."