Album · The Smiths
Meat Is Murder by The Smiths
Meat Is Murder is an album by The Smiths, released in 1985. 8 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 29 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “The Headmaster Ritual”, on 15 lists with a best position of #29.
Meat Is Murder, the Smiths' second album, came out on Rough Trade on 11 February 1985, and it's the sound of a band with its fists clenched. The four of them, Morrissey singing, Johnny Marr on guitar, Andy Rourke on bass and Mike Joyce on drums, produced it themselves with Stephen Street engineering, recording from mid-1984 through December at the Fallout Shelter and Jam Studios in London and Ridge Farm in Surrey. Marr worked up many of the demos in his Earl's Court flat, dropping in bits from the BBC sound-effects records Morrissey brought along.
The jangle is still there, but it's got harder edges now, and Morrissey has targets: the songs take on corporal punishment, social alienation and eating meat, and the grim title track leaves no doubt where the band stood. "The Headmaster Ritual" bristles, while "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" and "Well I Wonder" ache in the quieter corners. It gave the Smiths their only UK number-one studio album.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Meat Is Murder on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Headmaster Ritual | 15 | #29 | – | 1985–2024 | |
| 2 | Meat is Murder | 2 | #32 | – | 1985–2003 | |
| 3 | Nowhere Fast | 2 | #14 | – | 1984–2003 | |
| 4 | Well I Wonder | 3 | #41 | – | 1985–2003 | |
| 5 | That Joke isn't funny anymore | 2 | #31 | – | 1985–2003 | |
| 6 | Barbarism Begins at home | 2 | #936 | – | 1991–2003 | |
| 7 | What She Said | 2 | #734 | – | 1991–2001 | |
| 8 | I Want the One I Can't Have | 1 | #1576 | – | 2003 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.