Rank (album) - About The Album

About The Album

Rank was released as a contractual obligation, a year after the band had split. It was recorded on 23 October 1986 at National Ballroom in Kilburn, London, and is a fourteen-track distillation (of 21 songs) by singer Morrissey from the complete concert recording that had earlier been transmitted by BBC Radio 1. The album rode high on Smiths nostalgia and the success of Morrissey's debut solo album, Viva Hate, earlier the same year.

The record finds the group in top form and strengthened by the presence of rhythm guitarist Craig Gannon. The focus naturally lies on songs from the then-current album, The Queen Is Dead, but new songs are played as well ("Ask", "Is It Really So Strange?", "London"). It is speculated that the addition of "The Draize Train" was a peace offering from Morrissey to guitarist Johnny Marr; as Marr has the sole writing credit for the song, he receives all royalties from its addition. What is known is that the inclusion of "The Draize Train" as the twelfth track gives the listener a sense of the rhythm and pacing of a Smiths show, as the band typically played an instrumental while Morrissey took a quick break backstage before returning to belt out the electrifying set-closers.

The songs omitted from the recording of the Kilburn show are: "I Want the One I Can't Have", "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out", "Frankly, Mr. Shankly", "Never Had No One Ever", "Meat Is Murder", and "How Soon Is Now?" Also, some edits can be readily heard in the concert itself, such as at the end of "I Know It's Over" when the crowd starts cheering. In late 2009 video footage appeared from the show on YouTube.

According to Smiths biographers Johnny Rogan and David Bret, Morrissey originally titled the album The Smiths in Heat. Rough Trade objected and Morrissey proposed Rank, "as in 'J. Arthur'" (J. Arthur Rank is Cockney rhyming slang for "wank").