aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
#092: The Smiths – ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’ (Rough Trade Records ’84)
Dear friends,
now, before you shout at me – let’s be brutally honest: if you owned a Tesla, would you deliberately drive it against a wall at immense speed just because we all know now that Elon Musk is affirmatively the second-biggest prick in the USA? No? Well, I thought so … you’d rather get one of those rear stickers from Temu reading ‘I bought this before Elon went crazy!’ – and everything would be fine again.
Probably this is not the most useful comparison in the world, but I think you see what I’m trying to say, because basically The Smiths are facing the very same, let’s call it ‘Tesla-problem’. You see, I have always been the first to say ‘smash fascism’, but as a German, you learn to differ. I’ve always thought it is not correct to (still) blame a whole nation for what their grandfathers’ generation did some 90 years ago, but, believe me, this still happens, and it happens quite often over here.
So, the big question is: do we really have to neglect the back catalogue of one of the finest four-pieces ever to walk the earth just because one of them, the singer on this occasion, turned into a total tosser 30 years later? As far as I’m concerned: no, we should not, because a) four people were involved at the time, not just one and b) the music they made was too good, let’s be honest!
Also, I mean, you never know: there is always a chance (a very small one indeed, I admit) that some 15 year-old with a bit of taste ends on this site accidentally, someone who never heard of The Smiths – and there are millions of those out there, believe me, the fruit of my own loins being one of them (well, no, Little Loser was adopted by us, so there wasn’t much fruit involved – but I’m sure you’ll get my point)!
Either way, wouldn’t it be a shame if we didn’t educate this person properly, so that he or she knows that there’s more to music than Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars?!
I, for once, don’t want to be held responsible – and that’s why you find today’s record in the singles box. As everyone of you knows, of course (apart from our mystical 15-year old perhaps): any of the first singles could have featured instead, they were all simply brilliant. The only reason it is this one is: it was the first Smiths-tune I ever heard, and boy, did it blow me away back then!!
What I didn’t know then, of course, was this:
„Heaven Knows I’m Missing Him Now” was the twenty-third single by 1960s British girl singer Sandie Shaw, released in September 1969, her final single of that decade, marking the end of a string of singles which had made her the most successful British female singer of that era.
The tune did not chart at the time, but apparently it heavily met with Morrissey‘s approval, at least so much so that he wrote “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”, which, contrary to poor Sandie’s original, turned out to be the first top ten single for The Smiths:
mp3: The Smiths – Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now
The cover above, fact fans, features Viv Nicholson, who became famous in 1961 in the UK for winning a large amount of money on the football pools – and then rapidly squandering it. Which might explain the look on her face, if you ask me …
Enjoy,
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Bought the 12″ of this on day of release, probably in Edinburgh Ripping Records (a couple of decades before that phrase meant copying them), then dropped into Avalanche to check out their, ahem, live tapes. Owner Kevin demanded to play my single as he hadn’t heard it. He preferred the flip side Girl Afraid (and was right). At the time I thought the other b-side Suffer Little Children was atmospheric and moving. These days it just seems mawkish, overwrought and exploitative. Heaven Knows performance on TOTP was amusing and very different to the 84 mainstream.
Good news! I was in the local park at the weekend, and was surprised to hear The Smiths drifting across from the playground. A couple of teenage girls, somewhere between 14 and 16, were sat cross-legged between the swings and the roundabout, playing nothing but The Smiths on their portable music-playing device of choice. This cheered me no end, but also surprised me. It would have been like me at their age listening to music from the mid-1940s. I listened to a lot of 60s music in my teens, but nothing 40 years old!
Superb post
SC
I doubt Morrissey is doesn’t consent to your hivemind. You shouldn’t apologize for thoughts.
Totally agree. Don’t condemn the art of four people because one turned out to be a tosser.
Johnny Marr is a Tosser? Explains the hair.
The Tesla analogy is pretty good, actually.
I posted about Smokey Robinson yesterday and read today about him being accused of the sexual exploitation of a group of women who kept house for him…
I have been having this argument with myself about The Smiths for a while, usually whilst listening to The Smiths, which is kind of the answer.
@Martin – I have taught (or at least guided) my 15 y.o. daughter to listen to The Smiths, The Cure, Sisters, among other artists/bands from my teens. So my conclusion is, there is hope in the young! 😀
(The only thing she has so far expressed any interest in when I die is my record collection. Just saying…)
Was terribly late to the Smiths party, and a little late to this post, but very much enjoyed the read.
I suspect HKIMN somewhat cooked the band’s goose in terms of the lazy ‘miserable’ tag that followed their career. But you’d have to assume Morrissey just couldn’t resist that nod to the Sandie Shaw song.
Nice one, Dirk.
Forget those lame apologies. Populism is the new punk!