Bigmouth Strikes Again
"... another guitar-laden dazzler" - Creem
"... as disappointing as baked beans for Christmas dinner" - Danny Kelly, NME

Bigmouth Strikes AgainMoney Changes EverythingUnloveable
Released in May, 1986

Yea-Sayers:

"The Smiths' self-mockingly-titled 'Big Mouth [sic] Strikes Again' is another guitar-laden dazzler. How anyone can croon lines like 'Sweetheart, I was only joking when I said/You should be bludgeoned in your bed' and convey warmth, vulnerability, and irony at the same time is a continuing mystery. Also check out the 12-inch's flip, a pretty ballad called 'Unloveable'."
- Creem

"The Smiths' 'Bigmouth Strikes Again' finds Morrissey making the unlikely claim, 'Now I now how Joan of Arc felt,' and moaning, 'I've got no right to take my place in the human race.' Fortunately, guitarist Johnny Marr kicks ass, and the whole group rocks harder than they did on the last album."
- Spin

"It's just a very good song. I like it greatly. It really is as simple as that."
- Brian Eno on "Bigmouth Strikes Again", Q, September 1992

Nay-Sayers:

"It's as disappointing as baked beans for Christmas dinner. OK, so the main parts are all present and correct, but does the light of Sandie's life still expect us to swallow it whole? 'And now I know how Joan of Arc felt,' he oscillates mildly. On the evidence, Joan Collins seems more likely."
- Danny Kelly, New Musical Express, May 17, 1986

Smiths-Speak:

"Take 'Bigmouth' - I would call it a parody if THAT sounded less like self-celebration, which it definitely wasn't. It was just a really funny song - whenever I heard it on the radio it made me laugh and the same was true of at least half The Queen Is Dead."
- Morrissey, Melody Maker, September 26, 1987


"With 'Bigmouth Strikes Again', I was trying to write my 'Jumping Jack Flash.' I wanted something that was a rush all the way through, without a distinct middle eight as such. I thought the guitar breaks should be percussive, not too pretty or chordal -- I wanted a cheap, Les Paul sort of sound. The main riff is based on an Am shape, with a capo at the 4th fret. I buried this one little guitar part in just the right place, so it sounds like overtones of the main part, but it's really there. On the first of the two breaks, I'm playing slide through an AMS harmonizer, really high. For the second one, I used a Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty and a Rickenbacker together, playing a regular Em shape, but it's sampled and triggered off the snare drum roll. We credited the background vocals to 'Ann Coates,' but that's a joke -- it's the name of a place in Manchester. It's really Morrissey's voice, speeded up."
- Johnny Marr, Guitar Player, January, 1990