CLASSIC SONG & LYRICS - How Soon is Now? (The Smiths, 1984)

Perhaps one of the most identifiable new wave songs of the 80s, the Smith's "How soon Is Now?" opens with Johnny Marr's electrifying guitar screech, signaling the emotional desperation to come from Morrissey's naked words.  This is a plain cry for human connection and love in the Yuppie power and money obsessed 'Wall Street' decade.  The song is evocative in the same way that Munch's modern art's masterpiece 'the Scream' leaves an unsettled impression on the interloper.  This is exactly how one feels listening to this Smiths signature song - that one is eavesdropping into the fractured soul of the singer. Morrissey was always an enigmatic figure with cryptic glimpses into his unconventional life, but the feelings he expresses so convincingly are universal - the pursuit for love and the ideal life-partner/soul-mate!

On a personal level, this song was released a short while after a very painful split from a four year relationship.  I easily identified with the pain and seemingly impossible ordeal of finding lasting love ever again.  The song represented my wake-up call. I shifted from one relationship to the next, club to club, somewhat lost and disillusioned. I felt as if the song was written about ME.  That is the power of great art.

I eventually met the love of my life, Guylaine, my wife now of 22 years (and still going strong).  I took a long while after the Smiths song to find the right person, but by then I knew the exact qualities I was searching.  

As an aside, I recently heard the song played once again in a charity event.  It made my spine crawl to hear the Morrissey's howl of longing as if it were 1984/1985 once again. Not surprising my list of 100 Essential New Wave Songs ends with this timeless Smiths masterpiece.  It was a time capsule that perfectly captured my emotional state and impacted me like no other!

I am the son and the heirOf a shyness that is criminally vulgarI am the son and heirOf the nothing in particular

You shut your mouth, how can you sayI go about things the wrong wayI am human and I need to be lovedJust like everybody else does

I am the son and the heirOf a shyness that is criminally vulgarI am the son and the heirOf nothing in particular

You shut your mouth, how can you sayI go about things the wrong wayI am human and I need to be lovedJust like everybody else does

There's a clubIf you'd like to goYou could meet somebodyWho really loves you

So you go and you stand on your ownAnd you leave on your ownAnd you go homeAnd you cry and you want to die

When you say it's gonna happen nowWell, when exactly do you mean?See, I've already waited too longAnd all my hope is gone

You shut your mouth, how can you sayI go about things the wrong wayI am human and I need to be lovedJust like everybody else does

The embedded video conveys the mid-80s fashion style and increasing social isolation very accurately. (Sorry for the opening advertisement!!)

the smiths - how soon is now.. by robertjgunn