The Smiths Low-Fi

 I thought It would be fun to post some photos of my very old Smiths tape collection.  Thanks to some social media colleagues, I remembered to take a look again at these cassette tapes:

  

Photo #1 : Strangeways Here We Come, Best I, Best II, The Smiths, Hatful Of Hollow, Meat Is Murder

The first Smiths album I ever bought was the compilation "Hatful Of Hollow". The first time I heard "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" was in 1985, while riding in a red Toyota Tamaraw van going to school. I think it was a carpool organized by a classmate. I think the radio was tuned to the station 97.1 LS or 99.5 RT.  I was blown away by how jangly it sounded! I thought I was transported back to the 60's. I often see this album advertised in a local magazine called "Jingle", but I was not that convinced until I heard "How Soon Is Now" playing in a friend's "Walkman" later on in 1987. A few days later I bought the tape.

Photo Set #2 : Meat Is Murder

"Well I Wonder" is still is one of my favorite songs from The Smiths. Perfect combination of bass hooks and jangly guitars. I remember this song being played on BM105 around 1985-1986. Speaking of BM105, one of the first songs I heard from them was "The Lodgers" by The Style Council and "Stay" by The Blue Nile. I recall it was in a friend's house, while I was admiring their new Sony mini-component sound system.

 Nice insert with lyrics on this tape. "Meat is Murder" is one of those songs which you would appreciate later on in life. Those sounds from a butcher's place was really well thought of. Most guitar bands from the 80's to the present time seems to be in a hurry to play their guitar solos to the world.

Photo #3 : Morissey - Vauxhall & I, Southpaw Grammar

I lost my tape of Viva Hate sometime in 1989. I did not thought of buying another one as the years 1988-1989 was really blooming with lots of new releases. So I guess lunch money was spent on some other new wave artist of that era. I don't remember local record companies releasing "Your Arsenal" or "Bona Drag" in the 90's. Maybe I missed it. "Vauxhall and I" and "Viva Hate" are my favorite albums from Morrissey.