It was unthinkable.
He is 27 years old... old enough.
He is also pretty damn open when it comes to music and listens to a lot of Indie-type stuff.

He saw Louder Than Bombs on my dsk just now and...

"The Smiths?"
"Oh, come on, you know The Smiths."
"No. Should I?"
"'Cemetery Gates?'"
"no."
"'Bigmouth Strikes Again'?"
"no."
"'Girlfriend In a Coma'?"
"no."
"You know who Morrissey is?"
"Sounds familiar, but..."
"TAKE THIS FUCKING DISC AND LISTEN TO IT! NOW !!!!!!"

he should consider himself lucky.

Waitaminute........ you have a DESK?!

Lucky that he has it all to discover.

This is true. I just got into The Smiths and Morrissey, like, 3 years ago. I had been aware of The Smiths in high school, but I really couldn't appreciate them back them.

I'm going to go ahead and figure there will be at least 5 snide remarks from Obs who we all know hate the Smiths.

Louder Than Bombs would probably be the best intro disc, so he's starting off right.

Then I'd say:

Queen is Dead
Meat is Murder
The Smiths
Strangeways Here We Come

Hate to point this out, but the Smiths' last album was in 1987. That would've made your co-worker 8 years old when adult miserablists everywhere were new wave dancing to "Girlfriend In A Coma". Seems pretty reasonable that he's never heard of them.

Except for this part:


Should have at least heard OF them by now, I would think.

I am 25. Heard of them but never really listened to them. Don't kill me please.

Edit: I have realized there is a mistake in the above post. I am actually 26 and I forgot that.

Well, I've heard of The Velvet Underground and The Ramones and even some guy called David Johanson...

Maybe he doesn't like Brad Pitt movies.

Even though I was "80s girl" in High School (The Cure, Siouxsie, DM, etc) I didn't get into the Smiths until 1995, two years after I graduated.

It was at the insistence of Mr. Murry Lightburn of the Dears.

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa? You don't listen to the Smiths. Louder Than Bombs. Pick it up NOW."


My brother only recently admitted to "getting" them, even after years and year of exposure to them through me (one of my most fav bands EVER).

one band i can never listen to again. hmpttt.

I don't even try to discuss music with the people I work with. One guy asked me about electronic/techno music and sort of wanted me to burn him some stuff, when I mentioned Kraftwerk he had no idea who I was talking about.
Another guy saw my Marquee Moon disc laying on my desk and asked me if they were a new band. Most people I work with come into my office and say "What's this shit" when I am listening to cd's and always ask what station I am listening to the University station when I am supervising people in the arena.
The funniest are the people who actually have something to do with booking shows who ask me about some band and what they sound like rather than checking them out themselves.

I only started listening to them four or five years ago. Up to that point, the only song I knew was 'How Soon Is Now?' from all the radio countdowns.

But then my friend put on Louder Than Bombs one night as we were getting ready to go out a concert and I was blown away. Bought it the next day for $7 at a used cd store in town.


Postscript:
I eventually got a job at that store and worked there for half a year. Never once saw LTB ever come into circulation again. It was fate.

where do you work, promethium?

meh.

I work at SMG Pershing Center in Lincoln, NE, an 8,000 seat arena. It is a building on the decline and my bosses are currently trying to get the city government to assist some developers in building a 14,000 seat arena by the Minor league/University of Nebraska Baseball stadium.
SMG manages all ther Verizon Wireless and Pepsi venues.

sing a few lines of "how soon is now?" if he doesn't know that one, he's a john doe & not a john smith

WHAAAAAAAA? Murray Lightburn listens to THE SMITHS?!?!

i don't get it. i didn't discover david bowie until march 6, 2003. and i didn't get into pulp until july 4, 1999. i was even in britain during the summer of "common people" and never thought much of it until many years later.

the smiths are alright, but i think they're a band that people need to find on their own, especially with the fucking gobs of hype bestowed upon them by people who can't let go. ditto for the pixies. i didn't want anything to do with either band for years. it took me unknowingly hearing songs by them that i really liked for me to want to hear more.

I wish I had never heard them. I can never get the 20 seconds of my life back between hitting play and switching them off.

Yeh, but you get all your information from a source in Hamburg.

That dude talks clever but he can't even dress himself.

THE STARTLING TRUTH REVEALED!