In a quite jarring reminder of just how quickly time has passed, I was recently reminded that there is now the same distance between the present day and Arctic Monkeys’ debut album as there was between that very debut album and The Smiths‘ Queen Is Dead. In short, that’s a whole 40 years between right now and the seminal Smiths record.
That’s nearly half a century, yet somehow tracks like ‘Cemetery Gates’ and ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ feel strikingly contemporary. In fact, across the entirety of The Smiths’ discography, it’s almost as if the songs were constructed yesterday, with Johnny Marr’s guitar parts sounding familiar yet jarringly futuristic.
It was certainly the case upon release as well, for The Smiths’ sound cut through the dreary homogeneity of the technologically obsessed 1980s. The invention of the synthesiser meant singularity was drenched all over music, desperate to feign some sort of innovation, and in large parts, the results felt underwhelming.
But Marr flipped it by harnessing the techniques of old and putting them into this contemporary landscape that felt more angular than the music that came before it. Because like Marr and The Smiths, they created something original by forging two pillars of tradition in the fire, in their case, the sweaty foundations of American blues, with the subtle nuance of British colloquialisms.
In doing so, they have created a legacy of music that, similar to Marr’s, is impervious to the changing tides of time. ‘Waterloo Sunset’ and ‘All Day and All of the Night’ remain as chillingly fresh today as they did upon release in the mid-1960s, which, to Marr’s eye, makes Davies the greatest songwriter to ever live.
“Probably Ray Davies,” he answered when cornered by the question. He continued, “Because, well, for a starter, his songs still sound good 30, 40 years later. There’s a certain kind of resonance if you come from the UK, you know, it feels like this country we live in, he’s singing songs from this quirky little island that we live in, which takes some doing. And they’re so well sung. And you know, I think he’s taken on that mantle really for songwriters as how to carry yourself and how to be very good at your art, I guess.”
Not only did Marr state that Davies is the greatest songwriter of all time, but when he was pressed to label a song he wished he had written, by anyone, not just Davies, he doubled down and chose ‘All Day and All of the Night’.
Looking back through their careers, you could safely say that Marr was a fitting candidate to snatch the baton from Ray Davies and keep evolving British rock music into the future, and their deeply technical ability, combined with a sincere approach to songwriting, meant their music had a little bit of everything.
Ironically, if you were to press me on what artist I think has carried the torch in the modern day, well, I would have to revert back to my introduction. Because maybe it’s Alex Turner, who released his debut 20 years after Marr released The Queen Is Dead, 20 years after Davies released ‘All Day and All of the Night’.