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The origins of "The Queen Is Dead" date to a live performance of the band's 1985 song "Barbarism Begins at Home", where Smiths frontman and lyricist Morrissey ad-libbed the lyrics "the queen is dead", a phrase from the novel Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964). [1] [2] Morrissey later decided to revisit the phrase for the lyric of a new song.
The Queen Is Dead is the third studio album by the English rock band The Smiths, released on 16 June 1986, by Rough Trade Records. The album was produced by the band's singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr. They worked predominately with engineer Stephen Street, who engineered The Smiths' previous album, Meat Is Murder (1985). [3]
At the time of their deaths, many of the victims were only a few years older than Morrissey (born 1959), who wrote the lyrics of the song after reading a book about the murders, Beyond Belief: A Chronicle of Murder and its Detection by Emlyn Williams. [2] "Suffer Little Children" was one of the first songs that Morrissey and Johnny Marr wrote ...
AllMusic's Tim DiGravina calls it "a standout among standouts from the Smiths' masterpiece third album, The Queen Is Dead." [9] In 2014, NME listed "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" as the 12th-greatest song of all time. [4] In 2017, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone placed the song number one in his ranking of 73 songs by the Smiths. [17]
Morrissey's lyrics on the song reflect his memories of walking in graveyards in Manchester and jokingly comment on plagiarism in his song lyrics. "Cemetry Gates" was released as a B-side to the band's 1986 single "Ask". It has seen critical acclaim for Morrissey's humorous lyrics and Marr's gentle guitar line.
Andy Strickland in Record Mirror said, "Morrissey and Marr still can't quite get it together all the time, 'Never Had No One Ever' and 'Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others' bearing all the hallmarks of the familiar Smiths filler, where music and words hardly embrace," [5] while Nick Kent wrote, "'Vicar in a Tutu' and 'Some Girls Are Bigger Than ...
The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band’s songwriting partnership. The Smiths are regarded as one of the most important acts to emerge from 1980s British independent music.
Strangeways, Here We Come is the fourth and final studio album by the English rock band the Smiths. It was released on 28 September 1987 by Rough Trade Records, several months after the group disbanded. All of the songs were composed by Johnny Marr, with lyrics written and sung by Morrissey.