The band Robert Smith said completely “missed the point”
When you’ve had an entire subculture spawned from just your image, that’s bound to go to your head. In this sense, can you really blame Robert Smith for believing that certain other bands were simply just below par?
As much as it sounds a pretty arrogant piece of bravado to boast, for once Smith is able to be indulged given the track record of musical innovation and swirling admiration he has stoked up within the rock leagues of both old and new over the years. Aside from the obvious high heights of the British invasion crew, he is perhaps the greatest protégé of music that the country has ever seen – and in his largely quiet, unassuming way, he knows it.
That’s why, despite many fans’ protestations to the contrary, Smith’s acerbic assertions on specific groups carry a hint of no show without punch. He may have been a pioneer of post-punk himself within The Cure, but it didn’t mean he looked quite as kindly on those who followed afterwards, blazing a path in their own uniquely Britpop way.
While there weren’t many complaints to be heard surrounding the mighty wraths of Oasis, Blur, or Pulp, it was Suede who got landed with the brunt of Smith’s snide derision, simply because he saw them as trying to capitalise off an exciting new era while re-plating to audiences a meal which they had already been served so many times before. Of course, Suede much preferred to distance themselves from the notion of Britpop in favour of something more classic – but to outsiders, this only proved to present a mixed bag.
“Suede is just rehashing old Bowie songs,” he famously opined to Spin in 1993. “It’s kind of missing the point, but probably if you’re 16 or 17, it is the point. But having been around 34 years now, I’m seeing things being reworked and it probably didn’t happen before, before the ’60s, because everything was being invented.” And sure, he had a point – the band did favour the archetypes of glam rock and post-punk, and Brett Anderson drew comparison to Bowie in every possible way – but was it really anything new?
Not in a landscape where the subculture had changed to something so entrancing, according to Smith. He continued: “I suppose a lot of house and techno and rave is new. I listen to a lot of dance music at home, some of the really out there stuff. I don’t dance to it, I just listen. It’s really hypnotic.” There was, of course, the subtle suggestion flung in there that he found Suede’s music completely the opposite. Yet with the band still stacking up as one of the Big Four contenders, it’s hard to discern which side of the argument emerges victorious.
Whether you love Suede or loathe them, there is a salient case to be made from the case that they never really fitted into either the lane of Britpop or classic ‘70s glam rock; it was far more of a grey area they primarily occupied, enamouring some while evidently bemusing others. While Smith may not have been a personal fan, he clearly didn’t see the compliment in a band like that leaning on the path he created to go off on their own journey. It was more of an annoyance, and an area in which he thought, at least, the ship had long ago sailed.
