Poll: "How Soon Is Now?"

What's the opening line to the 1984 song "How Soon Is Now?" by The Smiths?

  • "I am the sun and the air"

    Votes: 7 26.9%

  • "I am the son and the heir"

    Votes: 14 53.8%

  • "It's hard to tell you how I feel without hurting you"

    Votes: 5 19.2%
  • Total voters
    26
  • Poll closed .
brevity

brevity

Member
Polls have been activated on DBR now, and I thought I'd test out the feature before the basketball preseason is underway.

Without looking up the lyrics, what's the opening line to the 1984 song "How Soon Is Now?" by The Smiths? Here are some YouTube videos to help or remind you.

Video 1:


Video 2:


The poll appears at the top of the page. Please vote, even if you don't care. The poll closes in 7 days.
 
Love that song .cruising around doing things I had no buisness doing .living in the moment. No responsibility at all. Great times.
 
I want to participate in the poll but I just haven't earned it yet baby. (and I know the answer by the way. The Love Spit Love version that was used in a certain movie and TV show would make you think its one thing, but its not)
 
Last edited:
Never heard of the Smiths band or if I did, I forgot about it. Odd because that was in an era where following music was a big part of my life.
 
BigWayne said:
Never heard of the Smiths band or if I did, I forgot about it. Odd because that was in an era where following music was a big part of my life.
Click to expand...
There were forgettable. Actually for some reason I always confused them with The Sundays, both were 80s bands but there was little overlap. But when I found out that Harriet Wheeler was in The Sundays....like I said the Smiths and every other British Indie band were forgettable.
 
CameronBlue said:
There were forgettable. Actually for some reason I always confused them with The Sundays, both were 80s bands but there was little overlap. But when I found out that Harriet Wheeler was in The Sundays....like I said the Smiths and every other British Indie band were forgettable.
Click to expand...
I think calling a band "forgettable" simply because you don't remember might be somewhat foolish and presumptive in terms of their actual impact and influence. Their impact in the US when they were active was mostly on the college charts (not unlike REM was for the early parts of their career). They also only had about a 4 year run, ending in 87 so they never had that real crossover hit in America. Posthumously, they are arguably one of the most influential bands of the 80s and the countless bands from the 90s and beyond that they did have influence on is honestly too many to name.
 
Per "forgettable", one of my Sirius stations is First Wave, and the Smiths are in heavy rotation. They are definitely not a forgettable band. (I'd like to forget Morrissey as a person, though. He's a piece of work.)
 
I didn't know this song by the name or artist, but of course I know it as soon as I heard it.

Generally, I don't care much about lyrics, I view vocals as another instrument. that's why I listen to so much global music and country music isn't all that appealing to me.

As such, sun and air, or son and heir ....same difference to me.
 
Thanks for introducing me to HippyChick. I love it, never heard it before. Great vibe. And Cowbell! As a percussionist, love the rhythm also.
 
BigWayne said:
Never heard of the Smiths band or if I did, I forgot about it. Odd because that was in an era where following music was a big part of my life.
Click to expand...
Sad. One of my all-time favorite bands.

By the way, the lyric is 'son and heir' 100%. This isn't even a question.
 
HoKogan said:
I think calling a band "forgettable" simply because you don't remember might be somewhat foolish and presumptive in terms of their actual impact and influence. Their impact in the US when they were active was mostly on the college charts (not unlike REM was for the early parts of their career). They also only had about a 4 year run, ending in 87 so they never had that real crossover hit in America. Posthumously, they are arguably one of the most influential bands of the 80s and the countless bands from the 90s and beyond that they did have influence on is honestly too many to name.
Click to expand...
I don't think I need to occupy a lot of thread space in response here but my comment was merely flippant and not intended to dismiss any specific band (though that's what I actually did I suppose), certainly not to offer a critical analysis of The Smiths contribution to the indie music scene. Indie music and its close cousin alt-rock, pop, with which The Sundays is more commonly associated, by definition appeal to me because of the "deforming" effect that major label, churn and burn, if you will, has on truly original music. My post was really just to confess my fanboy crush on Harriet Wheeler, who is probably in her early 60s now. She has both an incredibly beautiful, yet haunting voice.
 
BigWayne said:
Never heard of the Smiths band or if I did, I forgot about it. Odd because that was in an era where following music was a big part of my life.
Click to expand...
I've tried to forget several bands or just don't remember. unfortunately my wife reminds me and karaoke's them for my displeasure.
I literally have had to listen to nu shooz for the last few hours .
 
The poll closed yesterday, and the most votes went to "I am the son and the heir", which appears to be the correct answer, as rsvman points out.

Song lyrics are tricky, both before and after the rise of the Internet. Growing up in the 1980s, you knew that unless the artist or group provided the lyrics in their album/cassette/CD liner, you were on your own. Nowadays there are lyrics websites that compile the words to millions of songs, but they're unreliable -- they copy off each other and are occasionally, objectively, obviously wrong.

The (Internet) lyrics of "How Soon Is Now?" say that the second line is "Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar", which pretty locks in the preceding word to be "heir" and not "air". Back in the day, I thought Morrissey was saying "And a shyness..." which kept either possibility, and knowing his love of wordplay, I thought he was using both "sun/air" and "son/heir" interchangeably in the song. I still like this interpretation, but that's probably not the case.

I voted for the "Hippychick" lyric -- "It's hard to tell you how I feel without hurting you" -- because, of the three poll options, it sounds the most like something Morrissey would write. Despite not being in the new wave/alternative genre, Soho pretty much made a working class British song that would not be out of place in The Smiths' catalog. (It also might be the only popular song to use the phrase "blue devils" and not be talking about Duke University.)

Songfacts elaborates on Soho, The Smiths, and the identical opening riff:

Contrary to rumor, The Smiths didn't sue Soho - they didn't need to as Johnny Marr, The Smiths guitarist, was happy to receive 25% of the song's royalties. The 'Hippychick' riff was originally recorded by Bo Diddley (on a track called 'Hey Mona') but Marr ripped off the Rolling Stones' version of the song, although neither were credited on The Smiths' version.
Click to expand...

So it's like a song lineage. Bo Diddley to The Rolling Stones to The Smiths to Soho.



As a final note, HoKogan brought up the 1990s cover of "How Soon Is Now?" by Love Spit Love. Until today, I had no idea that this band was a spinoff of 1980s band The Psychedelic Furs, and that they share a lead vocalist. Songfacts again:

The band Love Spit Love, which included Psychedelic Furs members Richard and Tim Butler, recorded a new version of this song for the 1996 movie The Craft, which is about a coven of strikingly attractive teenage witches. In 1998, this same cover version was used as the theme song to the TV series Charmed, which is about a coven of strikingly attractive teenage witches.
Click to expand...

I've heard the Charmed theme so many times that I don't even connect it to The Smiths anymore.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top