Last September, we gave away a copy of the super-deluxe CD-and-vinyl version of The Smiths’ career-spanning Complete box set to one lucky Slicing Up Eyeballs reader, and now, with the newly remastered albums released individually, the fine folks at Rhino Records have provided us with three copies of the 8-disc CD box set to give away.
The Complete box set collects all eight Smiths’ albums: The Smiths, Meat Is Murder, The Queen Is Dead and Strangeways, Here We Come, plus compilations Hatful Of Hollow, The World Won’t Listen and Louder Than Bombs, and the live Rank — newly remastered by guitarist Johnny Marr and engineer Frank Arkwright from “the original tape sources.”
All eight albums also were released as individual CDs earlier this month.
To enter to win one of three copies of the Complete 8CD box set, please leave a comment — any comment — below. To make it interesting, feel free to share the story of how you first feel in love with The Smiths. Be sure to use a valid e-mail address when leaving that comment, as that is how the randomly-selected winners ultimately will be notified. We’ll accept entries until 12 p.m. EDT Friday, April 27.
The contest, per Rhino’s rules, is open only to U.S. residents.
UPDATE: The contest is now closed. Thank you all so much for sharing your wonderful memories. The three randomly selected winners are: Jack Watters, Peter and Angela.
When I was in school, you could always tell who you’d be friends with by hearing someone say “do you like The Smiths?” Now I teach high school, and it’s really gratifying to hear kids still ask each other that same question, and see how excited they get to talk about them. The Smiths are timeless and will always appeal to a certain type of kid–the best type!
Can’t wait to hear the remasters
I was given “the queen is dead” tape as a teenager…and I’ve been hooked ever since.
I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour,but heaven knows I’m miserable now.
Love love love The Smiths! I still listen to them as much today (obsessively!) as I did when I first got into them.
I got a Smiths bootleg back in 1988 and a few years later I bought Rank. Rank is a lot clearer then my bootleg of the same show.
Definitely “Girlfriend in a Coma” … Strange Ways … A song takes you where you want it to take you, and this is a masterpiece…when this Album came out, my daughter was a teenager, and She fell in love with “the Smiths” with me…it was our morning theme song…now my Granddaughter is listening…timeless
Ah, the Smiths. Introduced to them by a high school classmate whose sister had impeccable taste in what was then being called ‘college rock.’ The Smiths were old cheese to her, but I dug it.
I was lucky enough to see The Smiths in 1986 right at the time of the Ask single’s release. My biggest memory of the show is during Vicar in a Tutu, when my brain melted a little and became one with Johnny Marr’s guitar. One of the best bands ever!
i have an amazing friend who was obsessed with the smiths (and still is) when we first met in 1985. she was my gateway, and dancing to them in clubs helped to seal the love.
I had a girl friend who showed me the first songs of the Smiths in the 80-ies-I was so amazed! My first song I ever listened to was: “How soon is now”-ok, it was a little bit later after they began, but I was glad to have that song here in Germany.Since then I am amazed, collect all I can get from them… and love Moz:)
I bought The Queen Is Dead on cassette in high school. The tape was well worn out by the time I graduated.
I remember borrowing my sisters copy of The Queen Is Dead and playing it over and over when she was out of the house. By the time Panic was released, they had usurped all others as my favourite band
I love love love the music.
I bought “The Queen is Dead” to impress a girl. I haven’t seen her in years, but my love for the album remains.
I was driving somewhere one morning, probably to my record store job, a miserably romantic wallflower that I was, probably day dreaming of some pretty lass who didn’t even know I was alive, when the high school radio station I had on played “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me”. That’s how it started.
a friend of mine lent me a mix tape in 1995 that changed my life. i believe there was a total of 3 smiths songs and 2 morrissey solo songs on there. i believe morrissey was the first man i fell in love with. this was before the internet was so accessible so i fell in love with his lyrics and voice first and felt like he understood me. it’s almost been 20 years now since discovering the smiths and i’m so happy to have them in my life.
A buddy of mine went off to college, came back for the holidays a Smiths fan, and converted me.
Morrissey’s solo career has done it’s damndest to convert me back, but the Smiths original catalog remains unsullied by the dull caricature Moz, that only the most devoted of fanboys can still appreciate, has devolved into.
In the eighties, your friends went to college and came back in love with one of three bands: The Cure, REM, or the Smiths. If they were really lucky, all three. ;)
my future wife was a huge Smiths (and Siouxsie) fan when we were first dating in the mid-80’s –she’s the one who “turned me on” (pun intended)
obviously, “The Queen is Dead”……thanks to the photography class of 1987 in high school!
Heard the first notes of A Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours in a friend’s car on the way to school 25 years ago. Bought Louder Than Bombs a few days later. Haven’t been normal since.
In the 80’s I was living in Porto Alegre, a capital at the south of Brazil and the import vinyls were difficult to arrive here. A friend of mine went to the US when ‘Meat is Murder’ was being released and brought it with him. When I listened to it, it was the first time that I had a phisical contact with a Smiths record and I’d never forget all the emotion of that moment…
I remember a cute girl in high school wearing a Smiths t-shirt, and at the time ( 1986 ?)I was didn’t know who the Smiths were. So, right away, I checked out the band, and I’ve loved them ever since. So, i guess it was my high school hormones that lead me to them.
Hatful of Hollow from the local record store. William, It was really nothing started, the guitar was like nothing I had heard before, that album became my obsession after that and so did the Smiths as one of my 80’s bands.
When I was young, I was definitely NOT a Smiths fan. I grew up with grunge and metal and everything else was crap in my mind. However as I got older and became exposed more and more music….. The Smiths started to click. I bought “The Queen is Dead” and went on to read several Morrissey bios, collect the 7″ records, and learned to play many of Johnny Marr’s classic guitar licks. There is nothing else in the world like the Smiths. They are greatest band to come out of the 80’s, and “the Beatles of that generation in my opinion”…. Perfect Music in every way that you can immediately relate. The song “Ask” has always been a favorite and I believe changed my life in a way, growing up as a shy kid, the song helped me to get through a lot of doom and gloom years. The Smiths Forever!
Nice prize!
I first heard the Smiths in college. I have a few compilations but never collected the entire discography. This would be perfect!
I was in high school. A friend gave me a cassette copy of Louder than Bombs. At first I thought it was too trebly and whiny. Can’t remember how long it was exactly, but some time later, I popped that tape in the deck while driving stoned and fell in love like a sweet and tender hooligan.
The soundtrack of my high school days,for sure. Love me some Smiths…
As early as 7th grade I was drawn to English acts, and The Smiths were at the forefront. I wore out The Queen Is Dead and Louder Than Bombs, and How Soon Is Now? resonated with me just like Johnny Marr’s pulsing guitar. On more than one occasion I’m sure I freaked out my mom by constantly quoting There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.
1984, and I was fortunate enough to get a promo “Single” of “William, It Was Really Nothing”the B side of the Lp was “How Soon is Now?”, Which when I played at the night club I was working at. Instant Success, so many people asked who is that? So many songs were released as vinyl singles that often by the time the full album was released you already had it….
All time Favorite Lp from the Smiths is “The Queen Is Dead” with the song “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” topping the chart.
i fell in love with the smiths when i was 17 (omg that was 24 years ago). it was because of morrissey that i became a vegetarian and have been one for over 20 years. some people say their music is depressing but i always feel happy when listening to it.
I think like most people, I found The Smiths as a teen in high school and felt like they had ripped the pages from my diary. All the lonesomeness and snarkiness of adolescence wrapped in the most beautiful pop music.
When I was in college, I wore out a tape of “louder than bombs” in my Walkman, walking to and from classes
Underage dance club, Portland ORegon, “How Soon Is Now?” ~ :)
I missed the Smiths play in 86 thinking they would be back to Houston. Ttupid move.
This Charming Website!
Still just getting into them (know and love the popular-ish stuff, starting to dig deeper) and finding the large catalog to be a big barrier to entry. This would be a convenient solution.
The Smiths helped see me through three different schools in three different states. My girlfriend in the last one always preferred Echo and the Bunnymen (she was a sucker for Ian McCulloch) but I always like the Smiths best…
I was a sophomore in high school the first time I heard The Smiths. My first girlfriend dumped me and my best friend decided to give me The Queen Is Dead for my birthday. The planets aligned.
oh, the number of times I have heard ‘How Soon is Now’….
I was never much of a Smiths fan. When I started dating my wife, however, she began to wear me down. It started with Morrissey’s solo stuff. I began to love Your Arsenal and Vauxhall and I. I then slowly circled back to the Smiths albums and became a convert. So, I’d like for my wife to win the box set in honor of the painstaking years she spent converting me into a Moz/Smiths fan.
“Half A Person” was the first Smiths song I had heard during the summer of 1987 on WXXP radio in Pittsburgh. It blew my mind to say the least and I had had to have more. Little did I realize that going back to high school that Fall, a Smiths fan among Poison, Crüe, Ratt and other glam metal band fans that populated my hick high school… this would mean trouble. haha. Good times indeed.
I have had the pleasure of randomly meeting both Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke. 2 down, 2 to go!
Have loved the Smiths since high school
Best friend in high school dubbed me copies of ‘The Queen is Dead’ and ‘Strange Times’ by The Chameleons. My musical life was forever changed…
“Sheila Takes a Bow” on 120 Minutes. Smiths fandom was instant.
Boot the grime of this world in the crotch, dear… <3
If I won this, I would cry with joy and play all of the records back to back to back. ZOMG What an offering!!!
The first Smiths song I heard was “Unhappy Birthday” in a friends car in the summer of 1988. I was hooked immediately and have been a huge fan ever since.
I was truly converted when I heard the first chords of Headmaster Ritual on a cassette, I’m gonna guess early 1986. Play, rewind, play, rewind that cassette with a guitar in my hand and trying to learn the tunes….Johnny unknowingly taught me how to play.
how soon is now? best smith’s song?
I first listened to the Smiths because I noticed the cute neighbor girl listening to The Queen is Dead.
I never saw The Smiths but I grew to love them and saw Morrissey live numerous times in the early 1990’s.
The Smiths were the 80’s icon on KROQ in LA. Love that 80’s KROQ sound
I was a fan at the time but not until I had my heart broken did I become a fan for life. It took a broken heart for me to open my mind and soul to Morrissey and Johnny’s pure genius. “What Difference Does It Make?”
Learned to love The Smiths the way I learned to love most of my favorites: through WOXY.
count me in. <3
i’ve never won a thing in my life, but this might may make up for some of that…
Love the Smiths. Got to see them perform once. Have seen Morrissey since but definitely not the same.
I’ve loved them since the early 80’s
Please, please, please…let me get one of these box sets I want….
As a Smith, I have always loved The Smiths. My best story is that I had to buy The Queen is Dead cassette three times because I played it so much it kept wearing out or the Sony Boombox kept eating it.
I fell in love with the smiths when i was 12. my friend made me a tape of louder than bombs and that started it all. long live the smiths! <3
I had a dream that Morrisey and Johnny Marr reconciled and announced a reunion tour.
I remember the first time I heard “How Soon is Now” Marr’s opening guitar chords and Morrissey’s plaintive voice crooning, “I am human and I need to be loved” … hooked ever since.
Smith’s fueled a lot of my mid to late 80’s high jinx….
The Queen Is Dead was on a constant auto-reverse in my walkman on my bus rides to and from college. When Strangeways came out I actually drew the album cover across the front of a pair of jeans with black Sharpie.
I first heard The Smiths while sneaking into a local goth/industrial night underage. Fell in love with “Ask” and “How Soon Is Now” immediately. Now I’m the dj spinning The Smiths and it’s really rather cool having the young crowd come up to ask who they are and songnames. I guess it’s all coem full circle ;)
I think that a lot of people miss the humor in the Smiths. For all of their “depressive” reputation, Morrissey can make you laugh and the songs are fun to dance to. You can’t say that about U2!
My wife and I bonded over The Smiths. Our son is named Jack Morrissey…
I think what sold me on The Smiths was listening to the lyrics “If a double decker bus crashes in to us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die. And if a ten-ton truck kills the both of us, to die by your side, well, the pleasure the privilege is mine.” How deeply in love do you have to be with someone to express that? It just blew me away and I was hooked.
“Hatfull of Hollow” was my introduction. Borrowed the cassette from a friend. Played it for days on end.
How could you not fall in love with the smiths? Once I heard them, i was hooked for life.
I was a fan from the very beginning. I remember reading about this band long before The Smiths was released, and bought it right away. All my friends, including my wife at the time, thought I was crazy.
Morrisseys plaintive vocals against the ringing guitar of Johnny Marr was genius. Still is.
Still admire Marr. ’tis a shame Morrissey has become such an ass. He still owes me an Atlanta show.
I first heard the Smiths at a middle school dance, when the opening of “Sheila Take a Bow” rang out across the ending of the Violent Femmes’ “Blister in the Sun.” good times.
The Smiths were the reason I quit commercial radio in the Eighties. Morrissey is the reason I began looking at music as true art and poetry. Johnny Marr is the reason I bought my first guitar. I cannot possibly point to one album as a favorite, but I can put my finger on The Smiths as the most important musical landmark in my life.
I wear black on the outside because black is how I feel on the inside.
the smiths and the replacements………
I heart The Smiths soooooo much. They were such an integral part of my teens that I couldn’t imagine those years without them.
The Queen Is Dead was my introduction to The Smiths and it still remains my favorite.
Morrissey rides bikes. I like bikes.
So, the winner is selected at random and not based on their comment? (you said the comment is just “to make things interesting”) OK, just checking. I have nothing especially interesting to say here except that I’ve been a big fan of the Smiths for about 25 years now and this box set would be a very fine addition to my collection. Thank you!
Yes, the 3 winners will be elected at random. The comments are just for fun, and sharing our collective Smiths’ experiences…
i would have gone out all those nights but never had a stitch to wear so i stayed in wearing out my smiths cassettes instead. gruesome, eh?
My first Smiths record was “The Queen Is Dead”. I was in junior high and I bought it when it was released because the guy at the record store told me to. I had never experienced anything like it and think that it rates as one of the best albums of all time.
A friend put “Bigmouth Strikes Again” on a mixed tape. Once I got used to Morrissey’s singing, I was hooked.
I jumped on the Smiths bandwagon late, but I am no less of a fan for it! I religiously listen to “Breakfast with the Smiths” every week on Indie1031.com; each time I hear new gems that open up a whole new world of Smiths wonder for me!
First exposed to The Smiths when “Girlfriend in a coma” was released. Loved the song, but didn’t fall for the band. A lot of my friends were fans, but my ears were aimed elsewhere (the cult, cure, janes addiction, etc). It took another good 20 some odd years for me to investigate The Smiths again right about the time Moz returned with You Are the Quarry. I’ve been a huge fan ever since! To this day I can’t believe it took so long…
Any comment… is that good enough? :)
My Smiths story isn’t all that happening, although I’m literally STILL listening to Louder Than Bombs on a TDK blank tape circa 1989 in my 1992 Corolla. Tape deck standard.
I was singing Golden Lights this morning on the way to work. Why did you change?
The Smiths brought Swingin’ London and Kitchen Sink dramas into my life. For this I will always love them.
I was late to the Smiths party. In 1990 I graduated high school and got into “alternative” music. It only took the first few seconds of “How Soon Is Now?” before I was hooked.
Remaster, re-package, re-issue … nevertheless, it’s The Smiths and I love it!
I first heard the Smiths in 1985. My family had just moved us from NJ to Florida. I was none to pleased being dragged 1200 miles away from my friends to start 8th grade in a new place. My first week there I discovered the local alternative radio station and spent every minute I could listening. One night “The Headmaster Ritual” came on and I was immediately hooked. Who the hell were The Smiths? How does the guy singing know exactly how I feel? It really was a life changing moment and began my love of The Smiths.
I felt kind of alienated throughout high school and I never really liked a lot of my “friends”. The Smiths put many of my emotions to song. They continue to be one of my favorite bands.
Summer before senior year of high school (’85) and a friend picked up Meat is Murder on cassette and we listened in the car. So first song of theirs I heard was “The Headmaster Ritual” and that album still remains my favorite Smiths release.
Morrissey is God!!!!
Back in high school I was too busy listening to synth bands like Yello and Depeche Mode to pay any attention to bands that had guitars, so I missed out on The Smiths. Then in 1987 when the band already broken up, I began to broaden my musical horizon and Hatful Of Hollow made its way into my record collection.
Love the smiths!
it was the 80’s, i was in HS and a drama geek. i still have the cassette i used to play in my first car driving to school. my fav, still to this day, is “a rush and a push.” those were good times.
I’d been hearing about the Smiths for a little while from the local college radio stations, and I bought the single (45 RPM vinyl) for “William, It Was Really Nothing” because I recognized the cover photo as an ad I’d seen in stereo magazines. No turning back at that point.
When I was in high school almost everyone was into the grunge scene but I hated that crap so I turned to the U.K. and started listening to bands like New Order, the Charlatans U.K., Stone Roses , The Smiths and the Cure. I still hate grunge music and adore my Brit alternative rock.
The Smiths saved my life in college, they helped me come to terms with who I was, my fav all time band, I would love to win this!
Found a tape copy of hatful of hollow and I’d heard so much about them that I just picked it up on a whim. Never went back.
If I win this, I’ll give it to my friend Amanda who has Morrissey tattooed on her arm.
need2wingot2winhave2win
Like many people of the era, I was first exposed to The Smiths on 120 Minutes (and more specifically Morrissey with the “November…” video). Who were these guys with their overly-dramatic lyrics and sweet melodies? I wasn’t a huge fan by any means and over the years they somewhat fell away until I saw Joseph Arthur perform an amazing acoustic cover of “There is a Light…” about 5 or 6 years ago, and I suddenly remembered what I had been missing in those lyrics. I’ve since renewed my appreciation for what they created in their brief career.
I was in the Navy in the mid ’80’s. My girlfriend at the time, now my wife, was in college and would send me casettes from bands she knew I liked and also bands that I hadn’t heard of. She was following The Smiths and sent me “Meat is Murder” when it came out. After my first listen I mailed her back asking her to send me all of the previous Smiths releases. Fantastic!
The first time I heard The Smiths, I hated them. But my Walkman ate the other tape I had with me on a cross-country plane trip. So, it was either listen to a Smiths mixtape given to me by a friend, or listen to my seatmate snore. I cannot thank Loud Sleeper enough.
The Smiths helped me to not kill myself and others in my formative years and today at around 10:45am.
Great music ! Would love to rock this set !
I don’t own any Smiths albums so I could use this!
Still love listening to the Smiths, after all these years.
These songs saved my life!
I listened to the Queen Is Dead over and over when my girlfriend broke up with me in 1989. I remember during that time figuring out when I turned 20 years, 7 months and 27 days old.
I saw the video for “How Soon Is Now,” on 120 Minutes and went to the record store the next day after school to buy “Meat is Murder.” I got home sat cross legged on my bedroom floor in front of my stereo, dropped the cassette into the player, hit play, and was greeted by the most amazing tones I had ever heard. To this day 20 some odd years later when that opening riff of “Headmasters Ritual,” washes over my ears I am transported back to my very first kiss with The Smiths.
Would love to have a box set of all the 45’s!
It’s a miracle I didn’t kill myself as a teen listening to them, and yet somehow also provided the transcendence to get through…
In 1984, a friend played “Hatful of Hollow” and it soon became apparent that I wanted to hear more. Timeless music which brings back a ton of memories from my late teen years.
My favorite part about The Smiths is that you can love them because they sound sad and melancholy or you can love them because their lyrics are actually HILARIOUS!!
This site is great for trips down memory lane and for discoverung bands I somehow overlooked. Thanks and keep up the excellent work!
I knew a few Smiths songs but my first real extensive exposure to them was their last album. I was moving from more pop/new wave stuff and discovering “college” music and alternative stuff, and “Girlfriend in a Coma” was just hitting the airwaves on MTV. I picked up the “Strangeways” cassette and was really blown away by it.
My love for the Smiths was a bit retroactive. I got the Viva Hate cassette tape when I was in high school, and immediately fell in love with Moz’s mopey, lovely tunes. A friend who was subjected to Hairdresser on Fire over and over in my car told me that she liked The Smiths better. “Who?” I asked. She then proceeded to tell me that Morrissey used to front this amazing Brit band called The Smiths. The next day, she brought her cassette of The Queen is Dead and said something to the effect of, “Listen and learn, noob,” (although, of course, we didn’t say ‘noob’ back then. She opened a door for me into Smiths brilliance that has never closed. Thanks, Katrina, wherever you are.
Got my first taste of the Smiths way back in the 80’s (of course) with the first song I remember hearing “What Difference Does It Make” on our high school’s radio station. It remains one of my favorites to this day.
The Smiths were one of those bands that I thought too trendy for me to find interesting (if that makes any sense) at the time they were around, but I’ve since seen the error of my ways.
The Smiths were a huge part of my college years – expanded my musical worldview – and are still in my player after all these years.
Bought “Hatful of Hollow” LP on a trip to Toronto one year. Practically wore the thing out! Still my favorite release by them. Captured the true sound of the band more than any producer ever did.
Meat Is Murder got me through High School. Along with Pornography and Siouxsie and Husker Du.
My first experience with the smiths was listening to Panic on the radio and I have been in love with them ever since.
I remember asking mom who had that funny voice
I was an outcast in high school and their music spoke to me like none other. I could relate to it and it made me feel less alone in the world. It still does.
The song I first heard was “How Soon Is Now” and the thing that caught my ear was the whirling tremolo of Johnny Marr’s Twin Reverb. Being a Steve Cropper / early Stax fan, I had to find out more about the band immediately. Thank you for all your wonderful guitar work, Johnny.
During those angst ridden late teen years in the mid ’80’s, very few bands helped put things into perspective like the Smiths… To this day, if I hear even a single note of “How soon is now”, I come to a complete stand still, to reflect on my past, and where I am now because this band, who in their own way, aided the healing necessary to become a reasonable and productive adult.
I first heard a copy of Meat Is Muder on cassette wondering: how di this guitarist make these sounds? And why does this one-named singer not follow where a ‘normal’ vocalist would find the melody? This discovery made me realise how magical they are. Johhny Marr made me want to play guitar…whcih I still do to this day. Obviously the finest band of my generation. I have twice had my Smiths collection stolen: all my vinyl in 1990 by a roommate; and last year all my CD’s when I put them in temporary storage when I lost my job. I have not had the $ to replace them, so this would be wonderful!
LONG LIVE THE SMITHS!!!
When I was in high school in the mid-90s and looking for identity, I found myself on a goth kick. Bauhaus, Joy Division, and Sisters of Mercy were the first influences. Someone told me to check out The Smiths as well. I picked up the singles collection at that point. When listening, I thought, this isn’t quite the same as these others in the genre, but they are something incredible in a class of their own.
Been through many bands since those days, but The Smiths have stayed in constant rotation as a soundtrack in my life.
It’s only a matter of time before a self respecting music fan stumbles upon the Smiths. From hearing “How Soon Is Now” on the local alt station as a teen in the early 90’s to having a girlfriend put “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” on a mix tape, they’ve been lurking in my life. I’d also say they’re one of very few bands to have not put out a bad (studio) album; each one from the self titled through Strangeways is a classic.
I used to buy albums by The Smiths, The Cure, Blancmange, Echo, all the rad stuff back in the day for my first real girlfriend. Needless to say, I was quite popular with my first real girlfriend. How soon is now? Pretty quick back in the day!
High school, college, military… the Smiths were fine companions during those glory days.
And now, whenever I need to reminisce, the Smiths are headliners for that soundtrack, too.
Yes, please. When I met my wife while at university, we listened to the Smiths all the time. We still do frequently and were lucky enough to see Moz live last winter.
Have had the Smiths in heavy rotation since 1983.
Slicing Up Eyeballs FTW!
First found out about the smiths when I heard “louder than bombs” playing over the loud speaker at a department store when I was in 6th grade. Tried on multiple pairs of pants so I could keep listening.
Hated them as a teenager and then I grew up and discovered good music. An all-time favorite. Gimme please.
Hearing that opening riff to “How Soon Is Now” always takes me back to when it would blare out of my craptastic clock radio as a wake-up alarm on too many mornings during high school.
ca’t wait to hear the remasters
Living in central PA in the 80’s meant there wasn’t much culture past Motley Crue, Ratt, and Whitesnake. When our local college radio station (WQSU) finally found someone to play something without spandex and AquaNet, The Smiths were in heavy rotation. When I finally had my own college show years later, “Panic” was the second song I ever played.
I blame Nathalie Padavic for having good taste in music.
A friend introduced me to Morrissey via “Bona Drag” which I completely hated at first. Over several months, songs like “Ouja Board, Ouija Board” and “Hairdresser on Fire” got stuck in my head and it went from a hate to a love relationship. From there I explored Morrissey’s back catalogue which brought me to “The Smiths” albums and the rest is history.
I fell in love with Smiths when a fellow DJ on our high school morning radio show came in with his newly purchased vinyl copy of The Queen is Dead, he was so proud and after I heard it, I never looked back…
Middle school. Fell in love with Morrissey’s melancholic voice and Johnny’s strummings. Their music was filled with sorrow, angst, and hopeless romanticism; emotions I found myself relating to. How could I not fall in love with them? And to this day, I still find myself, after three decades, relating and falling for them.
I’ve only got “Rank”. Need more Smiths! Cheers, and thank you for the contest.
I heard them on the radio, immediately stopped what I was doing, and exclaimed: “Who the heck is THAT?!?!” (or something to that effect) Forget The Shins, The Smiths changed my life.
I went out and bought “The Smiths” on cassette after hearing “This Charming Man” on the radio. The guitar on that song got me hooked right away.
Ruthie Graham emailed me mp3s of “Bigmouth Strikes Again” and “Stretch Out and Wait”; then I listened to “Barbarianism Begins at Home” and I was hooked. Me, me, me!
The Smiths, my all time favorite go to band. Whatever the occasion.
from the intro of “this charming man” to the fade of “I won’t share you,” the smiths were the soundtrack to my teenage angst. viva the smiths!
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want… THIS BOX SET!!!
i first enjoyed ths Smiths at a college bar. The Queen Is Dead was the only break from Billy Joel and Brown Eyed Girl in the Jukebox
I was quite a late comer to The Smiths…In the 90s I played bass in a band that covered several of their tunes (What Difference Does It Make, Girlfriend in a Coma, Shoplifters of the World Unite). This led me to investigate their catalog, and now I’m a fan. Johnny Marr is one mother of a guitarist.
Now I know how Joan of Arc felt.
I cannot wait to hear the remasters!
an unscheduled trip to nyc became a night to remember when we came around the corner at radio city to see the marquee read: James / The Smiths…
In college, in a dorm room, the sister of a friend had purchased the Brit version – Hatful of Hollows (vinyl of course) and I was instantly hooked. The sister and I also shared a love for XTC. I’m going to email her now and remind her. Thanks, Al
Two things- one of my college girlfriends would only do it to the Smiths, and when i went to university my junior year in London-(9/87) i was devastated that they had finished playing- I was sooo excited to maybe catch them live- i had to settle for Louder than Bombs, and then the release of Strangeways while I was there- and then I went home at Xmas and broke up with the b*tch! But those songs are friendly college thumping memories ya cant ever replace….. girlfriend in a coma/unhappy bday LOL! ;> )
Yes, I do dearly love the Smiths, but it took me a little time. It must have been ’87, “Girlfriend In a Coma” on MTV. It was both captivating and laughable to me at first sight. The more I heard though, I came to realize how original and amazingly subversive the group was.
1987–Smths @ Great Woods–fantastic show! So This is America?
The Smiths were a great band and still one of my favorite bands! Listen to them all the time!
I fell in love with The Smiths after hearing ‘Girlfriend in A Coma’ and wearing out the ‘Strangeways, Here We Come’ cassette.
Once again, SUE comes through w/ another great giveaway! The Smiths – came along at the right time of my life, esp ‘The Queen Is Dead’. Love it! Maybe I should marry it??
Entering!
91X played How Soon Is Now on constant rotation but I never gave it much thought other than it’s that “WEEEEEEEEowwwwwww” song. I happened to be at the Wherehouse the day that Strangeways released, picked it up, and my adolescent mind latched onto Girlfriend in a Coma as the saddest, funniest song ever written. Later on, when a shoulder surgery turned me from a jock into a drama nerd, was introduced to the rest of their music and never looked back.
Last night I dreamt…I won a Smiths boxed set.
This would be a GREAT GIFT for anyone. If you already love The Smiths, good thing to have in your collection. If you are not a Smith’s fan, this would bring you over to the FAN SIDE
As a pretentious youth, I had some disdain for the Smiths – I was a far too cool death rocker/punk to like an effete group like the Smith. But, the constant exposure via girlfriends in particular won me out, getting dragged out on the dancefloor for instance while “Ask” played, turned me into a diehard fan.
Love It!
These sound amazing, from the samples I have heard.
i’ve always been in love and never requited.
I was always interested in the UK Top Ten that was listed on the last page of Rolling Stone in the early 80s. Often, the artists listed there were as-yet undiscovered gems that only needed to be heard to be loved (and as I lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this was one of the only outlets to find “exotics” new bands). When I was about to enter my teens, I saw The Smiths’ “Reel Around the Fountain” listed on the chart, and I was intrigued enough (especially since they were on Sire, which was always pretty dependable) to seek it out at Starship Records in Tulsa. When I pulled the album cover from the rack at the shop, the cover was the last thing I needed to close the sale.
I took it home, excited to listen, but I honestly didn’t really like it. Too strange, I guessed, and too far from “typical” Sire artists who I liked. My college-aged brother, seven years older than me and home from college for a break, said he thought it was something that would probably get better with repeat plays, and he offered to take it off my hands. After about a week of him playing it incessantly, I warmed to “This Charming Man” and “Reel Around the Fountain,” and soon I was seeking out any 12″ imports that Starship could acquire. By the time I got to high school, The Smiths had become a signal for whether a friend or girlfriend was hip enough to bother with.
I never got the debut back from my brother.
Amazing prize!
The Smiths have gotten me through some of the darkest hours of my life..
the smiths changed my life
thank you rhino
This would be a sweet grab.
Never was a big Smiths fan growing up as a teen until I heard “There is a light that never goes out”. That song really hit the nail on the head with my emotions at that time period. Feeling different and not relating to the masses. Thank God for british 80’s Music! Music is salvation!
Good times for a change.
You see the luck I’ve had can make a good man turn bad.
So please please please, let me, let me, let me…
Let me get what I want this time.
I’m pretty sure Orlando’s 91.1 WPRK was where I first heard the Smiths. It was my first taste of a college station, and I couldn’t get enough. “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” was the first song I ever heard by them, and it was so significant at that time in my life. From then on I’ve been a Smiths fan.
The Smith’s taught me that its ok to be me. okay to be real. true sense of comfort everytime i listen.
I regularly remind myself how lucky I was to see The Smiths live: Opera House, Boston, summer of ’85.
My first encounter with The Smiths came via a friend’s older sister who dubbed her cassette of ‘The Queen Is Dead’ for me. I’d never heard anything like them before — literate, arch, great melodies. “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” was the one I kept rewinding to hear again and again.
After hearing How Soon Is Now for the first time in 1986, I drove around the Valley of The Sun until I found a record shop in Chandler that had a vinyl copy of Hatful of Hollow (for $13.00). Later that year, I picked up The Queen Is Dead and went through a few copies of the cassette.
I worked in a record store in the 80’s selling cool imports from around the world. We were inundated with Smiths import 7″ and 12″ singles as well as the albums, some of which were import only. They sold out almost as quick as we would get them in. We literally watched The Smiths blow up in popularity until their untimely demise (artistic/creative differences). I acquired a taste for their singles and albums as they were released. Their catalog still figures in my collection heavily. I am less empolyed now than I was then, so I really need to win this set, as I am a huge fan of remastered music that really needs it.
Ok, I know this is cliche, but there was a girl and “There is a light that never goes out.” I miss mix tapes.
I wanna win!
Junior High School years would have been much worse had I not discovered The Smiths. They expressed all my angst in life even as a teenager.
please let me win! :)
1987: Bristol Bierkeller. A night out to see The Bolshoi with my mates. “Who’s this support band then? Aslan? What are they like?” “Oh I don’t know, but apparently they’re mates with Morrissey”. Then, right on cue, in he walks. He buys a pint and plays pool with a big cheesy grin on his face. “Hello, Mr. Morrissey, what are you doing here?” “I’m recording in Bath and my friends are in the support band. What are The Bolshoi like, I’ve not heard them”…There’s a photo somewhere of me and Morrissey grinning like idiots.
Meat is murder. But murder is also murder.
yes please…me please….oh yes…please
please please please, let me let me get what i want…
my friend was obsessed with the smiths and i had photo with him in high school. so he would blast them while we were in the dark room and we would dance, duet and develop all day. it was the best! :D
A girl made me a mix tape with “Big Mouth Strikes Again” on it. I fell in love instantly. With the music.
What I remember most clearly from my years at university, is that The Smiths and Pavement were on constant rotation on my stereo. One of my favourite writers wore a “Meat is murder” t-shirt on a talk show that was aired on national television in the early 90s. I tracked down a vinyl copy of that very record the next day in a local record store; the owner kindly put “How soon is now?” on for me, and the rest is history.
Ahhhh the Smiths. I’ll never forget my friend passing his walkman’s headphones over with the newly released Meat is Murder cassette playing “that joke isn’t funny anymore”. From that point on I spent my last dollar and every moment attempting to find more of the Smiths. It was rather difficult in New Mexico and without the internet but I managed. Somehow I know the words to all their songs but cannot remember a password to save my life. I’ll always love the Smiths.
I was in college at the University of Arkansas – Fayetteville and the boyfriend of a friend of mine was writing record reviews for the Traveler, the college paper. He had a new record that he was playing and it enraptured me. I was drawn to the haunting vocals floating up above a complex musical landscape. I wasn’t even really listening, but he mentioned he couldn’t figure out how to write a review of “this” – it was just too jangly and winsome. I was rather adamant that he couldn’t pan this album. It was something new and though I probably hadn’t heard even a full song – I knew it meant something to me. He allowed me to take the record, “The Smiths” and take a shot at reviewing the album – I ended up writing record reviews regularly after that and he went on to news reporting. It is one of my “lifetime moments” that I not only discovered The Smiths that day but was able to introduce them to a several hundred, maybe thousand, college students. It also prompted me to give college radio DJing a shot which I did for about 3 years.
I’m not even a Smiths fan, but they are my girlfriend’s favorite band. She lost all her Smiths CDs (her entire CD collection, actually) in a nasty divorce, and I would love to replace these for her. I love her more than life itself, and I’d do anything for her. Thanks.
A friend of mine in high school bought THE QUEEN IS DEAD and once he popped it into the tape deck in his car, I never looked back.
I used to just love driving around in my yellow VW Rabbit singing along to The Smiths. Wonderful days!
One of my first concerts ”the Queen is Dead” was @ Canadas’ Wonderland, great great show, but in a weird way being that the grounds was very new, fans begain to rip up the fresh sod (maybe just laid the day before) and throw it upon the stage at the end of the gig, not a riot but in celebration..will never forget that and then began my love for this band, and i still have the concert t-shirt!
godbless
Some of their songs made me cry, while others may have saved my life. I’m older now and a bit wiser thanks to the songs that stayed with me all of these years.
Please just give me the damn box.
One of my fave memories of this band, is when a friend and I did a presentation in High School with flash-cards-dylan-video-style. Just imagine what a “flatulent pain in the arse” looked like on those cards. Fine band, fine memories!
In high school, The Smiths opened my eyes to just how truly beautiful music (and lyrics) could be. I was never the same.
I remember my older sister heading up to NY and me giving her some $ to pick me up some music. She brought back Hatful of Hollow and played it nonstop for months after, completely wearing it out.
How Soon Is Now makes me melt, and takes me right back to my clubkid days. What an excellent song – Johnny Marr is Jesus, and Morrissey is God. Amen!
I was gotto the UK music scene here in the States when punk hit in the late 70’s. I was buying vinyl of about anything coming across the ocean. Working, going to college, and hitting record stores all over Ohio and Michigan back then. I was subscribing to NME and Sounds. That whole scene was so great. Remember getting the 1st Smiths single Hand in Glove just as school was getting out for the summer. Think it was 82 or 83. Listened to it a lot and thought that someday this could be a great band. Would play it for anybody who would listen to it.
Oddly, I saw a video on a huge screen in the back room of a gay bar in Montgomery, Alabama of “How Soon Is Now” in the 80’s. I would sit back there and make the bartender play it over n over while I would dance alone in front of the screen mesmerized.
The Smiths are the soundtrack to my high school years. They perfectly complimented my teen angst and sullen coolness!
I can’t remember how I first came across them, though!
Pick me please!
I was very impressed that once moving beyond the radio songs how impressive the albums were. Still surprised “Death of a Disco Dancer” doesn’t get more love. One of my favorites
I’ve only just begun to discover the greatness of The Smiths. I’ve known their name for quite a while but never took the time to sit and listen. Now I have and it’s wonderful!
First saw the Smiths in 1985 at the old Opera House in Boston. Meat is Murder tour. Wonderful night that ended with a riveting rendition of “Barbarism Begins at Home,” during which the entire lower level (it seemed) joined the band on stage. Quite a thrill for a teenager at one of his first concerts . . .
I first heard the Smiths on the Pretty in Pink soundtrack when I was 16. I fell in love instantly… Morrissey graced my walls and stereos ever since. :)
i want one of these – the smiths are timeless
Our first kiss at uni after dark, it was empty, so we sneaked into the physics lab room and stayed there till the morning, laughed and talked and sang the lyrics to our favourite smiths songs… He sang me the line…Gasping, drowning, but somehow still alive… And now, every time I hear ‘well I wonder’.. ..I’m taken back to that place i could play it over and over…and stay there forever.
great giveaway
Friend gave me a cassette with songs from Hatful on it (don’t think it was the whole album). Listented to it constantly and then went to a show in 1985 when they came to the states on the Meat Is Murder tour.
1987. I was 16. My older sister received a mixtape from a suitor that included “Ask”. Later, when I bought “Louder Than Bombs” at the record store, the lovely 19 year old cashier told her coworker, “That kid has great taste.”
I like to play for my 12 year old son, all the music I used to listen to. He loves it all so far, I know he would love this, too!
I’ve been listening to the Smiths for almost 3/4 of my life and still love them as much as I did when I first heard them :)
My first exposure was the How Soon Is Now? video on MTV, and my uncle (only a year older) owned The Queen Is Dead, and that’s all it took. The Smiths are one of the best examples of quality over quantity in a band’s career. Almost every song they recorded (I can count the duds on one hand) was a great one. I find it amazing that The Smiths’ songs are so heavy with lyrics, yet I can sing along to most of them. The words and melodies just stick in my head somehow. One of the all-time greats.
Thanks for this web site and also the contest!
Ohhh, the soundtrack of my life. Different friends exposed me to different bands, but The Smiths stuck with me, going on 30 years. I wonder if Morrissey & Marr have any idea how they have enriched the lives of their fans? I sure hope so. Keeping my fingers crossed to win this set, I would cherish it forever.
AH….I was the one who introduced many a person to The Smiths…in all honesty I believe I happily stumbled upon them. Many happy memories….
Please, please, please !!! :)
Love the artwork to these album and this boxset really pulls it all together. The cohesive sound, the look – very nice.
Been a fan since high school in the ’80’s!!!
my discovery began with the Soho sample of How soon is Now on Hippychick.. I understand many smiths fans hated that sample, but i fell in love with the riff and explored where that sample came from. the smiths have been one of my favorites ever since.
Mozzer-tosser influenced my choice to be vegan. I survived my teens with his help, ironically. He’s my Oscar Wilde. I was lucky enough to see The Smiths live in 1986, on The Queen id Dead Tour, and Morrissey several times, as recent as last year. I need the boxset because i always borrowed my older brother’s Smiths cds, so could use some of my own…
A friend of mine played the Queen is Dead on cassette for me …. been a fan ever since. :)
Like many, I fell in love with the Smiths in college during the 80s — I was charmed by the intense musicality, swept in by the wonderfully arch lyrics and captivated by the vaguely homoerotic imagery.
Still am.
I was driving down the interstate in Florida, sun shining and the radio blasting when “Girlfriend in a Coma” came on. I thought that was the funniest thing I ever heard. Still makes me laugh. My tape wore out and my husband ordered “How soon is Now” off of amazon a year ago. So many years and I have not gotten tired of their music.Don’t think I ever will. Would love to win the collection!
First song: “How Soon is Now” (via WLIR in the NYC area)
First purchase: “Hatful of Hollow”
Still remember seeing “The Smiths” spray painted in concrete drainage ditch while skating in the mid 80s in New Mexico of all places. Based on the location and the graffiti, I assumed they were a punk band. They were punk, but in a completely different way. An absolute great band…
The Smiths are such an iconic creation that I don’t believe they actually existed – they are bizarre dream composed of luscious pop sensibility and a callous eye on reality, somehow realized on wax. It’s this precarious balance that makes them sheer genius – any tilt would cause them to become a parody of themselves or simply a parody. Many claim the Smiths as an inspiration, but rarely is this obvious as a direct influence, as any imitation would be immediately dismissed. How could this be? Their chosen name says nothing, yet says it all. They are The Smiths.
I hung with the goth/punk/new wavers in high school in the early eighties and The Smiths were required listening. The lyrics were so lamentable and melodramatic at the time and image was so important to all of us. I still listen to The Smiths on a daily basis (intentional or not) but now feel joy at the wonderful music instead of all the angst of those long lost teen years. Love it all so much!
Louder Than Bombs was the first Smiths album I heard and was one of those childhood staples. My brother had it and we’d listen, despite our mother’s intense dislike of the band – she hates Morrissey’s voice. Meat is Murder was the first Smiths album I bought on CD. Glad to see these remasters coming out.
First Album: I bought Louder than Bombs when I was 16 back in ’89.
Favorite Song: Half a Person
I have all of the albums of course but having the new re-masters would be very nice!
I saw the Smiths during my senior year in HS – The Queen is Dead tour! There was a water-filled moat surrounding the outdoor stage (in Mesa, AZ), which kept the audience separated from the band. Morrissey instructed the crowd to move past the security and to get in the moat so we could be closer. It was a fun wet night.
I could already tell as a young teen in the early ’80s that my tastes were diverging from mainstream radio (although, to be fair, mainstream radio was playing Gary Numan, A Flock of Seagulls and The Clash at the time), but I think the first bands that really *spoke* to me as a lonely, weird, alienated kid were Oingo Boingo and The Smiths. But when the agitated, twitchy, energetic kid that Oingo Boingo spoke to calmed down a bit and no longer really related to that band, The Smiths stuck around and provided the soundtrack and emotional resonance to my late teens. ‘Meat Is Murder’ was the first import CD I ever bought, which I returned the next day because it didn’t have “How Soon Is Now” on it (I had no idea that UK releases often had different track listings from US releases). I remember driving around with my first band’s bassist on a summer day with the windows open and the debut album in the cassette deck, singing the falsetto parts of “Miserable Lie” at the top of our lungs; he later gave me his Meat Is Murder t-shirt (which I still have, threadbare and deeply-loved) when he outgrew it. Hearing the opening notes of “Headmaster Ritual” still takes me right back to that time of my life; MIM was the first of their albums that I bought. *sigh* I’m not sure that I remember falling in love with The Smiths; it feels more like they’ve always been there.
You’re the bee’s knees but so am I…
Discovering The Smiths was like my own personal bat-mitzva: I became a lady. I was 14 and RANK kick-started my longggggggg journey with the band, and with British music in general.
Can’t think of a witty remark at this hour – so just a comment from me…!
Purchased “Louder than Bombs” as a sophomore in high school and was hooked!
Nothing was better for heartbroken college students in the 80’s than The Smiths, and when your heart was ok, the lyrics and sound of the band were engaging and intelligent.
Introduced to them via “How Soon Is Now” back in high school.
:-)
This gal that worked in a medical lab with my father knew he was getting me a boombox for my 10th birthday so she made me a couple of really groovy mixtapes to go along. One tape had ‘I Started Something’ and ‘A Rush and a Push’ after that I was hooked.
Love them! These records are classic! No one can touch their subjects in songwriting. Brilliant!
came to know The Smiths via John Hughes as a young high schooler around 1994ish. My then girlfriend chose Pretty in Pink on a date/movie night Of course during that memorable Duckie scene he was sitting on a mattress flipping cards in full mope-ery listening to The Smiths’ “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” while Andie was on a date with Blaine. We spent the next day rifling through Smiths cds at my local independent record store and came away with Louder Than Bombs. I’ve been loyal to the band and Morrissey’s solo material ever since. Thanks for the contest.
I went with a friend to see the Smiths in 1986 in Dallas. I had never heard of them at the time, but that concert changed my life.
In 1987, a cool older schoolmate of mine heard me expressing my appreciation of Pink FLoyd and suggested I borrow her copy of Louder Than Bombs. I listened to most of it on my walkman on the bus ride home and thought it was a concept album. I was shocked into shame to discover that it was instead a compilation album. Their music has been an important part of my life ever since.
My friends make fun of me because I’ve never owned anything by The Smiths yet.
When The Smiths were breaking, Moz just completely turned me off to becoming a fan. Then, late one night, a good friend slipped some Smiths on and without knowing, I became a lifelong fan.
I recently became reacquainted with a band that sounds a lot like the Smiths, the Sundays.
I actually got into The Smiths through Morrissey’s solo work. Bona Drag was the album that made me a fan of him, then through natural progression I started listening to the Smiths.
I fell in love with the Smiths after falling in love with Morrissey solo first in the early 1990’s while in my “Tween” years. I had never been moved by any music on such a personal level prior to that point. Despite the occasional drama involved with Morrissey’s solo career (and PR gaffes), I’ve remained a fan of both to this day.
Here is my response to an Internet meme a few years ago:
MY LIFE ACCORDING TO THE SMITHS
Describe yourself:
The Boy With the Thorn in His Side
How do you feel:
Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now
Describe where you currently live:
Barbarism Begins at Home
If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
Cemetry Gates
Your favorite form of transportation:
Nowhere Fast
Your best friend is:
Vicar in a Tutu
You and your best friends are:
Sweet and Tender Hooligans
What’s the weather like:
Is It Really So Strange?
Favorite time of day:
This Night Has Opened My Eyes
If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish
What is life to you:
What Difference Does It Make?
Your relationship:
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Your fear:
Bigmouth Strikes Again
What is the best advice you have to give:
Panic
Thought for the Day:
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
How I would like to die:
The Death of a Disco Dancer
what a charming man
The first Smiths song I heard was “How Soon Is Now?” (not surprisingly), and I fell in love with Morrissey’s voice. I actually got into The Smiths and Moz’s solo work around the same time.
I jumped on the bandwagon late (1992); long after they had broken up. I didn’t know Morrissey or the Smiths until I saw them on MTV’s “120 Minutes.” I got hooked fast.
I love The Smiths but I wish XM FirstWave would play something in addition to “How Soon is Now”.
This is the one thing that would make me happy.
No other music could so effectively take you out of your own life and into a better place!
In late summer 1985, I was 19 and got my wisdom teeth removed a month before I left my hometown for college. My dear friend Rocky brought me Meat Is Murder and during my hazy recovery that first night after surgery, I listened to side 1 over and over (that was when you could keep the arm off the record player and the record would keep playing). Over the next few days, Rocky and another friend, Jeff, would come visit me bringing black raspberry milkshakes and hold a cigarette between my lips and all the while Meat Is Murder kept playing and playing. A very fond Smiths memory for me.
The Smiths have been ” My way of life” since I was 15, I’m 35 yrs. old now and every song remains timeless to me………x
“I Know it’s Over” and “Well I Wonder” have saved me on more than a few dozen occasions.
First heard in ’84 when I first got to art college and they were obvious staples throughout and since.
YO QUIERO
As a kid I would watch 120 minutes on MTV, fell in love with “How Soon Is Now”. Until College that was the only smiths song I knew. Now my 5 year old wants “Girlfriend in a Coma” on her iPod.
Winner!
my older sister would always blast morrissey and the smiths on the big stereo around the house. once ‘there is a light’ came on, i was immediately hooked onto them.
It took me all of about 30 seconds when I first heard Reel Around The Fountain (which was the first song by The Smiths I’d ever heard) my freshman year in college to cement a life-long relationship that’s truly a light that never goes out!
I love the Smiths! I first heard them when I stole them from my roommate Jack Watters back in 1990.
Finally broke down and bought a cd player in 1987 and Strangeways Here We Come was the first cd I ever purchased. Still have the cardboard CD longbox that was used for packaging back then.
I didn’t appreciate them until later in life. As someone else wrote, it started with Morrissey solos stuff and came back around to them. Sure I knew who they were, just never got in to them.
The Smiths remind me why I’m alive
I have always liked “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”. I usually play it really loud on my headphones on the bus or in an elevator hoping a cute girl will notice and say that she likes the Smiths… when a girl does, I act all surprised and am like… “You know of the Smiths!?!” This has gotten me more dates than my “Unknown Pleasures” t-shirt!
Reissue, repackage… yes please!
When I heard The Smiths “Louder than Bombs” album I thought it was a greatest hits compilation, yes it’s THAT good.
“Bigmouth Strikes Again”! 92.7 WLIR’s “Screamer of the Week” That’s when I got on board. Check out my review of The Queen is Dead. http://marc-turn-that-down.blogspot.com/search/label/1986
So glad I got to see them, at Pier 84 on the Queen Is Dead tour. So amazing, and the records hold up so well.
I remember seeing the album cover to the Smith’s first LP and said “Wow” I have been a fan ever since. This handsome man!!!
Looks like a great collection.
Bought the “Rank” cassette because it had both Panic and Bigmouth Strikes Again on it. Discoveries backward and forward in time from there.
Also fell in love when heard the band for the first time on WLIR. Those were the days….
I chuckled at this poor kid who wore only Smiths and Morissey tee shirts. Eventually I gave the group a spin and stopped chuckling…
I first heard The Smiths when I was in junior high. I remember hearing “The Boy With The Thorn in His Side”, and finding some comfort in the fact that someone older than me, was just as miserable with the state of things back in 1986.
I was in the Navy in ’84 when I went home on leave. I heard them at a college bar, bought the album, and shared the music with my shipmates. They thought it a little weird at first, but grew to love it. That’s the old-school way to “share” music!
I started loving The Smiths when I got into a car accident with 2 friends in North Carolina on a road trip from DC to Alabama. Got side-swiped and spun out across 4 lanes of highway. Everyone was okay and once the car was drivable again (only a few dents and a blown tire). We put on The Smiths and listened to everything except “There Is A Light” because the “double decker bus crashes” line was TOOO REAAL.
I had the pleasure of hanging out with Johnny Marr once. I was surprised at how hilarious he was in person…
I was in the 7th grade and completely in love with the girl who lived right next door.
She sat me down one afternoon on her bedroom floor and played the entire “Hatful Of Hollw” record. I fell just as in love with that album as I did with her, and I’ve loved them ever since.
I really liked their hit “People Are People.”
If I win, I’ll definitely be gifting to a friend in need as Morrissey more or less annoys the hell out of me these days. To flip on Costello, I used to be amused, now I’m just disgusted. Marr still seems like a good bloke, tho.
during the summer of 1988, i used to run (possibly stolen) cars between Las Vegas and Southern California for an abusive step-father (actually, just my mom’s live-in boyfriend). i was very unhappy, but thrilled to be out on the open road all by myself at the young age of 16. i would pass the time and soundtrack the landscape with The Smiths. I had heard a few of their songs, but only owned ‘Louder Than Bombs’ on cassette, however each trip would include a new reward, so i quickly accumulated the entire catalogue…on tape :)
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…but I’d love to win this. Actually, I’d REALLY love the vinyl version, but beggars cannot be choosers. Or contest winners. Something.
I bought my first CD 25 years ago, Ouch, Strangeways, Here We Come.
1984. I was a freshman in high school and was already into punk. A friend gave me a cassette tape that he had made.Side 1 was OMD’s Junk Culture. Side 2 was The Smiths Meat is Murder. Side 1 was cool, side 2 changed my life. Never heard music the same again. I would be thrilled beyond words to win this set. Thank you.
The only vital band in the last 25 years ~ I heard “William, It Was really Nothing” and called off the engagement to my fiance.
Driving in my friend’s car on a rainy day. Just the way it should be. Or am I just remembering it that way? Favorite song: I Know It’s Over.
For every break up I had in college, there is a corresponding Smiths song.
To this day, one of the most original, smart and clever bands that have ever existed in the history of music.
Loved the Smiths, I believe I first heard them on the radio program Rock Over London, in 1983 when This Charming Man was played on the program. I was struck by Morrissey’s ironic lyrics and needed to hear more!
Remember hearing “What Difference Does It Make?” for the first time in ’83 or ’84 in a record store in San Francisco. Think it was Rough Trade Records on Grant Avenue. Thought to myself, “Well, I’ll have that” and bought the 12″ single.
The first time i fell in love with The Smiths was in the year 1986 i was 13 at the time and the radio station KROQ 106.7 was on my radio and the song there is light that never goes out came on and i was blown away i couldnt believe what i was hearing it was like a breath of fresh air i felt at that very moment that this could be my all time favorite band i would then later on go and buy there earlier albums and did become a major fan so o ended up wearing Smiths t-shirts i had got’in my friends into the group and then came out strange ways here we come and i loved it i remember waiting at my local record store to buy it the day it came out becoming my favorite album of 1987 then later on that same year they anounce on the radio that the Smiths broke up i was so sad but then 1988 came around and Morrissey’s first solo album viva hate came out and i’ve been a true fan ever since and now im 38 and now my kids listen to them and all these years later i still love this group that had such an impact on my life thanks Richard Blade for playing The Smiths on the radio it totally change my life awesome memories of all those great wonderful Smiths songs
Thanks to Morrissey and Johnny Marr, they got me through some tough teenage years. Amazing music and fascinating personalities. Their music is timeless!
I grew up listening to the Smiths on the radio. Their songs both spoke to our interior lives and connected us with the greater world outside of our bedroom walls. Heaven.
I was one of two Smith’s fans after my bestfriend and I fell in love with “Girlfriend in a Coma” while everyone else in my highschool listened to Bon Jovi
Hatful of Hollow was my very first import record. This was the start of many more to come. I often thought that a Smiths reunion would never meet up to the excitement of that first import purchase. That was until I just saw Morrissey live a couple of months ago. After seeing that show I think a live Smiths concert in 2012 would be better now than in was in the 80’s.
My [thankfully] ex showed them to me.
I would share a story of how I first fell in love with The Smiths, but it really isn’t that interesting. :-/
I started high school in 1989. I lived in Ventura County, just north of L.A. It was close enough that if you were cool, you listened to KROQ. I did; I was lucky I didn’t live in a flyover state making it so I had to go to college to find out Alternative/College Radio was the shiz-nit.
My fav memory (not the first one) of The Smiths was when I got “Louder Than Bombs” during Xmas break in 1989. It was the soundtrack to the season for me. I put it on the family stereo so often my dad would mock/impersonate Morrissey with a smile on his face and a tap in his feet… The CD was chock full of awesomeness. I have many sharp memories of that Xmas season, due mostly because I knew which song(s) were playing when “what” happened.
/csb
A newish friend in high school in 1987 said she thought I’d like The Smiths and I said who? I was a New Order, etc. fan at the time but for some reason had never heard The Smiths. She lent me Louder than Bombs and of course I was hooked. I ran out and bought all there tapes (lol) and to this day never have been so moved. I’d never heard anything like it and people say oh listen to these guys they are kind of like the Smiths. But you know, nothing comes close. Oh and if you’re ever feeling down and want a boost I suggest watching Hand in Glove – Barrowlands in Glasgow on youtube. That one will give you goosebumps.
A local record store chain, Kemp Mill, used to keep their “mid-price” cassette tapes within reach of customers (all the new stuff was behind the counter). After taking a gamble on Never Mind the Bullocks and the first few Talking Heads albums, I proceeded to take a chance on some of the other “white lettering on black background” WEA J-cards staring back at me from the bins. Meat Is Murder was one of them. It only got better from there.
Hearing “How Soon Is Now?” in a boutique in Ann Arbor, I asked everyone who worked in the store until someone could tell me who it was. I’d read about the Smiths at the time (1984) but hadn’t heard them at that point. They certainly weren’t played on the radio outside of college towns. I’m fairly certain I wore out cassette copies of “Louder Than Bombs” and “The Queen Is Dead” in my car toward the mid- / late-eighties. Cheers.
The Smiths are with me everyday, from seeing Morrissey on Top Of The Pops sing his life to their continued animal rights ethics. I’m so glad that they haven’t changed, unlike other heroes who sell their souls and kiss goodbye to their talent in order to hold on to success and fame. They didn’t need expensive video, gimmics, phoney smiles……they are and will always remain The Smiths.
Been so long I can’t remember, would be nice to win this set so I can fall in love with the Smiths again..
I have a story… I was able to go see morrissey when I was 14 nearly 20 years ago. I went with my big sister. Bought first row from a ticket reseller. Long story short, I took gladiolas for him. He took them from me while he was singing and immediately shredded them over a stage monitor. I was pleased just to have him acknowledge them, let alone destroy them in front of my face. Lol! The crowd was CRAZY. Craziest fans ever. I came home with my eyeglasses completely mangled from being in the crowd. My sister literally surrounded me between her and the barricade to keep me safe all night. I might not have made it out of there without her! Bottom line, he’s so worth it. For me, morrissey came first then I learned of the Smiths and got to fall in love all over again! He’s amazing.
Funny how I didn’t get into The Smiths until after the 80’s. I am a big 80’s music lover but seemed to avoid them. I absolutely love how Morrissey makes such remorseful lyrics sound so cheerful but then he gives great melody to songs with such a sad meaning such as “Asleep”. It is unfortunate that this band is no longer creating music. At least you can still see part of the Smiths with during a Morrissey show.
The Smiths have been embedded in my musical life since I was 8, and the older I get, the more I understand and appreciate their songs.
I first heard the Smiths in the late 80’s while partying with friends of mine who loved them. I had never heard anything like it. It seemed a bit weird at first, but I quickly fell in love with the music. I had to buy my own copies of their albums. I still have them.
by the time my family got cable, the smiths were kaput. morrissey solo was my gateway. i still have the CD box (CD box!) from “kill uncle” – one of the first 2 CDs i ever purchased in my small hometown record store.
the smiths = love
What incredible music …
My husband saw them play in NYC so long ago. I will never get over it!
I’ll take one please!
I was introduced to The Smiths while working at a small music store. CDs were just gaining traction and we had the best selection in town. The Smiths’ catalog was not available in the U.S. yet so we stocked all the Rough Trade imports and we went through tons of them. We also did a huge promotion for Louder Than Bombs. For a few weeks we had a huge sign in the window that read, “Guess who’s coming?” Then the two weeks prior to release we put up the answer, “The Smiths”. On the day of release we played that cd non-stop from open to close.
Ahhh, good times.
Lester Bangs said it best: Music, you now, true music – not just rock n roll – it chooses you. It lives in your car, or alone listening to your headphones, you know, with the cast scenic bridges and angelic choirs in your brain. It’s a place apart from the vast, benign lap of America.
The Smiths chose me.
I remember hearing “the light that never goes out” on the radio a couple of times, then buying the Queen is Dead on impulse having heard only the one track. Been an addict ever since.
Such a beautifully new and different sound, that drew me and so many others in in the early 80’s. It has continued to weave a spell and bring together new fans. Love the Smiths… :)
Got the U.S. 12″ of “How Soon is Now” and listened repeatedly. Had never heard a song with guitar quite like that.
I finally developed an appreciation of the Smiths in the last few years and have to admit they still sound like nobody else.
This is my comment. Pick me and I’ll tell you about the time Moz and made sweet love.
Was in London in summer of ’86 when “Queen is Dead” came out. Waited in line to buy a vinyl copy I still own. “Boy with a Thorn in his Side” is my all time fav Smiths track.
First listened to the Smiths because I had heard that a lot of Jesse Laceys lyrics were inspired by Morrissey
Thanks for all you do
Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!!! :)
Great website! Got turned on when I purchased the ‘How soon is now’ 12″ @ Tower Records in 1986 which i still have.
Late at night in bed, listening to 91X radio. They played the new import single, ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side.’ There in the dark, eighth-grade me felt named and identified, yet not disregardfully.
I looked for the album it was on, but it hadn’t yet been released. Not being sure of their other songs, I didn’t buy any other album. The song haunted me until the next year, as an awkward freshman, I was handed a homemade compilation tape by one of the cool jock seniors who secretly had a heart. “You’ll like this,” he said. “Really, this is your kind of music.”
Somehow he knew. Of course it was a comp of various Smiths songs. I was home.
My love for the Smiths started with Strangeways. I know I came late to the party but I did know the Smiths from the songs they played on WLIR and really liked them. When I heard Strangeways (which was the first Smiths album I purchased), I LOVED it.
When will the reunion dates be posted?
;^)
My first experience with The Smiths was high school freshman orientation night in ’87. I had borrowed the tape of The Queen is Dead from a friend of mine and I made my parents listen to it as we drove to the school. Needless to say, there were many songs that saved my life starting then.
I heard “There Is A Light…” on the radio before ‘The Queen Is Dead’ was released. I bought the cassette the day of release (U.S.) and took it to school (8th grade) to show my great musical taste. Well, because of that, I met my long best friend Darin when he sparked a conversation about it.
Somewhere in middle school during the mid-eighties and there was this weird vocal that grew on me :)
I remember in high school me and a friend were really into Placebo. They had a b-side called “Big Mouth Strikes Again” and I was addicted to the song. It wasn’t until later that I found out it was cover of a song by a band called The Smiths. Another friend of mine happened to have taken a liking to The Smiths around that time and he made me a mix of their music. I listened to that mix on the car ride to school almost every day. The rest is history.
I am a 43-year-old man who is only moderately embarrassed to admit that I still love the Smiths after almost 30 years!
Awesome!!! All Of the glory that is the Smiths in one place!!
My best friend growing up was obsessed with The Smiths and dressed like Morrissey in high school. I was into New Order and thought The Smiths were boring. I came around and have since been an avid fan. Best song – Death of a Disco dancer! Boom!
The first time I fell in love was punctuated Hatful of Hollow and The Smiths’ first album. Reel Around the Fountain was on every soundtrack of every good moment, and every bad one, of that relationship. Later we bought The Queen is Dead on cassette. Strangeways, too. Each album provided the sonic backdrop of something I hope to never forget.
Give me some Smiths!!!
Bought my first CD player in 1987 and Strangeways Here We Come was the first CD I ever purchased. I had to wait until a couple weeks after the LP release because in those days the CDs were typically released at a later date. Still have that same disc anchoring my music collection.
Yez.
just when you thought you were alone in the world…
8 discs? Holy Cow. My friend turned me on in the 80’s with some tapes in the post. Hooked since.
Instrumental of “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want.” – Feeling insignificant staring at the paint.
Every time I listen to “Rank” I’m annoyed that I never got to see the band live.
I love Andy Rouke’s bass lines.
The Smiths saved my life! My first exposure was in 1987…. Girlfriend in a coma video.
I bought the queen is dead in 1986 without ever hearing a smiths song before – its not like they were played on the radio….it was a good move i guess
I know I was in love with Smiths when a girlfriend I was going out with tossed my CD of the Queen is Dead out the window of my car on a highway with about 7 other CDs. The Smiths was the only one I replaced.
I was more into metal in the mid 80’s when i discovered the smiths, the cure, siouxsie, etc… Now almost 30 years later, i am still listening to the new wave goth stuff… But not so much of the metal!
The Smiths.
My mom actually bought me a “Louder than Bombs” record at a garage sale because “it looked like something I’d listen to.” One of the sweetest things she’s ever done for me. Still cherish the record.
Thankfully, Detroit had one of those “alternative hour” radio programs back in the eighties. I remember just hanging out with a friend in a parked car listening to the radio when all of a sudden This Charming Man comes through the speakers. That voice! That guitar! Drove right to the record store to buy the cassette. Hooked!
Life is a Miserable Lie.
Ask
I consider Ask to be the “gateway” song that got me into The Smiths. Sometime in the late 80′s, I was in a car with some friends and we were listening to 91X (in San Diego, CA). Ask started playing as we arrived at our destination. I asked the driver to leave the car on, so I could finish listening to the song and find out the name of the track. Thus began my obsession with The Smiths…
How about selling out and touring for each album for the next five or six years – don’t see anyone else doing it!
Growing up in Vermont in the eighties we didn’t have decent radio stations, but luckily when I was 12 years old we finally got MTV. It was thanks to music television of all things that I got to see videos of The Smiths on 120 Minutes and absolutely loved their music! From then on I was free to explore record stores to search out their albums. I never did have a chance to see them live, but I did see Morrissey in Montreal, Canada in the 1990’s which was great! I appreciate the opportunity to win this contest…thank you!
They’ve always been there for me without me knowing. When I finally started listening to them, I was happy to learn I already knew them. ‘Asleep’ helped me deal with the death of my Father and the rest just came with it. I love The Smiths.
Back in the 80’s I would sneak into my older brother’s room to listen to his record/album collection while he was out. Most of the time I was either listening to The Cars or Van Halen. One afternoon I found a 12″ of “How Soon Is Now” in a bag from the local Record World. I remember being somewhat stunned by the song and thinking how oddly perfect it was. I listened to it the rest of the afternoon. It wasn’t till I was older and got a job that I could go buy any of their material for myself. It’s been played out over the years, but everytime I hear “HSIN” it takes me back to that surreal moment when I didn’t know what I was hearing but I loved it.
It was 1992 and my friend put on Bona Drag while we painted a set for a high school play. Three months later, The Smiths were the soundtrack for everything and they became my personal guide through adolescence, like so many others.
I was mortified after graduating high school (’87) to realize that I had written “Hateful of Hollow” on my backpack and no one had corrected me. Maybe they thought I was taking it up a notch? Anyways, I still remember buying the cassette Hatful of Hollow from Tower Records in Stockton, CA and annoying my parents with it all the way home. How Soon is Now is still my favorite song of all time. I remember listening to it and feeling like I knew the best secret in the world, but I would only share it with a select few.
I have been out of a bad marriage for 17 years and STILL haven’t had a relationship.
“I am human, and I need to be loved… just like everybody else does.”
Wow, after reading a lot of these comments I can see that some people have been in love with the Smiths for even than longer than I’ve been alive. My dad first played There is a Light That Never Goes Out several years ago which really resonated with me as an awkward death-obsessed gay pre-teen. Once I got The Queen is Dead I realized that I had been waiting my whole life to listen to the Smiths. :)
The Smiths are absolutely wonderful. Morrisey is never afraid to tell the truth, and that has influenced me since I was introduced to them.
love at first listen. ‘this charming man’, as it were.
Teenager in the 80’s….The Smiths were the soundtrack of my life…
I want the one I can’t have and it’s driving me mad… But meanwhile I’d feel a lot happier getting hold of that box set!
That lead singer is quite a snappy lad!
Believe it or not….. The Smiths were it when I was in middle school, but it wasen’t until after high school that I gained a GREAT appreciation for this awesome band! <3 these english boyzs!!!!!
i am human and i need to be loved,
just like anybody else does.
Love love love this! Growing up in Northern Indiana, I thought I was the only one who felt the way I did…the Smiths provided a voice of identification that I still treasure to this day.
Fun fact: I used to have a small plastic case that I’d hide my clove cigarettes in. It was secreted away in my underwear/sock drawer. I’d written a line from “What She Said” on it — “I smoke because I’m hoping for an early death, and I need to cling to something.” Welp, my mother found it (Why do moms of able-bodied teenagers insist on doing their laundry? It’s such an excuse to snoop!) and was convinced I’d become suicidal and deserved a good old-fashioned haranguing. I don’t think she ever believed that it was just a song lyric. Good times…
I’ve been a fan for 27 years.
Many times I stopped at the highest point of SEMO campus to listen to “How Soon Is Now” being broadcast from a St Louis radio station ninety miles away. Yes, hearing Morrissey’s voice was worth being late for rock climbing!
Early 80s MTV provided unique music I wasn’t hearing on local radio. Then, during my junior year of high school, I stumbled upon a station on the far left of the dial that I liked the sounds of. I was listening to college radio before I knew what that term meant. That’s when I first heard “How Soon Is Now?” I earned a degree from the same college. During that time I also had a radio show on the college’s radio station.
My first introduction to The Smiths was Louder Than Bombs, which was handed to me, in cassette form, in 1992 by a good friend, who seemed to know that I needed this music. And I certainly did.
I can just rememeber hearing the Smiths on the local college radio when I was first getting out of my terrible metalcore music phase and into my good music phase =)
I sold off all of my Smiths vinyl years ago (BIG MISTAKE. HUGE.)
fill the void.
i recently learned how to play the boy with the thorn in his side on guitar
I love their oldest stuff, still do.
Great guitar blast in the synth age.
I remember listening to “Girlfriend in a Coma” in a bowling alley in High School and this girl I had a crush on said I reminded her of the Moz. How sweet!
I fell in love with them as soon as I heard the intro to “How Soon Is Now?”
When I was in junior high in the mid-80s, my brother made a mix tape for me to introduce me to several great bands. On the tape was “How Soon is Now?”…
I just haven’t earned it yet, baby.
hearing ‘asleep’ at a friends house back in the 80s.
I decree today that life is simply taking and not giving…
Please let me get what i want
Twelve years old, summer of 1984. A girl whose presence I could not stand flagged me down in her usual loud and obnoxious manner and shoved a copy of the debut Smiths album. I took it begrudgingly and proceeded to have my mind blown upon first popping it into my Sony “Water Sports” AM/FM cassette walkman. Very few bands have equalled them in my mind since then.
When I was in high school some friends and I had an anti-school-club club called “The losers club” We published a zine and were HEAVILY influenced by The Smiths. After every meeting we would tack a different Smiths song lyric to the picnic table in our schools lunch yard. Fast forward 20 years, I have 12 Moz/Smiths tattoos, have seen him live 43 times, gotten 2 shirts and still listen to the man every single day.
Favorite lyric of all (out of 100’s) is “And if a double-decker bus crashes into us…to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die….”
The guitar riff from What Difference Does It Make got me hooked. Johnny Marr is the man. I got into the lyrics later on. Thanks 91X!
The very first time I went to a night club I heard ‘How Soon Is now’ and loved the Smiths ever since.
I borrowed Louder Than Bombs on cassette from an acquaintance, and I fell asleep with the headphones on. The tape player had auto reverse (remember that life saver?) and it played all night as I slept. I awoke a convert.
Rhino is one of the few companies that have recognized bands that took others years to come around in seeing their worth. Thanks Rhino
OMG. The Smiths and I were totally fate. I was working at the Grand Canyon when I was 23 and had never heard of Morrissey or the Smiths. I was waiting tables and saw a bunch of people staring at the patrons at one of my tables. I asked everyone what they were looking at and they all said you are waiting on Morrissey. I said, “who’s that”, they all replied, “tell us you have never heard of the Smiths. Of course at that point I had not and they were all shocked. I thought they were all insane because if I had never heard of hte Smiths then that meant to me that they were not that popular. Well, I got off my shift headed over to my boyfriends house at the time and asked him if he had ever heard of a guy named Morrissey. He said, “a duh?, he is only part of the greatest band ever, the Smiths.” I could not beleive that he knew who they were. Low and behold he had several albums and he made me listen to everyone of them. Simply put, they ROCK! and I could not believe I was like the last one on earth to here them. Morrissey came and went but that guy that was my boyfriend I call my husband today. I would know nothing better than to win this so I could give him something back as special as he gave me. The gift of the Smiths. May they live on forever and never be forgotten! XOXO :)
Borrowed “The Smiths” and “Meat is Murder” from a college buddy.
Always loved ‘There Is A Light…’, ‘Girlfriend In A Coma’, and ‘Please, Please, Let Me…’. Now with streaming, I just can’t get enough of all the other great songs of theirs.
The Smiths are the best band of all time.
Please Please Please Let me win this awesome prize!!!
One gorgeous spring day several decades back, but similar to this one, I ditched school and bought ‘Louder Than Bombs’ instead. I danced my legs down to my knees. Rhino does such a great job with these sorts of re-releases!
My first encounter hearing the smiths was watching the smiths on the infamous top of the pops, singing what difference does it make,with morrissey in his blouson, daffodils out of his back pocket, in his NHS glasses. The whole performance was mezmerising, and it was the beginning of a twenty plus love affair with mozzers music!!
Some prizes are bigger than others!
Johnny Marr is a genius.
My friends and I first discovered the smiths as a singles band in high school. We could not enough of This Charming Man, How Soon Is Now and that wonderful bside Well I Wonder. When we finally found the first two albums, we became fans for life. That was over a quarter of a century ago.
My friend in high school and his older brother had tons of CD’s by all of the synthpop and new wave bands in their room. I was a metalhead at the time. I took some of them home and one was the The Smiths The Queen is Dead… my musical tastes changed forever from then on!
I hope i win
All my vinyl is too scratchy – gotta win these !
Hearing “How Soon is Now” through a wall saved me from a lifetime of awful hairmetal.
I cannot put into words what The Smiths mean to me.
Their music has been a constant companion throughout every facet of my life. To own this set would be an honor, a joy, a blessing. Thanks for the opportunity to win it.
THIS WOULD BE THE MOST AWESOME ANNIVERSARY GIFT FOR MY WIFE!
morrissey is the king of my heart <3
Would be great to win this and get to hear the remasters in better than streaming sound quality.
It was in the late 80s when I was first exposed to the Smiths, New Order, the Cure, all things 4AD, etc. I’m still addicted to them all…
Twenty years ago, my cassette tape case was stolen by some jackass right out of the front seat of my car. Upon seeing your site’s logo, I am pretty sure I now know who did it. I am coming after you with a vengeance!
(Of course if I win the box set, all will be forgiven)
i could listen to morrissey singing just about anything
I was looking for a job and then I found a job, and heaven knows, the Smiths pulled me through.
I. Want. This.
Morrissey’s voice and lyrics speak to my heart and soul.
This sounds cheesy but The Smiths saved my life. Seriously. When I was a wee lass–a bullied teen contemplating suicide–The Smiths’ music showed me I was not alone; it sounded how I felt. It made me realize all the difficult stuff I was going through was in some ways universal…and survivable.
How Soon Is Now, first song that I fell in love with!
I remember first coming across the band’s name in high school, in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower or maybe in Chuck Klosterman’s essay about Morrissey. I didn’t listen to them until my freshman year of college. I got Singles for Christmas and really liked it.
Someone (whom I believe secretly had a crush on me) gave me a copy of The Queen is Dead when it originally came out. I’ve been in love with The Smiths ever since. Though I can’t remember the name of the person who gave it to me :)
GREAT MUSIC!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE…I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THIS.
The original Rough Trade CDs sound fairly good…wonder how the new editions compare.
Never get tired of listening to The Smiths.
I was taping 120 Minutes on MTV, and How Soon Is Now came on. I hadn’t heard the song before, but I loved it. I thought the video was great, too, and I watched it again six more times in the next 24 hours. I couldn’t get enough. That was over 20 years ago, and I still love the band.
Sweet!
Of course I’d love one o’ these – somehow hadn’t picked one up yet, even though the Smiths catalog was always near the top of my “why isn’t this remastered?” list. Loved the self-depreciation that finally brought true levity to the proceedings on The Queen Is Dead.
I’ll never forget the first time I got drunk, and of course it was over a lovers’ jilting, and I sat there listening to “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me”…October of 87 and I remember it like it was yesterday….
Feh. Another rigged Smiths contest. Whoopty Doopty.
Why would you think it’s rigged?
oh my panic on the street of stockton, and i cant wait to see Morrissey when he plays here may 26
For me, it was and always has been “How Soon Is Now” as one of the top songs ever. I fell in love with The Smiths in college.
Still have a bedroom floor, ….in this world
A girl I had a crush on told me about this band that I just had to listen to and thought it would change my life. She was right.
I first became aware of The Smiths through a t-shirt I bought – it was called “The Smiths” and featured various incarnates of Dr. Zachary Smith from Lost in Space playing various instruments except for the drums, which was played by Robot. From that beloeved t-shirt, I decided that I should listen to their music, and boy am I glad I did! Great sons like I Know its Over, Hand in Glove, That Joke Isn’t Funny any More and Please really locked me in to this amazing group. I really hope I win this fantastic collection that I will listen as proudly as I wore my t-shirt!
I guess it doesn’t matter when The Smiths pull you in, but rather why. Some stay for the lyrics, the sublime jangle leads or absolutely un-fuckwithable rhythm section, but almost everyone stays for the way each song reaches out to you, no matter what mood you’re in and reminds you why you love music so much in the first place.
Although synth-pop ruled my player for most of the ’80s, there was a lyrically alluring presentation that came from Smihs records that not only complimented political incorrectness, but reflected the way most Smiths listerners felt – yet society & culture shunned such introspective confessions.
I can’t remember much of my musical life before The Smiths.
Morrissey, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…
Did I mention how much my wife loves The Smiths?
Fell in love with The Smiths when I heard “Hand In Glove” and the line “no, it’s not like any other love” which suddenly clicked in my head and made sense during my youth. Ah memories.
The Pretty in Pink soundtrack was my introduction.
I first became a fan from listening to How Soon Is Now?, but I became a fanatic once I heard There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.
One of the biggest regrets I have is not seeing the Smiths when they played here in 1986. Little did I know it would have been my only opportunity…
My teenage years consisted of weekly calls to a record store in downtown Toronto on Saturdays to see if the Smiths had released a new 12″ single. I’d then catch the bus to the subway and walk to the record store. I’d fork out my $10, then spend the entire return trip admiring the gorgeous cover art.
My best friend saw them in Boston (tour for Strangways). He invited me but I declined CONVINCED I would see them closer to home. Turns out that the Boston show was one of last (if not THE last) they ever played in the United States. DAMN ME!
nice to see them remaster these albums. there are memories there to empty my heart with.
I fell in love with The Smiths as soon as I heard How Soon is Now while on the dance floor–not unlike quite a lot of people, I suppose. I was single, lonely and for a little while, it was my personal anthem. Little did I know such gorgeous beauties like The Headmaster Ritual and Jack the Ripper were out there…
Although Morrissey continually disappoints and frustrates me with his diva-like antics, the second I hear a Smiths song that all goes away and the only feeling I have is of gratitude, for being such an important part of my life.
can’t wait to hear them…
Louder Than Bombs was my first real exposure to the Smiths and I still love that collection. Johnny Marr wrote great music and Morrissey wrote great and often witty lyrics. What’s not to like?
This band has kept me going even through the hardest times
I bought The Queen is Dead on vinyl the first week it was released and methodically bought ever other release I could find after that. “I know it’s over” is still one of my very favorite songs.
I bought the Queen is Dead after my high school crush sported the shirt. Became an instant fan from age 13 on.
I guess most would agree that “How Soon Is Now?” is not really representative of the rest of The Smiths’ tracks, but hearing it is what made me a fan for life
Please, Please, Please .. Let Me, Let Me, Let Me .. Get What I Want .. This Time! :)
The Smiths were my end-all, be-all for many, many years. To say this band was a soundtrack to my teens and early 20’s is an understatement.
ooh! ooh! Pick me! I hope it’s a random choice…it’s the only way I’d win
For me it was seeing the “Girlfriend In A Coma” video on 120 Minutes and it’s follow-up “Stop Me…” when I was about 16 years old. However, it wasn’t until the release of “Viva Hate” that I began my mission of tracking down anything Smiths/Morrissey related that I could!
i got into the smiths in 2012 when i won an 8 disc set from SUME
Found the Smiths on college radio while I was still in high school. Fell in love with them a few years later in college 89-93. Still have a Smiths T-Shirt from then.
Please, Please, Please Let Me get What I Want!!
I WISH I could remember the very first song I heard for the very first time but I can’t. I do remember hearing it on the radio and instantly loving Morrissey’s beautiful lyrics coupled it’s perfect accompaniment of jangly Marr Guitar. The fact that my dad sighed and muttered something derogatory under his breath only fuelled my passion. Some of my best memories involve The Smiths; stealing flowers from the DJ booth at a Smiths themed night, dancing with daffodils in the park and getting bemused looks from strangers to the amusement of my girlfriend, and me and my best friends pretending that Morrissey lived with us at university and advised us on the various problems we faced…
I saw them in Chicago in 85 and one of my biggest regrets was not going to their show in 86. I couldn’t find anyone to go with me and had I known their breakup wouldn’t be too far off I’d have gone by myself. I was a shy teen and I didn’t want to go by myself. UGH!
My first real exposure to The Smiths was during a high school weekend trip in 1986. “Louder Than Bombs” was the soundtrack for that whole experience and I can’t listen to “Rubber Ring” without thinking of a few minutes spent hiding in a Marriott hotel room closet, waiting for the chaperone to leave.
I fell in love with the Smiths at just the right age – 15 – and just the right time – early high school. A friend sent me a mixtape with “This Charming Man” as the lead track, and it was immediate true love and understanding. The Smiths are my litmus test band. If you don’t like them, I’m just not sure we’ll get along.
Bought hatful of hollow on a whim and never went back!
I’ve loved the Smiths since I first How Soon is Now?
I knew a handful of songs, and didn’t really explore the rest. Then a girl gave me The Queen is Dead and everything clicked. Then she broke my heart and those tracks made even more sense. Isn’t that how it always is, anyway?
College radio introduced me to The Smiths. Got to see them at Pittsburgh’s Fulton Theater in August of 1986.
My all time favorite band from back in the 80s. Grew up on a small tropical island in southern Japan, there was a group of us ‘outsiders’ who connected over the Smiths in high school. They are still No.1 in my book.
One of the first albums i bought was Hatful of Hallow at the Princeton Record Exchange.
Please, please, please let me get what I want (but don’t have the $ to buy)!
Some guys want to win The Smiths Box Set more than others
I can’t remember the definitive moment that I heard The Smiths for the first time. I know I lived in San Diego and listened to 91X. I was in the 7th grade and had just weaned myself from Top 40 type music to the ‘alternative’ music. I do know that the first time I heard “How Soon Is Now?’ that became my theme song to the soundtrack of my life.
Great bands have their own unique sound. The Smiths are in that elite group.
Was sitting in my high school office when the older sister of a classmate just started talking to me about music…i was stunned being that I was only 14 and she was first year in college..She asked what I listened to and if I ever heard of Morrissey..Told her no and she said I should really check out the Smiths..I told her i would but really had no idea how about doing it.Well a few days passed and Im sitting in a class with her brother when she popped in to see him…when he came back in he handed me a cassette tape of Smiths songs that she made for me…Ive been grateful ever since..
I first fell in love with The Smiths watching their videos on 120 minutes♥
I just don’t know what to say.
I was lucky enough to have older sisters and an older brother who were into 80’s alternative music as well as lucky enough to live in Southern California where we had a station that used to play the best music… KROQ. My older brother and sisters moved on to other shitty music as did KROQ but I held strong to my beloved music! I kept the ‘Ask’ 12″ single that my brother discarded many years ago and still have it. I honestly cannot recall the first time I heard the Smiths though…
My wife’s birthday is around that time and would LOVE this set!
When I was in high school, a friend made me a mix tape. The tape had a lot of different music on it, things I had never heard before. Some of those songs were The Smiths and Morrissey. I couldn’t stop listening!
I just remember sitting alone in my room, listening to “Reel Around The Fountain” from the Peel Sessions over and over again when I was 16 years old. That song saved my life. Thank you Gentlemen.
If I don’t win, I hope my local library buys it!
yes, we may be hidden by rags but we’ve got something they’ll never have!
I honestly can’t remember the first time I fell in love with The Smiths. It feels like it’s something that never started, just has always been. Since I was a young, miserable teenager I’ve had a special place in my heart for Marr’s riffs and Morrissey’s lyrics. Their albums, along with only a select other few, are the only ones I absolutely never tire of. They’re eternal.
I used to hate The Smiths. Not sure why, as I don’t recall ever hearing much of their stuff. Then, about 5 years ago, I heard “Bigmouth Strikes Again” on Pandora, and that began the transformation of my opinion on the group. A year or two later, I got their self-titled debut album and I’ve been a fan ever since.
I was given a cassette of “The Queen is Dead” on one side and “The Smiths” on the other in college (1990) and it blew my mind. I thought it was a mix tape for the longest time and couldn’t figure out why I had yet to hear about this band that spoke to me so strongly in my small New Mexico town. All the pieces were there and this was the last one….the James Dean / old skool style / old cinematic obsessions. This was the thing that completed who I was and who I still am to this day….22 years later. Thanks Damon…you gave me that cassette out of your car because you knew I would like this band. I haven’t seen you since back then…and you’ll never know how much you changed my life with that one cassette.
I first heard the Smiths as an angsty teen via mixtape (Whoo! Eighties!) and was instantly enthralled. Soon after, many, many hours were spent at clubs where the Smiths were in practically perpetual rotation. I’ve been a fan ever since. Recently, I was lucky enough to have a short story printed in the Unite & Take Over : Stories Inspired by the Songs of the Smiths comic.
PS Great site, by the way. Thanks for keeping all of us in the know. Cheers.
Sweet box set, would love to own it!
it was 1985, i was a freshman in high school and it was like diving into the most divine pool that i never wanted to get out of…completely took me over and made the hellhole that was high school bearable.. i totally cried when they broke up..lol
Growing up in the middle of nowhere, when you finally get to hear something that is really different but it might be years before you hear it again. Then you go, hey there is that song! The Smiths were one of those, glad I moved to places that regularly play The Smiths!
Love The Smiths – discovered them when I went to university in 1989. A little late, I know, but I caught up! Would love to add this collection to my music library!
I have loved The Smiths since high school. I know the first song I heard was ‘How Soon is Now’, and I think it was on 92.7 WDRE(NY alternative radio station..used to be WLIR)
Bought Meat is Murder after hearing How Soon is Now in a alternative club in Columbia,SC (Club 638!) of all places. Bought their entire catalog within a 2 week period. I still have all the Smiths albums on my iphone and listen to them this day. There is a Light that Never Goes out is probably the most perfect song ever.
I’ve loved the Smiths ever since my ex-girlfriend showed them to me. The first song I ever hear was “Well I Wonder,” and I’ve been captivated ever since! Then my next girlfriend said I reminded her of the dude from “500 Days of Summer” because the Smiths were my favorite band. FML…
Smiths reunion lingers…
I love, love, love The Smiths. I got to see them in September of ’86 at the Bronco Bowl in Dallas and still have my ticket stub. Still have all the albums on cassette, of course.
I’ll trade you the boxset for the Smiths Lullaby CD I just got the other day. It’s priceless!
Johnny Marr is the coolest.
I started a comment I couldn’t finish.
The Smiths were my High School soundtrack and got me through some formative years. “Ask me I wont say no, how could I?”
I never win shit, but the fact that Johnny Marr is my favorite guitar player ever and The Smiths are more than just one of my favorite bands I felt I had to comment. The 1st song I ever learned to play was “Bigmouth Strikes Again”. Anyway, love the Smiths and love Slicing Up Eyeballs!
My first exposure to The Smiths was through my dad, who was a big fan of the radio station 92.7 WLIR/WDRE (which might be familiar to those of you who were in the NY/Long Island/NJ area during the 80s) and they played stuff like the Smiths, Depeche, and all the other artists SlicingUpEyeballs holds dear.
But I didn’t really get into the Smiths until just recently. The past couple of months I’ve just seemed to really fall in love with them.
I first heard the Smiths on KSCL, Centenary’s radio station (Shreveport, LA). The track I first heard was “Panic”. I was about 2 years behind the curve, but I was hooked. To paraphrase, it said something to me about my life. Finally.
I never got the chance to see The Smiths live, but I’ve seen Morrissey multiple times and flew over to London to see him a few years ago. One of my favorite “Smiths-type” moments though was seeing Johnny Marr play with The Cribs. There was barely anyone at the show (shame!) and I got to stand right in front of him for the entire set. Blown! Away!
Saw the “How Soon is Now?” video on “120 Minutes” and that was pretty much it. After that, they were a significant part of my college years (and beyond) soundtrack.
In the 10 years that I worked in college and commercial radio (1985-1994), I probably played The Smiths hundreds (if not thousands) of times.
I grew up in a very small mid-western town. When I was 16, back in 1986, an older friend loaned me The Smiths, which he had acquired from a friend at the vocational school in a slightly bigger town. I soon after bought The Queen is Dead on cassette and became cool, at least in my eyes!
I like turtles. And The Smiths.
Ahh, The Smiths. I actually fell in love with Morrissey before I’d even heard of The Smiths. In true dramatic teen girl fashion, I tried to commit suicide when I was 14 (whilst blaring “Blasphemous Rumours” – as if my parents would have been listening to the words had they found me dead), and while in the hospital afterward, I had the most amazing roommate. She was a true punk, but had a weakness for Mozzer. She lent me her copy of “Viva Hate,” and it resonated with my tender soul.
A few months later, I started high school, and found others who shared my love for Morrissey, and who introduced me to The Smiths. It wasn’t until my sophomore year, though, that I got officially hooked; a boy I absolutely adored made me a “Smiths Mini-Mix,” complete with a love note – written in Spanish, for some strange reason – inscribed on the homemade liner notes. That was 21 years ago, and I still have the tape. I threw the love note away just a few weeks ago.
I remember buying a Smiths cassette in like 84…awesome stuff. Reel around the fountain, slap me on the patio
What I love about the Smiths (aside from the music) is the fact that there are so many people who you wouldn’t expect to be Smiths fans who are Smiths fans.
Please, please, please.
Oscillate Wildly did it for me, I can’t explain it but it still give me chills after all these years.
A friend lent me her copy of The Queen is Dead on cassette in the summer before high school; it was the best thing she could have done for me. The Smiths’ records helped me get through the four grueling years of high school that followed. Been a fan ever since.
Turned sweet 16 & was in London the day the Queen is Dead was released…and love them still.
Great document of a band that needs a box. Thanks.
COMPLEAT SMITHS ARE GO
When I was a teen I would spend hours in my local record store with just enough money to buy 1 or 2 albums…i remember the day I found the smiths was a day that I only had enough money for one album…i spend hours looking through every single album and tape, trying to decide which I would buy…Meat is Murder had just came out and I knew nothing about The Smiths…I decided to give it a try because I liked the cover art…I took it home and it didn’t leave my stereo for months – i was completely blown away…this was in ’85 and they have been a favorite ever since…
Honestly, I knew little about the Smiths until about ten years ago, when I started hosting an ’80s radio show. I didn’t own anything by the Smiths, so I bought the Singles compilation. “Panic” (especially — I mean, how can you beat “Hang the DJ…hang the DJ…”?), “Girlfriend in a Coma”, “This Charming Man” and “How Soon Is Now” urged me onward, and eventually I picked up (almost) all of their albums.
Saw them live in Toronto in 85. It was the first concert I ever saw in another country.
Please Please Please?
Never got to see them live… Love the Smiths, Girlfriend in a coma I know I know its serious..
The Smiths proved that literacy and musicianship were indeed bedfellows in a decade that gets an undeserved rap for fluffiness. The Smiths made the lonely feel connected and gave voice to an emotional group on the fringes.
Being a fan of The Smiths was and is one of the elite group of musical acts that almost without fail connected me to several of my greatest friends just by the nature of knowing there was a deep commonality of spirit for their fans.
“the songs that saved your life” certainly. Whenever I felt completely abandoned when I was young I knew their music would see me through it. I bought my first amp because it had a tremolo that reminded me of them. They were a friend I could trust in a world of nasty and cruel people. I still turn to them when times are tough.
Would make a great drink coaster!
I remember hearing “Bigmouth Strikes Again” on a clear night in Portland, Oregon. I was listening on an AM station broadcast out of college town Eugene. I knew who sung the song but didn’t know its name. I hit Tower Records the next day and bought as many The Smiths CDs as I could afford. Twenty two years later the songs still affect me.
My buddy and I hosted a show on student radio UW Madison in the late 80s. He played the smiths over and over and over. He was seriously obsessed with Moz. I think he wanted to marry him? Id gift him the set for good times sake.
First time I heard the Smiths: late 83 or early 84, This Charming Man, 92.7 WLIR! It has always been my favorite song of theirs and one of my top songs of all time!!!
person on the internet this one time: The whole of 80’s Britpop is so twee. Everything after the Kinks is horrible.
me: I don’t think you know what twee means. Waterloo Sunset is waay twee next to Morrissey being taken behind a disused railway line and being given something he won’t forget too soon.
The Smiths were the perfect combination of miserable whine and wicked humor, unbearable honesty and flexing muscle.
Most underrated rhythm section in modern rock, too.
Only got into The Smiths since the early 2000s thanks to 80s classic alternative Internet radio. Now, I own all the studio albums plus The Singles collection and can’t believe it took me so long to discover such a wonderful band.
In 1987 the Smiths came to Chicago and I could not go to the show because I was going to summer camp. I was not happy about it but my parents said you can see them next time they come into town. There was no next time…
I had just crashed my first car at age 17 and had gotten drunk later that night to numb the pain, near the end of the night my best friend Jon said I have something that might help. He put on “This Night Has Opened My Eyes”. At that moment i knew that The Smiths had my infinite love and I would be forever changed.
Well, lessee– sitting in the dark with my chronic insomnia with my second generation tape in my walkman playing “Louder Than Bombs” because the double vinyl was about $38 at Wax Trax in Chicago and I didn’t have that kind of cash. I would listen to “London” over and over and over and dream of escaping rural Indiana, and the horrible people I was forced to survive. I would fall asleep after playing the tape a few times. Waking up with headphones sideways on my head, laying on the carpet. Eventually that tape came unscrewed, because I wore the hell out of it. (Music For the Masses also died a horrible death and completely disintegrated.) Then I saved up for my own copy, but I bought the official non-bootleg tape(as opposed to the second generation version I’d worn out), which was less expensive by enough that it mattered. Granted, “Strangeways” was my first tape that I’d gotten from a girl at school who had all their stuff. But I don’t know who could have been odd and made it through high school without that album as a constant background. Angst squared. :) Johnny Marr is brilliant beyond comprehension.
Saw a news story about How Soon Is Now, and bought Hatful Of Hollow on cassette. Listened to it over and over again.
Dancing to “How Soon Is Now” in the clubs…classic.
I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour in 1987,Heaven knows I’m miserable now coz of break up with my childhood girlfriend,”You’ve been in the house too long” she said And I (naturally) fled, While tuning the radio.I heard The Smiths first time In my life,@ first i said Oh, why do I give valuable time,To these band who don’t care if I live or die ? then i realized that the song was for me and got hook up with The Smiths until now :-)
I think it was ‘London’and ‘Louder Than Bombs’. I love the lyrics.
Oh, Well I Wonder.
Stop me ohohoh stop me, stop me if you think you have heard this one before. These cd’s should be taught in schools rather than dusty old books. The love of books would then come from the inspiration of mozzers hand….possibly.
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out…
Amazing box-set! Can’t wait to put my paws on it.
Just leaving another message…. I love the Smiths! My best friend since 13 yrs old and I promised each other we’d see Morrissey together one day. 19 years later we made it happen. And this past year I was honored to walk her down the aisle to a Smiths song. Her husband a die hard fan as well. Good luck everyone!
I don’t remember what inspired me, but I bought one of those compilations in the early 90s. Wasn’t long before I had all of their proper albums.
the first song I played on my first show as a college radio DJ in 1984 was “What Difference Does It Make”.
I remember a few years ago a friend of mine lent me a few books. One of the books she lent me was The Perks of Being a Wildflower by Stephen Chbosky. The character had this list of different films, books, and music. On the list of music were a lot of songs I’d heard before by The Beatles, Nick Drake, Simon & Grafunkel and Fleetwood Mac, but the name “The Smiths” stuck out to me. I’d never heard of or heard them. The song listed was “Asleep”. I decided to look up the song and it was unlike anything I could’ve expected. I remember the soft piano and Morrissey’s singing “Sing me to sleep, sing me to sleep” and I could hear the desperation and exhaustion in his voice. Flash-forward to my junior year of high school, when my good friend really introduced me to The Smiths. I plunged into all of their four albums and Louder Than Bombs. Upon first hearing them I thought they had some great tunes, but after years I finally dissected what Johnny Marr was doing with his guitar, how it gave that technicoloured wash of chorus and jangle to every song. How he would tune his guitars and make every thing chime with brightness never really soling, but guiding the song with his rainbow of sounds. I soon realized what a powerful influence he had on the bands that would follow. To this day, I am still in awe of the sound on “What Difference Does It Make”, “This Charming Man” “How Soon Is Now?” “The Queen is Dead” “Bigmouth Strikes Again” and so many others. The Smiths have now become one of my favorite bands and I can always go back and find new things in their records. What a great group, the best British band of the early ’80s!
First song that I remember being played during my first visit to Mean Mr. Mustards was, of course, ‘How Soon Is Now’. Thanks for the opportunity to win.
ME, ME, ME!!!
The first time I heard “How Soon is Now” was at a dance club one night in Milwaukee. I’ll never forget it. Great night.
Some girls are bigger than others.
I absolutely loved “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before” when it came out and I bought “Strangeways Here We Come” shortly after hearing that song. I remember playing the cassette in art class once and some people were saying “that’s weird” and “turn that off” but my art teacher, whom I love dearly, told them to shut up. She said she liked it and it sounded very sweet. Great memory.
Before any of The Smiths records were released in Canada, I read a small tiny article in Rolling Stone about them. I went to a local import shop and bought the 12 inch of What Difference Does It Make and I was blown away. I couldn’t stop playing it. It probably remains my favorite song of theirs.
I fell in love with The Smiths (and Morrissey) when I saw the “Girlfriend in a Coma” video on MTV when I was in high school.
I love The Smiths! My first exposure to them was The Queen Is Dead so I was a late comer, but how awesome it was to dig back!
I’ve been listening to older alternative music my whole life. My mom got me into the Smiths when I was six and I was addicted right away. I went vegetarian for the Meat is Murder album when I was eight years old and have been ever since. I’m now fifteen years old. I still have my mom’s original Meat is Murder vinyl. My dad’s a guitar player and I’ve always had him teaching me Smiths songs and I can play quite a few. Marr is an absolute genius, as well as Andy and Mike. My favorite Smiths songs are Still Ill, I Want the One I Can’t Have, What Difference Does it Make, I Know it’s Over, the Queen is Dead, Sweet and Tender Hooligan, Wonderful Woman, Stretch Out and Wait, Nowhere Fast, Well I Wonder, You’ve Got Everything Now, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Panic, I Don’t Owe You Anything, The Headmaster Ritual, Meat is Murder, and Half a Person. I’ve seen Morrissey twice, first when I was nine, a few months ago, and I’m about to see him a third time, three days after his birthday. I need this to listen to the whole way to Bakersfield.
Morrissey and Johnny,
“What about us?”
Sincerely,
Andy and Mike
Bought Meat is Murder when it came out. The rest is history.
Fifteen years old, winter, Washington, D.C., Sony Walkman, “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.”
i remember when i first saw morrissey on saturday night live, then in college one of my roommates was way into the Smiths. I have a lot of good memories of those days
I was young. In my mind, the day was overcast, but that could just be me making it so. I used to regularly put a cassette tape into my tape player, hit “record”, and take a nap, not sure what songs I’d find on the tape when I awoke and re-listened to it.
One Sunday afternoon, I decided to take a nap during a 4 hour radio show called “The Outlaw 80’s”. It was a favorite of mine, as even at the age of 12, I already had a love for certain bands from the era I had grown up in (namely The Cure)
The very last song started off in such a chiming manner, I had no choice but to sit up, and take notice. “Sweetness, sweetness…”
I had no clue what was happening. Time froze. I was captivated by the voice informing me that yes, Bigmouth HAD struck again…but halfway through, my tape ended.
Enraged, I called the radio station, demanding to know who this golden voiced bastard was, and NOW. They laughed at my insistence, and informed me that I had just heard The Smiths for the first time.
I went crazy after that, trying to find everything I could in this pre-internet era, and quickly amassed a few cassette tapes, in various degrees of decay. I lived in a small town, and it was REALLY hard to get new music. Luckily, one of the DJ’s took pity on me, and would regularly send me mix tapes with the bands I was learning to love.
It’s now 2012. I’ll be seeing Morrissey for the first time next month. FINALLY. I’ve never stopped loving this band that literally changed the game for me. I would LOVE nothing more than to win this contest, and finally complete my Smiths collection, in a right proper way.
Thanks for listening,
A Fan for Life.
Borrowed “Meat is Murder” cassette from the library in 86, been listening ever since!
I just want to see what The Smiths are all about. Seems like a good time to find out!
Once again … Please, Please Please! :) … :D
I had heard about the Smiths for a really long time, but never really listened to them. Anyways, there came a point where a friend and I were trading eachother musical suggestions. She suggested the Smiths, I decided to give a listen to this band who I had heard so many times, and found myself in my room listening to Meat Is Murder. Needless to say, I became quite the fan and have been ever since.
My wife & I both loved the Smiths in college, now my daughter has become a big fan
I never paid much attention to The Smiths at first, but a friend gave me a copy of The Queen Is Dead when it came out and I all but wore it out in no time.
Don’t cost nuthin’…
I fell in love with The Smiths in 1986 while I was a Senior in high school. Here ok Oklahoma back then, listening to a band like them was not the done thing but I felt like I was in on a secret everyone else had not been privy to. It was exciting. MIM was the first album I heard and I was immediately a fan.
I fell in love with The Smiths in 1986 while I was a Senior in high school. Here ok Oklahoma back then, listening to a band like them was not the done thing but I felt like I was in on a secret everyone else had not been privy to. It was exciting. MIM was the first album I heard and I was immediately a fan.
I was 14 in 1983. The Smiths happened at a time when music was really important to me. I was lucky enough to see them live–twice. These albums can instantly take me back to that time and remain the soundtrack of my youth.
I can sing like that guy from The Smiths….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYV0UKC1xLs
I remember my brother bringing home “Hatful of Hollow” after living in Ireland…it was great to hear guitars in new music again! I soon was working at a college station and I remember getting the 12″ promo of “How Soon Is Now”…Johnny Marr’s guitars sounded like Bo Diddley driving a speeding train into outer space!
It never ceases to amaze me that Morrissey has not managed to completely erode my love of his work with his behaviour. Strengthened it in the long run actually.
Bought “The Smiths” in high school. Bought it the same day my friend bought “Aldo Nova.” Ahh, the 80s.
When I was 12 I asked for the new album (“Strangeways”) for my birthday. Someone got it for me and here we all are!
I always thought it would be a Depeche Mode song that would be the requisite song for me and a guy to dance to that would make me really like him, but it turned out to be The Smiths (There is a light).
Sound Warehouse had a full-page ad in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal touting new releases that were on sale for cheap. The Smiths’ first album was on there, along with Aztec Camera’s High Land Hard Rain and Difficult Shapes and Passive Rhythms by China Crisis. I already had and liked the Aztec Camera album, so I went and bought the others assuming I’d like them too.
Would love to have this set for my wife! She love The Smiths, and I do too!
I stole my brother’s copy of Hatful of Hollow back in 1985 and have been hooked ever since.
Love love love the Smiths…. I have passed my love for them down to my son, who can sing most of their songs…
In high school, a skateboarding friend from AZ would stay w/ his uncle during the summer in my little WI town. He turned me on to Agent Orange and Suicidal Tendencies. I was hoping the Smiths would be angsty and punk, and was disappointed when I first heard. But then they grew on me!
My favorite scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is the museum scene. “What is that fantastic song!?” I said to myself. I soon learned it was a Smiths song. The the mall to buy a newfangled cd! The song is on Louder Than Bombs! Hooray! And….wait, that’s not right. That’s not the same song. I mean, it IS, but something’s wrong. I later learned the version in the movie was a cover. Silly me.
I kept listening anyway. I’d paid good money, and that cd has over 20 songs on it. And I kept listening. And now it’s years on, and I still am.
Been wondering how this sounds, compared to previous CD releases!
Seriously need this for my wife’s anniversary gift.
Would love to win this
This would make me the happiest girl in the world!!!!
i believe it was back in 84 when i first heard This Charmin Man on the radio. And I just thought “man, this song just rocks!!!”
I listen to The Smiths almost daily. Never get tired of them….there isn’t even a song by them that I don’t like. my copies are all old and kinda beat up and would love to replace them with shiny new copies!!!! Viva La Smiths!
All about Mr. Marr for me.
So you go and you stand on your own and you leave on your own and you go home and you cry and you want to die…
In high school a girl made me a mixed tape of Smiths songs, after she told me how great they were and I told her I’d heard they were great, but was unfamiliar with their music, other than “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” from the Pretty In Pink soundtrack. That was 1986 and I still have that tape and most of the Smiths catalog. Only recently did I realize that the girl was probably interested in me, but I was too clueless in high school to know. This box set looks great
“There Is a Light” remains my favorite even though, at my advanced age, sometimes I think I still am that person.
Was a little young to be a fan when it was happening, but I’ve worn out my copies given to me from a friend.
The Smiths!!!
My first memory of the Smiths was hearing “How Soon Is Now?” and also reading an article in Trouser Press and there was a line that said(paraphrasing)”Morissey is, of course, asexual.” And all I could think is “Wow, he’s has to divide in order to procreate”.
Louder Than Bombs changed my life.
Just looked @ Robert on 120 minutes on this site. thas why i lv Slicing up eyeballs always something it seems just for me thank you!!!!!
I was exposed to The Smiths through a lucky accident. I had a membership through one of those music clubs that hooked you by offering 15 cassettes for a penny and then bled you dry by sending you a high-priced cassette each month if you didn’t return the card in time. The Smiths’ “Louder than Bombs” was one of those cassettes that I was “stuck” with one month. A lucky accident, indeed! I’ve been a fan ever since.
If I won this, I would feel a natural emotion.
i helped run a “punk/ new wave” diner in the mid-eighties. we would put poster paper up in the bathroom so no one would write on the walls. i was into the smiths and one of the other guys was into motorhead. one of the regulars drew caricatures of our heads screaming the name of who we were fans of. i still have it.
First song for me was “What Difference Does It Make?” from the album Hatful of Hollow back in 1984. I was hooked. Fell in love with this new kind of melancholic music and lyrics. Hatful of Hollow and Meat is Murder (1985) are still among my favorite albums.
magical music uniquely made…the smiths will always.sond like the smiths.
Love the Smiths!
listening to “How Soon Is Now” right now. Timeless.
I instantly dug them when I heard the riff in “How Soon Is Now” back in high school, but I was really sold the first time I heard “Big Mouth Strikes Again.”
Oh please let me win. I’ve been a Smiths fan since 1986. I bought Louder Than Bombs 2 times on tape until I bought it on CD. Morrissey’s lyrics have been like bible verses for me. Long live Morrissey and the Smiths too!!!
I don’t know. Please give me box set.
I’ve never really been INTO the Smiths – they were just outside of my radar, for some reason. That said, I’ve been NEEDING to learn more about the band in a pretty complete way, and this’d do it.
Reminds me of the time i got to see The Smiths live, 1986, in Cleveland, front row seats, actually got to touch Morrissey’s hand, altho he had to reach over a very large orchestra pit. If i’m not mistaken, he fell in. Security had to help him back on stage. Ahhhh.
I was first introduced to The Smiths by hearing them blasting from a boombox on a skateboard ramp in the late ’80’s in San Antonio, TX. It surprised me that these guys who usually played thrash metal were listening to something so different. It took me a while to catch on – I really think it was Bona Drag that made me pay attention and then loop back to The Smiths’ material. A few years back, I got to have a beer with Andy Rourke and hear some good ‘tales from the tour bus’ stories about The Smiths. Love them.
I have always loved the melodies of their music and how I always connected to the songs! Brings back great memories of the past and still love listening now! Truly an original band!
Me me me!!!! Please.
I started listening to The Smiths when I was around twelve. (I’m almost thirty-nine now.) The stuff on the radio left me feeling vapid; The Smiths left me thinking. I had been listening to The Queen Is Dead album on what seemed like endless repeat at my friend’s house for months. I wanted the cassette so bad, but my parents were really broke at the time. I remember we only got a microwave because our gas had been shut off. I babysat for people in the neighborhood, but it usually went to help buy food or diapers for my younger siblings. What’s a poor girl to do? I lifted the tape from my friend. I know! I felt so guilty. BUT, I stole for the love of The Smiths! A year or so later, my cousin came home to visit. I played the album while we hung out. I didn’t expect him to like it. He did. Particularly the song “Frankly, Mr. Shankly.” He was eight years older than me, and out in the work force. It resonated with him. I adored him so much that I ended up giving him the tape. Redemption, I guess. And I helped make a new fan.
Close to 30 years of being a fan of The Smiths, and I hears something new and wonderful every time I listen. Each song speaks to a different part of my heart, my mind, my soul. This collection would bring me such incredible joy. Make it happen ~ let it be.
would love to win this.. greatly influenced by their lyrics
The older I get the more I appreciate the incredible humor that permeates everything the Smiths ever did.
Definitely was not a fan of the Smiths in my youth. I was an angry suburbanite, and I identified with way more abrasive music through the late 80s and 90s. It wasn’t until my tastes took a turn for the less aggressive (but still angsty) that I really clicked with The Smiths. For what feels like a lifetime, now, they’re one of the few mainstays of all my playlists.
The Smiffs is awsum.
There’s A Light That Never Goes Out has such a special place in my heart since it is attached to some of the best memories I have.
Bought “Meat is Murder” on wax in 8th grade. The Smiths instantly became my favorite band and were always featured prominently in the soundtrack of my Jr High and High School days. <3
Great band. great contest. love slicing up eyeballs
Such a unique voice. We used to blast rank in the student lounge at my HS.
i heard my first smiths song in middle school and was smithen ever since. i never got to hear them live but i have followed morrissey over the years. i still have a piece of his pink shirt from 1989. i was extremely happy when he started including his former band’s songs on his set list. now, there are unconfired rumors that they might tour andd i am completely over the moon.
I think the first song I heard was “Ask”. FIrst cassette was “The Queen is Dead”. I played it endlessly. A perfect album. There isn’t a note or vocal line I would change.
I never paid a whole lot of attention to the Smiths when I was younger, why I’m not sure. Then I bought Meat is Murder…and then Strangeways, Here We Come which has one of the best lines in music ever “I crashed down on the crossbar
and the pain was enough to make shy, bald, buddhist reflect
and plan a mass murder…”
I hope I win. I bought Strangeways… in 1987 because I’d heard of the band’s great reputation but never heard any of their songs.
The Smiths have been a part of my life’s soundtrack for over 25 years. And as a completist collector, of course I need these alongside my original Rough Trade and Sire copies. ;)
The Smiths’ last records came out when I was in college — when I was the perfect age to enjoy them most — but I really didn’t think much of them then. It was only after grad that I circled back around and listened with an open mind (particularly to The Queen Is Dead and Meat Is Murder). Now, I feel like they’re part of my DNA. Would love to have this collection.
A friend who has all things Smiths told me that I needed to get on board. I did and am in his debt forever.
I was first exposed to the Smiths in the “Queen Is Dead” era. After listening to “Vicar in a Tutu” and “Frankly Mr Shankly” about six hundred times IN A ROW I was wrapped in duct tape and stored in a closet by my traumatized friends. I felt that their lives were better for the experience.
Autumn 1983, I’d just moved to London to go to Polytechnic, and one of the first gigs on, in our tiny canteen/auditorium space, was The Smiths. I’d read about them in the NME but hadn’t heard anything yet. I bought a ticket (no. 6, still got it). The stage was only about 2 foot high, there were about 150 of us in there and they were a revelation. When they played “Reel Around The Fountain”, my friend and I just grinned at each other, just amazed at how fantastic they were.
Looking forward to hearing these!
Was just listening to this charming man this a.m. lovely
I was fortunate enough to first hear The Smiths in 1985(at the age of 5!) through a friend of my sister. “Well I Wonder” made such an impression on me, even though I wasn’t old enough to comprehend the lyrics; they made a fan for life in that moment.
Had tix for the last tour. Morrissey developed larangytis. They broke up shortly after.
How Soon is Now?
I listened to “Unloveable” way too many times in high school.
Best group of all-time.
I first heard The Smiths from a friend who used to play The Queen is Dead over and over on a crappy old cassette player. Cassettes were horrible but The Smiths were amazing!
I fell in love with the smiths cause all the girls loved the band. I just loved the sound. :)
The Smiths remind me of my youth…the formative years in middle school. The first time I heard them was by accident. My brother’s girlfriend’s best friend had a party and I wandered into her room only to find a box of kick ass cassettes of bands like The Cure, The Smiths, REM, New Order, etc. I saw The Smiths cassette and hadn’t heard of this band so I put it in her cassette player. It played “Unhappy Birthday.” I laughed and had never heard of a song so witty and sneaky in its tone. It seemed so happy but was amazingly cheeky. I had to listen on…I fell in love. I became obsessed with all things Smiths and Morrissey. I would tape 120 minutes just to see possible Smiths videos, clipped Moz pictures from magazines, ordered imports, and hung up Smiths posters on my wall. I was in a relationship with this handsome skater boy in middle school that stumbled into some trouble with drugs. He was in rehab and he would write Smiths lyrics in the letters he wrote to me while in rehab. Incredibly romantic at 14 years old, right? We would play Smiths songs to each other while he had only a short amount of time on the phone. I remember dancing to Smith songs with friends at dances…such an innocent yet angst filled time…totally representative of The Smiths tone in their music. Great memories I will always cherish and when I listen to The Smiths, I am filled with the melancholia of that time when I was just a wee lassie with so much to long for. : )
Just give me what’s rightfully mine already
My introduction to the Smiths was in high school in the 80’s. I was a skateboarder, and the girls who liked skaters also liked the Smiths. It was an interesting time, before the term “goth” had caught on, and there weren’t so many subdivisions/labels in the underground scene yet- you were either in the mainstream, or you were weird. Those girls were great. They’d hang out at our spot on weekend nights, smoking cloves and looking generally unapproachable, but we were all just kinda shy kids. Made me feel less alienated. AND they introduced me to all sorts of cool music, but the one that really sticks out is the Smiths.
I actually got into them through “The Very Best Of”, which turned out to actually be very much lacking as a Smiths best of.
I loved The Smiths when my best friend in high school introduced them to me. We used to drive around listening to them on the weekends, and I still do, 20 years later.
Would love to win this — just like everyone else here :-)
All right, that’s it. Contest is now closed. Winners will be notified. And thank you all for sharing your memories…
The first time I heard The Smiths I was back in college. A friend made me a cassette with Meat is Murder on one side and Strangeways on the other. Strageways was recorded Side B first. To this day when listening to that album I prefer to start it with “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Love Me”
I love the smiths!!!
I want this!!!!!
dollhousecreation(at)gmail(dot)com
I first heard the Smiths on the Pretty in Pink soundtrack…it was all down hill from there.
I first found the Smiths via the local college radio station in jr high.
Scrolling through, I am wondering why most of these comments are from boys? You don’t have to be a brooding moody boy in a cardigan to love some Smiths…
First heard This Charming Man – love it today as much as ever!
Morrissey + Johnny = John + Paul
Amazing prize!
Listening to the Smiths made me feel normal…
Hatful of Hollow and its power blue cover — still in my personal top 10.
First heard The Smiths “Girlfriend in a Coma” when I was in middle school and thought it was cool to listen to the college rock station.
16 years old…heard the lyrics “to die by your side, well, the pleasure the privilege is mine” and started bawling my eyes out….I was hooked on The Smiths. And still think about that boy when I hear that song, 24 years later.
First knowingly heard The Smiths at 11 years old and have been hooked since (I’m 32 now).
When I first heard The Smiths it was 1985 I was in 6th grade. My brother was older than me and he was into metal so Iron Maiden and Judas Priest were always playing in my house. So this is all I ever known at the time. I was up late one night watching MTV and a show came on called The Cutting Edge and “How soon is now” came on and automatically it like nothing I ever heard in my life I was transfixed with the sound of the synths and Morriseys voice. Right then in there I knew this was for me. I got really into the English new wave and modern rock sound and started listening to The Smiths and other modern rock and new wave bands. I had their albums on cassette (laughing). The Smiths have some of my favorite songs of all time!
THE guitar band of the 80s…looking forward to hearing how Marrs remastering differs from the originals.
In 1988 I moved across the country where I knew no one and spent a lot of time alone. The Smiths songs taught me how to laugh at my sorrow and got me through that difficult time.