History Trivia / TheSmiths

** ''The Queen is Dead'' may be seen as a masterpiece, but it had a turbulent time getting there. First off, before recording sessions even started, they were told by their lawyer that they only had to complete one more album for their label, Rough Trade. This excited them, making them think that they would be signing to a major label soon. This sent Marr into a workahollic frenzy. The band couldn't focus in their usual studio setting and instead settled in a cottage in the country. Morrissey started developing his infamous ego around this time, making him stressful to deal with. Marr would go days without eating, spending nights that he wasn't recording drinking and using cocaine. On top of that, he started getting exhausted having to manage the band. One phone call in which the label tried to get him to resolve a debt owed to a tour van they used, he screamed "Have someone else deal with it!" Their lawyer then came back and told them that there was a problem with Rough Trade, as the label thought the band owed them more than just one more studio album. The band pushed back, which caused Rough Trade to put an injunction on the new album, meaning it would not be released until a new agreement was made. This delay meant that the band was performing songs for an album with an unknown release date, confusing many fans. Marr attempted to get back at the label by unsuccessfully attempting to steal the master tapes. Finally, shortly before the album's release, bassist Andy O'Rourke's heroin addiction became so bad that he was thrown out of the band. Morrissey left a passive aggressive note on his car, leading to him spending a whole day crying in Marr's shoulders, unknown what to do or how to cope. O'Rourke was let back in the band soon, leading to his replacement, Craig, to be relegated to the position of second guitarist. An agreement was eventually made with the label and the album was released in 1986.

* ColbertBump: Following the death of Usefulnotes/ElizabethII, the TitleTrack of ''Music/TheQueenIsDead'' saw its Spotify numbers, [[https://www.nme.com/news/music/songs-about-the-queen-see-resurgence-in-popularity-on-streaming-platforms-3311429 rise]] by over 1000%, owed to growing disillusionment with the British royal family among younger generations during the late 2010s.

* ColbertBump: Usefulnotes/ElizabethII dying made lots of people want to listen to "The Queen Is Dead", [[https://www.nme.com/news/music/songs-about-the-queen-see-resurgence-in-popularity-on-streaming-platforms-3311429 with Spotify numbers raising over 1000%!]]

* CreatorKiller: While he did find some work after his post-Smiths days, Mike Joyce royally killed whatever respect and career he had for ''anybody'' following his refusal to back down from the lawsuit towards Moz and Marr over their LesserStar treatment and royalties. Andy ''almost'' suffered this, but he was able to let bygones be bygones with his part of the suit and seemed to be on decent terms with Marr while Joyce became a pariah between both Moz, Andy, and Marr and is cited by Morrissey as a factor as to why the Smiths won't ever have a reunion.

* ThrowItIn: Morrissey's voice cracks very audibly on the line "I swear to God, I swear, I never even knew what drugs were" in "The Queen Is Dead".

* FanNickname: Morissey is sometimes known as "Moz".

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* QuoteSource: "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" is the quote source for HarsherInHindsight.

* QuoteSource: "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" is the quote source for FunnyAneurysmMoment.

* BigNameFan: ''Magazine/{{NME}}'' are notorious for their sheer devotion to the Smiths, to the point where they ranked ''Music/TheQueenIsDead'' as the greatest album of all time on their [[UsefulNotes/NME500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime list]] devoted to the topic.

** All four members named ''Music/StrangewaysHereWeCome'' as their personal favorite of their four albums.

** ''The Queen is Dead'' may be seen as a masterpiece, but it had a turbulent time getting there. First off, before recording sessions even started, they were told by their lawyer that they only had to complete one more album for their label, Rough Trade. This excited them, making them think that they would be signing to a major label soon. This sent Marr into a workahollic frenzy. The band couldn't focus in their usual studio setting and instead settled in a cottage in the country. Morrissey started developing his infamous ego around this time, making him stressful to deal with. Marr would go days without eating, spending nights that he wasn't recording drinking and using cocaine. On top of that, he started getting exhausted having to manage the band. One phone call in which the label tried to get him to resolve a debt owed to a tour van they used, he screamed "Have someone else deal with it!" Their lawyer then came back and told them that there was a problem with Rough Trade, as the label thought the band owed them more than just one more studio album. The band pushed back, which caused Rough Trade to put an injunction on the new album, meaning it would not be released until a new agreement was made. This delay meant that the band was performing songs for an album with an unknown release date, confusing many fans. Marr attempted to get back at the label by unsuccessfully attempting to steal the master tapes. Finally, shortly before the album's release, bassist Andy O'Rourke's heroin addiction became so bad that he was thrown out of the band. Morrissey left a passive aggressive note on his car, leading to him spending a whole day crying in Marr's shoulders, unkown what to do or how to cope. O'Rourke was let back in the band soon, leading to his replacement, Craig, to be relagated to the position of second guitarist. An agreement was eventually made with the label and the album was released in 1986.

** Going back to the band's early days, they had initially planned to sign onto Creator/FactoryRecords before being picked up by Rough Trade. Tony Wilson described Moz as Manchester's next poet or playwright, while Rob Gretton raved about them being the next [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]]...but he refused to sign because he thought their demos were "shit". He told them to make better demos and they moved on. Knowing the band's success, one ends up pondering what impact, if any, they would've had for Factory (specifically whether or not the label would've survived the [[CreatorKiller bankrupting]] failure of Music/HappyMondays[='=] ''Yes Please!''). It's also worth asking whether or not the band's material would've been as [[CashCowFranchise constantly and redundantly reissued]] following their breakup had they signed onto Factory, given how, even after the label went under, even [[Music/NewOrder their best-selling artist]] didn't see as many redundant compilations as the Smiths have.

* MagnumOpusDissonance: Critics claim ''The Queen Is Dead'' as the band's best album, but Music/{{Morrissey}} and Marr both prefer ''Strangeways, Here We Come''.

* RealitySubtext: According to Tony Fletcher's bio of the band, ''A Light That Never Goes Out'', "The Headmaster Ritual" was based on an actual daily event of that name at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Secondary Modern, Music/{{Morrissey}}'s alma mater, where during morning assembly the headmaster would find some minor detail amiss about some child's, say, uniform, call him up to the front and excoriate him for it in front of the entire school, then take him down to his office and give the kid a couple on the bare buttocks with a leather strap. And that was just the ''official'' punishment.

* CreatorsFavoriteEpisode: All four members named ''Music/StrangewaysHereWeCome'' as their personal favorite of their four albums.

* BlackSheepHit: Their best known song, "How Soon Is Now?", was a b-side and doesn't sound like their usual jangly style - it's more dance-rock and an UrExample of {{Shoegazing}}.