40 Years Ago Today: “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” and “Girl Afraid” by The Smiths
Exactly 40 years ago today, the celebrated songs “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” and “Girl Afraid” by The Smiths were composed by Johnny Marr in New York.
This is a well-known anecdote among indie rock music fans that has already been told many times. But — just like the songs themselves — it never gets old.
The story goes that The Smiths were in negotiation with Sire Records for an American record deal.
During a dinner meeting with the band in London, label cofounder and president Seymour Stein recounted how he had purchased a guitar for Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones on 48th Street in New York. Ever the opportunist, guitarist Johnny Marr saw a chance to cash in on a free guitar and persuaded Stein to do the same for him should The Smiths sign to Sire Records, which they eventually did.
On the winter evening of 2 January 1984, in a shop called We Buy Guitars on 48th Street, Stein fulfilled his end of the bargain by purchasing for Marr his now iconic cherry red 1959 Gibson ES-355. According to Marr’s memoir Set the Boy Free, he saw it hanging on the wall through the shop window and that he “knew the guitar was special before [he] even touched it.”
Satisfied with his new acquisition, Marr walked back to The Iroquiois New York on West 44th Street — an arrangement insisted upon by Morrissey due to its association with James Dean. After entering his hotel room, he opened up the guitar case, took the instrument out, and — in a moment of serendipity — immediately played the shimmering melancholic opening riff to what would become “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.” Realizing that he had a new song in potentia, Marr spent the next hour working out the arrangement to what would become one of The Smith’s most beloved songs.
While most artists would be satisified with writing just one song in a night, Marr’s prolific nature led him to subsequently begin work on a second song and wrote the springheeled bombastic arrangement to what would become “Girl Afraid.” Marr, who has always recounted this story to the media with atypical nonchalance, considers the two songs “a pair” having written them on the same night and superstitiously credits his Gibson ES-355 for gifting him the songs rather than his own musical abilities.
“Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” would be released as a single on 21 May 1984, just four months after the night it was written in New York. “Girl Afraid” was released as its B-side, accompanied by “Suffer Little Children.”
“Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” and “Girl Afraid” would become two of the most celebrated songs on The Smiths discography, both by critics and fans alike. The former became The Smiths’ first top ten hit, reaching №10 on the UK Singles Chart. The cover art for the single is graced by a photograph of Viv Nicholson, a British woman who gained notoriety in 1961 for squandering a large sum of money that she and her husband Keith had won from the football pools, which is fitting considering the melancholic themes of all the music featured on the single. “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” and “Girl Afraid” would also be included in the The Smiths’ compilation albums Hatful of Hollow later that November and on Louder than Bombs in March 1987. “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” would also eventually be listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
And on top of all that, here I am along with an army of enthusiastic Smiths fans around the world still listening to and gushing about these songs with much enjoyment 40 years later.
As an artist, I find that there is a lesson to be learned from this story:
It’s important to recognize that all of this happened simply because one evening, an artist realized that they were having a moment of inspiration and consciously chose to pursue it. It just goes to show that you should never ignore serendipity or hestitate to grab onto an inspired moment — no matter how seemingly insignificant. And a good artist should always be ready to capitalize on these fortuitous moments, wherever and whenever they may present themselves.
Because who knows? Maybe whatever you create will mean something to a lot of people 40 years later.
