The Smiths Louder Than Bombs Photo Outtake

Posted this to Twitter already, but it’s too good not to share with everybody else. I stumbled across a very cool portrait of British playwright Shelagh Delaney from August 7, 1961 in Manchester. Fans of the Smiths will immediately recognize this photo as being very obviously from the same session as the photo that graces the cover of Louder Than Bombs.

If you haven’t read Delaney’s A Taste of Honey, you really should. It’s good, and it’s a treasure chest of Morrisseyisms. You can barely turn a page without uncovering another Smiths lyric. “I dreamt about you last night. Fell our of bed twice.” “That river, it’s the colour of lead.” And on and on.

Photo by Arnold Newman/Getty Images.

The Smiths: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, wiki.

When I originally bought this album for myself, after taping it from a friend of a friend’s vinyl, compact discs were still packaged in 12″ cardboard longboxes. I found somebody selling one on ebay:

Should’ve kept all those longboxes, I guess. I had them stashed in the back of my closet for years, but ditched them all when we sold my childhood home. I would love to go back to the old house, but I never will.

Video: The Smiths – “Sheila Take a Bow” (The Tube)