ONE SONG BY THE SMITHS....A SATURDAY SERIES (Part 21)

I'd like to think that the 20 songs featured so far have been a fair reflection of the band's output with singles, LP tracks, b-sides, covers and instrumentals all featuring:-

1. Nowhere Fast
2. This Night Has Opened My Eyes
3. William, It Was Really Nothing
4. The Queen Is Dead
5. Wonderful Woman
6. Golden Lights
7. These Things Take Time
8. Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
9. The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
10. Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
11. Barbarism Begins At Home
12. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
13. Hand In Glove
14. I Don't Owe You Anything
15. Work Is A Four Letter Word
16. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
17. Meat Is Murder
18. Oscillate Wildly
19. Shakespeare's Sister
20. I Want The One I Can't Have

This week, its a look at yet another astonishing b-side recorded and performed by The Smiths:-

mp3 : The Smiths - Girl Afraid

*** The tale that unfolds below is all over the place. I say how the game took place in 1984 when in fact it was 1982. So it was my 19th birthday, not my 21st.....all this only became apparent after someone helpfully left a comment about the date of the match!!!****


This is a song I will always associate with being drunk and happy on my 21st (sic) birthday back in June 1984 (sic). I came back from a night out in Level 8 of Strathclyde Students Union rather the worse for wear. The birthday coincided with an important match at World Cup 84 (sic) - Scotland v Brazil.

Scotland had the cheek to open the scoring after 20 minutes with this wonder goal by David Narey.



Brazil equalised after half an hour but the scores stayed level come half-time. I drank so much vodka and Canadian Club (mixed together in a half-pint glass with Coke....it was a phase I was going through) that I cannot remember anything at all about the second half during which Brazil scored three goals to romp to a comfortable win. I do vaguely remember going from the Bar to the discotheque where I made a pathetic attempt to sober up by dancing (in the loosest sense of the word).

****The events described in the next paragraph did happen.....but not as it turned out on the night of the above match. The Smiths incident was on the night of my 21st.....how the hell I've got the two separate nights two years apart to merge into the one can only be blamed on alcohol and old age****

But I do remember annoying the hell out of my flatmates by putting this record on the turntable and leaving the arm up so that as soon as it finished the needle went back to the very beginning of the song. And it wasn't at a low volume either..... and I was singing along at the top of my voice......oh and I was shirtless as I tried out my best Morrissey moves in the bedsit room.

And I'm still not embarrassed by a single second of the whole night.

One of the few Morrissey lyrics that is unambiguously about a male/female relationship, it is a tremendously upbeat and joyous tune that just wants to make you get up on that floor and make a total tit of yourself. And listening to it again for this posting, it is another example of how important the rhythm section of Joyce and Rourke were to the overall sound of the band.

And finally.......Girl Afraid (the b-side) is a better song than Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (the a-side). Discuss.


*****As I say in the comments section, I have no idea where I wakened up on the morning after my 19th Birthday and the David Narey wonder goal. I know it wasnt at home, but I've really got no clue. Its a bit frightening when I think about it.....*****