Johnny Marr is top of the Billboard charts with Modest Mouse but every time I see a clip illustrating his past I remember how stunning The Smiths were.

In my opinion, the last truly great global superband (I never warmed to Oasis or Blur and Radiohead, Coldplay simply are not in the same creative league).

I have allways loved the Smiths.
They had a good tune and sang it very well.(sorry in joke alert!)

You cannot applaud enough, genius and off the wall lyrics that they had at time or of course Johnny Marrs fantastic guitar looping on the all time classic "How Soon Is Now".

I could quote Mozza all day, he was and is superb still,
a genius who can make hits without even attempting to rhyme in many cases.

Pure excellence , influential and seemingly without infuences.

Yes that was the thing.

No influences.

Now influences are fine when they allow artistes to develop and improve but so many artistes cite influences but they were really just copying.

Oasis were "influenced" by the Beatles. I'd use another word.

Morrissey and Marr put together something totally unique, individual, witty, melodic and different.

Interesting comparison, Smiths V Oasis.

Two acts from the same area and there is no comparison whatsoever in music terms for me.

It`s funny how the genres seem to get smaller and smaller in music.

In 1978 etc, both acts would have just been bundled under "punk/new wave".

Not really a Smiths fan - I quite like bits.

What redeems them for me is they were "saying something" and that is one of the things lacking in current pop music.

Even if it's naive adolescent ramblings or pseudo philosophy at least there once was a point being made, some sort of genuine self-expression.