“There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” (1986) by The Smiths is their best song, easily

How soon is now is pretty good.

R1 it is. So is “Back to The Old House” and “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”

So many "best" Smiths songs." "Bigmouth Strikes Again" is mine.

I know it’s over is my personal favorite.

Great one r4. I love This Charming Man too

The Queen is Dead and Headmasters Ritual are the best Smiths songs

They had so many wonderful songs.

I Want The One I Can't Have

No, I don't agree, OP.

They have tons of good songs, OP. Why is everything RANKING with minds like yours?

Morrissey ruined it all. I stopped listening to him after Brexit and never looked back. He's a cunt, and I feel like a total dumbass for falling for his schtick for so long. Poor Johnny Marr.

The drum and guitar interlude on Bigmouth Strikes Again still amaze me after all these years.

Some of this music transports me back to school and that odd emotional span of time. I get a twinge of angst hearing it but can’t quite remember what troubled me so much at the time. It was probably grades, relationships and all the messy complexity of adolescence. I was so broke! And I never felt ready for anything.

Morrisey's light went out a long time ago.

I listened to the Smiths so often during car trips to see friends in hospitals, I don't want to listen to them anymore. They were so popular during the saddest era in my life. And Morrissey has such a mournful voice. "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" is the perfect Smiths song.

I guess I’m here to be the other emotional pole to r14, but the first time I had sex “Strangeways Here We Come” was playing.

It was with my college roommate, a hardcore Smiths/Moz fan, after we had left the dorms and were living apart. We had grown ridiculously close after 3 years and were considered inseparable by our friend group. One night after all the other guys left the poker game we did a little dance which ended with with him on his back and me deep in his ass.

I wasn’t out, but he gave me a moment of caring, kindness and intimacy that I’m still grateful for 30 years later, and after a bitter end of friendship.

After we fucked we showered and went back to bed. I got to hold him and we kissed some more. I remember “Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me” was playing. Very apt.

not clear. You aren't friends with this guy anymore?

"Ask" meant something..it's simple and funny too but it felt like a direct message (and a warning or a come on). Maybe of part of a motivation to start over in college and I did. Unafraid in some ways. "The Boy with a Thorn in His Side" is so deep... subtly defiant, declarative, moving. a romantic whirl but also felt so real in light of some of the slander of that time. It's a gay song.

R16, no… we’re not friends anymore. He was a year ahead of me in school, graduated and then taught there. I did the same. The summer after I graduated he outed me (which really didn’t shock anyone else but me) and then aggressively went back to chasing women. Cut me off and left me feeling crazy and gaslit.

Looking back, I can understand why he did it, and I can also understand I might have been too much to date, as I was so happy to be in love with him as well as being so fucking clueless. But he didn’t just abandon me, he dragged our circle of friends along with him and I was basically left to fend for myself.

He was just so sick and tired.

HAIRDRESSER ON FIRE!

It's a near perfect song. Agreed OP. I also love Everyday Is Like Sunday. And a million more!

I was such an emo kid in the 90s: Cobain, The Smiths, REM, Elliott Smith were my Big Four. I was always listening to one of those artists.

You're a racist cunt, Rob.

It's my favorite Smiths song (in a Richard Christy voice).

In my 20s, I would've been like FUCK this guy. I'm old enough now to separate the art from the artists --for the most part. Morrisey is an OG pre-Internet troll, BUT he's also a great songwriter.

"Everyday is Like Sunday" and "The More You Ignore Me" are some of my favorite songs

I agree with you all saying they have so many great songs.

It's not even the best song on The Queen is Dead.

R26 I think you meant "I Know It's Over."

This song is so fucking good

I can't argue with anyone's choice for "best," because there are so many great songs to choose from. "This Charming Man" is probably my personal favorite. I also notice that it has the most "views" at the official Smiths' channel on youtube: 107 million. Comparably, "There Is A Light that Never Goes Out" has 42 million.

I love "How Soon Is Now," "Big Mouth strikes Again," and "Panic" as well. Then there's something as simple and short as "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" with it's beautiful instrumental bridge.

November Spawned A Monsieur.

Unfortunately, the song of theirs I hear most often is How Soon Is Now, and every time I hear How Soon Is Now, with those lines about going to the club (So you go and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you go home and you cry and you want to die), I just think he is the most pathetic person ever.

But he did improve later on. I like Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before or whatever it is.

Interesting music lesson and history behind "How Soon Is Now." by British music producer, Warren Huart:

[quote]These days, however, Morrissey prefers a different kind of onstage provocation. During a recent performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (and at a number of live shows in New York), the former Smiths singer sported a For Britain badge. For those unfamiliar with it, For Britain is a far-right political party. Even Nigel Farage believes it is made up of “Nazis and racists”.

Best parody of this sef-absorbed cunt I've ever seen.

The lyrics are amazing