What
Difference Does It Make?
"...I wish it was great and it isn't." - British
Critic
"Give these men a big, big hit" - Paul Du Noyer, NME

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Yea-Sayers: "Not so good as 'Charming Man'
say some, but I'd say better. A wailing, wordless hook from your man
Morrissey hovers ghost-like over a rubbery rockabilly beat, not marred
one bit by Johnny Guitar Marr's springheeled periphery riffery. And
the lyrics cut you, too. Perfect in its detente of tough and tender...
Give these men a big, big hit." |
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Nay-Sayers: "They're no fluke but hold hard.
This is no 'Charming Man,' no not even his shadow. What we have here
is our man Morrissey harking back to look forward and coming up with
something not a million leg-pulls away from an earlyish Jethro Tull
B-side. The difference between 'What Difference...' and 'This Charming
Man' is, in fact, charm. It lacks it, spectacularly substituting a rocking
pace for its predecessor's lilting melancholy. Morrissey has trouble
making his words scan the lines, his big ideas scurry around for one
little tune; a clumsy trait that is bound to be touted as his trademark.
Sloth posing as innovation? Too early to tell but right now The Smiths'
nearest allies are Aztec Camera in that they're both Nick Heyward nicely
out of tune. But is 'What Difference...' any good? I'm undecided - I
just wish it was great and it isn't." "What difference do the Smiths make?
Not a lot, but this ringing resurrection of a thinly disguised old R&B
riff is ethereally addictive. The first Eighties band to be sponsored
by Interflora, the Smiths are the musical equivalent of cling-film -
suffocating and skin-tight but thoroughly see-through. They're nothing
special, but this'll be a minor hit nevertheless, especially with the
Polydor sales force behind it, and I can't wait for the Sandie Shaw
team-up. Puppet on a string, anyone?" |
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Smiths-Speak: "There's a couple of songs I don't
like. In fact, I didn't really like them at the time. Like 'What Difference
Does It Make', I thought was absolutely awful the day after the record
was pressed..." "For me, almost all the records
have been absolutely perfect, but I can't deny that there are some that
haven't aged so gracefully - 'What Difference Does It Make?' ... I regret
the production on that now. But that's the only regret, although I might
seem like the kind of person that has many regrets." "It was all right. I didn't think
it was a particularly strong one. A lot of people liked it and it got
to No. 10. It followed 'This Charming Man' and was part of that peak.
It was all right. It went down great live, and that's when I liked it." "We used to have
a version of What Difference Does It Make? which was a lot more rumbly
drum-wise, more of a jungley rhythm. John Porter listened to it and
said, 'Try it like this,' very much straight 4s. I thought, Hmmm, I
don't really like this, and Morrissey looked at me as if to say, 'No,
I agree with you, Mike.' So, me and Morrissey would be sitting on one
couch, and Johnny and John would be on the other, both grumbling away
at the others. We tried it John's way and he was bouncing around the
room, like, 'Cool, sounds more like a single!' And of course he was
right it turned out to be one of our biggest
hits!" |