The Smiths were one of the most distinctive, tempestuous rock bands of the 1980s, and bassist Andy Rourke was an important part of holding it together while he could. In a band with a frontman and guitarist — Morrissey and Johnny Marr — often at each other's throats, Rourke's melodic, lively basslines, paired with the drumming of Mike Joyce, gave the Smiths one of rock's more distinct rhythm sections beneath all the melodrama.
Rourke, who died Friday at 59 from pancreatic cancer, was beloved in Manchester, U.K.'s rock scene and had a lasting impact both within the Smiths' mythology and in U.K. rock beyond it. Though he beefed with his bandmates over royalties, he contributed to Morrissey's solo catalog and more recently joined Marr onstage at Madison Square Garden in September.
"When someone dies, out come the usual blandishments … as if their death is there to be used," Morrissey wrote Friday. "I'm not prepared to do this with Andy. I just hope…wherever Andy has gone … that he's OK. He will never die as long as his music is heard. He didn't ever know his own power, and nothing that he played had been played by someone else. His distinction was so terrific and unconventional and he proved it could be done. He was also very, very funny and very happy, and post-Smiths, he kept a steady identity — never any manufactured moves. I suppose, at the end of it all, we hope to feel that we were valued. Andy need not worry about that."
