The Smiths Biography!

The biography for this week will be going back to when I started this blog. I started off with biographies of the original alternative bands, and I decided to go back to it. The band for this week will be The Smiths! I don’t know if I’ll stick with doing biographies for the original bands or if I’ll go back to the current bands. I might even alternate! Now there’s an idea……. Anyways, onto the biography!

The Smiths Biography:

Morrissey and Marr were the founding members of The Smiths. They met in 1979 at another concert actually and by 1982, they decided to form a band. This band was formed in the UK since that was where they both lived. They eventually decided to bring more members into their band, even though Marr’s guitar playing went so well with Morrissey’s voice. They decided on Michael Joyce for their drummer, and Andy Rourke for their bassist. One of their first singles, “Rough Trade”, claimed the spot of Number Two on the British chart. A couple of other songs, especially “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”, fully established the band. Now they had a solid foundation to build off of. As The Smiths continued their rise to fame, many people were offended by the lyrics. They considered them to be too controversial. The hardcore fans loved the lyrics because they were angst-driven and the lyrics had powerful/different lessons. Craig Gannon, guitarist, joined the band in 1986. Their 1986 album, The Queen Is Dead, was very popular in the UK but when they went on tour, they found that the people in the US didn’t appreciate their music as much. Later that year, Marr got into a car accident, and Gannon was fired shortly after that. In 1987, the single “Sheila Take A Bow” became a Top Ten UK hit. A couple of months later, Marr returned and said that they had run out of ideas for great music. The Smiths disbanded shortly after that. Morrissey went on as a solo artist, but he also joined a couple of bands afterwards. Marr also joined a couple of bands afterwards. None of these various bands even came close to the music that The Smiths had produced. The Smiths never got back together, but they have left behind a great legacy of unique alternative music.