“Paint A Vulgar Picture” by The Smiths

"Paint a Vulgar Picture" comes from Strangeways, Here We Come, the fourth and last studio album by the Smiths, which Rough Trade released in September 1987, months after the band had already split. It's the classic division of labor one final time: Johnny Marr wrote the music and plays guitar and piano, Morrissey wrote the words and sings them, Andy Rourke holds down the bass and Mike Joyce the drums, and Marr and Morrissey produced it with Stephen Street.

The album was cut in early 1987 at the Wool Hall in Bath, Somerset, to settle the band's last obligation to Rough Trade, and it pushed them toward fuller arrangements and stranger corners than before. Marr walked out soon after the sessions wrapped, which makes every track on it, this one included, part of the band's farewell.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.