Track of the Week - 27 August 2017
I was in Manchester for a meeting this week which gave me many possibilities for a track from this musical hotbed.
I've settled on Rusholme Ruffians by The Smiths as I saw Rusholme* on a roadsign** near where we were due to go which immediately made me think of this track.
The song (which 'draws heavily'*** from Elvis Presley's (Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame) was released on the excellent 1985 album Meat is Murder but it's a 1984 John Peel Session I've linked to. It's still a mighty version of the song which describes 'the last night of the fair', the people who attend and what happens. It's great fun.
*I stayed in Rusholme with my friend Michael when we went to see the Festival of the Tenth Summer at G-Mex in 1986. The Smiths were on the bill among many others. (We saw The Shop Assistants the night before too at Manchester International.) We listened to Frank Bruno v Tim Witherspoon for the WBA Heavyweight title on the radio. We lived in simpler times.
**Opposite Rusholme is Whalley Range which features in an early lesser-known Smiths masterpiece - Miserable Lie.
***So heavily in fact that the band would later segue the songs during live performances.
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