Fans of The Smiths will want to check out a new interview with Tony Fletcher, the author of the newly published Smiths' biography A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga Of The Smiths. Salon's David Daley discussed the Smiths' beginnings, career, legacy, and the Morrissey/Marr songwriting duo with Fletcher in the piece titled The Smiths: Better Than The Beatles? (update - he or Salon changed the title to The Smiths: The Best Band Ever). Fletcher disagrees that the Smiths were better than the Beatles, by the way. The full article is a GREAT read - other than the Beatles comparison questions it is really informative. They talk about the band's catalog, history, influence and more. The full interview is posted here. Some other highlights from the article are posted below:
"One of the great things about the Smiths is that they broke up before they could make a bad record, and also before they got too big to become insiders. In Britain they were massive, but they were still massive outsiders. They were never the flavor of the month with the mainstream."
Johnny Marr told Fletcher the Smiths had a fifth record in them:
Johnny was extremely helpful in this process...he said, “Look, the most you’re going to get from me is that we had one more album in us. If I hadn’t blown up, if I hadn’t left when I did. If I had bitten my tongue and not called the NME and said, ‘I quit.’ If they’d been nicer to me — there was one more album. We were meant to be for that period.”
On Morrissey & Marr not living up to their potential post-breakup:
"I think that Johnny was so bruised by the Smiths experience that he could not commit himself to another band to that degree...I guess that the prevailing opinion is that the Smiths hurt him so much that he was scared to do that."
On whether Fletcher thinks there will be an eventual reunion:
"I could possibly, possibly foresee a day when Marr might just walk on Morrissey’s stage. That’s about as much as I can see, because I think they’re both smart enough that they know that legacy is pure."
Tony Fletcher's book A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga Of The Smiths was released on paperback and hardcover last week.
June 1983 interview with Morrissey on BBC Radio 1
Collection of Smiths concerts at the Hacienda
"One of the great things about the Smiths is that they broke up before they could make a bad record, and also before they got too big to become insiders. In Britain they were massive, but they were still massive outsiders. They were never the flavor of the month with the mainstream."
Johnny Marr told Fletcher the Smiths had a fifth record in them:
Johnny was extremely helpful in this process...he said, “Look, the most you’re going to get from me is that we had one more album in us. If I hadn’t blown up, if I hadn’t left when I did. If I had bitten my tongue and not called the NME and said, ‘I quit.’ If they’d been nicer to me — there was one more album. We were meant to be for that period.”
On Morrissey & Marr not living up to their potential post-breakup:
"I think that Johnny was so bruised by the Smiths experience that he could not commit himself to another band to that degree...I guess that the prevailing opinion is that the Smiths hurt him so much that he was scared to do that."
On whether Fletcher thinks there will be an eventual reunion:
"I could possibly, possibly foresee a day when Marr might just walk on Morrissey’s stage. That’s about as much as I can see, because I think they’re both smart enough that they know that legacy is pure."
Tony Fletcher's book A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga Of The Smiths was released on paperback and hardcover last week.
June 1983 interview with Morrissey on BBC Radio 1
Collection of Smiths concerts at the Hacienda
