The Smiths | This Charming Man | Belgium TV | 1983

A new restoration of an early Smiths TV show appearance - seemingly never broadcast - miming to their wonderful 2nd single, This Charming Man.

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The Smiths single This Charming Man was released forty years ago, 31 October 1983.

In 2007, Noel Gallagher of Oasis said of the first time he heard the track: "The second I heard 'This Charming Man' everything made sense. The sound of that guitar intro was incredible. The lyrics are fuckin' amazing, too. People say Morrissey's a miserable cunt, but I knew straight away what he was on about."

My relationship with The Smiths music started on this month, 40 years ago, 19th of May 1983. They were supporting The Fall at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. But I confess, I don’t think I paid them much attention, because I have zero recall of their set. And the fact is, I was there for The Fall, probably my favourite band at the time.

Then a little later in ‘83, I was working behind the counter at Virgin Records, Croydon High Street, when This Charming Man came out. As a depressed, anxious 17 year old, with a broad musical taste, I was profoundly impressed with the record, and I played it in the store several times a day. Perhaps I was still regularly playing it months later, because I remember in April ‘84 receiving an anonymous valentines card at the shop with the inscription, “To This Charming Man from a Wonderful Woman”.

Wiki : This Charming Man is defined by Johnny Marr's jangle pop guitar riff… However, Marr’s sound was not so simple to create. In a 1993 interview, in Guitar Player magazine, Marr stated, “… it was the first record where I used those highlife-sounding runs in 3rds. I'm tuned up to F# and I finger it in G, so it comes out in A. There are about 15 tracks of guitar. People thought the main guitar part was a Rickenbacker, but it's really a '54 Tele. There are three tracks of acoustic, a backwards guitar with a really long reverb, and the effect of dropping knives on the guitar – that comes in at the end of the chorus.”

Lyrically, the song featured Morrissey's characteristically morose lyrics… Feeling detached from the early 1980s mainstream gay culture, Morrissey wrote This Charming Man to evoke an older, more coded and self-aware underground scene. The singer said of the song's lyrics: "I really like the idea of the male voice being quite vulnerable, of it being taken and slightly manipulated, rather than there being always this heavy machismo thing.”

It’s hard to adequately state how important The Smiths were, during their ‘83 to ‘87 existence. The combination of Johnny Mar’s inventive virtuoso guitar, Morrissey’s uniquely eloquent and sensitive lyrics, and Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce's crisp rhythm section, not only gained them high praise from critics, but also an apparently never ending string of hit records - during those years The Smiths released over 20 singles, all hits and all uniformly great.

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As most people reading this will already know, The Smiths bassist, Andy Rourke passed away this month (in fact exactly 40 years since the night I first saw The Smiths). I wanted to restore and put out this video immediately, but didn’t have the time until now.

In some ways, this TV appearance makes for a more satisfactory video than the official one, which is online in poor quality, and bizarrely never shows us a close up of Johnny Marr’s face - he’s mostly seen from the neck down, with closeups of his guitar. Was Johnny having a bad hair day, one wonders?

Anyway, look out for the nice Andy Rourke moment about two thirds of the way into the video, when a large blue-screen triangle (showing stills of French actor Jean Marais from Jean Cocteau’s 1950 movie, Orpheus, as featured on the sleeve of This Charming Man) slowly lowers from the ceiling and Andy, in a very good naturedly way, ducks to the side trying to keep his head in the shot.

RIP Andy Rourke
17 January 1964 – 19 May 2023

Thanks for watching, hope you dig it!

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Credits

Video Source:
The Smiths | This Charming Man | Generation 80 | RTBF (Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française) | 1983 | Not broadcast

Audio Source:
The Smiths | This Charming Man | Recorded Strawberry Studios, Manchester | October 1983 | Released on Rough Trade Records | 31 October 1983

Musicians:
Johnny Marr | Guitars
Morrissey | Vocals
Andy Rourke | Bass
Mike Joyce | Drums

John Porter | Production

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Always more videos to follow, so please keep your electric eye on me babe!

I don't own the rights, and I'm not making any money out of this etc. Just a fan making videos for other fans.

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#TheSmiths #ThisCharmingMan #JohnnyMarr #Morissey #AndyRourkeRIP

[nansenscat]

This band still means so much to me. Rest In Peace dear Andy Rourke. Thank you for uploading this!

[edwardmulholland]

It’s still wonderful after all these years. The impact they made was huge - it’s kind of hard to explain to people today who didn’t grow up during that time of Thatcher’s Britain. Their influence is still felt today. I saw them in Belfast, February ‘86 and the fanaticism they inspired was incredible.
RIP Andy.
Thank you for this.

[jostewart]

Huge part of my teenage years in the 80's. Just loved the Smith's. 🎉

[allegrajane]

Thank you for this gem. Ahh, to be young and finally feel understood, thanks to this band. The Smiths, once and forever.❤

[thetragicyouth]

Without question, Morrissey had the best hair and eyebrows of the 80s! Thanks, Nacho!

[marianrose]

Wonderful, gorgeous, superlative in every way. Big thanks!💐💚💐👌

[luckygitane]

Wonderful restoration and a lovely bit of history with your relationship to the band :)

[dannymiles]

Lovely restoration of a classic song. Ive loved guitar all my life, i couldnt resist the charm of Marr's beauty intro and guitar spine to this and other Smith's songs.
It shimmers, jangles and chimes majestically and reminds me of Keith Levine's beauty guitar shimmering and chiming on PIL's brilliant Public Image single. A great song of The Smiths and new life put into this video is great thanks.

[antoineponcelet]

Incredible and beautiful! Thank you and thank you Moz and the boys!

[vincentmitchell]

Nice one Mon ami
Bought the 12 inch way back in the day and met him in downtown Chicago in 2007. He walked into a pub with security in Michigan Ave. Nice guy !

[Remain_In_Light_]

What amazing work you did, thank you!

[ewetoo]

Andy choosing to mime with his fingers instead of a pick lol

[ok]

I can't hear the knives being dropped on the guitar...