Along with 'Barbarism Begins At Home', this is my favourite track from my favourite Smiths album. Morrissey's look back at the savagery of his school days, the grabbing and molesting of the titular headmaster. Bruises bigger than dinner plates, and his desire to give up education/life as a bad mistake. Great song!

I really enjoyed this reaction. After more than 30 years and countless listens, this song still gives me chills. How often do we get to hear four musicians coming together at their absolute best to create a work of such sublime beauty? I really hope you go through the entire album.

The Smiths at the peak of their powers.

For me this album is the some of Andy Roukes and Mike Joyces best playing on, the rhythm section is killing it on this album. RIP Andy Rouke.

Morrissey is one of the most brilliantly honest lyricists ever

“The Headmaster Ritual” is a great piece, both lyrically, vocally and musically. Oh yes, Meat is Murder is quite simply The Smiths' best album, or at least my favorite of all! Keep it up...😉

The bass playing throughout the entire "Meat is murder" album is consistently great, highlighting what an inventive and technically adept bassist Andy Rourke was. You might want to react to "That joke isn't funny any more" from the same album, on which both guitar and bass are mightily impressive.

Thanks for the reaction and for hearing our suggestions. Fantastic song from a bit underrated Smiths album and a great opener too. It sets the tone for the entire album, which I hope you listen to in full. Cheers!

Such an infectious groove!!!

Probably one of the most fully realised Smiths songs. All four are compeletely at the top of their game. Meat is Murder is a fantastic album with one of the Smiths' most underrated gems - 'Well I Wonder'. Interesting that you mention Dolores O'Riordain - as Morrissey's parents were both first generation Irish and the 'keening' style of singing is very much a part of Irish musical heritage.

Great reaction to a great song. Great that you picked up on Marr's chords--he's using an open tuning and just really interesting chord voicings. And Andy of course, who was a hugely underrated part of their sound.

This is one of the very best Smiths songs, in my top 5.

Thank you, I'm one of those who suggested this track 😊

Can't beat a bit of Smiths, takes me back to being in school, and going to see them in my hometown...one of my mates only came to see them play What Difference Does it Make? only for them not to play it and he lost his brand new watch....awesome night 😅

A fantastic track, and for all the reasons already mentioned in the review. Deffo one of my top three all time Smiths tunes. An absolute classic.

I absolutely think Andy Rourke’s bass playing was a fundamental reason they caught on, but when you’re with superstars like Morrissey and Mars, it’s hard to shine as brightly. Superb SUPERB bass playing throughout their brief career.

the entire album is brilliant!

I’m so glad you liked this song, the whole album is fantastic

Possibly my favourite Smiths song

One of their best songs, I think at the beginning there is like 2 or 3 guitar riffs layered and its very cool. I only got into the Smiths like a few years ago but like all their songs are great... react to them all!!

Meat Is Murder is quite an underrated album. Barbarism Begins at home, What She Said, That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore and Well I Wonder are among some of their best songs. First 2 Smiths albums are alternative and post-Punk and Jangley than The Queen is Dead. Headmaster Ritul is my favourite smiths song.

My favorite The Smiths song.

Possibly my favourite Smiths track, 10/10

This is a masterpiece in every way. All the band members shine, but this is one of the songs that made Johnny Marr’s reputation as not only a genius songwriter but one of the best guitar players anywhere, someone who plays so well, plays parts that fit the song, and shines as much as any guitar hero without even a hint of a solo. For me, Marr, Lindsey Buckingham and Peter Buck are huge guitar inspirations for me for all of those reasons

This is a superb album.

Masterpiece like you say. Regards from Madrid

I find the chord structure in this amazing. Not sure what the writing process was but it feels unique to me. Thanks for the reaction.

Barbarism Begins At Home has one of the greatest bass lines ever

Oh how wonderful! You're doing this.

The guitar and bass interplay between Marr and Rourke has the same vibe as that between Howe and Squire.

Johnny Marr, rightly, is lauded from his guitars but Andy Rourke is the second unsung genius in The Smiths story - it's like Bootsy Collins woke up one morning and found himself in a glam rock band. Check out Barbarism Begins At Home from the same LP next - it;'s the closest The Smiths ever got to being a funk band.

God, I love this track!

At their finest. Sometimes this is my favourite Smiths album. I got the cane from our headmaster. Hold your hand out and get hit with a big stick. Nice.

The baseline and riff of this one always reminded me of The Pretenders. Great track.

My 2nd favorite band after Genesis. You can't go wrong w/ any track. Radiohead redid this song with a live in studio performance on KZfaq if you're interested. Thank you!

Thank you for your great reaction please please please do more Smiths & Morrissey love from Australia!

My favourite theme of the álbum along with Nowhere Fast...simply amazing

Wonderful track and genuinely appreciate this rare Smiths reaction. I would suggest that this track also sets up the coming album, The Queen is Dead, not just the album it opens. Love Meat is Murder (and it deserves a full listen) but i feel TQID is the pinnacle of these big, sonic style Smiths tunes. Thanks JP!

Classic

One of the best

Classic Smiths, glad you found it. Need to hear "Paint A Vulgar Picture".

Manchester music probably some of the best bands ever. 😊 Did I tell you I'm from Manchester and I hated those billgerent ghouls who caned me! 😊

buen gusto amigo

Never heard of MC5...😂

Oh yes that bass! Finding this at sixteen really does a number on your head; I thought that English public schools were soooo much worse than my crappy backwater american high school. So in that regard it helped a bit? Made my traumas seem a bit less oppressive? Woah woah woah! No MC5 on your radar??? You need to Kick Out The Jams!

I was never a massive Smiths fan but I own this LP and couple of other songs. There was a time in the mid 80's (in the UK anyway) where you weren't allowed NOT to like the Smiths. This song did strike a chord referencing the abuse routinely handed out by teachers - but then isn't school supposed to equip you for going out into the big bad world hmmmm!

When this came out Radiohead were at school and obviously related to it, here's a cover they did much later kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n9GbgpB83t-dk6c.html

"Spineless b'stards, all!" I love the melody that runs throughout the song, great lyrics on this song too. It was written as a criticism of the English education system. C 24 - 11 - 23 06:38

In MY personal view, it's about BULLYING at school. I know, I went through it at Wolverley High School 1991- 1995. Eradicate bullying FULL STOP.

From there best album imo. Far more consistent than the others

Try listening to the Johnny Marr live version even better

❤

In British schools for many years it was allowed for teachers to hit their pupils for disobedience or breaking school rules. It was supposed to build character and enforce discipline.

As close to a perfect album as one could hope for. Shame that Warners stuffed up the legacy to the extent that I had to buy a second-hand Rough Trade cassette, which was much better.

MC5! I feel a “Kick Out the Jams” reaction soon. SOON!!!! (From the LIVE album please)

Tuuuuune

I would have 'More-to-say', but Mama always said. "If you can't say anything good. Say nothing at all"! If I were a better word-Smith, I would say something witty, but I will be a quiet kitty. Peace, Love, tryptophan, tomorrow's Turkey day. Eat, sleep, eat again.

Open E On guitar

At least our teachers used to argue with us about corporal punishment (albeit somewhat one-sidedly, since it's an argument with someone who's allowed to hit you in certain circumstances). Those who'd taught in the UK said the schools there were a zoo, where there had been a switch from absolute authority to none at all. (I remember one telling us how he would be routinely threatened with violence, himself, by the dads of exactly those kids who used the freedom to commit violence against the other kids with impunity. I suppose they were disposable foreign teachers, there, so were given the schools nobody else wanted to work at. I don't feel like I benefited at all from being thrashed regularly. If anything, it made me contemptuous of all authority - legitimate or otherwise - and inspired me to commit all the many crimes I've enjoyed committing in my brutal, violent, happy, satisfying life. OTOH, I have friends who remember their machine shop teacher fondly, exactly because he was very direct and often violent with them. They reckon he taught them to do a proper job of things, and to take shop safety seriously. If you did something unsafe, you got hit with the stick that had his initials carved into it, and it hurt. A way to avoid that was to just be really careful to do everything safely. I think a lot of it comes down to attitude. The machine shop teacher might've been mistaken, but he had ultimately good intentions. Be frightened around this stuff. If you're not going to be cautious of the machine, then you get to be frightened of me. OTOH, we had one teacher who, I think, used to enjoy caning kids as a kind of privilege of the job. Kept his cane soaking in water, to make it whippy, in the basin at the back of the class, and occasionally dished out what seemed like contrived punishments. (At another school, the Latin master would go to the "towel room" - which had space for about a third of the towels that were meant to dry there, so always had towels on the floor. He'd collect up fallen towels - thrown down by someone other than the owner - gather all the names, and then everyone would have to go for "two" in his study. Looks like the headmaster these guys experienced might've been like that.) My theory is that in truth and fact society doesn't want education, as a general rule. Some people want a day care centre for the kids, and that's all. And they want it cheap. So we don't just get what we pay for; we get what we actually want, too. But that's drifting too far away from the lyrics. (I wonder why I prefer lyrics that are difficult to interpret, cryptic, or impossible to parse ... ) Oh, I can give you the benefit of some of that Latin, if you like: "CawPuhRill" - corporal - comes from the same Latin root as our word "corpse" - body / bodily - non-cadaver-corpse-based. That probably won't help you pass the Latin exam, but that's as good as I can do. I could also give you a cool saying: _Ex turpi causa non oritur actio_ If I remember correctly that has something to do with law. Point is if you practice it, you can say it. That's the point. _Quod erat demonstrandum_ . Spells, man. If you can spell, you can spell spells and do magical stuff like spelling. Maybe originally people decided they wanted education so that they could spell spells? And then they found that spelling didn't do anything magical, so they changed their minds about this education Schist.

you need to listen well i wonder I love this song

Yes, headmaster=principal. The military line could be referring to the fact that some ex-soldiers would have taken up a career in teaching after the second World War, and brought military ideas about discipline with them. Compare with the teacher in Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall. This kind of stuff certainly went on in British schools in the 1960s, and to some extent in the 1970s as well. Marr has said in interviews that his approach to songwriting was based around guitar chords. A good song from a fine album, although not my favourite Smiths album.

I heard that Johnny Marr forced bassist Andy Rourke to tune the bass a higher pitch, resulting in the strings being tighter and harsher. And Andy hated it...

Not 👎 😢A nurturing environment 🇺🇸 🌎 👍 🇬🇧 ...in this 🎵 song!!

This is in my top five Smiths tracks. The band doesn't get the praise that they deserve. Watch their live performances and you'll see and hear how tight they were. It's too bad that Morrissey is an insufferable prat. That was the thing. Everyone was fawning over Morrissey and acted as if the band were just there. If anyone is inclined to say something to me about bashing Morrissey, just don't please. I've met Morrissey. I've had tea with him, so I'm qualified to say whatever I like. Right. Cheers then.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧⚒️

You cheat yourself by not listening to the entire album. It's a seminal classic. The Smiths are the most important & influential band in British history (not from Liverpool). Don't p*ssyfoot - dive straight in.

Some really weird chords.

Yeah, Focus did yodeling better.

Give me mozza's Vauxhall & I over this anytime.

A decent song but too much repetitive.