The bassist will be remembered as an able lieutenant to Morrissey and Johnny Marr. He deserves to be seen as so much more
to The Irish Times in 1999, the band’s bassist had an Irish father and an English mother – or, to quote one of the singer’s later hits, Irish blood and an English heart.
Rourke was nonetheless steeped in the Manchester-Irish identity that was a defining quality of The Smiths. Darkly witty, their lyrics brimming with sexual hang-ups, and their music fuelled by mournful poetry, The Smiths truly were more Irish than the Irish themselves. And though he was overshadowed by the group’s preening, iconoclastic frontman and by their boy-wizard guitarist, Johnny Marr, Rourke brought an essential alchemy to the quartet. His light, melodic bass wasn’t so much a counterpoint to Marr’s vivacious guitar as extra fuel poured on top. It was also crucial to the unique chemistry that powered The Smiths.All great pop groups are contradictions, but The Smiths took the idea to extremes.
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