Frankly, Mr. Shankly
Morrissey's Sardonic Commentary on Fame
The 2nd track on the Smiths' The Queen Is Dead studio album (released June 16, 1986), 'Frankly, Mr. Shankly' has something of a complex evolutionary history. The music was written by Johnny Marr late in the summer of 1985 (at the same time as the music for what would become 'I Know It's Over' and 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out' was written). Morrissey had given the song its lyrics by the time the Smiths entered RAK Studios in London in September 1985 to start recording the songs for what would become The Queen Is Dead album. However, the Smiths only managed to record a rough demo version of 'Frankly, Mr. Shankly' at the RAK studios.
The formalized version of the song was properly recorded in October-November 1985 at Jacobs Studios in Surrey. On this version, Morrissey and Johnny produced the song, with Stephen Street as recording engineer. This version of the song featured a trumpet and slightly different lyrics than what would eventually appear on the studio album version. This version of the song (the so-called ‘Trumpet’ version) was eventually released on bootleg LP titled The Smiths - Unreleased Demos & Instrumentals. Listen to the Stephen Street (Trumpet) version of the song here:
'Frankly, Mr. Shankly' was then re-recorded in December 1985 at Wessex Studios in London, again with Morrissey and Johnny acting as producers, but with the engineering performed by John Porter instead of Stephen Street. The official reason for re-recording the song was that the Jacobs Studios recording had been partially erased, but given that it has since been leaked on bootlegs in its entirety, there is apparently another reason. One may surmise with a reasonable degree of accuracy that the Smiths simply didn't like it, especially since the re-recorded version of the song saw the trumpet dropped along with some of the lyrics sung differently. This re-recorded version of the song with John Porter is the one that ended up on the studio album. Listen to the album version of the song here:
'Frankly, Mr. Shankly' was released in Germany in October 1986 as the B-side (along with 'Draize Train') on the 12-inch version of the 'Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others' single (featuring the enchanting Yootha Joyce on its cover).
The matrix on the B-side of the German 12-inch single is etched with "BUSY TRAIN TO THE LOKOMOTION”
In addition to the original studio version, a demo version of 'Frankly, Mr. Shankly' appeared on the 2017 release of the deluxe edition of The Queen Is Dead.
Listen to this demo version contained on the deluxe edition here:
Persistent rumors that 'Frankly, Mr. Shankly' was about Rough Trade records owner Geoff Travis were finally addressed by Morrissey decades after the song’s release:
“'Frankly, Mr. Shankly' is not about Geoff Travis”1
Just prior to the release of The Queen Is Dead, Morrissey spoke at length in an interview on his thought-process when composing the lyrics for the song:
One thing Morrissey has learnt to do is to feel burdened by the pressure of success. The vehicle for his complaint is 'Frankly Mr. Shankly', a brilliant piece of modern music hall that carefully offsets the poverty of the privileged with an ironical jauntiness. It's one of the LP's [The Queen Is Dead] landmarks and defines new ground for the Smiths, but those lyrics? It forces the question aren't you just moaning about fame like they always do?
"Yes! Like they always do!" he replies, with an extravagant sweep of his arm. "Yes, I'm moaning about fame," he repeats caressing his brow with the most melodramatic hands in the history of the stage.
"I was reaching the rubber but I thought, well no, I do want to complain, I do want to moan. Complaining is so unmanly, which is why I do it so well!"
As the laughter trails away he continues. "Yes... fame, fame, fatal fame can play hideous tricks on the brain. It really is so odd, and I think I've said this before - God I suddenly sounded like Roy Hattersly2 - when one reaches so painfully for something and suddenly it's flooding over one's body, there is pain in the pleasure. Don't get me wrong, I still want it, and I still need it but... Even though you can receive 500 letters from people who will say that the record made me feel completely alive - suddenly doing something remarkably simple like making a candle can seem more intriguing in a perverted sense than writing another song. But what is anything without pain?"3
Morrissey Central (June 8, 2021)
Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley, PC FRSL (born December 28, 1932) is a British politician, author and journalist from Sheffield, England. A member of the Labour Party, he was MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook for over 32 years from 1964 to 1997, and served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992.
