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Heaven
Knows I'm Miserable Now
"... THE seminal Smiths single" - Dylan Jones,
i-D
Heaven Knows I'm
Miserable Now
Suffer
Little Children
Girl
Afraid
Released in May 1984
Yea-Sayers:
"Probably
the
seminal Smiths single. Dead sad, dead funny."
- Dylan Jones, i-D, October 1987
"...I must be one of the small number of people who actually
believe that The Smiths are
not
the saviours of Western Pop as we
know it. Apart from 'This Charming Man', what difference have The Smiths made
except to re-inforce how boring and ordinary groups can be these days? You
have to do more than dish out a staple diet of Oscar Wilde, teenage angst,
existentialism, and Sandie Shaw infatuations to see this boy crumble. The
ambiguity of their lyrics might well be an applauding point but that's just
a drop in the ocean compared to the straight faced dourness of most of their
music. That said, 'Heaven Only Knows' [sic] cunningly re-dresses the balance.
A jewel of a melody, a timeless arrangement, the sheer languid charm of Morrissey's
vocal performance, the deeper suggestions of his words, the buried ideas,
all add up to the proverbial shiver-down-the-spine. It's a record like this
that makes me start to understand the love vested in them, even if the last
time I saw Morrissey he had approximately half his front lawn hanging out
of his back pocket. And if you're about to complain bitterly about the
NME
building them up to knock them down policy, forget it.
I
never promised
them a rose garden."
- Unknown Critic, New Musical Express
Regarding 'Suffer Little Children': "
Another
Rough Trade...?
Confirmed Smithshater though I be, credit where credit's due. A delicate and
(dare I say it) tender ballad concerning the activities of everyone's favourite
love-story couple. It's fascinating to hear how sensual Morrissey's voice
can be when he's not torturing us with those horrible whooping noises he makes.
Buy it for the B-side; the A-side sees Morrissey and his jangling friends
complaining that they feel 'miserable tonight'."
- Unknown Critic
It's another Smiths single, isn't it? They're very good, I like their attitude
and approach, but they always seem so apathetic that I don't really feel like
giving them any sympathy. They turn apathy into a fine art.
This is a soft record, the sort of thing I can see Captain really liking.
He loves soft, pleasant music. Maybe when I'm feeling really depressed and
on the point of slitting my wrists, I'd find The Smiths very appealing, but
now I'm happy they don't appeal to me quite so much.
Why is he miserable? He doesn't say why in the lyric. He's just depressed.
Next time he gets in this frame of mind he ought to give me a ring and I'll
cheer him up.
This record is well put together and nicely produced and everything, and I
think The Smiths are on their way to making really good records, but this
isn't it. They haven't quite got it right yet. One day The Smiths will make
a record that I'll love. It will only sell one copy and that will be to me.
Morrissey has actually got a good voice, he's got a very wide range... but
I'm always wary of singers who try to croon. He does try, though. This record
is just very nice and its miserable at the same time - which is really, I
suppose, what makes The Smiths unique.
- Rat Scabies, Melody Maker, May 26, 1984
Smiths-Speak:
"When I wrote an ineffectual line such as 'I was looking
for a job/ And then I found a job/And Heaven knows I'm miserable now', that
outraged people (which pleased me)."
- Morrissey,
Jamming!
, December, 1984
"There was all that fuss about 'Suffer Little Children' in the newspapers,
all these comments and opinions from people who knew nothing about the group
and nothing about music. I felt very sad and angry about that, so much just
being headlines. Nobody had approached me and there were long, inflated comments,
"Morrissey says this..." and "Morrissey wrote it for this reason...".
All of it was totally untrue and I couldn't understand why nobody had asked
me. At one point, someone from The Daily Mail rang up, giving me the chance
to give my side of the story. Of course, they weren't interested that I got
on famously with the parents of the victims. So, they wouldn't print the story.
Well, that really upset me."
- Morrissey on the "Suffer Little Children" controversy,
Jamming!
, December, 1984
Did you anticipate the reaction to 'Suffer Little Children'?
"Yes, I did. Yes, I did anticipate it - and when it arrived, I wasn't
ready for it in the least. I was quite confused. I was very distressed by
that but I was only distressed because nobody would actually let me comment
on it. It appeared in national newspaper the length and breadth of the country
- Morrissey does this and Morrissey says that and Morrissey believes... and
nobody asked me a thing. Nobody knew what I believed or why the lyrics were
there. So that was the only distressing element. But I'm glad the record got
attention, ultimately."
Were you alarmed at the way the sentiments of the song, the basic concept,
the basic sympathies of the song were so disfigured?
"Well, this is the world we live in. It's not a reflection of me, it
really reflects the absolute and barbaric attitudes of the daily press and
so I don't really feel that I was in the dock, I feel that they were really.
And in essence they were just really saying how narrow-minded and blunderous
they were. Some of the reports in newspapers in Portsmouth and Hartlepool
- all the places that really count - some of the reports were so full of hate,
it was like I was one of the Moors Murderers, that I'd gone out and murdered
these children. Some of them were so full of hate that one just had to do
something, but not read them. It was incredible."
- Morrissey,
Melody Maker
, March 16, 1985
"Veiling the Moors Murders is wrong. We must bring it to the fore. If
we don't overstate things, they'll continue to happen. We don't forget the
atrocities of Hitler, do we? In the north, I was painted as a hideous Satanic
monster, and the word was that I had upset Ann West [Lesley Anne's mother].
In fact, I had not, and have since become great friends with her. She is a
formidable figure."
- Morrissey,
Spin
, 1986
"For me life was never easy, but it wasn't even acceptable until the
release of 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'. I liked that record and good
times seemed to happen to me then. I'll look back on them as pleasant days.
But before then I'd never felt it. I was making records that though successful
weren't really quite clicking with me. It was like I'd still had this hangover
from the years of nothingness, of being on the dole, having to live in that
horrible atmosphere of communicating with the DHSS, people saying why are
you writing this absurd song. 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now' seemed to me
an enormous release... It had got to the point where I was this totally separate
character from the group. I was never asked about them or the music. I'd feel
there was always this desire to create a caricature of me - a repressed priest,
insane pseudo axeman, or whatever... But with 'Heaven Knows...' everything
fell into perspective. Previous to that I was just running around trying to
keep everybody happy."
- Morrissey,
NME
, December 22/29, 1984
"I think 'Girl Afraid' simply implied that even within relationships,
there's no real certainty and nobody knows how anybody feels. People feel
that just simply because they're having this cemented communion with another
person that the two of you will become whole, which is something I detested.
I hate that, that implication. It's not true, anyway. Ultimately, you're on
your own, whatever happens in life, however you go through life. You die on
your own. You have to go to the dentist on your own. It's like all the serious
things in life are things that you feel on your own."
- Morrissey,
Melody Maker
, March 16, 1985
"... we went to America to play Danceteria on New Year's Eve and Mike
got ill so we couldn't do the rest of the gigs, and 'Heaven Knows' was written
in a hotel room while me and Morrissey were waiting to go home. And I wrote
the music for 'Girl Afraid' the day I got back, so really we were more concerned
with what came next. I don't really like 'Heaven Knows'. Well, I like it but
less than the others. I don't like the tune and the backing track. I don't
like the rhythm or anything."
- Johnny Marr,
Select
, December 1993
"I completed it when we came back from America, having been to New York
where we played that one gig at the Danceteria. I did that the moment I got
back. I wrote it in New York with Morrissey, put it on tape when we got back
and within a couple of weeks we moved to London."
- Johnny Marr,
Record Collector
, November/December 1992