Track Listing

1. Queen Is Dead
2. Panic
3. Vicar In A Tutu
4. Ask
5. Rusholme Ruffians
6. Boy With The Thorn In His Side
7. What She Said
8. Is It Really So Strange
9. Cemetry Gates
10. London
11. I Know It's Over
12. Draize Train
13. Still Ill
14. Bigmouth Strikes Again

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21806 in Music
• Released on: 1993-11-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live

Customer Reviews

Ranks Amongst the Best of Them
It is by now one of the great Rock'N'Roll traditions that shortly after splitting up a band delivers a live LP as a coda to there career. The Smiths duly released `Rank' shortly after handing in there collective dinner pail. Although recorded before they delivered there last album with three studio albums and twelve hit singles a set list that would be universally approved would be impossible.

With their last four singles and various album tracks the set is probably as good as could be expected focusing the more urgent aspect of their cannon with songs such as `Vicar in a Tutu' and `Ask' rather than the lament of songs such as `Suffer Little Children'. My favourite track here is the rockabilly swagger of `Rusholme Ruffians' which with its riff acknowledging swerve from out of Elvis' `Marie's the Name' gives the concert its finest moment. Worth the price of admission on its own.

As vulgar pictures go this is probably as good as it get. Bigmouth strikes the right chord.

RANK
Having been an avid/obsessed smiths fan for over ten years now I feel I must share my views of what I believe is the SMiths greatest album. Fair enough the queen is dead and meat is murder are both brilliant marsterpieces, no other album captures the energy, wildness and excitment of the smiths like this one. Its heartpumpingly brilliant from the opening drum beat of the queen is dead to the finale of big mouth strikes again. If your new to the smiths get this and youll learn to love them.

Like most the songs, but.......
Speaking as something of a neutral, in that I like some of the Smiths greatest hits but am not a big fan in general, I found this album odd. The songs are all pretty good, as you would expect, but despite being a live album it seems to want to get rid of as much of the flavour of the live concert as possible! There is no talking between songs, which has been edited out, and it is just the songs themselves - why bother? the point of a live album is people want the inane chatter of their heroes, they want crowd heckling, they want dodgy notes....
This is really just by the numbers Smiths; the bootlegs, with all the rawness of live performance, are probably better!