Another 600 page info dump that needs an editor. There are nuggets of a great story in there. Somewhere. ( )

Large 600+ page book I got as a gift and now have finally finished. A bit on the academic side (lots of research tracing Manchester back to the Middle Ages) but well written and tries to be very fair to all the band members of the Smiths. I still haven't figured out when the Smiths became The Smiths. Officially in iTunes and most other search directories they are The Smiths. The title of the book is of course taken from their song There is a Light That Never Goes Out. Fletcher's notes to the text suggest that Morrissey wrote it about Marr who would drive the two around though Morrissey denied the reference. The title also uses the word saga which is a type of medieval Viking tale where an over confident hero battles various enemies and monsters usually ending with him losing his life.
Fletcher moves above prior books on The Smiths (Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance, Rogan; Saint Morrissey, Simpson; Mozipedia, Goddard) to arrive at his portrayal of The Smiths as the most influential band during the time of their existence (5 years). Fletcher gives these very young men who reached the heights of fame in England and America a proper estimation that they were inevitably to break up. He compares them to R.E.M. and Echo & the Bunnymen in that respect. The major issues were Morrissey ducking financial issues, personnel changes, trust issues among the band-members and burnout. Fletcher often writes five line sentences, but what would normally be jarring is smoothed over by pleasant composition stylistics. One problem that irked me was when more than several times Fletcher says they gave the greatest of their concerts. Redundancy was the message conveyed by him doing this instead of a superlative. Aside for the Irvine Meadows concerts which were memorable to the group themselves, Fletcher says that Marr and Morrissey both came to Los Angeles after they had initially, and formally after a time, broken up. Overall, this book is a history of Manchester and how The Smiths will always be an integral part of the city's Irish Catholic heritage of musical & social contributions.
I didn't remember that The Smiths had a song in Pretty in Pink.
B&W pictures, Index, Bibliography, Notes. ( )

I liked it. I gained a new respect for Johnny Marr and all he put up with. Would like to know more about the song-writing process. ( )