The Smiths: What Difference Does It Make
[purchase]
At some point in the winter of 1984 I was at a friend's house listening to KFSR, the Fresno, California independent radio station, when all of a sudden I heard something that I had never heard before. It was an alienated, angst-ridden, almost-moaning, complaint of a croon. I hadn't paid enough attention to catch who it was that I was listening to so I called the DJ and asked. "It's The Smiths", he said. "We just got it a few weeks ago".
The next day, a different friend and I ditched school (which is something I do not condone, for all of you young readers out there) to stop by Tower Records and pick up The Smiths' eponymous debut album.
This band, with only a handful of others, epitomizes the sound of 1984 for me.
2 comments:
For me, the sound of 1984 is The Smiths, The Replacements, and R.E.M.
Two out of three are now covered. If somebody posts something off of Reckoning I will be completely off the hook thiw week!
(But I'm still thinking of doubling up on The Smiths.)
I know that Scott is a big REM fan, so I was waiting for him to lay down the Reckoning track. No pressure though - and if he doesn't do it, then I will. Reckoning is probably, all things considered, my favorite album of the year that I actually knew about during that year (I didn't discover the replacements, for example, until about 1988).
I actually listened to Reckoning just yesterday as a result of thinking about it here: It's really just excellent.
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