The Smiths - Well I Wonder

[1985]

CardrossManiac was a Thirteen year old doing year 8 at high school in 1985 when Smiths albums entered the home. My older brother left behind a vinyl copy of Hatful Of Hollow. Going from INXS, Models, Mentals, Hoodoo Gurus and u2 to The Smiths might not seem like such a big deal but it was massive. Those other bands were mostly fun, good time music or uplifting. The Smiths however dwelt on uncomfortable and dark themes, not always of course, sometimes they were a great laugh and a lot of the time they were dark and comic during the same song. 

I've never thought about this before but I don't reckon I ever played a Smiths tape around my mates and I doubt any of them knew who they were. I mean we're talking Australia in the mid 80s in a dusty isolated country town 500 kms away from Melbourne. This was a long time before national youth network radio JJJ or the even further away internet. This was Chisel territory mate! Acca Dacca and the Oils too. 

It wasn't until a year later that a girl in the schoolyard recognised me singing Frankly, Mr Shankly that I even realised it was possible that others knew about The Smiths. She had older capital city siblings too. Then by 86/87 The Queen Is Dead and Strangeways Here We Come were in local record stores if you knew what you were looking for. Plus telly-wise, by then, it wasn't just Countdown, Beat Box, Rock Arena and Sounds but the all night music video show Rage had begun showing on ABC on Friday and Saturday nights. So we were all becoming a lot more familiar with little known bands. I recall Smiths coverage in music magazines (that were on country newsstands) from 1984 onwards like Australian Smash Hits, Countdown Magazine, Ram and Juke. 

By 1988 when The Smiths had broken up I even recall chicks, I would have considered uncool, with Smiths tapes at school. By this time they had appeared on John Hughes soundtracks and anyone with a vcr and a keen eye on Rock Arena and Rage would have had a compilation of Smiths film clips on a VHS tape.

Anyway for some reason or other I never had a copy of Meat Is Murder until later. I'd listened to my brother's cassette version many times but something about the production gave me the shits. Also the title irked me. How could I abide supporting an album that had a title that went against my own interests ie. meat pies, sausage rolls, roasts, bangers, burgers, Bolognese and chops! Such people are still annoying me to this day, trying to impose their zealous views about meat consumption on the general steak-loving public. All its gonna take is one authoritarian premier or prime minister to say that's all folks. We've already had meat bans at junior football clubs here in Victoria so... Maybe having our meat-rights taken away is when Aussies will actually wake up and finally get off their arses and stand up to the creeping totalitarianism. I'm all for a meat based revolution...

Anyway the above tune has been very underrated by me and possibly you for thirty nine years. It's been a long time since I've read a Smiths book or ultimate Mojo guide magazine so I don't recall if others rated Now I Wonder highly or not. Surely though it's one of their best. These lovelorn lyrics could easily be seen as a bit histrionic but the group approach the song with such incredible sensitivity it's breathtaking. 

The gorgeous drear driving rain stillness bass of Andy Rourke, the perfect precise pressure of Mike Joyce's snare, the array of Johnny guitar greatness, I mean what is he doing exactly, are there strings in there too and Morrissey's voice in an absurd echo-chamber permeates the entire thing. It's a teenage opera of unrequited love with just the right amount of restraint to make it delicious and not dire. 

Well I Wonder is the Smiths at their most understated and tender. 

Great.