The 500 - #473 - The Smiths - The Smiths

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• 1 or 2 records per week & at least 2 complete listens.
• A quick blog post for each, highlighting the important details and a quick background story.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation.

Album # 473

Album Title: The Smiths
Artist: The Smiths
Released: February, 1984
My age at release: 18
How familiar am I with it: Very Little
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: This Charming Man
Great Lyric:
As long as the hand that rocks the cradle is mine
Ceiling shadows shimmy by
And when the wardrobe towers like a beast of prey
There's sadness in your beautiful eyes
Oh, your untouched, unsoiled, wondrous eyes
My life down I shall lie 
(The Hand that Rocks the Cradle)

"I hate The Smiths" ... I have said those words on more than one occasion, particularly between1984 and 1990.

That's odd for me to admit. I regularly tell my student that "hate is a word we reserve for truly awful things - like war, famine and racism".

But, it was a different time then and, real or imagined, I was on the opposite side of a divide between the people who liked bands like The Smiths ... and...people who liked...good music ;-). 

This record came out when I was in high school. My clique were, for the most part, into classic rock (Led Zeppelin, The Who) and heavy metal (Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath) with a few of us dabbling in progressive rock (Rush, Genesis), new wave (The Police) experimental rock (Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa) & folk rock (Neil Young, Crosby, Stills & Nash).

As with most high school cliques - we rolled with an "Us & Them Attitude". It was a reality captured powerfully in both the film The Breakfast Club and the brilliant, but short-lived, series Freaks & Geeks. I still identify strongly with the latter because it nearly perfectly captures my entire high school experience...from my passion for Dungeons & Dragons to my singular obsession with the band Rush. 

There is an old yearbook picture that I wish I could find. It is from about 1982 and features me in my denim jacket, covered in Rush patches & pins. I am standing with the other members of the high school Dungeons & Dragons Club. It is the geeky me on the precipice of freakdom (skipping school, partying & experimenting...on all fronts). As one friend put it, "Grade 12 was the best three years of my life!" This picture might just be our friend Terry, the first of us to turn 19.

Being part of a clique that accepts you for who you are (or at least who you were trying to be at the time) is transcendent. It is probably the most important thing on every high school student's mind - other than the overwhelming desire to connect with a romantic partner. The feeling of belonging outside the family unit is at its zenith during the teenage years. Attaining it is sometimes challenging and often fleeting, or at the minimum, transient. Looking back, it is sometimes difficult to remember how powerfully important it was. As Guy Garvey of Elbow eloquently puts it, in the song Lippy Kids

Lippy kids on the corner again, settling like crows
Though I never perfected that simian stroll
The cigarette senate was everything then.

The cost of membership to the "cigarette senate" was loyalty. Collectively, we had somehow decided that navel-gazing, post-punk, misery-pop was an anathema. Posers, Preps and Popular kids liked it - so it was not for us. We painted with a wide brush and many acts I enjoy today were on our hit list - Depeche Mode, The Cure, Joy Division, Echo & the Bunnymen, Yaz...and without a doubt, The Smiths. 

My friend Steve, whom I mentioned in my Husker Du post, used to call it "I don't know why music". However, just typing those words does not nearly capture the cleverness and depth of the derogation. 

He was dating a girl who listened to bands like The Smiths. When he would borrow her car, the cassette in the player would always be an easy target for our scorn. He would turn it on and, in a profoundly melancholy, comical faux-British accent begin to sing "and I don't know why" at perfect intervals. It always seemed to fit and never failed to make me laugh.

So, The Smiths. We meet again.

While preparing this post, I spoke with a friend who was is a fan. He informs me that I am failing to appreciating this band. He wants to listen to it with me...so, I'll report back when that happens.

At this point - the guitar playing is growing on me...I won't say hate - but I really don't enjoy Morrissey - particularly when he uses that bizarrely comical yet still gloomily falsetto voice to sing lyrics that are sometimes morose, sometimes narcissistic and regularly disturbing.

I am open to feedback - Comment below

Stay tuned for Part Two

    

"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and calling students stupid.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

If you are a fan of any of the following ... 

• cinematography (especially long, complex takes), 
• stand-up comedy, 
• eclectic music (particularly show-tunes & 50's hits), 
• New York City, 
• Late 50's fashion, 
• sharp, tight writing, or 
• rich, complex characters

...this is the show for you. 

It follows suddenly separated housewife Miriam "Midge" Maisel as she discovers a hidden talent for stand-up comedy in the burgeoning Greenwich village art movement of the late 1950's. 
The supporting cast are probably my favourite part.

• The caustic rapid-fire wit of Alex Borstein's Suzie Meyer's (Midge's hostile manager).
• Kevin Pollack - a stereotypical 1950's Jewish businessman who breaks with his character for a powerfully touching and important "father/son moment" in Season 2. 
• The anxiety-fueled comedic angst of Tony Shalhoub as Midge's brilliant but out-of-touch father - Abe Weissman.

Near the end of that season, Abe is under tremendous stress. The organized, idyllic world he has carefully curated for himself is under assault from all sides and he is in a crisis spiral. 

He walks into his advanced mathematics classroom at Columbia University to find it nearly empty. It seems his recent, erratic behaviour has led to a student exodus. Exasperated by the absence of his star pupil - Truman - he goes off on an epic rant. I tried to find it on YouTube, but the text will have to suffice.

"Let the record show that there are no men in Abraham Weissman's differential equations course. Just a sad collection of fatuous, imbecilic, puerile, blithering milksops. 

Why are all of you still here?!

I have one more math problem for you.

  (All of You) + X =Competence

Solve for X?

Do you want to know what X is?

It's competence - because none of you have any! 

You're all incompetent. You'll never work in any field that has the word "advanced" in front of it. You'll simply be overqualified dishwasher repairmen. I keep telling you that and you keep coming back - well, don't. Get Out!"

Here's the thing

I had a few of those teachers. Now, granted, they were not quite as eloquent as Abe...but I was absolutely in classrooms where one, or all of us, were dressed-down and called stupid.

A couple reflections

• It was a bit frightening when I was younger - but I feel that I rolled with it. Granted, I grew up in a world where any adult could verbally, or even physically, correct me. Once, as a child in Britain, I was caught stealing penny candies in a "sweet shop" by a complete stranger brought who pulled me to my grandfather...by the ear. I got in trouble. He got thanked.
• Verbal explosions like this were almost comical when I was in high school - we all silently "high-fived" each other with our eyes because we had made Mr. or Mrs. (Blank) snap. 
• Most importantly, Almost every time it happened - we kind of deserved it. Well, if not deserved... we had provoked it. Objectively, we were being "stupid" because 
• we were not paying attention to clear instructions or 
• we were not investing sincerely in the work or 
• we were doing something that we had been warned about repeatedly or
• we were being...kids.

As an educator, I have experienced the same frustrations that my teachers must have felt. Obviously, because I still have a job, I don't "yell at" or belittle my young charges. 

I don't know of any educator who would suggest a return to the Weissman method. But, I have heard some say the pendulum has swung too far toward indulgence and we are coddling our children - without preparing them for the so called Real World.

Is there a middle ground?

I'm not sure. I do know that their Real World will be the life that they create and I am confident that they are resilient - just like I was. My ear and my pride have both recovered. Besides, there is nothing wrong with being a good dishwasher repairman.

Influential Albums Day 4

Day 4

This is the fourth post in a series of ten documenting the albums I consider influential. My first post, found here, provides some insight into the rationale behind this journey. The first album I selected was the Soundtrack to "Oliver", which I discovered in 1973 at about age 8. My second choice can be found here and was The Cars Debut album. The third selection was "All the World's A Stage" from Canadian band Rush (found here). I am moving chronologically and this post lands us in the first few years of my most formative decade - The 80's - in which was I was 14-25 years old.

Duran Duran exploded on the scene in early 1983. Their video for “Hungry Like the Wolf” was in constant rotation on every network that showed videos. The band was composed of singers who weren’t handsome - they were "pretty". Resplendent in pastel-coloured, linen suits while sporting make-up and impossible hairstyles - teased and "Ice-Misted" into ridiculous coifs. We were immediately critical - however, we would soon begin emulating these fashionable Brits - desperately hoping to garner some of the same attention and affection that high-school girls were heaping upon them. 

My group of friends and I were confirmed rockers - Rush, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest … pretty much anything that wasn’t the British New Romantic. Duran Duran was a band for girls … or guys whom we stereotyped in a way that I am ashamed to recall.

However, I ended up getting a copy on cassette. A group of teenage ne’er-do-wells had a small industry set-up in the smoking-pit (Yes, those existed in 80's high school) where they would sell cassettes pilfered from the record store (Mister Sound). It wasn’t a sustainable business model, and they would eventually be banned from the mall. However, while it was up and running, I was a regular client. I had a job and a little extra scratch for music purchases. I also had a Walkman...actually, a Sanyo Personal Music Player. So a constant stream of music at all hours (except in class and when I slept) was a vital part of my life.

One day, they were selling 4 cassettes, for a bargain, and Duran Duran's "Rio" was in the mix. I think I probably justified it as a potential gift for a girl...or maybe my sister. However, I gave it a listen.

The opening track hooked me right away. It began with this odd cacophony of sound before exploding with a crunchy, rock-inspired guitar laid over this hypnotic keyboard arpeggio...and then there was this great sax solo in the middle. I was immediately hooked and the cassette remained in my player for weeks.

Needless to say, I kept this information to myself - revealing it to a few close friends and never suggesting that it be played at a basement party. There was this part of my teenage brain that was convinced that this album was important. The writing was fantastic and I think it transcended the dance/boy band category to which I had mistakenly pigeon-holed it.

A quick check on Wikipedia validates me.

• In 2000, Rio was ranked #98 in Q magazine's "100 Greatest British Albums". 
• In 2003, it was listed at #65 in the NME "100 Greatest Albums of All Time". 
• In 2004, CMJ ranked it as #1 in their "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1982". 
• In 2008 it was ranked 24th best British album of all time and is included in the list 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. 
• In April 2013 Rio was voted number 3 in BBC Radio 2's Top 100 Favourite Albums of all time.

Hey 17 year old me!… high five … nice call!