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The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the songwriting partnership of Morrissey (vocals) and Johnny Marr (guitar), the band also included Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (drums). Critics have called them the most important alternative rock band to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s, and the group has had a major influence on subsequent artists.
Morrissey’s lovelorn tales of alienation found an audience amongst youth culture bored by the ubiquitous synthesizer-pop bands of the early 1980s, while Marr’s complex melodies helped return guitar-based music to popularity in Britain. They were, lead by Morrissey’s example, an all-vegetarian band
The Smiths’ second album, Meat Is Murder, was released a quarter of a century ago this week. This album was more strident and political than its predecessor (named simply The Smiths), and included the pro-vegetarian title track (with Morrissey’s famously haunting lyrics), the light-hearted republicanism of “Nowhere Fast”, and the anti-corporal punishment “The Headmaster Ritual” and “Barbarism Begins at Home”. The band had also grown more adventurous musically, with Marr adding rockabilly riffs to “Rusholme Ruffians” and Rourke playing a funk bass solo on “Barbarism Begins at Home”.
The album was preceded by the re-release of the B-side “How Soon is Now?” as a single, and although that song was not on the original LP, it has been added to subsequent releases. The album’s sleeve featured an edited still from Emile de Antonio’s 1968 documentary ‘In the Year of the Pig’. The legend on the soldier’s helmet originally read “Make War Not Love”. On vinyl and American CD releases, four copies of the image were used, whereas only one was used on European CD issues (presumably for reasons of legibility)
Meat Is Murder was the band’s only album (barring compilations) to reach number one in the UK charts and is said to have inspired legions of listeners to stop eating animals.
As writer and Smiths aficionado Simon Goddard stated:
It’s worth remembering the extent to which The Smiths as a pop group, and particularly Morrissey as their figurehead, stuck their necks out by calling an album Meat Is Murder back in 1985. I was thinking of this recently when reading a snooty carnivore’s review of Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book Eating Animals (which I’ve yet to read myself but from what I can tell reasonably suggests we shouldn’t be).
It still amazes me the amount of hostility and intimidation aimed at what is, by its very nature, a pacifistic lifestyle choice. It’s true that often vegetarian spokespeople can alienate the public with self-righteous rhetoric, but the power of the song Meat Is Murder is that it doesn’t so much preach to the listener as remove the blinkers, yank their heads in the direction of the abattoir and implore them to answer the basic question,
“Do you care (or even know) how animals die?”
Very simple, very powerful and still worth its political weight. In Tofu.
(from: http://simongoddardwords.blogspot.com/2010/02/meat-is-murder-is-25.html)
Morrissey, himself a vegetarian since the age of 11, has long been outspoken about his views regarding animals. Here he explains why he turned vegetarian:
“Well, it was a long time ago, actually just over 30 years—simply the love of animals. If you love animals, obviously it doesn’t make sense to hurt them. There was a very famous television documentary on British Television. It was about the usual abattoir/slaughter situation, and it horrified me. Because obviously it was very, very rare to see any abattoir footage. They still rarely show things like that on British Television for some reason. So that was the turning point for me. And I always looked at animals and thought they were very much like children and they looked to us always to help them and save them and protect them. Then I could see all these animals being led and assuming they were being led to safety and being organized by human beings—and then, of course, being butchered—very simple.”
Morrissey has long been an advocate of animal rights and in March 2006 released a statement that declared he would not include any concert dates in Canada on his world tour that year — and that he supported a boycott of all Canadian goods — in protest against the country’s annual seal hunt, which he described as a “barbaric and cruel slaughter”.
Morrissey visits Animal Aid’s Living Without Cruelty exhibition in 1989
Smiths Reunion?
Both Johnny Marr and Morrissey have repeatedly said in interviews that they will not reunite the band. There have been countless rumours over the years since their split in 1987 but although Johnny Marr hinted, in an interview in 2007, at a potential reformation in the future, saying that “stranger things have happened so, you know, who knows?” Morrissey once again denied the rumours. In an interview in 2009, he stated that “People always ask me about reunions and I can’t imagine why … the past seems like a distant place, and I’m pleased with that.”
So, it appears there’s not much chance of seeing the real thing live, but if you are looking for a little bit of nostalgia then ‘The Smiths Indeed’ is a UK tribute band who play the music of The Smiths and they are apparently very good! They are cyrrently doing a Meat Is Murder 25th Anniversary UK Tour where they are performing the album in its entirety plus other Smiths classics. Tour dates can be found here: http://www.thesmithsindeed.co.uk/
Meat Is Murder track listing:
All songs written and composed by Morrissey/Marr.
1. “The Headmaster Ritual”
2. “Rusholme Ruffians”
3. “I Want the One I Can’t Have”
4. “What She Said”
5. “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore”
6. “How Soon Is Now?” (Originally not released on UK and European issues of the album)
7. “Nowhere Fast”
8. “Well I Wonder”
9. “Barbarism Begins at Home”
10. “Meat Is Murder”
*Originally only included on non-UK pressings
Compiled by EVOLVE! Campaigns – www.evolvecampaigns.org.uk
