Yard Stick So Much To Answer For

Early in 1985, the Smiths released their second studio album, Meat Is Murder. More strident and political than its predecessor, it included the pro-vegetarian title track (Morrissey forbade the rest of the group from being photographed eating meat), the light-hearted republicanism of "Nowhere Fast", and the anti-corporal punishment "The Headmaster Ritual" and "Barbarism Begins at Home". The band had also grown more diverse musically, with Marr adding rockabilly riffs to "Rusholme Ruffians" and Rourke playing a funk bass solo on "Barbarism Begins at Home". The album was preceded by the re-release of the B-side "How Soon Is Now?" as a single, and although that song was not on the original LP, it has been added to subsequent releases. Meat Is Murder was the band's only album (barring compilations) to reach number one in the UK charts. Morrissey brought a political stance to many of his interviews, courting further controversy. Among his targets were the Thatcher government, the British monarchy and the famine relief project Band Aid. Morrissey famously quipped of the last, "One can have great concern for the people of Ethiopia, but it's another thing to inflict daily torture on the people of England." The subsequent single-only release "Shakespeare's Sister" reached number 26 on the UK Chart, although the only single taken from the album, "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore", was less successful, barely making the top 50. In 1985, the Smiths completed lengthy tours of the UK and the US; among the band’s most enticing shows of ’85 was their homecoming Manchester gig, performed on 31st March at the city’s Palace Theatre. Recorded for live FM radio broadcast but not previously released, this superb concert is now available for the first time here on CD. Tracks: 1. What She Said 2:48 2. Hand In Glove 3:29 3. How Soon Is Now? 5:32 4. Stretch Out And Wait 3:20 5. That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore 4:28 6. Shakespeare’s Sister 2:36 7. Rusholme Ruffians 4:16 8. The Headmaster Ritual 4:31 9. Still Ill 3:53 10. Meat Is Murder 4:45 11. William, It Was Really Nothing 2:07 12. Nowhere Fast 2:39 13. I Want The One I Can’t Have 3:21 14. Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now 3:23 15. Handsome Devil 2:46 16. Barbarism Begins At Home 6:35 17. Miserable Lie 5:46 18. You’ve Got Everything Now 4:23