decide now!
for the record, i say the cure. not to say i don't like the smiths but i just prefer the cure.
I too prefer the Cure.
Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before, but Frankly, Mr. Shankly, This Charming Man wonders if you even have to Ask.
umm, smiths. 8)
this is tough. i listen to the cure more often, but that may change. fuck you for making me choose
The Smiths
The Smiths ... though I'm a great Cure fan too ...
neither :cry:
This should be a poll.
The Cure, w/o a doubt.
the cure without question.
Smiths
Smiths
aw (I totally was thinking about this too, and was like there's way too little text to have to initial this blahblahblah. I actually say blahblahblah in my mind)
the smure., ciths, curths, the smurehs.
The Smiths.
The Smiths when I'm in a good mood, The Cure when I'm depressed.
Next question: Screaming Jay Hawkins, or Sophie B. Hawkins?
really funny, i was thinking the same thing today. there was a smiths video collection on today on VH1 classics and i was watching that (fucking hilarious, Morrissey is such a fruit and i mean that in the best way), but i think i might have to say the cure.
The Smiths, unequivocally.
The Smure.
Cure
I should also point out that I don't feel these two groups have much in common. Here in America, we tend to lump anything with an English accent into the same category; in England, I don't think you'll find that The Smiths and The Cure are thought to be similar. I like some Cure songs, but they're a little dour for me. The Smiths seem much more lifelike, clever, funny, affectionate- Morrissey has a constellation of emotions and ambivalences, so I find him and his music, whether with The Smiths or solo, much more interesting on a consistent basis than that of The Cure.
It's great to have a true Morrissey believer here ! Favorite Smiths songs : "I know it's Over", "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out", "This Charming Man", "What Difference Does It Make?", "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" and obviously "How Soon is Now". As for Morrissey solo, I love "Alsatian Cousin", "Everyday is like sunday", "Hairdresser on fire", "We hate it when our friends become successful" and the obvious "Suedehead"
Favorite Morrissey quote : Life would be so colourful if only I had a drink problem.
I like that one too : I'm dramatically underexposed. I demand more attention!
Yes, you care about all that.
I think Morrissey would win in a knife fight.
Musically, I'd lean more towards the Smiths... they're a little less whiney and when you put all the shitty Cure songs on one side of the scale and all the bad Smiths songs (might as well toss in just about every solo Morrissey song as well) on the other, The Cure tips it. So... while I agree with Godardian in that they don't really deserve that much comparison, I think The Smiths get the belt.
Smiths
Quote from: godardianI should also point out that I don't feel these two groups have much in common.
duhhhhhhhhhhh, they both have "the" in their names.
..the cure
Quote from: CecilQuote from: godardianI should also point out that I don't feel these two groups have much in common.
duhhhhhhhhhhh, they both have "the" in their names.
Duuuuuhhhhhhhh....Robert Smith - The Smiths.
Quote from: neatahwantaneither :cry:
damn right....but it's only cause i've never really heard much of either one...i like what i've heard by the smiths, but the cure? i'm lost....i don't know if i've ever heard a cure song...someone needs to break my cherry on that one.
From today's New York Post (let me just say that I would definitely want to hear any new Cure material before I laid out a single penny for it, I couldn't tell you any of the moves they've made in the last five years, but I visit www.morrissey-solo.com every day and already have my You Are the Quarry CD/DVD pre-ordered, not that everyone didn't already know which side my bread's buttered on, Smiths vs. Cure-wise):
CLASH OF THE BRITONS
By MARY HUHN
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 13, 2004 -- ROCK fans have been arguing about the Cure vs. the Smiths since the '80s, and with new albums due from the Cure and Morrissey, the debate isn't going to end anytime soon.
The ever-reclusive Morrissey, former frontman of the Smiths (which disbanded in 1987), is emerging from his L.A. cocoon with a new album, "You Are the Quarry," his first in seven years, and a new tour, selling out five nights at Harlem's Apollo Theater and headlining Lollapalooza.
Meanwhile, the 26-year-old band the Cure, who just signed with MCA, will release a studio album in June and co-headline the Coachella Music Festival in May.
Just like fans are devoted to either the Yankees or the Mets, or The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, the two Brit bands have their own distinct following.
"The Smiths fans are gloomy, the Cure fans are goth," says Marc Spitz, a senior writer with Spin, who interviewed Morrissey for the May issue.
"Morrissey fans are less flamboyant. They're more bookish than vampire-like."
If it seems like junior high school all over again, it is - complete with name-calling and stewing over old grudges.
After hearing Morrissey will play Lollapalooza, the Cure's frontman Robert Smith threw the first dart, in Entertainment Weekly.
"[Morrissey] was constantly saying horrible things about [the Cure]. I kind of snapped and started retaliating. And it turned into some kind of petty feud," said Smith.
"I've never liked anything he's done musically, but I don't have any kind of strong feelings of animosity towards him as a person because I've never met him."
Morrissey has yet to respond, but the debate is already raging over who's remained truer to his brooding roots.
"Morrissey insists there's no change from his stage persona and private self," says Spitz.
But Spitz won't say the same about the Cure frontman.
"I've heard that he is a beer-drinking, football [soccer] fan - more of a lad. Then when it's time to go onstage, he becomes a tortured soul."
Yep, can't be a good musician or a tortured soul if you drink beer and like soccer. That Robert Smith is such a phony baloney.
Quote from: SoNowThenYep, can't be a good musician or a tortured soul if you drink beer and like soccer. That Robert Smith is such a phony baloney.
Well, they're
both phoney baloneys, obviously (what great pop star isn't?), but I think it's Smith who's trying to pretend he's "authentic."
The first letter of my letters to the editor that was ever published was in
Spin when I was 17. I wrote in castigating Smith for calling Morrissey an "actor" in an interview. Smith disappointed me, not because he didn't like Morrissey (I can understand that: Smiths' legend has not the longevity of Morrissey's because he has neither the truly unique point of view nor the personality of Moz) but because he was foolish enough to think that you're ever
not an actor when you ascend that stage and play a song you've already written and probably recorded at some point. You have created something artificial, something that wasn't there before, something you
designed (performed, acted) that way.
Of course, we Morrissey fans tend to take the more Wildean view: Artifice is not only beautiful and good and very human, but also inevitable and rather inescapable, so why waste time and become dull denying it? Enjoy the bemusing contradictions of nature vs. art; they're just as funny as they are sad, after all. Yes, Morrissey has a deeper and more rounded and perceptive view of life and people and art than Robert Smith does, which is why he doesn't need to waste time arguing with him (part of me hopes he doesn't stoop; part of me can't wait to hear what very English and flippant reply he might have).
This is the mistake of so many "indie" and "punk" and "hard" rock bands (particularly American ones): They don't realize that most horrible poetry/lyrics/expression are incredibly, incredibly sincere and earnest and heartfelt and "real." Those are not the criteria for a great pop tune/melody, or for art of any sort. There's a reason for the "isms" on the ends of "naturalism" and "realism"; they're just as contrived as things that have the guts to be more obviously "fake" or artificial.
Yes, Pearl Jam and their ilk can have and keep their "authenticity" (far away from me, I hope). They can bury me with my Smiths and Morrissey records.
:)
That's quite the can of worms I opened! At any rate, I think it's cool when people like something/someone this much.
Quote from: SoNowThen:)
That's quite the can of worms I opened! At any rate, I think it's cool when people like something/someone this much.
From what I know of your musical taste, you probably agree with at least some of what I said. :)
I like very few (public) people as much as I like Morrissey. Is this the thread where I called him my "spiritual father"? Anyway... I feel I've learned a
lot from him. He was my college when it came to so much great music other than his own (and books... and film...) He's one of the few stars with cults who also exhibits a sort of obsessive devotion to his own heroes.
The Cure, even though they put one of their songs in a fucking Hewlett-Packard ad.