Pick four songs from any band and you can tell a lot about their sound. This summer, I’m featuring #RockBlocks, four picks from bands across various genres. They might be wildly different from each other, but what binds them together is the fact that they’re all a part of my life soundtrack.
There are more natural choices when it comes to choosing a song off of The Smiths second studio release Meat is Murder. On the U.S. version, “How Soon is Now?” forever remains a monumental achievement in alt rock history. The melodramatic “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore” is, in many ways, the quintessential Smiths anthem. And “The Headmaster Ritual” is is one of Morrissey’s biggest and most beautiful poetic statements. But I deliberately picked “Barbarism Begins at Home” because it seems like the antithesis of The Smiths’ aesthetic.
When I play it, the first band I think of is Duran Duran, a band that could not be more different from The Smiths. “Barbarism Begins at Home” showed us that these boys were willing to step far beyond their comfort zone and, dare we say, have a little fun in the process. Play it along with Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” and the similarities are noticeable and downright eerie. Andy Rourke’s bass line sounds just like John Taylor. Joyce is in lock step with Roger Taylor. Marr mirrors Andy Taylor. And while Morrissey may not sound like Simon Le Bon, the melody that he totes around certainly feels like something Le Bon would’ve sung in all his new wave splendor.
“A crack on the head is what you get for asking.”