4. The Queen is Dead

Song:  "The Queen is Dead"
Artist:  The Smiths
Album:  The Queen is Dead
Year:  1986
Length:  6:24
Label:  Rough Trade
Rating:   10 out of 10 (for the album on NME)

• Download The Smiths - "The Queen is Dead".mp3

I distinctly remember the events of Valentine's Day, 1990.  I woke up to receive a Valentine's card from a girl named Anna that was slipped through the outer door of my suite.  We had wild, torrid sex that afternoon and she raved to everyone about it afterwards -- oh wait a second, that part didn't happen.  What I actually did was the spend the morning studying for an exam I had that afternoon.  My roommate Alec was busy burning things in my room (I forget what, or why), but I moved into another room in my suite to do my studying, and sat at the empty desk of my roommate Jamie, where I looked through his CD collection and decided to play some music to accompany my studying.  I didn't quite have the most advanced musical tastes at the time.  Sure, I'd loved U2 for years, and in my later high school days I discovered The Cure and The Replacements and R.E.M., artists that quickly supplanted the more mainstream interests I had listened to while growing up.  But it was my first year at Rutgers that truly expanded my musical horizons, as friendships with more discerning listeners introduced me to the wonders of New Order and Depeche Mode and The Alarm and the Psychedelic Furs, and on February 14th, 1990, The Smiths.  Now I'm sure I had heard the band before, and I'd definitely heard Morrissey solo's efforts and liked "Suedehead" at least, but I'd never heard an album proper until I listened to my roommate's copies of Meat is Murder and The Queen is Dead on that fateful day.  My musical life has never been the same since.  Meat is Murder became my favorite album of all-time (although for the entirety of my collegiate years I only had a cassette copy I'd made from Jamie's CD) and The Queen is Dead moved into the top 5.  The Smiths themselves soon jostled U2 from atop my favorite artists list and even though they broke up in 1988, they remain at the top spot to this very day.  All this is a long way of going about describing the feeling of wonder and excitement when I heard the first strains of the opening track "The Queen is Dead" on my roommate's CD player almost 18 years ago, and realized that this was music and a moment that would forever make everything I'd ever heard before somehow less worthy. 

I'm not alone in that point of view, of course, as the album is generally regarded as the strongest for the band (my preference for Meat is Murder notwithstanding). 

In 1997 The Queen Is Dead was named the 15th greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 2003, the album was ranked number 216 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2005 Channel 4 viewers placed it at number 20, and in 2006 Q magazine readers placed it at number 12. In 2000 Q placed it at number 27 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever; in 2004, a similar list by The Observer Music Magazine's critics placed it at number 37, behind the band's eponymous debut which was 21st. It was ranked 5 in Spin's "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005" (2005). The German newspaper WAZ placed it at number 1. In June 2006, 20 years after its original release, NME dedicated almost a whole issue to the album. Much More Music placed it at 24 on Listed's Top 40 Album of the Past 25 Years. In 2006 NME placed the album second in a list of greatest British albums, behind The Stone Roses.

The album is popularly regarded as The Smiths' best album. With its unique blend of musical styles (including jangle pop, British Invasion, rockabilly and punk rock), it quickly became a British sensation and established The Smiths as one of the biggest bands of its era. Both Morrissey and Marr disagree, however, citing its 1987 successor (and unexpectedly final Smiths LP), Strangeways, Here We Come, as their peak.

Keep reading for some classic videos and the lyrics...

#4 Favorite Song of All-Time

Farewell to this land's cheerless marshes
Hemmed in like a boar between arches
Her very Lowness with a head in a sling
I'm truly sorry - but it sounds like a wonderful thing

I said Charles, don't you ever crave
To appear on the front of the Daily Mail
Dressed in your Mother's bridal veil ?

And so, I checked all the registered historical facts
And I was shocked into shame to discover
How I'm the 18th pale descendant
Of some old queen or other

Oh, has the world changed, or have I changed ?
Oh has the world changed, or have I changed ?

Some 9-year old tough who peddles drugs
I swear to God
I swear : I never even knew what drugs were

So, I broke into the palace
With a sponge and a rusty spanner
She said : "Eh, I know you, and you cannot sing"
I said : "That's nothing - you should hear me play piano"

We can go for a walk where it's quiet and dry
And talk about precious things
But when you're tied to your Mother's apron
No-one talks about castration

We can go for a walk where it's quiet and dry
And talk about precious things
Like love and law and poverty
Oh, these are the things that kill me

We can go for a walk where it's quiet and dry
And talk about precious things
But the rain that flattens my hair ...
Oh, these are the things that kill me

All their lies about make-up and long hair, are still there

Past the Pub who saps your body
And the church who'll snatch your money
The Queen is dead, boys
And it's so lonely on a limb
Past the Pub that wrecks your body
And the church - all they want is your money
The Queen is dead, boys
And it's so lonely on a limb

Life is very long, when you're lonely

Here's a live video of the song from the very last show the Smiths ever played, at the Brixton Academy on 12/12/1986.

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