The Smithereens - An Appreciation

Here is another case of you not knowing what you're missing until it's gone.  Pat DiNizio, the lead singer and chief songwriter for The Smithereens, died on December 12th.  The Smithereens weren't a household name, but they were a good little band from New Jersey.  They first appeared on my musical radar in 1986.  In a time where New Wave was beginning to fade away and hair metal ruled the airwaves, The Smithereens were a breath of fresh air.  Their first single, Blood and Roses, was the hook.  The song’s ominous bassline was the hook inside the hook.  Combine that big drums, a melody mostly in E Minor, played loudly on a Rickenbacker semi-hollow body guitar, and you have a hit.  At first listen, the music sounds simple (it isn’t), but herein lies the charm.

This four-piece band of guitars, bass and drums were a throwback to the 1960s.  Their formula, from which they rarely strayed (if at all), was simple - make concise pop songs with as little pretense or conceptual bullshit as possible.  Their music was direct and tightly constructed.  Overdubs were kept to a minimum.  All their songs sounded like they were recorded with all the band in the room at the same time.  These weren't big productions that took months of studio time to perfect.  Sometimes you would hear the odd keyboard instrument here or there (a piano, an organ, or maybe an accordion), and on a few occasions one might here a saxophone or a trumpet.  But one got the feeling that whatever song the band played on an album, they would be able to reproduce it note-for-note in your local bar (or wherever they would play).  Neil Young once described his own music as “it's all the same song”, and so it is with The Smithereens.  Not that there's anything wrong with that... 

The Smithereens recorded five albums of original material until grunge nearly killed them stone-dead.  After 1999s God Save the Smithereens, the Smithereens took an extended break.  When they returned, they recorded two Beatles tribute albums [one of which is a track-by-track interpretation of Meet the Beatles called Meet the Smithereens], an album of covers of their favorite songs, and a tribute to the Who’s album Tommy.  The Beatles albums are ok, but they won’t make you forget the real thing.  The Tommy tribute, however, is a knockout.  They didn’t do the entire album, just the songs that matter.  As much as these guys like the Beatles, they cover The Who better.  In 2011, they recorded their first album of Smithereens originals in 12 years, a collection imaginatively titled 2011.  It reminds me of their 1989 album 11, which I think was the point of the exercise.

Pat Dinizio’s solo work is stuff that he couldn’t do with The Smithereens.  Some of the productions are a little more elaborate [you can find these on 1997’s Songs and Sounds]. In 2009 he did an album full of Buddy Holly songs.  In 2012 he released This is Pat DiNizio.  This collection has voice and guitar/piano renderings of a wide range of covers – from Burt Bacharach to Black Sabbath, and seemingly all points in between [the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, Henry Mancini, Roberta Flack, Jimmy Webb, etc].  Imagine a solo acoustic version of Paranoid with an entirely different melody…

Here’s my Smithereens iPod playlist:

Blood and Roses [Especially for You, 1986]

Behind the Wall of Sleep [Especially for You, 1986]

Crazy Mixed-up Kid [Especially for You, 1986]

White Castle Blues [Especially for You, 1986]

House We Used to Live In [Green Thoughts, 1988]

The World We Know [Green Thoughts, 1988]

Spellbound [Green Thoughts, 1988]

Drown in My Own Tears [Green Thoughts, 1988]

Yesterday Girl [11, 1989]

Blues Before and After [11, 1989]

A Girl Like You [11, 1989]

Room Without a View [11, 1989]

Top of the Pops [Blow Up, 1991]

Now and Then [Blow Up, 1991]

Indigo Blues [Blow Up, 1991]

Everything I Have Is Blue [A Date With The Smithereens, 1994]

Miles From Nowhere [A Date With The Smithereens, 1994]

Love Is Gone [A Date With The Smithereens, 1994]

Afternoon Tea [A Date With The Smithereens, 1994]

Long Way Back Again [A Date With The Smithereens, 1994] 

Gotti [A Date With The Smithereens, 1994]

Flowers in the Blood [God Save The Smithereens, 1999]

The Age of Innocence [God Save The Smithereens, 1999]

I Believe [God Save The Smithereens, 1999]

All Revved Up [God Save The Smithereens, 1999]

I Want To Tell You [God Save The Smithereens, 1999]

Afternoon Tea (Demo version) [God Save The Smithereens, 1999]

A World of Our Own [2011, 2011]

Keep On Running [2011, 2011]

Sorry [2011, 2011]

One Look At You [2011, 2011]

Overture/It’s a Boy [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

Amazing Journey/Sparks [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

Eyesight to the Blind [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

Christmas [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

Acid Queen [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

Pinball Wizard [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

Go To the Mirror [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

The Seeker [The Smithereens Cover Tunes Collection, 2014]

Shakin' All Over [The Smithereens Cover Tunes Collection, 2014]

Cry for a Shadow [B-Sides The Beatles, 2008]

Yer Blues [The Smithereens Cover Tunes Collection, 2014]

Nobody But Me [Pat DiNizio - Songs and Sounds, 1997]

Today It's You [Pat DiNizio - Songs and Sounds, 1997]

You Should Know [Pat DiNizio - Songs and Sounds, 1997]

This is approximately 3 hours of music.  If you want something a bit more concise, I highly recommend Smithereens 11 25th Anniversary Live At Electric Lady 1989.  The setlist is packed with songs from the first three Smithereens albums.  Good stuff.

RIP Pat DiNizio