(Single from album, “The Queen Is Dead”)
Ok people - it's been far too long. The Smiths are back and bouts of genius will rain down on you all...
I'll keep it relatively brief this time - in retrospect, my "This Charming Man" review was perhaps too extensive (?) and certainly, ridiculously long. Having said this, so much could be said for the band's chart debut...here there isn't much to say - the song is just too good...
Cappo on the third, strum-diddy-strum-diddy-strum x4-ish - the opening to "Bigmouth", the arguable highlight of The Smiths' seminal masterpiece, "The Queen Is Dead". Morrissey explodes into tragic/comic mode, with memorable opening throwaway-style comments regarding smasjing every tooth in someone's head, and bludgeoning them in their bed, before a stark self comparison between the narrator and Joan Of Arc as she burns at the stake, with her melting Walkman, and later her hearing aid, plugged in. Profound perhaps, or just brilliant? There's plenty can be read into the messages of the song, plenty, which, if you're interested, you can find anywhere. This is about opinion.
The song is brash, loud, brash and brash. The acoustic strumming is harsh and speedy, and the bass-line is uncompromisingly fast, especially so on the liver version of the song, closing the live and final Smiths album, "Rank". The drums are so-so (I've heard better, but they're not bad), but the lead electric guitar played during the wind up to the chorus is orgasmically intelligent, beautifully jangly, and wonderfully fast. Johnny Marr truly is a guitar god and his playing here is perhaps the greatest monument to his insane skill - ok he isn't as fast a some metal guitarists, or as varied as some wacko folk players, but this guy plays sonically pleasing melodies in a way that only The Beatles before him accomplished, and even then, not to this level of complexity.
The "Rank" version, is for me, the best one available here. The heroin fuelled bass playing is at its most obviously maniacal and the electric guitar solos from Marr are supremely good. There's something to be had, also, from the tired and over dramatic vocal parts delivered by the 'pope of mope' and also the final closing moments, representing the last goodbye to one of the last concerts, on the final original Smiths release. There's something very ironic about Bassey's cover of "You'll Never Walk Alone" as you hear it start up as the band's closing music...very ironic indeed...
However, at the end of the day, if you just want the original song, take the raw, Beatle-bashing album version.
Ok so shoot me. I said Johnny Marr was better than The Beatles. The Smiths were. They had Lennon/McCartney to build on. Hopefully, that just means that someone soon will put one and one together, and do something so out of this world that there can be no other explanation other than the sudden and timely collision of the romantic genius of "Eleanor Rigby" and the technical wizardry of "Bigmouth Strikes Again".
We can hope...
We can hope...
★★★★★
Versions of "Bigmouth Strikes Again"
Album/Single Version - 3:14Live on BBC2's "The Old Grey Whistle Test", 20/06/1986 ("The Old Grey Whistle Test: The Anthems" Version) - 3:40
Live at The National Ballroom, Kilburn, London, England, 23/10/1986 ("Rank" Version) - 5:51