Bigmouth Strikes Again...Again (The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths)

Member Name: Jake Speed

Product:	The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths
Date:	08/10/07 (308 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A great Album

Disadvantages: None really

The Queen Is Dead is the third album by The Smiths and was first released in 1986.

The record is generally regarded to be The Smiths at the height of their powers and its reputation has grown in the years following its release leading to high placings in best and essential album polls.


Sleeve

The album cover of The Queen Is Dead, designed by Morrissey, features Alain Delon from the 1964 film L'insoumis


Songs


The Queen Is Dead - Begins with a weird sample from the film The L-Shaped Room and then turns into an epic introductory song where Morrissey breaks into Buckingham Palace with a sponge and a rusty spanner. His less than serious attitude to Royalty is expressed in typical Morrissey fashion:

"And so, I checked all the registered historical facts
And I was shocked into shame to discover
How I'm the 18th pale descendant
Of some old queen or other"

The punkiest song of The Smiths' career, this is driven by a fast drum beat and is quite superb. 9/10

Frankly, Mr Shankly - A catchy song with a singalong style that sees Morrissey go a bit music hall. The song is about being stuck in a boring job and feeling like the world is passing you by. I think many of us will have felt like this at some point! Morrissey's vocal contortions and emphasis on certain words is great fun and very Morrissey.

Includes the famous lines:

"Fame, Fame, fatal Fame
It can play hideous tricks on the brain
But still I'd rather be Famous
Than righteous or holy, any day" 9/10

I Know It's Over - "I know it's over, and it never really began, but in my heart it was so real," sings Morrissey. Only he could come up with a song about the end of a fictitious or imagined relationship and make it so poignant. The song is long with fantastic lyrics (Morrissey almost tells a story that you have to work out) and The Smiths' guitars, bass and drums all playing their part perfectly. Includes the famous Morrissey lines :

"It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes guts to be gentle and kind." 9/10

Never Had No One Ever - Continues in the same mould as the previous song but with a more simple and less layered execution. The music by Johnny Marr is very atmospheric on this song. 8/10

Cemetry Gates - A breezy, fun song in which Morrissey pokes fun at suggestions of plagiarism in his writing. Mozzer advises everyone not to plagiarise because there is always someone out there with a 'big nose who knows'. The song is very catchy and melodic and Morrissey's hero Oscar Wilde gets a mention. Johnny Marr's jangly guitars are on top form. 9/10

Bigmouth Strikes Again - The first single from the album, this was described by Johnny Marr as an attempt to make his own version of The Rolling Stones' Jumping Jack Flash. Marr wanted a fast, aggressive single to let fans know The Smiths were back and vetoed the other (superior) option of There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. As ever, Morrissey and Marr are perfectly in sync here. 9/10

The Boy With The Thorn In His Side - A harmonic pop song with strings and Morrissey in a whimsical mood.

"And when you want to Live
How do you start ?
Where do you go ?
Who do you need to know ?"

The Boy With A Thorn In His Side can be read in a number of ways. It could be a homoerotic song (purely my own theory) or the 'thorn' could be the record industry in general stuck in Morrissey's side. 9/10

Vicar In A Tutu - Morrissey is lifting some lead off the roof of a local church at the start of this fast throwaway song which goes very rockabilly. It has funny Morrissey lyrics but is far and away the most insubstantial and non-essential song on The Queen Is Dead. 7/10

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - My favourite Smiths song. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out is an inspired and beautiful song that is - by turns - palpably sad and very funny. Morrissey conjures up the image of a double-decker bus crashing into him and the object of his affection and decides that would be a fitting and romantic way to exit this world! 10/10

Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others - A very Johnny Marr piece of jangly (and excellent) music is used by Morrissey to go very Carry On. " As Anthony said to Cleopatra, as he opened a crate of ale." Only Morrissey would probably be obtuse enough to reference Sid James in Carry On Cleo on such a dark album! 9/10

The Queen Is Dead is a tight and brilliant album with fantastic lyrics and a range of music styles from pop, punk, jangly sixties style guitars and complex ballads.

Morrissey and Marr both prefer their last ever album Strangeways Here we Come but this is probably a better introduction to their distinctive world. People sometimes forget that while their songs were frequently dark with sad themes Morrissey's lyrics are often very funny. When I first started getting into The Smiths I often laughed out loud at several lines and I honestly can't think of any who has that effect on me now musically. You might not always know what he's going on about but you sort of know what he means.

Anyone interested in British pop music should own this record. A masterpiece by one of the most influential - and best - bands we ever produced.

Singing/Lyrics Morrissey
Guitars Johnny Marr
Bass Andy Rourke
Drums Mike Joyce

Summary: A classic