Interviewer- "Is it true that you spent three months secluded in your bedroom as a teenager?"
Morrissey- "Much more than that I'm sure"
"but I do distinctly remember one period where I hardly ever left the room for a three-month period."
"I wasn't exactly your average teenager."
The Smiths were one of the most important bands of the 80's
fronted by a celibate crooner in love with Oscar Wilde and the New York Dolls
with their music composed by a teenaged Byrds obsessive.
They were at odds with the music of the time
Rock in 1983, at least in the UK charts, was a rarity.
The mainstream public more enamoured by New Romantics and synth pop
but if you hated the slickness of Spandau Ballet and the fabricated sounds of the Human League
to see Morrissey flouting around with some gladioli on Top of the Pops
with Johnny Marr's jangling Rickenbacker backing him up, it was a Eureka moment.
They weren't like other bands and that was the point.
Focusing on teenage themes of love, loneliness and identity,
their catalogue is filled with anthems for the left of centre.
Over the course of only five years The Smiths released four untouchable studio albums
and inspired a generation of teenagers.
But their prolific output's quality was not constrained to the LPs.
Even their b-sides were on par with their best work.
B-sides were important in the UK.
Now with streaming not so much
but buying singles used to be the only way to measure chart success.
Those extra tracks on a single needed to be high-quality to persuade the consumer to
buy something that is extremely poor value for money compared to an album.
Because of this any classic British band has their fair share of stellar b-sides:
And The Smiths were no different.
Right out the gate their first single "Hand In Glove"
features the equally jangly and equally awesome "Handsome Devil".
Later notable b-sides included the achingly pretty
"Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want":
punkish thrasher "Sweet and Tender Hooligan":
and the unremittingly dark song that Charlie is obsessed with in Perks Of Being a Wallflower, "Asleep":
But the Smiths most defining b-side was first only available as a bonus track
on the 12-inch release of "William, It Was Really Nothing",
Seymour Stein of Sire records famously stated that:
Both are epic experimental tracks intrinsically tied to their respective decades.
Smiths biographer Simon Goddard counters this comparison:
Led Zeppelin are a great band, no doubt
but you don't want to unload "Stairway to Heaven" midway through a DJ set.
One of the aspects of the Smiths that was
contemporaneously noted on but in hindsight somewhat forgotten was their musical magpie-ism.
Taking bits and pieces from elsewhere, referencing, refreshing and remixing them
and placing them within the patchwork of their music.
Morrissey was the main offender pinching from English literature, film and classic pop alike
and infusing it with Smiths energy.
Notable examples include the line from "This Charming Man":
which is taken from the Laurence Olivier/Michael Caine film, Sleuth:
"A jumped up pantry boy who doesn't know his place."
Or how "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" is a play on an obscure Sandy Shaw song:
Or that key lyrics from "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" are inspired
by lines from the film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning:
"Why don't you ever take me where it's lively and there's plenty of people?"
and the New York Dolls song, "Lonely Planet Boy":
Criticised in the press for ripping people off, Morrissey's sarcastically countered this
on The Queen is Dead track "Cemetry Gates":
"How Soon is Now?" also has Morrissey's pointed plagiarisms present.
Its title is taken from a question asked in feminist film essay
Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies and the American Dream by Marjorie Rosen
specifically the line:
Also its opening line is adapted from a line from chapter 12 of George Eliot's Middlemarch:
The majority of quoting and outside influence on this song is done by guitarist Johnny Marr.
The initial version of the track, known as "Swamp",
was inspired by the groove in "Run Through The Jungle" originally by Creedence Clearwater Revival
but which Marr knew due to a 1982 cover by LA post-punks, The Gun Club:
After Marr created a demo of the track,
the band minus Morrissey tried to record the thing at Jam Studios in North London
Drummer Mike Joyce remembers the session:
"How Soon is Now?" was never played live in its entirety in the studio,
the version we know being pieced together from various takes
from a supposedly very stoned Joyce, Marr and bassist Andy Rourke.
Producer John Porter recalled:
Another notable aspect of the song that Marr cribbed was the high-pitched harmonic guitar line
that appears on occasion throughout the song.
This is tribute to New York rap pioneer Lovebug Starski
and the keyboard riff on his track "You Gotta Believe":
Marr stated:
Arguably the most iconic part of the song is its tremolo effect,
that distinctive wobble that sounds like little else:
This was inspired by several sources including a rare hit from Krautrockers Can
in "I Want More":
as well as Hamilton Bohannon's "Disco Stomp":
About the latter, Marr stated:
"And I'd just wait for it on the radio."
"I was obsessed with it."
"While all my mates were into like Hendrix and stuff,
"I was just all about the..."
"And I was kinda like that's what a guitar should do."
Marr from other interviews has said that the rhythm recalls 1950s guitarist Bo Diddley
and specifically the track "Mona":
Marr stated in Guitar Player magazine in 1990:
So why was "How Soon Is Now?" relegated to b-side status?
The blame seems to rest with their label boss Rough Trade's Geoff Travis
While the band and producer John Porter had tried to push "How Soon is Now?"
as their next single, Travis didn't understand the track's appeal.
Porter recalls:
After its b-side placement on the "William, It Was Really Nothing" 12-inch
the track was included on the Hatful of Hollow compilation
before Rough Trade changed their mind
and released it as a castrated 4-minute single edit in January 1985.
Because always Smithdom already had the superior version of the track,
the single version only reached number 24 in the UK charts, much to Morrissey's disappointment.
By 1994, Travis acknowledged his blunder:
While on tracks like "This Charming Man" or "There Is a Light..."
the songs' messages are surrounded by metaphor and an aching dark English Romanticism,
"How Soon Is Now?" cuts right to the point.
Morrissey plainly states that he is a human that needs to be loved, just like anyone else.
Everyone has been here: alone and needing someone.
Its references to a shit night out
of going out with the best intentions of having a good time
and meeting that special someone, only to leave all alone
is a universal experience.
That is the tale of a night that every introvert has had.
Wanting to be social, wanting to put yourself out there
but not really knowing how.
The lyric that ties into the title the most is:
This could be seen as Morrissey trying to hype himself up,
to make that move but losing all confidence before he can.
Punk historian John Savage in 1989 stated
that "How Soon is Now?" is specifically evocative of Manchester's gay club scene
during the late 70's and early 80's.
"When you go home and you cry and you want to die"
This is what made a generation of teenagers obsessed with the Smiths.
Their music was designed to be poured over
music that was saturated with references
because Morrissey and Marr were just the same as these introverted teenagers
obsessed and excitedly telling their fans about their favorite things
whether it's Lovebug Starski or George Eliot.
The Smiths were a band to obsess over,
that compelled you to listen to everything they wrote, the album tracks and the b-sides.
Listening over and over in your room
waiting for your awkwardness and lonesomeness to disappear
but with "How Soon is Now?" they wrote a song that not only commiserated with their fans' outsiderness
but was a club record,
one that is instantly recognisable as soon as it's tremolo rhythm fades in.
So when there's a club, if they want to go,
where there's music and there's people and they're young and alive,
The Smiths would be there to join them,
to hold their hand.
"How Soon Is Now?" is a dancefloor filler for introverts.
This is Marr and Morrissey's greatest gift.
A defining siren call for the lonely and the criminally shy.
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