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The Smiths “How Soon Is Now?”

sfilzen — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 20:17:05 +0000

The Smiths “How Soon Is Now?” released 35 years ago today, January 28th, 1985. This song, more than any other from the 80′s, has the power to instantly transport me back to that time: from the opening chord to the hypnotic guitar groove and Morrissey’s miserable-man lyrics, I’m there, laying on a friend’s living room floor at like 2:00 a.m. dizzy with exhaustion and teenage angst. Glorious. More recently, a few weeks ago a local club had a Smiths vs. The Cure dance night and I fairly sprinted to the dance floor when I heard that first chord. I didn’t think it was a dance track. Turns out, it is! Anyway! This 12″ single on Rough Trade is the US release – it has the Long Version of “How Soon Is Now” backed with “Girl Afraid” and the US edit (it’s shorter) of “How Soon Is Now.” “How Soon Is Now?” originally appeared as the B-side to “William, It Was Really Nothing” in 1984. After its inclusion on Hatful of Hollow, “How Soon Is Now” got its own single release in 1985 and it went to #24 in the UK (the 12″ backed with “Well I Wonder” which appears on the 1984 LP Meat is Murder and “Oscillate Wildly”). It did not chart in the US, much to The Smiths’ and their label execs’ surprise and frustration: Sire Records in the US did little to promote it.

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The Smiths “How Soon Is Now?”

sfilzen — Thu, 16 May 2019 20:10:41 +0000

The Smiths “How Soon Is Now?” 1985. Rough Trade Records. I’m still riding high from Johnny Marr’s concert at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee earlier this week, where one of the highlights was his performance of this song, one of my favorites. It’s one of those songs that instantly transports me back to 1985/86, all teenage angst and emo. “How Soon Is Now?” originally appeared as the b-side to “William, It Was Really Nothing” in 1984. After its inclusion on Hatful of Hollow, “How Soon Is Now” got its own single release in 1985 and it went to #24 in the UK (it did not chart in the US, much to The Smiths’ and their label’s – Rough Trade – execs surprise and frustration: Sire Records in the US did little to promote it). This 12″ single is backed with “Well I Wonder” (which appears on the 1984 LP Meat is Murder) and “Oscillate Wildly.”

Marr’s performance on Tuesday night was filled with many many other great moments as he flawlessly mixed old Smith songs (“The Headmaster Ritual,” “Bigmouth Strikes Again,” “There is a Light That Never Goes Out,” “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me”), new solo material (“Hi Hello,” “Easy Money”) and some covers (most especially one of the encores, his amazing rendition of Depeche Mode’s “I Feel You”).

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