and so i drank one,it became four..

[ listening to 'stop me if you think that you've heard this one before', and thinking about how it was the last song i ever expected to hear as the last encore for that last show at the london palladium [28th may - happy birthday] ... not that he had any reason not to play it; it's a brilliant song [i have, on more than one occasion, declared 'strangeways...' the best of the smiths' four 'proper' albums overall, and morrissey has been known to agree with me there] ... but i'd spent the previous three weeks complaining about how he wasn't playing nearly enough of it. by the end, i'd pretty much come to terms with the fact that i was going to have to sit there and frown and roll my eyes as the rest of the audience went completely apeshit for yet another mediocre rendition of 'how soon is now'.. and that shortly thereafter, a slightly slower, albeit infinitely more remarkable, song [i.e. 'trouble loves me'] would inevitably serve to signal some sort of 'intermission', and i would stand there, trying not to cry [there is such a thing as TOO cliche], trying to ignore all these people [probably the ones who think 'how soon is now' is the greatest song the smiths ever recorded^1] pushing past me on their way to the bathroom or the merch stand or the bar for one last pint...

i feel sorry for those people, really.

it's not that i think everybody and their mother should be passionately and obsessively devoted to morrissey and the smiths. i don't even think everybody ....BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAHBLAH BLAH BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHHHH BLAHBLAH BLAHBLAH BBBBBLAH.

[i'm shutting myself off now... because, as a wise woman once told me, "there is a such a thing as TOO cliche".]^2

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1. i have a lot to say about such people, but for now, i'll leave it at this: if you only love 'how soon is now', you don't love the smiths. in fact, you probably don't even like the smiths.
OF COURSE it's a fucking great song, but it's unlike virtually anything else they've ever recorded. IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE CRUDELY AND HAPHAZARDLY INTERPOSED BETWEEN 'THAT JOKE ISN'T FUNNY ANYMORE' AND 'NOWHERE FAST' AS THE FIRST SONG ON THE SECOND SIDE OF 'MEAT IS MURDER'!!!! IT WAS A FUCKING B-SIDE TO 'WILLIAM IT WAS REALLY NOTHING' BUT SIRE SHOVED IT ON THE ALBUM FOR ITS US RELEASE BECAUSE THEY KNEW THAT STUPID AMERICAN DOUCHEBAGS WOULD EAT IT UP.... IT DOESN'T EVEN FUCKING SOUND LIKE THE REST OF THE FUCKING ALBUM!!!!! IT IS THE IDIOMATIC SORE THUMB OF THE BAND'S ENTIRE REPERTOIRE!!!! ........... ok ok ok ok. sorry. it's a sore spot.

2. <3 footnotes.