The second single off of the Strangeways, Here We Come studio album, ‘I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish’ was released in November 1987. The Smiths’ 19th single, it was the first one released after they had announced their split. The single only reached number 23 in the UK.
While musical elements found within the song can be traced back to a jam recorded during the ‘Sheila Take A Bow’ recording sessions in January 1987, it was not until the Strangeways recording sessions at the Wool Hall studios in Bath a couple of months later that the song came together.
The Smiths did not plan on releasing ‘I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish’ as a single; rather, its release came about when the BBC objected to the lyrical content of the intended single, ‘Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before’1, due to the latter’s reference to mass murder (“…and plan a mass-murder”). The BBC’s objection was a consequence of the Hungerford massacre2.
According to Morrissey in Autobiography:
“Rough Trade decide against releasing Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before due to the lyric’s reference to ‘mass murder’, and I argue that it is surely a bit late in the day to worry about offending anybody. ‘Yes, but radio won’t play it',’ offers Geoff, his cadaverous smile as colorless as an Islington sky.”
‘Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before’ was still released as a single - in America, Australia, and some European markets - but it was not released in the UK.
While the world saw a promotional music video consisting of Morrissey and a scrum of youthful look-alikes bicycling through the streets of Manchester for ‘Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before’, in the UK the very same video footage was cannibalized for use as a music video for ‘I Started Something I Couldn't Finish’.
The song has been praised for Marr's guitar work, which features a glam rock-inspired guitar riff, as well as Morrissey's witty lyrics. ‘I Started Something I Couldn't Finish’ has since appeared on four compilation albums:
‘I Started Something I Couldn't Finish’ also appears as a B-side on the CD format of the Smiths’ re-release of the ‘How Soon Is Now’ single in 1992.
Johnny Marr composed the song's music on a 12-string Gibson ES-335, which he commented "gave a really big sound." A saxophone melody played on an Emulator (a music sample machine) was also used, while producer Stephen Street added an electronic snare drum alongside Mike Joyce's drum line to give his drumming "more texture."3
Marr later recollected:
"It was just a weird chord change that I had in my pocket for a while, and we needed a song so I pulled that out, just trying to get the key changes to work. I mean there was a lot of throwing stuff around with that album [Strangeways].4
"I wanted the electric guitar parts a lot less layered and with a lot more weight, which you can hear on 'I Started Something I Couldn't Finish'."5
Marr has claimed that Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke did not care for the song, but that Morrissey “…was really into the song and he was sort of encouraging me". While ‘Work Is A Four Letter Word’ may have been the proverbial last straw for Marr with respect to quitting the band, he has also indicated that Joyce and Rourke's opposition to ‘I Started Something I Couldn't Finish’ as being an additional incentive for him to leave the Smiths.6
While the author has been unsuccessful in locating corroborating information, some sources have stated that Marr’s musical composition for ‘I Started Something I Couldn't Finish’ was inspired by Sparks’ ‘Amateur Hour’ (1974) as well as David Bowie's ‘The Jean Genie’ (1972). One can readily discern the similarity between Marr’s composition and the glam-rock style and melodic elements of these two songs.
Listen to these two songs here:
Morrissey later reflected on the commercial shortcomings of the song (as well as the subsequent single, ‘Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me’), which revealed mixed feelings:
"I approved [of the singles being released] in the sense that I believe Smiths records should be heard. 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me' and 'I Started Something I Couldn't Finish' were great songs but, quite obviously, there weren't acceptable B-sides and quite obviously there was no acceptable reason for a CD and cassette single, but they occurred nonetheless. It's difficult because I wanted those songs to be heard, the death of the Smiths
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