The Smiths “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side” 1985. Rough Trade Records. Today, May 22nd, is Morrissey’s 60th birthday (b. Steven Patrick Morrissey, 1959) and I’ve always felt that this single’s title kinda summed up Morrissey’s persona – this notion reinforced when I read his autobiography Morrissey (2011) a few years back. It opens with the lines “My childhood is streets upon streets upon streets upon streets. Streets to define you and streets to confine you, with no sign of motorway, freeway or highway. Somewhere beyond hides the treat of the countryside, for hour-less days when rains and reins lift, permitting us to be amongst people who live surrounded by space and are irked by our faces. Until then we live in forgotten Victorian knife-plunging Manchester, where everything lies wherever it was left over one hundred years ago…” Uplifting! (not)

“The Boy With the Thorn in His Side” was the first single from the 1986 LP The Queen is Dead, released a full nine months before the album. It was also the first Smiths single to have an intentional promotional music video accompanying the release and the song went to #23 in the UK. It’s a really perfect Smiths song: a blend of melancholy self-loathing and upbeat jangly guitar pop courtesy of Johnny Marr. The B-side has “Rubber Ring” (in my opinion in the just average category for Smiths tunes) and the lovely “Asleep” where Marr plays beautiful piano.

Unfortunately our version is the US edition; the UK version would be cool to have as it is etched with “Arty Bloody Farty/Is that clever…JM” – the line “is that clever” comes from “Rubber Ring” and JM refers to Johnny Marr.