The Smiths
Meat is Murder
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| Album cover art |
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| The most influential Indie music label at the time |
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| Nightclub Hacienda in Manchester |
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| The term given to the scene 'Madchester' |
Background
The Smiths were an Indie Rock band from the 80s.
Formed in Manchester 1982 the band has created four successful albums before
their breakup in 1987. They were one of the bands that helped kick start the
Madchester scene, which combined rock with dance music to create a jangly
psychedelic sound. This genre of music became the main type of music that was
listened to in the 80s and even helped the club industry, with famous clubs
like the Hacienda becoming more popular by playing this genre of music. Morrissey was the main creative element in the group who came up with the majority of their lyrics.
“His lyrics were far removed from the normal rock
canon-literary but colloquial, sometimes heart-breaking (fro instance in ‘Last
night I dreamt that somebody loved me’), and frequently humorous (as in ‘The
Queen is dead’).”
Although sometimes Morrissey's lyrics can come across controversial, especially the song 'Suffer little children' which covered the topic of the 'moors murders'.
Although sometimes Morrissey's lyrics can come across controversial, especially the song 'Suffer little children' which covered the topic of the 'moors murders'.
“However, his lyrics were mainly concerned with shyness and
unrequited love in everyday England.”
Album
Meat is Murder is the second studio album by The Smiths, produced in 1984 and released the following year became the bands first number one album. The album was written and produced by band members Morrissey and Johnny Marr, they were also assisted by legendary producer/engineer Stephen Street. The YouTube video below is a clip from The grey whistle test a show aired from 1971-88, this clip gives more insight into how The Smiths came to create this album, influences as well as performances. Singles that were taken from the album were 'Barbarism begins at Home' and 'That joke isn't funny Anymore'.
Meat is Murder is the second studio album by The Smiths, produced in 1984 and released the following year became the bands first number one album. The album was written and produced by band members Morrissey and Johnny Marr, they were also assisted by legendary producer/engineer Stephen Street. The YouTube video below is a clip from The grey whistle test a show aired from 1971-88, this clip gives more insight into how The Smiths came to create this album, influences as well as performances. Singles that were taken from the album were 'Barbarism begins at Home' and 'That joke isn't funny Anymore'.
The album charted at number one on the charts in the UK, it
stayed on the charts for thirteen weeks. In 2003 the album was ranked 296 on
Rolling Stone magazines list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Production Characteristics
Stephen Street is a well-known producer/engineer, who has
produced albums for The Cranberries, Blur and assisted The Smiths with their
album Meat is Murder.
Similar to most producers Street has his own way of
recording different instruments, some of these techniques, if not all, he would
have used to help The Smiths record their hit album.
"You can have a guitar and an amp and one person can
play it and it will sound completely different to how another person will sound
when they play it. A lot of the sound does come from the player -- it's the way
they hit the strings.”
The way Streets mikes up guitars is by using a couple of
dynamic mics, a Shure 57 and a Sennheiser 421.
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| Shure 57 and a Sennheiser 421 |
When working with bands Street believes that they should be able
to choose their own sound and gives them a lot of creative control over their
music. Street allows the bands to choose the different types of pedals and
effects to use as well. Another reason he prefers guitarists to use their own
pedals is because effects like distortion and delay go through the amp better. He
believes this is easier than trying to re-create the effects through the mixing
desk later on.
In terms of an acoustic guitar, Street usually tries out a number of different mics, ultimately he treats every studio session differently than the last one.
In terms of an acoustic guitar, Street usually tries out a number of different mics, ultimately he treats every studio session differently than the last one.
"I also like the Rat distortion pedal -- Graham uses
that a lot -- and I like the small Boss chorus pedal. I don't like the big
digital units because I think they lack warmth. I've been using some
interesting patches on the Eventide 3000 Harmoniser, which is great for some
way-out ambient sounds, but most of the time I do tend to use the Boss pedals
and sometimes an SPX90 or 900 for chorusing. With bass guitars I tend to DI if
I can get away with it, because all bass guitars are pretty much the same. If
the strings are sounding really dull and it doesn't suit the song I get the
bass player to put on some new strings so that the mid-zing really cuts
through."
When it comes to
recording vocals Street likes to use a Neumann 87 or 47. However sometimes he
does like to use dynamic hand-held mics like a Shure 58. In general he finds it
easier to record vocals with singers that he has known for a while.
Street uses live drums whenever possible, but he does sometimes use drum machines for example in Blurs song 'Girls and Boys'. But when he does record drums he uses a Shure 57 on the snare and 421s on the toms, then setting up ambient mics around the room. This arrangement of microphones is good to use because it reduces the amount of spill from other parts of the drum kit and improves the quality of sound of the recording.
The full article on Stephen Street can be found below.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/jul94/stephenstreet.html
Comparisons to Pulp
Street uses live drums whenever possible, but he does sometimes use drum machines for example in Blurs song 'Girls and Boys'. But when he does record drums he uses a Shure 57 on the snare and 421s on the toms, then setting up ambient mics around the room. This arrangement of microphones is good to use because it reduces the amount of spill from other parts of the drum kit and improves the quality of sound of the recording.
The full article on Stephen Street can be found below.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/jul94/stephenstreet.html
Comparisons to Pulp
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Pulp were a band that were overshadowed by The Smiths
originally, but when the hit ‘Common People’ was wrote they developed into a
more well-known and successful band. Pulp are often compared to The Smiths
because ‘Common People’ covers topics similar to what smiths record covered
including, juxtaposition of wealth and privilege, also emotional and financial
destitution.
Pulp recorded ‘Common People’ with engineer David Nicholas
at Townhouse’s studio 2. At the time the studio was equipped with a 72-channel
SSL G+, with two Sony PCM3348digital multi track machines, TAD main monitors
and NS10 near fields.
The way Nicholas records drums is slightly different to
Street because he uses different mics and techniques.
"There were Sennheiser MD421s on the toms and the kick drum, AKG C414s in X-Y stereo for overheads, Shure SM57s top and bottom on the snare, an AKG C451 with the 20dB pad on the hi-hats and, for room mics, a crusty mono ribbon with a pair of Neumann 67s up against the wall.”
"There were Sennheiser MD421s on the toms and the kick drum, AKG C414s in X-Y stereo for overheads, Shure SM57s top and bottom on the snare, an AKG C451 with the 20dB pad on the hi-hats and, for room mics, a crusty mono ribbon with a pair of Neumann 67s up against the wall.”
These techniques would provide a higher quality of sound and
provide less spill and background noise.
Overall, creatively Pulp are very similar to The Smiths writing about similar topics and ideas. Although when it comes to recording techniques and overall production of the music they are two different bands.
Comparisons to My Recordings
There are similarities between my recordings and the classic album/track that have been covered in this article.
Quality of sound
The difference between the quality of my recordings and The Smiths Meat is Murder is high because on my recordings I did not add any effects such as EQ and compression. Where as The Smiths recordings have effects on the instruments to produce a higher quality of sound. If I had the opportunity to add effects to my recordings I may have been able to improve the quality of my recordings.
Acoustic Reflection
A lot of my recordings are open-air recordings, for instance I recorded a acoustic guitar in a classroom which contained a lot of acoustic reflection. For that practice recording the extra reverb from the room made the recording a lot better. In general though I tried not to rely on to much acoustic reflection for the recordings. The Smiths album would not have contained much, if any acoustic reflection because The Smiths would have recorded their album in a professional studio. A studio contains a lot of installation, meaning there is very little acoustic reflection.
Absorption
The Smiths recorded all of their albums in a professional studio, and in these studios absorption would have been present. Absorption helps prevent acoustic reflection and natural reverb that isn't required with a professional recording.The recordings that I did in the studio would have had absorption present meaning that there would not have been much acoustic reflection present in my recordings.The vocals that I recorded in the studio would not have had any acoustic reflection because the pop shield would have served as absorption.
Resonance
The Smiths album contains resonance on every song, and that is because they wrote about hard hitting subjects that caused controversy. But there are other songs that cover topics such as unrequited love, which are more emotional and personal to the listener. So even though The Smiths are not technical singers, they are still able to bring resonance to their songs. For my recordings I did not really think about the resonance, but the vocal recordings contain some resonance because the performer chose the song they wanted to sing, so they put emotion into their performance, creating a resonance similar to The Smiths.
Background Noise
Similar to The Smiths I was not completely trained in using the equipment or an experienced performer when playing the instruments. However despite this factor a lot of the recordings that were done did not contain any background noise. There are three open-air recordings when I recorded the glockenspiel that do have some background noise, but that is because they were recorded outside and the wind affected the recordings. The Smiths recorded their album in a studio, even though background noise is still possible a lot of it would have been edited out in the mixing and mastering of the recordings.
Recording Expression
I believe that my final recordings do contain expression, as the performers that I used were experienced enough to provide a high quality recording. For instance on my final piano recording, the performer picked the song they wanted to do and because of this they provided my expression in the performance.
Recording emotion
When recording vocals it was very difficult to try and portray emotion, firstly because I only needed to record about a 30 second clip of each instrument. This left very little time to portray much emotion into the performance. The Smiths album contains a lot of raw emotion, this is due to the fact that The Smiths wrote their own songs, which covered strong emotional topics, automatically giving the recording a lot more emotion and depth. For the vocal I used an AKG C100s condenser microphone for recording the vocals, I worked with two other people on the recording, one of them providing the vocals and the other helping me set up the microphone and taking pictures of the set up. With The Smiths there only would have been the band present and Stephen Street who helped produce the album. As a group we performed well together, we did have slight issues with the levels at the start of the process, however once I had adjusted the gain the levels were fine and we had a successful vocal recording.
Involving the listener
On the album itself there isn't any points where the listener is directly involved e.g. call and response moments. However the emotion and expression that is portrayed through this album is enough to have an impact on the listener. My recordings also do not involve the listener, that is because I was focused on getting a high quality recording.
Bibliography
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| Urei 1176 compressor |
For recording guitars the microphones that were used were a
Beyer M201 and a Neuman FET 47. Nicholas then adds Urei 1176 compressor, but
tends not to add any EQ, which is different to the way The Smiths recorded and
edited their guitars. This creates more of an acoustic reflection with out the
use of EQ.
“Then, for the bass, I tended to use valve DIs and the preamp out of the head; never straight out of the guitar.”
“Then, for the bass, I tended to use valve DIs and the preamp out of the head; never straight out of the guitar.”
Overall, creatively Pulp are very similar to The Smiths writing about similar topics and ideas. Although when it comes to recording techniques and overall production of the music they are two different bands.
Comparisons to My Recordings
There are similarities between my recordings and the classic album/track that have been covered in this article.
Quality of sound
The difference between the quality of my recordings and The Smiths Meat is Murder is high because on my recordings I did not add any effects such as EQ and compression. Where as The Smiths recordings have effects on the instruments to produce a higher quality of sound. If I had the opportunity to add effects to my recordings I may have been able to improve the quality of my recordings.
Acoustic Reflection
A lot of my recordings are open-air recordings, for instance I recorded a acoustic guitar in a classroom which contained a lot of acoustic reflection. For that practice recording the extra reverb from the room made the recording a lot better. In general though I tried not to rely on to much acoustic reflection for the recordings. The Smiths album would not have contained much, if any acoustic reflection because The Smiths would have recorded their album in a professional studio. A studio contains a lot of installation, meaning there is very little acoustic reflection.
Absorption
The Smiths recorded all of their albums in a professional studio, and in these studios absorption would have been present. Absorption helps prevent acoustic reflection and natural reverb that isn't required with a professional recording.The recordings that I did in the studio would have had absorption present meaning that there would not have been much acoustic reflection present in my recordings.The vocals that I recorded in the studio would not have had any acoustic reflection because the pop shield would have served as absorption.
Resonance
The Smiths album contains resonance on every song, and that is because they wrote about hard hitting subjects that caused controversy. But there are other songs that cover topics such as unrequited love, which are more emotional and personal to the listener. So even though The Smiths are not technical singers, they are still able to bring resonance to their songs. For my recordings I did not really think about the resonance, but the vocal recordings contain some resonance because the performer chose the song they wanted to sing, so they put emotion into their performance, creating a resonance similar to The Smiths.
Background Noise
Similar to The Smiths I was not completely trained in using the equipment or an experienced performer when playing the instruments. However despite this factor a lot of the recordings that were done did not contain any background noise. There are three open-air recordings when I recorded the glockenspiel that do have some background noise, but that is because they were recorded outside and the wind affected the recordings. The Smiths recorded their album in a studio, even though background noise is still possible a lot of it would have been edited out in the mixing and mastering of the recordings.
Recording Expression
I believe that my final recordings do contain expression, as the performers that I used were experienced enough to provide a high quality recording. For instance on my final piano recording, the performer picked the song they wanted to do and because of this they provided my expression in the performance.
Recording emotion
When recording vocals it was very difficult to try and portray emotion, firstly because I only needed to record about a 30 second clip of each instrument. This left very little time to portray much emotion into the performance. The Smiths album contains a lot of raw emotion, this is due to the fact that The Smiths wrote their own songs, which covered strong emotional topics, automatically giving the recording a lot more emotion and depth. For the vocal I used an AKG C100s condenser microphone for recording the vocals, I worked with two other people on the recording, one of them providing the vocals and the other helping me set up the microphone and taking pictures of the set up. With The Smiths there only would have been the band present and Stephen Street who helped produce the album. As a group we performed well together, we did have slight issues with the levels at the start of the process, however once I had adjusted the gain the levels were fine and we had a successful vocal recording.
Involving the listener
On the album itself there isn't any points where the listener is directly involved e.g. call and response moments. However the emotion and expression that is portrayed through this album is enough to have an impact on the listener. My recordings also do not involve the listener, that is because I was focused on getting a high quality recording.
Bibliography
I skimmed and scanned three secondary sources to find out
more about The Smiths album Meat is Murder and how they recorded this album.
Also including different techniques and microphones.
I annotated these articles and found out the following
information:
·
The Smiths wrote and produced the album by
themselves, with the assistance of engineer/producer Stephen Street
·
Album is ranked 296 on Rolling Stone magazines
list of The 500 Greatest albums of All Time
·
The Smiths used production
characteristics/recording techniques used by Stephen Street
·
The band Pulp became more mainstream with
‘Common People’, the sound of the track was inspired by The Smiths
The purpose of my research is to find out about classic
albums and how they were recorded, produced and engineered. The reason I
believe The Smiths album ‘Meat is Murder’ is a classic album is because it
helped influence a generation and helped create and expand the Madchester
scene.
Secondary
Source
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Relevance to my project
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Sound on Sound magazine article: Stephen Street
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The main section of this article that is relevant to my
article is the different production and microphone techniques that were used
in the recording process of the album.
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YouTube video: The Smiths: complete
Old Grey Whistle Test (1985 & 1986)
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This video highlights the process of recording the album
in The Smiths own words. It also presents the information in another format.
The video also contains live performances of some of the tracks from the
album.
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Website Source: Wikipedia, Meat is Murder
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smiths |
This website source is relevant because it provides more
background information to The Smiths as a band and how they started out. It
also gives further details about the track listing and more details about how
the album was recorded.
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Pop music: The text book
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Chapter 6 of this book contained a section on The Smiths.
The section was relevant to my article because it explains about Morrissey
writing style and the influences behind the album.
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YouTube video: The Smiths- Meat is Murder (1985) Full
Album
Magazine article: Ten acts that clearly worship The Smiths
Website source (The Quietus)- 30 years on: The Smiths Meat
is Murder Revisited
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It was essential to include this video in my article
because it was important for people to be able to listen to the full album
when reading the rest of the article on the production characteristics and
microphone techniques.
This magazine article is useful to my article because it
highlights acts that were influenced by The Smiths. I can use these acts such
as Pulp to compare their music to The Smiths and see how they influenced
them.
This review of the album is really relevant and useful to
my article because it gives an in depth view of how The Smiths recorded the
album, the influences and writing behind the album.
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