The Smiths: Where Are They Now By Caitlin, Hipsterpad.com|Email|
If anyone ever asked me who the hippest and most influential group of boys that’s ever emerged from the sweaty, industrial city of Manchester to become an internationally famous and hugely influential band was (not that anyone would ever ask me a ridiculous question like that, though I can dream), only one foursome comes to mind: The Smiths.
If you had the true joy of being cognizant during any part of the eighties after 1982, you know their hits, from “Sheila Take A Bow” to “Shoplifters of the World Unite,” to the painfully poignant, “(Please Please Please) Let Me Get What I Want.” Yet not all of today’s hipsters are really aware of The Smiths, despite their pervasive influence on many bands today, like Radiohead, Oasis, and The Libertines.
If you ask me (and again, I’m only saying that because no one ever will), The Smiths are just as responsible as The Beatles were for the music being produced today (but only the good stuff). Unlike The Beatles however, The Smiths seemed to stick around a little longer.
But where have those Mancunian boys gone? While generic rock and roll suicides were safe bets on all sides, the entire band seems to have pulled into the new millennium, all limbs and tissue intact (despite the legal battle of 1996). Morrissey will never run short on words, it seems, and spouts off critically acclaimed album after critically acclaimed album. Marr’s been known to work with bands such as The Pretenders, Billy Bragg and Modest Mouse, and has announced plans to begin playing full time with the latter. Rourke recently began a radio career, and hosts an XFM show in Manchester. Joyce does mostly studio work now, but his true passion seems to come from annoying his former band mates with incessant hostility.
Between Morrissey’s saintly vanity, Rourke and Joyce’s claims to stardom that wasn’t truly theirs, and Marr’s general existence, it’s clear that the bad blood that ensues between most members of the band has no change of dissolving, not even for the ever popular reunion tour. And if you ask me (Goddamn, will somebody ever ask me about The Smiths?), their careers are best left that way.
Nobody wants to ruin their image of the eighties’ closest thing to the Fab Four with age. Even if I, a jaded young hip indie queen, still want to rush the stage to touch Morrissey’s feet.
