{"id":8189,"date":"2014-03-21T11:32:20","date_gmt":"2014-03-21T15:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=8189"},"modified":"2014-03-21T13:39:32","modified_gmt":"2014-03-21T17:39:32","slug":"cheer-up-with-the-smiths-im-at-the-american-spectator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2014\/03\/cheer-up-with-the-smiths-im-at-the-american-spectator.html","title":{"rendered":"Cheer Up with the Smiths! I’m at the American Spectator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

reporting live from 1984!<\/p>\n

What everybody forgets about the Smiths is how much fun <\/em>they were.<\/p>\n

And not just fun: The band careened through the \u201980s putting out four studio albums which were joyful, sexy, funny, self-deprecating, silly, and even sometimes compulsively danceable. The myth of Morrissey and his mopey muse has some truth to it\u2014and he made the jokes first, in song titles like \u201cMiserable Lie,\u201d \u201cHeaven Knows I\u2019m Miserable Now,\u201d \u201cPretty Girls Make Graves\u201d and the rest\u2014but the band mocked by the Pet Shop Boys for their \u201cMiserablism\u201d spent most of their time whistling past the cemet\u2019ry gates.<\/p>\n

Now is a great time to rediscover the carnival side of the Smiths. To mark the thirty-year anniversary of their 1984 debut, iTunes is re-releasing their complete albums<\/a>, remastered for iTunes by guitarist Johnny Marr. It\u2019s a bit \u201cno progress in history\u201d to be told that the remastered sound quality is as good<\/em> as on the LPs, but for those of us who spent adolescent hours respooling cassette tape back into the cassettes with our pinky fingers, the remastered Smiths sound clear and bright and deliciously impure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

reporting live from 1984! What everybody forgets about the Smiths is how much fun they were. And not just fun: The band careened through the \u201980s putting out four studio albums which were joyful, sexy, funny, self-deprecating, silly, and even sometimes compulsively danceable. The myth of Morrissey and his mopey muse has some truth to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,9],"tags":[25,1264,79,114,213],"class_list":["post-8189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-gay-catholic-whatnot","tag-england-your-england","tag-gay-catholic-whatnot","tag-moral-memories-of-the-past","tag-the-day-the-world-turned-day-glo","tag-the-smiths"],"yoast_head":"\nCheer Up with the Smiths! I'm at the American Spectator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"reporting live from 1984! 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