I Started Something I Couldn't Finish

Infobox Single
Name = I Started Something I Couldn't Finish


Artist = The Smiths
from Album = Strangeways, Here We Come
Released = November 2 1987
Format = 7", 12", MC
Recorded = Spring 1987
Genre = Alternative rock
Length = 3:46
Label = Rough Trade Records
Writer = Johnny Marr
Morrissey
Producer = Morrissey, Johnny Marr and Stephen Street
Chart position = * #23 (UK)
Video director = ?
Reviews =
*
Last single = "Girlfriend in a Coma"
(1987)
This single = "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"
(1987)
Next single = "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" (1987)"I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" is a song by The Smiths. It was released as a single in November 1987, reaching #23 in the UK Singles Chart.

It was the second of three UK singles from the band's last studio album "Strangeways, Here We Come", and was released after the band had announced their split. The record company had originally intended to release "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" as a single in the UK but felt this would be inappropriate following the Hungerford massacre (the lyrics contain a reference to "mass murder").

"Stop Me..." was still released as a single in other countries, but its promotional video - which featured Morrissey plus a large number of Morrissey lookalikes - was used in the UK to promote "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish".

The cover of the single features actress Avril Angers in a film still from the 1966 film "The Family Way". [Goddard, Simon. "", page 340. Reynolds & Hearn 2006. ISBN 1-905287-14-3]

Track listing

All tracks written by Morrissey and Johnny Marr except as noted.

7": Rough Trade / RT198 (UK)

# "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"
# "Pretty Girls Make Graves" (Troy Tate version)

12": Rough Trade / RTT198 (UK)

# "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"
# "Pretty Girls Make Graves" (Troy Tate version)
# "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" (live)

* also released on cassette Rough Trade RTT198C

The cassette version featured a cover of the James song "What's The World?"

Etchings on vinyl

UK 7" and 12":"MURDER AT THE WOOL HALL"(X)STARRING SHERIDAN WHITESIDE/ YOU ARE BELIEVING, YOU DO NOT WANT TO SLEEP

The Wool Hall was the recording studio in Bath where the Smiths had recorded latest album "Strangeways Here We Come", but it also was where Morrissey, at the time of this single's release, was recording his debut solo album "Viva Hate". Sheridan Whiteside was one of Morrissey pseudonyms. The b-side etching is a reversal of "You are sleeping, you do not want to believe", a sample heard at the end of the Smiths song "Rubber Ring".

References