Shakespeare's
Sister Yea-Sayers: "Did I hear a yawn? Yeah, well I know what you mean.
We're all sick of Morrissey's tortured torso gleaming at us from every news-stand
and of Johnny Marr's televised metamorphosis into Keith Richards, but behind
all the posturing, the musical spell remains unbroken. 'Shakespeare's Sister'
is a brief, brusque Diddleybuzz, a determined disturbing of the air after
the balmy psychedelic for that was the beauteous 'How Soon Is Now'. It's just
129 second of our finest band (still) in a cruising gear, another sliver of
greatness. All this and Pat Phoenix on the sleeve. The yawners want
blood." "Of late, I've found less and less to interest me about the whining
anorexic who fronts this band. It's different now. Marr's guitar here works
double time, everyone thrashes about and even Morrissey's usually vapid wait
clutches purposefully. The man, though, still remains languid despite the
breathless pace. What poise! Now, if his mum could just get him to keep his
vest on..." Nay-Sayers:
"... another sliver of greatness"
"their least spectacular single"
Shakespeare's
Sister
What
She SaidStretch
Out and Wait
Released in March, 1985
- Danny Kelly, New Musical Express, March 16, 1985
- Unknown Reviewer
"Their least spectacular single. Their finest cover star."
- Dylan Jones, i-D, October 1987
Smiths-Speak:
"'Shakespeare's Sister' - regardless of what many people
feel - was the song of my life. I put everything into that song and I wanted
it more than anything else to be a huge success and - as it happens - it wasn't.
We can talk about independents and majors till the end of the day - but ultimately,
when you make a good record, you want it to be heard."
- Morrissey, Record Mirror, August 3, 1985
Why did [Shakespeare's Sister] fail, commercially?
"There's no earthly reason why it should have. The height of suspicion
surrounds the fate of that record."
What do you suspect?
"Many things. I know for a fact it wasn't played on the radio. The record's
merits are irrelevant here. With our status it should have automatically had
a high profile, but it was blacklisted by the BBC because I denounced the
BPI awards. The sinner must be punished... I'm slowly edging away from certain
issues... I think Rough Trade released the record with a monstrous amount
of defeatism. They had no faith in it whatsoever. They liked it but they allowed
it to dribble, to stall. They didn't service it or market it in any way."
- Morrissey, NME, June 8, 1985
"Shakespeare's Sister... That has got one of the best rhythm patterns
and grooves I have ever heard. If Elvis Presley had had Mike Joyce and Andy
Rourke in his band he would have been an even bigger name. I'm sure of it."
- Johnny Marr, Melody Maker, August 2, 1985
"In The Smiths' song, 'Stretch Out And Wait', there is a line 'God,
how sex implores you'. To make choices, to change and to be different, to
do something and make a stand, and I always found that very, very encroaching
on any feelings that I felt that I just wanted to be me, which was somewhere
between this world and the next world, somewhere between this sex and the
next sex, but nothing really political, but nothing really threatening to
anybody on earth and nothing really dramatic. Just being me as an individual
and not wishing to make any elaborate, strangulating statements."
- Morrissey, Melody Maker, September 27, 1986
"We were on our way to the studio on Saturday and Morrissey said, "Look,
we need a song", and we put it together."
- Johnny Marr on the writing of "Shakespeare's Sister",
Record Collector, November/December 1992
Was the relative chart failure of "Shakespeare's Sister" a
key point in your relationship with Rough Trade?
"Not as much as people have made out. And a lot has been made out of
it. It was a disappointment for me. As a 7" single for the group at that
time, it was quite inventive. There was something about that riff that I always
wanted to do. I just flipped recording it. I really loved doing it. We didn't
get much support from Rough Trade on that one. As with 'Bigmouth Strikes Again',
it was a valid 7" single to own, but maybe not to play on the radio.
But that's all right by me. I was really happy to have certain songs on singles,
like "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore", 'Shakespeare's Sister', 'Bigmouth
Strikes Again' and 'Shoplifters Of The World Unite', because they were radical
rock singles and that suited me. I was happy just owning it myself, like a
lot of the audience were. The fact that we didn't get onto 'Top Of The Pops'
with those records is neither here nor there. I actually preferred those to
the ones that we did get on 'Top Of The Pops'."
- Johnny Marr, Record Collector, November/December 1992
