Andy Rourke (The Smiths) RIP

Same age as me, and with what I’ve been through over the last three years, that fact hits a touch harder.

RIP Andy.

 

Marr takes all the credit for the Smiths music, but Andy Rourke carried many of the melodies and works almost like a second lead guitar in some of those songs. So underrated in his life time. Part of our youth gone eh Tony!

 

Fine bassist of the UK's finest ever band- a great contribution to the very top tier of rock music.

 

Very sad news

 

Really sad news. Playing my Smiths records today.

That chunky bass on Barbarism Begins at Home put a big smile on my face.

RIP

 

That's really sad, RIP.

Brings back memories of my one and only Smiths gig, 30th Sept 1983 at the Students Union (Birmingham Uni). Spinning Hatful of Hollow now...

 

Damn shame that. Way too early and a really talented guy.

A Smiths reunion was never really on the cards though was it. I guess.

 

Just finished playing it as well, first time in many years and agree bass is to the fore and excellent. He was only two years older than me and I remember buying this when I was 19, very talented and young at time of recording.

 

Nice signed copy. Will spin my rest tomorrow.

 

Age 59 - very sad, and as others have said, played wonderfully melodic bass lines.

 

Apparently only their 3rd ever Live performance. Andy Rourke just drives the whole thing along. Phenomenal.

 

I played all the albums and singles and b sides etc last night while getting very drunk on wine. It’s big and it’s clever.
They were an amazing band.

 

Funilly enough I did exactly the same last night. I finished up with a re-watch of The Smiths South Bank special:-



I remember about 25 years ago giving a lift to a much older work colleague. Andy was coming up for retirement and as a jazz enthusiast was very sniffy about my music.

I was playing "The Queen Is Dead" in the car. When "Frankly Mr Shankly" came on - Andy asked:-

"Who is this singer - he is jolly amusing?"

Later in the trip Andy proceeded to dissolve into hysterics during "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others".

From then on whenever I gave Andy a lift - he asked to listen to The Smiths.

 

I like your Andy chap. Some Girls.. is quite simply in my opinion, the greatest song ever written on our shores.
With the possible exception of Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia, but as that tune was sort of pinched, I conclude it is.

Your story reminds me of my Smiths reverie starting in an odd way. At first I didn't like them, & I didn't hate them. I utterly loathed them with every cell in my body. After a week of listening to this turgidly dull looking blue/white cassette, grating me by being put on by my best friend with us on a family holiday as much as being called 'smiths'.. by the holiday's end 6 days later, I'd concluded it was (by far) the greatest music I'd ever heard. And I still do 40 years on.

Capt

 

I adored The Smiths in the early 80s and bought all of their records on the week of release but I've not played - or been able to listen to - the Smiths for years. When I first got the 7" of This Charming Man I played it non stop for weeks and was convinced it was the best single I'd ever heard.

Over the years, though, I've increasingly not been able to get past Morrissey - he seemed charming ( of course) when I was younger but seemed quite embarrassing to my older self. However, Rourke's sad and very premature passing, and this RIP thread, has encouraged me to dig out the records for a listen. Once I get beyond Morrissey, and can park what a utter d*ck he's become, the records are not bad at all.

I was quite surprised to find Andy Rourke was younger than me - I was 23 when This Charming Man Came out and had never really clocked how young they were when they made those early records. You get a sense of quite how brilliantly he underpinned their music here - from 11.30.

 

RIP Andy Rourke , will bust The Smiths out this morning.

 

@kjb I've never had this morrissey hurdle, because once I'd played Viva Hate a few times (not that many more ever really, a good album & like a smiths "c-side", but not a great one) I simply had no cause to listen to his music, read his angry convoluted opinions, care about any court case nastiness, even listen to any JMarr album.

The Smiths music is simply -so- strong, it brushes anything subsequently-related firmly aside in one fell swoop.

There is one show on YouTube, which is all that's needed to remind oneself of their quality. It's a devoted, heaving mass of a Spanish crowd, outdoors in 1986 I think. I'll pop it up in due course. They almost were on the cusp of becoming the world' biggest band, as well as the best. But the last cards were being played at this juncture. Which is in retrospect, a huge godsend leaving an almost-perfect catalogue of albums in 4 short years, as we know.