How Soon Is Now

My collection for The Smiths consisted only of their two compilations, Hatful Of Hollow and Louder Than Bombs. While I was happy to pick up those two comps, it kind of triggered me to enterain the thought of collecting singles for The Smiths... and I feel like that could be a dangerous road to start down. Still, when the opportunity landed in my lap to pick up a couple of singles, I didn't hesitate to grab them.

My friend Jeff had another batch of records from Tim's collection earlier this year, and my interest was piqued when he said there were a couple of singles from The Smiths in there. He immediately tried to discourage me from the 12 inch single of William, It Was Really Nothing by telling me that it was probably too expensive for my taste. Don't fucking challenge me like that because it will just make me want to prove you wrong.

The German pressing for the William single was on colored vinyl, and apparently it carries a price tag a little higher than the other versions. If I was on the hunt myself for the single, I would have gone for the original UK press, but with the colored vinyl option staring me in the face... I couldn't resist paying the extra money for it.

For the Shoplifters Of The World Unite single I ended up with the UK press, but looking at the colored vinyl German press on Discogs now... damn, it would be nice to have either the pink or the green one to compliment my William single. Fuck. I can't start thinking like this.

Man, I love the six songs on these two singles so much. It's funny how a few years ago I would have told you that I hated The Smiths, and now after writing the post, I know that this is going to be the only thing that I'll be listening to for the rest of the day.

William, It Was Really Nothing

Going through Tim's collection early on, he had a copy of Hatful Of Sorrow from The Smiths available. It was a version that had a misprinted cover that was missing the black dot separating two song titles on the back cover. I can't even remember what Jeff had priced it at, but at the time I felt that I didn't need to pay an inflated price because of a missing dot, and I let it pass me by. I was buying Louder Than Bombs from his collection, so I should be content with that, right? Wrong. I regretted not just putting up the money and buying Hatful Of Sorrow too, and earlier this year I was sharing those thoughts with Jeff. Much to my surprise, he reached into a stack of records and said that he had an extra in his collection and that I could take it for free. Good deal!

It still shocks me how much I love The Smiths these days, and this collection of singles, b-sides and other recording sessions is so good. Also, I love the way this package looks with the blue cover, lyric sheet and record labels.

So now the only two records I own for The Smiths are compilations. That's cool, but man, I'd really like to track down UK copies of Meat Is Murder and The Queen Is Dead soon.

Hang The DJ

I've spent all of my hardcore life not understanding the attraction that punks had to The Smiths. I didn't get it, and I could be coarse and biting in my attitude toward them. Yeah, you could call me a hater. My friend, Jeff, has tried for years to get me into them and I've just been like, no please stop. But if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you are probably aware of when my brain glitched in 2023 and I changed my mind on a number of musical opinions.

My friend Sarah and I had been exchanging some songs for a bit that year, sharing things that we thought that the other person hadn't heard but may enjoy. She sent me two songs from The Smiths, This Night Has Opened My Eyes and I Know It's Over... and while I'd been surprised with how much I enjoyed all of the other songs that she'd introduced me to over the month or so that we'd been doing our project, I cringed a little bit when I saw that she sent me something from The Smiths. Still, I trusted her taste and the songs would pop up in my random daily playlists, and before I knew it, I really liked what I was hearing... and then that lead me to checking out and liking all of The Queen Is Dead... and then Meat Is Murder... and then, fuck, somehow I became a fan of The Smiths.

Jeff, of course, was thrilled that I finally came around on The Smiths, and when he was going through Tim's collection, he pulled out the Louder Than Bombs comp double LP and handed it to me for free.

Admittedly, I was a bit lukewarm on this collection of singles and b-sides when I first heard it... but I'm like that with anything from The Smiths that I'm hearing for the first time. However, these songs have grown on me quite a bit over the recent weeks with repeat listens though, and I'm really starting to enjoy this.

So somehow, in the past couple of years, I've gone from being like, I hate The Smiths, to okay a couple of songs are good, then oh I guess I like these albums but I don't need to own them... oh shit, maybe I do want these in my collection... no but wait, I actually want the original UK pressings... and after I started to appreciate this collection of songs, fuck it, I want to own the original singles too. Phew... that was a wild ride. We'll see where it goes from here.