Our old
friend Billy Bragg is talking
about the Smiths again on the Music365 website.
An excerpt:
Did you really
look at their material that closely?
"Very closely. Frankly, I wouldn't be covering their
songs if I wasn't that into it. I opened for them on their
first American tour and I was playing 'Jeane' in my set
because they weren't. At the end of the tour Morrissey came
up to me and said, 'You've reminded me of how great a song
it is'. I was listening to a compilation their stuff in the
car the other day, and it got me thinking about how without
The Smiths they'd be no Suede, no Pulp, so many bands just
wouldn't exist, and I don't think they're always given the
credit they deserve."
Is there a Smiths' song you wish you'd written yourself?
"That would be 'Back To The Old House'. I remember when
I first heard about The Smiths back in 1983. A lot of people
who were writing to me were also going to see them and then
the first time I actually saw them I wasn't that
overwhelmed. It was at the Electric Ballroom in Camden and
the guy next to me shouted, 'They're the new Beatles!', and
I said 'Yeah, and I'm the new Bob Dylan'. I didn't really
get them until I was doing a soundcheck for a gig in
Sheffield and someone played 'Back To The Old House' through
the speakers, and then it really got me.
"When I say I was in competition with them, I don't
mean I was trying to better them, but they were certainly
moving in a way and cutting a swathe which was complementary
to what I was doing. I always felt we both represented
something really positive in British songwriting, our
attitudes and our points of reference were similar. Me and
Johnny hooked up because we didn't really know any big rock
stars or anything, so when we came to make our respective
albums, mine and The Smiths, the only people we knew were
the guys who'd produced Peel sessions, particularly John
Porter, who kinda put us together. There's a lot of common
musical ground between us, Johnny once told me that most of
his guitar riffs were just Martin Carthy folk tunes speeded
up."