The Smiths and their music are in a class of their own. Their sound is distinctive and unmistakable. It is characterized by fine melodies written by Johnny Marr, which are accompanied by Morrissey’s socio-critical lyrics. As a result, The Smiths have gone down in music history, despite their quick separation.
Fans have been hoping since 1987, so far without success, that the band members will get together again and make music. The headlines Morrissey has been making for years make that even more unlikely. If the wait is taking too long either way, you can take matters into your own hands – no, nobody will be kidnapped and forced. How about a band that sounds like the Smiths but isn’t a cover band? That would be cool and it’s supposedly pretty easy too. Because it’s not that difficult to imitate the group’s style – as long as you can play an instrument and know a bit about music theory.
That’s how it’s done:
YouTuber and musician Desmond Doom does both and breaks down how a Smiths song is made in a minute. But before you can start, the mindset has to be right. Please close your eyes and speak after me: I sound like Morrissey, I sing like Morrissey ommmmorrissey.
Now it’s time for the music: Like Desmond Doom we start with a nice, shrill guitar riff, which we underlay with a cool bass line. As with any other song, we also need drums with a banging beat and the acoustic guitar supports the shrill riff of the electric guitar. Boom – we’re halfway done.
Now comes the hard part: vocals and lyrics. Morrissey always sings the same notes, namely the major third of the key in which the song is played. It’s important to sound like you don’t care. In terms of content, the singer deals with his British origins, work and love, isolation and loneliness or depression, peppered with sexual insinuations. It gets really difficult when her British attitude want to take over – it is innate and can only be perfected through years of training.
A successful example
The makers of The Simpsons probably also followed Desmond Doom’s instructions. They did a spoof of The Smiths and Morrissey in the show’s 32nd season. Lisa becomes a fan of the band The Snuffs and fantasizes about their singer Quilloughby. The two sing a duet in the episode “Panic on the Streets of Springfield,” which one might think appeared on a The Smiths record as well. Morrissey didn’t take the parody with much humor, saying the show had “gone unforgivably hurtful and racist.”
Morrissey recently announced that his next new album will be called WITHOUT MUSIC THE WORLD DIES and is already in the works. His “current” record BONFIRE OF TEENAGERS has not yet been released – according to him because Capitol Records owns the rights to it and keeps it under wraps.