That joke isn't funny any more

In a piece of tepid and tired contraversialism, one Thomas H Green (you can tell he's a bit of a plonker just by that 'H'; the crappest one in Steps was called 'H', wasn't he?) writing in the Torygraph says, at the end of an attack piece on the new boxset of Radiohead's OK Computer:

For me Radiohead lurk around the top of only one poll, and that's as the second most overrated band of all time. Number one, of course, is The Smiths, but don't let's even start on that.

Now have a pop at Radiohead if you want for being whingy, prog-rock, blah de blah. It's hardly the first time it's been done, and if you can't get over that to appreciate the music and the innovation, well, hard luck because you're missing out. But his snide little digs at Thom Yorke and co aren't what what really got me about H's article. No, what got me was the lazy throw-away one line attack on the Smiths, quoted above.

The Smiths are just about the only band that I have listened to more, and appreciate more, as I've got older. I couldn't stand them when I first heard them in the '80's; now I think that they are quite clearly the best and most important band of that decade, with The Queen Is Dead that decade's finest album. Morrissey's lyrics and Marr's guitar just sound better and better with the passing of the years.

In short, slagging off the Smiths is simply unforgiveable, and if Thomas H Green had any decency he'd go home, and cry, and want to die.