The Smiths - Peel Session (05.18.83)

It's been far too long since I've written a blog; since before New Year's, if I'm not mistaken. I suppose I could simply take a look at the date on my last post, but I like to say things like, "if I'm not mistaken." And if I knew, there'd be no chance that I'd be mistaken.

Which brings me to a point--not to get too tangential here, because normally I hate that sort of thing from mp3 bloggers, but don't worry because this does in fact tie in with today's particular selection. The point I'm getting at is that part of my New Year's celebration involved a bit of healthy introspection. This kind of thing can be good or bad, depending on the amount of intoxicants you've imbibed, what your week's been like, whether or not you're currently sleeping with anyone, etc.

Anyway, introspection: one of the things I came to realize about myself is that there's a reason I like certain bands, movies, books, artists, and so on. And that reason can be summed up in one word: potential.

You see, it's dawned on me that I dislike music (and, I guess, art in general) when it's so rough that it's obviously not going anywhere. There's a difference between being obscure because your work is too challenging for most people, and just being too shitty for anyone to want to involve themselves in your work; I've met a lot of bands that fall into the second category but have themselves convinced that they're in the first. Also, I hate bands that started out a bit rough and as time goes on, they've gotten better and better at actually playing their instruments to the point where they've smoothed out all the edges and turned into just another slick, bland radio group.

The thing that these two situations have in common is that both kinds of bands lack potential. The first band isn't going to get any better because they're telling themselves that they're already kickass; the second band isn't going to get any more interesting because they can't get any better and if they do, it's only because they've hired session men who'll help them churn out flawlessly-played renditions of the boring adult contemporary hits they're writing. There's no possibility anymore, and it's come to my attention that I basically worship potential and possibility rather than actual skill or honed refinement.

I tend to lose interest in bands once they've gotten too good at what they do. Take, for instance, Placebo: Loved the first three records, then Sleeping With Ghosts came out and I heard it, enjoyed it for a couple of spins, and then I realized that it was kind of a creative flatline for them. Not that the songs weren't well written, not that the sounds weren't cool, but something was missing. That something is the spark that comes from a hungry band who knows that what they're playing isn't the best song ever written, but if they play it with enough chutzpah, maybe you'll think it is.

Which brings me to today's selection: three live cuts as recorded by the Smiths in John Peel's BBC studio in 1983. They'd just started out and Johnny Marr had yet to discover the joys of multi-tracking guitars. There are none of the famous layers of sound here, just a little three-piece kicking up quite a racket. And not that I ever found the Smiths boring--as good as they ever got, they never lost their edge as such--but I cherish this particular recording as evidence that a band that's just started can beat the ass off any Led Zep album in three tracks or less. Throw in a fourth and fuggeddaboudit! (There would have been a fourth track, Handsome Devil, but Blogger.com's being a bitch at the moment and keeps deleting the link every time I publish the post. Sorry.)

Viva Potential in 07!

The Smiths - Peel Session - 01 - What Difference Does It Make? (05.18.83)
The Smiths - Peel Session - 02 - Miserable Lie (05.18.83)
The Smiths - Peel Session - 03 - Reel Around the Fountain (05.18.83)