Meat Is Murder

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This article is about the album by the Smiths. For the book, see Meat Is Murder (book).
Meat Is Murder
File:MeatMurder.jpg
Studio album by The Smiths
Released 11 February 1985
Recorded 1984
Studio
Genre
Length 39:46
Label Rough Trade, Sire
Producer The Smiths
The Smiths chronology
Hatful of Hollow
(1984)		 Meat Is Murder
(1985)		 The Queen Is Dead
(1986)
Singles from Meat Is Murder
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 3.5/5 stars[3]
Blender 3/5 stars[4]
Chicago Tribune 2/4 stars[5]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music 4/5 stars[6]
Pitchfork 8.1/10[7]
Q 4/5 stars[8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide 2/5 stars[9]
Select 4/5[10]
Sounds 4.5/5 stars[11]
Uncut 4/5 stars[12]
1 = The Village Voice C+[13]

Meat Is Murder is the second studio album by English rock band the Smiths, released on 11 February 1985 by Rough Trade Records. It became the band's only studio album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart, and stayed on the chart for 13 weeks. The album was an international success: it spent 11 weeks in the European Top 100 Albums chart,[14] peaking at number 29.[15] It also reached number 110 on the US Billboard 200, in the United States.

Writing and recording

After the band's 1984 debut album, singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr produced the album themselves, assisted only by engineer Stephen Street. They had first met Stephen Street on the session for "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" and requested his contact number.[16] Officially, the record's production is credited to "The Smiths".

To build the album's soundscape, Morrissey provided Marr and Street with his personal copies of BBC sound effects records from which to source samples.[17] Morrissey would continue this practice on future Smiths singles and albums.

Meat Is Murder was more strident and political than its predecessor, including the pro-vegetarian title track (Morrissey forbade the rest of the group from being photographed eating meat),[18] and the anti-corporal punishment "The Headmaster Ritual". Musically, the band had grown more adventurous, with Marr and Rourke channelling rockabilly and funk influences in "Rusholme Ruffians" and "Barbarism Begins at Home" respectively. "Rusholme Ruffians" interpolates the Victoria Wood song "Fourteen Again". Author John King has suggested that the title track was inspired by the 1983 song "Meat Means Murder" by the anarcho-punk band Conflict, which deals with the same topic and also opens at a slow pace.[19]

Morrissey also brought a political stance to many of his interviews. Among his targets were the Thatcher administration, the monarchy, and his musical contemporaries. When asked about Band Aid, which was being strongly promoted in the UK media at the time, he quipped, "One can have great concern for the people of Ethiopia, but it's another thing to inflict daily torture on the people of England".[20] Similarly, he began to promote vegetarianism in live shows and interviews, on one occasion convincing a Scottish TV show to air footage of slaughterhouses during the dinner hour.[21]

Cover art

The album's sleeve uses a 1967 photograph of an American marine, Cpl. Michael Wynn, in Vietnam, though with the wording on his helmet changed from "Make War Not Love" to "Meat Is Murder". The original image was used for Emile de Antonio's 1968 Oscar-nominated documentary In the Year of the Pig.[22][23][24] Wynn stated in 2019 that he was never asked permission for the use of the photo, and that he "wasn’t real happy" that the wording on the helmet was changed.[25]

Legacy

In 2003, Meat Is Murder was ranked number 295 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,[26] and 296 in a 2012 revised list.[27] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[28]

Use in other media

In 2016, animal rights advocacy group PETA released a video game titled This Beautiful Creature Must Die, based on the song "Meat Is Murder". The game, which featured a chiptune rendition of the song, tasked players with clicking on their screens before different kinds of animals get chopped up in a death spiral.[29][30][31]

Track listing

All lyrics written by Morrissey, all music composed by Johnny Marr.

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "The Headmaster Ritual"   4:52
2. "Rusholme Ruffians"   4:20
3. "I Want the One I Can't Have"   3:14
4. "What She Said"   2:42
5. "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore"   4:59
Total length:
 20:07
Side two
No. Title Length
1. "Nowhere Fast"   2:37
2. "Well I Wonder"   4:00
3. "Barbarism Begins at Home"   6:57
4. "Meat Is Murder"   6:06
Total length:
 19:40
US edition and post-1992 to before 2011 UK WEA re-issues
No. Title Length
6. "How Soon Is Now?"   6:44
Total length:
 46:31

Note

  • "How Soon Is Now?" was added to the American edition and to post-1992 UK WEA re-issues, as track 6. The 2011 remaster restored the original UK track listing.

Personnel

Charts

Chart performance for Meat Is Murder
Chart (1985) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[36] 58
Canada[37] 40
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[38] 39
European Top 100 Albums[15] 29
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[39] 45
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[40] 13
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[41] 27
UK Albums (OCC)[42] 1
US Billboard 200[43] 110

Certifications and sales

Region Certification Sales/shipments
United Kingdom (BPI)[44] Gold 100,000
United States 245,385+[45]

^shipments figures based on certification alone
xunspecified figures based on certification alone

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Goddard, S, 2013. Songs That Saved Your Life - The Art of The Smiths 1982–87. 2nd ed. U.K.: Titan Books. P. 151.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ The Artwork of the Smiths - in pictures|Music|The Guardian
  23. ↑ In the Year of the Pig 1968,directed by Emile de Antonio|Time Out
  24. ↑ The Smiths – The Stories Behind All 27 Of Their Provocative Album And Single Sleeves - NME
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ "PETA Gets The Smiths Back Together … for a Video Game", Washington DC: Associations Now. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2017
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Goddard, S, 2013. Songs That Saved Your Life - The Art of The Smiths 1982–87. 2nd ed. U.K.: Titan Books. P. 356.
  33. ↑ Goddard, S, 2013. Songs That Saved Your Life - The Art of The Smiths 1982–87. 2nd ed. U.K.: Titan Books. P. 137.
  34. ↑ Kaminer, M, 1985. Smiths: Their latest release keeps up the pace of their first. Columbia Daily Spectator, 25 April 1985. 12.
  35. ↑ Goddard, S, 2013. Songs That Saved Your Life - The Art of The Smiths 1982–87. 2nd ed. U.K.: Titan Books. P. 142.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – The Smiths – Meat Is Murder" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
  39. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – The Smiths – Meat Is Murder" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts.
  40. ↑ "Charts.org.nz – The Smiths – Meat Is Murder". Hung Medien.
  41. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – The Smiths – Meat Is Murder". Hung Medien.
  42. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
  43. ↑ "The Smiths – Chart history" Billboard 200 for The Smiths.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Enter Meat Is Murder in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Gold in the field By Award. Click Search
  45. ↑ Morrissey/Smiths US album sales in 2007 and total sales since 1992-Morrissy-solo

External links

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