“Unintellectual”: When a judge ranked The Smiths by their IQ
From their very formation, The Smiths were the self-styled intellectuals of the indie scene. Owing largely to the lyricism of Morrissey, which regularly drew upon his love of literary figures like Oscar Wilde, John Keats, and W.B. Yeats, among many others, The Smiths grew a reputation for the complex themes explored within their discography. While these works did also cause the Mancunian outfit to be branded as ‘pretentious’, their music endeared them towards an audience that were being largely ignored by the musical mainstream.
The intelligence of The Smiths was rarely in any doubt. After all, their music was worlds apart from the bulk of the 1980s indie scene. Moving away from the abrasive and often generic punk-influenced tracks put out by most independent labels, The Smiths adopted a sound with much more pop potential. Given Morrissey and Johnny Marr’s fascination with 1960s pop, this shouldn’t be all that surprising, but their decision to stick with the independent label Rough Trade also spoke to their staunch set of ethical principles, which endeared them to many fans.
By now, it is no secret that things were not very harmonious within The Smiths’ camp. Seemingly, when you try to cram four intelligent and talented musicians into a group together, arguments inevitably arise. Eventually, these tensions reached boiling point in 1987, when Marr left the group due to exhaustion before officially leaving the group a month later. Without their guitar maestro, the band could not continue, and by the time their fourth studio album, Strangeways, Here We Come, was released, the band were no more.
Their 1987 breakup was, strangely enough, not the end of The Smiths’ saga. Two years later, a legal battle started up as Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke found themselves unhappy with the royalties they had been given. Both Morrissey and Marr, as primary songwriters, got 40% royalties on The Smiths’ material, while the drummer and bassist got 10% each. In a legal case brought against the songwriting duo, Rourke and Joyce fought for equal shares of the band’s music.
Aside from providing a sad end to the story of Manchester’s musical heroes, the royalty dispute conjured up some truly bizarre moments in court. Namely, a judge deemed it fit to rank The Smiths by the intelligence and IQ of its individual members.
According to Judge Weeks, guitarist Johnny Marr ranked highest in this strange contest, giving credence to the idea that guitarists are inherently intelligent. Next came Morrissey, in a judgement that must have been particularly hard for the lyricist to accept.
Adhering to the age-old stereotype of rhythm sections, Rourke and Joyce were considered the least intelligent members of the group, with the judge going so far as to describe the pair as “unintellectual” if “straightforward and honest”. In contrast, the judge condemned Morrissey as “devious, truculent and unreliable where his own interests were at stake”, an appraisal which was far ahead of its time in 1989.
Ultimately, the legal battle favoured Joyce, who received a back payment sum and 25% royalty shares from that point on. While the idea that Joyce and Rourke were fairly compensated for their essential work with the band is comforting, the legal dispute left many fans disappointed by what The Smiths had become – from indie rock savours to bitter, money-obsessed enemies. If anything positive came out of the dispute, it was the genuine legal precedent that Johnny Marr is smarter than Morrissey.
