CLASSIC TRACKS: The Smiths 'The Queen Is Dead'
Producers: Morrissey, Johnny Marr
Engineer: Stephen Street
Running time: 36:47
Released: Spring of 1986
Genre: Indie
The Smiths
If any band predominantly defined the UK indie style of the 80's- jangly guitars, complex bass riffs and an unglamorous image- it was the
The song title of "The Queen Is Dead" was pretty characteristic of Britain's premier indie rock band of the 1980s. The eclectic Mancunian outfit built a bridge between new wave and guitar rock, combining punk ethics, rockabilly sounds and guitarist Johnny Marr's jangling pop melodies with front man Morrissey's theatrically self-absorbed crooning and poetic, melancholic, angst-filled lyrics.The Queen Is Dead is the third studio album by the English rock band The Smiths. It was released on 16 June 1986 in the United Kingdom by Rough Trade Records based in London and released in the United States on 23 June 1986 through Sire Records.
This is my favorite song from the album The Queen Is Dead, it is in one of my favorite films from when I was growing up and I quickly became obsessed with Morrissey's crooning and poetic voice and Marr's jangly guitar style.When I heard it the first time i felt as if the song was a perfect interpretation for the life of love. You can hear strings on the recording which they recorded rather than a synthesizer. In the 80's contemporaries were experimenting with synthesizers like Human League and New Order. The band's "non-rhythm-and-blues, whiter-than-white fusion of 1960s rock and post punk was a repudiation of contemporary dance pop" – the style popular in the early 1980s. The band purposely rejected synthesizers and dance music.
The guitar of Johnny Marr is now seen as iconic. Marr's jangly guitar-playing was influenced by Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, Neil Young's work with Crazy Horse, George Harrison (with The Beatles) and James Honeyman-Scott of The Pretenders. Marr often tuned his guitar up a full step to F-sharp to accommodate Morrissey's vocal range, and also used open tunings. Citing producer Phil Spector
as an influence, Marr said, "I like the idea of records, even those
with plenty of space, that sound 'symphonic'. I like the idea of all the players merging into one atmosphere" Marr's other favorite guitarists are James Williamson of The Stooges, Rory Gallagher, Pete Townshend of The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Marc Bolan of T. Rex, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones and John McGeoch of Magazine and Siouxsie and the Banshees.Marr said in 1990 that it "was a 50/50 thing between Morrissey and me.
We were completely in sync about which way we should go for each record". 
Morrissey's lyrics have been described as "dramatic, bleak, funny vignettes about doomed relationships, lonely nightclubs, the burden of the past and the prison of the home". He is also noted for his unusual baritone vocal style (though he sometimes uses falsetto), his quiff hairstyle and his dynamic live performances. In the media, Morrissey's forthright and often contrarian opinions have caused many controversies; he has attracted media attention for his strong advocacy of vegetarianism and animal rights. He describes himself in his autobiography as an animal protectionist, therefore making him a love or hate figure.
Recording
The album was produced by Morrissey and Marr, working predominantly with engineer Stephen Street, who had engineered the band's 1985 album, Meat Is Murder. Street recalled: "Morrissey, Johnny and I had a really good working relationship – we were all roughly the same age and into the same kind of things, so everyone felt quite relaxed in the studio". The only downside in this situation is that at the time the group was having difficulty with its record label Rough Trade. However, according to Street "this didn't get in the way of recording because the atmosphere in the studio was very, very constructive. Morrissey recorded his vocals in the live room, screened off so no-one could see him. At the time Street used a U87 on him, and the recording would be done in two or three takes.
This album was recorded in a variety of different places. While the basic track for 'The Boy With The Thorn In His Side' was
recorded at a small eight-track facility in Manchester, and sessions for
'Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others' and 'Bigmouth Strikes Again' took
place at RAK in north-west London, tour dates preceded the recording of
the bulk of the album, which took place along with the mixing at the
residential Jacobs Studios in Farnham, Surrey, during the winter of
1985/86. While overlooking the swimming pool of the Georgian
mansion that is Jacobs, the Studio 1 control room also connects to two
recording areas: the live room, formerly a drawing room, has a recess
with large, five-sided bay window that accommodates a grand piano, while
the converted stables, with their cobbled and oak floors, beams and
joinery, feature three different floor levels and corresponding ceiling
heights, as well as a couple of booths and a secondary isolated live
area. Street says "The stables looked quite cool, but to be honest,
the acoustics in there weren't all that brilliant," Street remarks. "And
although we put the drums in the live room because it was brighter in
there, it was a bit too live. That's why 'The Queen Is Dead' had to be
assembled in a slightly piecemeal fashion, with the snare and bass drum
recorded separately from the cymbals and tom-toms."
Comparison to our recordings
David, Jacob and I stayed behind the scenes and set up the mics for the recording in the studio for guitar and piano. i stayed at the mixing desk and set up the tracks so really i was the engineer. Whereas Georgia (pianist) and Dan (guitarist) played for us. Dan's guitar was recorded with similarities to Johnny Marr's recording for example though we didn't use the same microphones we set them up similarly to how The Smiths did. For both the piano and guitar we used the cigarette microphone more commonly known as AKG C1000.Group dynamics when recording in the studio were pleasant as we all got on and worked well as a team. However, when The Smiths were recording the album The Queen Is Dead, they were having problems as a group due to all the large characters in the group. Some constraints that we found were that some of the software we used (i.e the Korg D888) however with some perseverance we figured it out as a team.
Bibliography
Sound on Sound: Classic Tracks The Queen Is Dead- The Smiths
Wikipedia- the Queen Is Dead
YouTube: The Smiths The Queen Is Dead
Book resource: 1001 albums you need to hear before you die
Book resource:Pop music the text book
Research Log (bibliography)
Secondary source
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Relevance to my project
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I found in this magazine the
view point of the sound engineer and about the microphones they used and
where they recorded
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Wikipedia-
the Queen Is Dead
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I used Wikipedia to find
out general information about the band and the album for example when it was
recorded and the running time of the album.
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Book
resource: 1001 albums you need to hear before you die chapter known as “the
eighties” page 560 & 561-By Robert Dimery
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I found in this resource
about the bands playing technique and style of music they played. Also I
found out the running time of the album and the label The Smiths were with.
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Book
resource: Pop music the text book chapter 6 page 84-By Julia Winterson
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In this resource I found
the genre of the music they played. Also I found more background information
on the band (example- Morrissey was an extremely controversial figurehead for
Indie music)
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I used this resource to
listen to the entire album and to find out the instruments that they used on
them, also to find out the genres usual techniques such as whiney vocals,
complex bass riffs and jangly guitar riffs
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I skimmed and scanned three secondary sources to find out more about the Smiths album ‘The Queen Is Dead’. I annotated these articles and found out the following information background information on The Smiths, where they recorded the album and also the microphones they used for recording. I also found out techniques and production characteristics and the genre of ‘Indie’ music used and the background information on the band The Smiths album “The Queen Is Dead” whilst they were recording, the band were actually going through some hardship with their record label at the time but yet they still managed to make a brilliant album. The purpose of my research is to discover as much as I can about the classic album ‘The Queen Is Dead’ by the Smiths for the Magazine article we have to write about a classic album. I also want to find out what techniques the genre of ‘Indie’ music used and the background information on the band The Smiths album “The Queen Is Dead”.
