https://youtube/watch?v=iMLja33uv-8 The Smiths arrival..... 3. THIS CHARMING MAN The British public hadn’t quite caught on to the Smiths when they released their brilliant debut single Hand In Glove, but it was only a matter of time. Johnny Marr decided they needed something upbeat & in a major key, which led to This Charming Man, Marr writing the music on the same night he wrote the music for two other tracks that appeared on the Smith’s debut album. This Charming Man only got to 25 on the UK charts, but importantly, it led to their iconic, first Top of the Pops performance, with Morrissey wielding gladioli like a weapon and securing the band their place in musical history. It opens with one of Johnny Marr’s most dazzling intros and the following lines: Punctured bicycle On a hillside desolate The lines relate to a brief unspeaking role Morrissey had in Coronation Street, when he was younger, cycling through a scene of the desolate, industrial North. Whether the rest is autobiographical or fantasy, we don’t know. A “charming man” in a “charming car” picks him up. The following lines suggest that the charming man has made an invitation (or a proposition): I would go out tonight But I havent got a stitch to wear This man said Its gruesome That someone so handsome should care The lyrics are cryptic, but many of the Smith’s early tracks referenced older men, (child) abuse and homoerotic themes. (Morrissey himself disputes this, saying that he doesn’t know what “homoerotic” means & that no-one talks about “heteroerotic”.) Whether homoerotic or not, there is a defiantly anti-macho feel to the song (“Will nature make a man of me yet?”). Morrissey himself commented on the song, I really like the idea of the male voice being quite vulnerable……rather than there being always this heavy machismo thing that just bores everybody.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 12:01:14 +0000
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