From '' Rockabillies Go Home ''
Label: Nervous Records – NERCD100
Format: CD
Country: UK
Released: 2000
Tracklist
01. Platinum
02. Japanese Work Theory
03. Bobby Says
04. Resident Punk
05. Paul's New Girlfriend
06. Some girls
07. Misfit
08. I Don't Wanna Be hurt
09. Ask
10. Bad Mouth
11. Retail Manifesto
© 2000 Nervous Records Cyf
℗ 2000 Nervous Records Cyf
💿 [SONG INFO]
"Ask" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Smiths.
It was released as a single on 20 October 1986 through Rough Trade Records.
Credited to vocalist Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr, "Ask" is an ostensibly upbeat, positive pop song built around major chords.
Its lyrics discuss shyness and encourage listeners to overcome their inhibitions.
Its multiple guitar parts and complex production led to disagreements regarding its final mix.
Craig Gannon, who at the time was rhythm guitarist for the group, has claimed he wrote – and was denied credit for – the song's chord structure.
"Ask" continued the Smiths' top-20 streak in their native country, peaking at number 14 on the UK Singles Chart. It reached number nine on the Irish Singles Chart.
Filmmaker Derek Jarman directed the song's music video.
Like most of the Smiths' singles, it was not included on a studio album.
It can be found on the compilations The World Won't Listen and Louder Than Bombs (both 1987) as well as the live album Rank (1988).
Background
"Ask" was written as an intentionally more lighthearted song than its predecessor single, "Panic".
Morrissey said: "If the next single had been a slight protest, regardless of the merits of the actual song, people would say, 'Here we go again'".
The song's lyric includes the couplet "Writing frightening verse / To a buck-toothed girl in Luxembourg", which has been interpreted as a reference to Morrissey's youth, in which he frequently wrote letters to pen pals.
Simon Goddard, the author of Mozipedia, also traces the line "Nature is a language - can't you read?" to Alan Bennett's 1978 teleplay Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which contained the line "Nature has a language, you see, if only we'd learn to read it."
Goddard additionally commented on the lyric as a whole, writing: "...a superficial plea to liberate one's inhibitions, the crux of 'Ask' appears to be its protagonist's own fizzling sexual repression, amplified in Morrissey's exaggerated use of upper case in its printed lyrics and his vivid metaphor of sexual desire as a unifying explosive.
Release
The song was initially to be mixed by Porter at Jam Studios. "Originally "Ask" was a bit of a tour de force and it was pretty complicated. ... Then there was this bit in the middle where they wanted the sound of a waterfall crashing, all with guitars. [...] It was a jigsaw puzzle. You needed six hands to mix it properly and we didn't have automation at Jam Studios," Porter said. Goddard reports that Morrissey was threatened by Porter and Marr's camaraderie in the studio, and instead requested that Steve Lillywhite, MacColl's husband, mix "Ask" at his home studio in the London Borough of Ealing.
Marr was unhappy with the song's final mix, commenting, "I couldn't understand why it was being tampered with because it all came together very simply and with a definite sense of purpose. [The final version] wasn't dramatically different, but it felt kind of a little bit muted. Less spirited, absolutely".
"Ask" was released as the Smiths' twelfth single on 20 October 1986 on both 7" and 12" formats; a limited release in the USA via Sire Records occurred the next month. It continued a streak of top 20 singles for the group, peaking at number 14 on the UK Singles Chart during the week ending 2 November 1986.
The song also charted in Ireland, where it peaked at number 9 on the Irish Singles Chart.
In 1995, the single was re-released, and charted on the UK Singles Chart again, peaking at number 62.
The single's sleeve cover depicts actress Yootha Joyce on the set of the 1965 film Catch Us If You Can.
The same photograph was used on the 1986 German-only single release of "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others".
There are two versions of this song.
The version that appears on the single releases and the compilation The Very Best of The Smiths (2001) fades out slightly sooner and has the vocal track lasting until the end of the song.
The backing vocals in this version are also mixed differently and are louder. The version that appears on all albums (save for the one listed above) fades out later (though the end of the track is audible, albeit at a very low level) and has the vocal track ending before the fade begins.
🔗 [LINKS]
https://www.nervous.co.uk/
Available on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/4JGb95...
Apple Music:
/ rockabillies-go-home
and Deezer:
https://www.deezer.com/en/album/903931
#thesmiths
#rockabilly
#psychobilly
#ask
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