“Reissue, repackage, repackage!” Morrissey famously crooned on 1987’s “Paint A Vulgar Picture,” and those words have become entirely prescient as the last two decades have seen The Smiths’ catalog endlessly repurposed for a variety of singles compilations and greatest hits packages.
But here’s something rabid Smiths fans can truly, truly get excited about: Warner Music U.K. will be issuing an as-yet-unheard “demo mix” of “The Boy With The Thorn in His Side” from 1985’s essential The Queen Is Dead.
As Billboard reports, the B-side is an “unissued cut” of “Rubber Ring,” in which Morrissey intones that “the most impassionate song to a lonely soul is so easily outgrown.”
Let’s hope sales prove this sentiment wrong.
Morrissey handpicked the new cover art, which features Albert Finney. A release date has yet to be set.
So is there any possibility of a Smiths reunion in this or any other alien dimension? Perhaps.
As Johnny Marr writes in his new memoir Set The Boys Free, the band almost decided to get back together in the recent past.
“For four days re-forming the Smiths was a very real prospect,” he writes.
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Original article appeared at Queerty. Reprinted with permission.
Photo credit: Queerty