The Smiths - The Greatest Indie Band of All Time?

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Did The Smiths ever break America?

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I think this is the greatest ever guitar riff ever

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Yes

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Yes

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Kill Uncle was poor in fairness.

I loved Southpaw Grammar which came after Vauxhall,

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The Smiths never had a Top 40
Album in US

Oasis second album went to Number 4 in US Album charts

Can @Kyle and @backinatracksuit flesh this out a little.

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Sorry mate - don’t comment on things you clearly know nothing about.

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You’re entitled your odd tastes.

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if it wasnt for jonny marr, morrisey would be some weirdo poet twirling a daffodil around on stage

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The smiths never had the mass popularity of Oasis,

I don’t know anything about oasis in the US but the smiths were hugely popular in the lucrative college music scene in the US, they played venues equivalent or larger than they did in Europe,
So while they weren’t quite at Whitney Houston levels of popularity they certainly ‘broke’ America

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191

Noel Gallagher on “This Charming Man”: I’ll never forget when I first heard this. I was working for a signwriting company in Levenshulme. My job consisted of using this bloody big staple gun to pin these signs together. I was working late one night on my own and it was dark, and “This Charming Man” came on the radio. I’d heard “Hand In Glove” and read an article on them in the Manchester Evening News, but the second I heard “This Charming Man” everything made sense.
I’d been a bit too young for The Jam, and they’d split up the previous Christmas just when I was really getting into them, but this was different. The Smiths were my band. The sound of that guitar intro was incredible. The lyrics are fuckin’ amazing, too. “I would go out tonight but I haven’t got a stitch to wear.” Genius. I didn’t know anything about the literary references. I just liked the spirit. People say Morrissey’s a miserable cunt, but I knew straight away what he was on about. I thought everything about him was side-splitting: the hearing aid, the lot. Maybe it’s the fact we’re both Anglo-Irish, that piss-taking thing.

I saw them on Top Of The Pops later when they did “What Difference Does It Make?”. Johnny has this white polo-neck on and the Brian Jones hair and that was it for me. I just said to myself: “I’m going to be like you!” It made me realise what I was going to do with my life.
None of my mates liked them – they were more hooligan types. They’d come into work and say “Fuckin’ hell, did you see that poof on Top Of The Pops with the bush in his back pocket?” But I thought it was life-changing.

I saw Morrissey play in Australia the other year, got all my old Smiths records out and played them all again. Hatful Of Hollow – what an album. Why don’t people make albums like that any more? It’s still one of the greatest records ever made, and it wasn’t even a proper album! How cool is that?

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And if it wasn’t for Morrissey, Johnny Marr would be a Keith Richards wannabe looking for his Mick Jagger.

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Bona Drag from 1990 while not a conventional album is an outstanding collection of songs
Beethoven was deaf is one of my favorite live albums,
Your arsenal is sublime

His solo output is top class

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I’d say that’s the age that you were at the time. I liked it too, I have ‘The Operation’ on my main mixed tape, but Your Arsenal and Vauxhall and I are excellent albums.

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absolutely, but together, all 4 of them just had some pixie dust and became much more than their individual parts

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That’s the only one I ever bought; got it in a bargain bin over in Canada. Didn’t like it at all. But sure we can’t all have the same tastes :joy:

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You’re the one for me, fatty is a great tune.

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Yeah, that’s the best one.

The TFK tribute band could do ‘You’re the one for me, Flatty’

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Absolutely.

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National Front Disco.

Where it all began.

But what a stomping tune.