Mojo - The Music Magazine

WE'RE SICKENING WRECKS. Why? Because that’s the effect of Frankly, Mr Shankly, surely the best British comedy song not sung by Bernard Cribbins and light relief oasis in the midst of The Smiths’ crepuscular indie rock masterpiece, The Queen Is Dead.

It’s one of 23 tracks on the current The Sound Of The Smiths compilation, named by Morrissey and remastered with the approval of Johnny Marr. Then there’s a 45-track 2-disc Deluxe edition featuring a first disc of singles and a second disc of connoisseur classics, including hard-to-find gems like the Troy Tate demo version of Pretty Girls Make Graves, a prime piece of Smiths prehistory previously available on the 12" and cassingle (oh, the Proustian rush!) of 1987 single I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish.

Anyway, here’s that free download of Frankly, Mr Shankly we mentioned...

And here’s an explanatory Q&A with The Smiths’ Johnny Marr, courtesy of johnnymarr.net.

Tell us about The Sound Of The Smiths, how did it come about ?
JM: Warners approached me with the idea of putting out a pretty comprehensive Best Of collection. I was only really interested if it was going to be done right, otherwise it's just a waste of time, and very frustrating.

You've been very vocal about some of the old re-releases...
JM: Yeah, I didn't like them at all. I thought they were really shabby, I hated the way they sounded, and I didn't like the packaging either. I really didn't like them, or the way they came out... it was bad all round.

So what's changed?
JM: Well... the label decided they wanted to do it in a way that I'd approve of. I let them put it together to see what they came up with and how they went about it and to be fair this time they were up for doing a good job of it. The people who were there before just didn't have a clue, they were terrible. It went alright this time I think. I had to get involved in it though.

How did you get involved in it?
JM: I got involved in the sound of it. I went through the choices of songs too, just making a couple of suggestions.

Is it true that you were involved in the Mastering?
JM: I had to be. It wasn't going to be done right unless I got involved. I asked the mastering engineer Frank Arkwright, who I really rate, to come and do it, and I’d check it all out and make some suggestions and changes if needs be. What happened with the mastering really was that in the past whoever did it added a lot of stuff that actually made the tracks sound quite bad to me. Frank and I actually took a load of crappy EQ off it and tried to get it to sound like it did in the studio, which we've succeeded in doing. I think it sounds really good. That's what I'm happy about – it sounds good. We've also got rid of the compilations that I don't like.

You seem very happy with it
JM: I'm glad we finally got it sounding right and up to date. I think it's great that someone who is into great music – and new music, say – can get a Smiths album and sit down in their house and check the band out with new ears and see how good it is, because it holds up very well. Getting it to sound right has made all the difference. You can hear little guitar parts properly that you couldn't hear before and little keyboard things and sounds that I did that got squeezed out before. You can really hear how good the band were.

Are there plans to release any more Smiths stuff?
JM: I don't know, there's a Singles Box coming out...I'd like for all the regular albums to sound right. It's well overdue. I think the Albums are coming out but there's not a whole load of unreleased old material or anything

No hidden gems?
JM : The versions of the songs that were played just the four of us putting the tracks down are really good, the stripped down versions, some of those things are great. Maybe they'll see the light of day at some point. I don't know though.

Photo by: Steve Wright/courtesy Of Sire Records