iPod song of the week – The Smiths
And if you have five seconds to spare, let me tell you the story of my life…
Well, no, not really. I didn’t pick that song. But I do love that line. It’s The Smiths, people! I can’t believe I’ve never chosen a Smiths song as iSotW. Maybe because they’re all so good that I’d never be able to decide on one. But here’s what happened this week. I was testing my BlackBerry’s music capabilities (I mean, what’s the point of buying an add-on memory card to hold more music if the music sounds like crap – but it doesn’t!) and I needed a good short song because the BB doesn’t start out with all that much memory and it’s mostly taken up by BrickBreaker and things like that. So I sorted all my songs by size (way to commodify art) and eliminated all the “intro” type songs (hate those) and this one was at the top of the list. Or bottom, depending on how you look at it. Less than 2 MB!
And what a song! It has a short, whistly start and then goes full stop into the breakneck pace that throttles along for the rest of the track. Could you pack more song into a song? I think not. The chorus is only one sentence! And the story is immediately clear, even in that short space. Morrissey only has two themes to his songs and they are: a. I am pathetic (and I know it) and b. you are pathetic (but you may not know it). This song is fully b, with the person in question off by train to London, leaving everything behind, but we can all be pretty sure his problems will follow him there – after all, he’s a typical Smiths loser. Here’s a sample lyric. “You think they’re sad because you’re leaving, but did you see the jealousy in the eyes of the ones who had to stay behind?”
Anyway, you won’t need much time to listen this week, the whole thing is done in scarcely over two minutes. Oh, and this is as good a time as any to say, I will not be in London for the holiday, but here to entertain you. Did I mention? I spent my plane fare on a BlackBerry.
Napster:
The Smiths – London
Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.
(A small sentimental reflection. The Napster version comes from a later compilation called “The World Won’t Listen.” But my track comes from “Louder Than Bombs,” a double album on one cassette which was given to me by my boyfriend in high school. A supreme sacrifice on his part since he was a metalhead. Alas, Napster does not have “Louder Than Bombs.”)
