Search and Destroy: Morrissey; Solo

Search: Viva Hate, Bona Drag and the singles of that time, Your Arsenal (hated by sterotypical Moz fans - why?), Vauxhall & I, Maladjusted (it's not all bad, honest) and a lot of B-sides.

Destroy: Kill Uncle (except for Our Frank, that's a good one), Southpaw (a drum solo on a Morrissey album - it'll never work) and some B-sides.

search - your arsenal, vauxhall and i, viva hate and bona drag destroy- kill uncle

Destroy: quite a lot unfortunately but "Pregnant For The Last Time" has always annoyed me and that court-case revenge-track which got left off Maladjusted over here is one of the most tragic and horrible things anyone has ever recorded, let alone Morrissey.

I really rather like Kill Uncle. It's definitely his Scooby Doo album but to hell with that: I like the light skiffley touches.

Vauxhall and I and Your Arsenal are all right, but I don't really believe in 'returns to form' when it comes to Morrissey. He just got rich, ran out of inspiration and exhausted his note books.

there may be a single or two worth salvaging but i really can't be convinced of it right now. and i'm an abject smiths fan.

And being so it's hard for me to pick out things -- utter lack of critical faculties here. My AMG entries for all the singles probably say more in this regard. But everyone has to hear "The Edges Are No Longer Parallel," which only ever surfaced on a B-side. Destroy...*scratches head*...uh...

Actually this raises an interesting question which I'll post elsewhere....

Nowadays I wouldn't defend it quite as heartily but I'd still listen to it before the bombastic "Your Arsenal" - the glam stompers are all very well but the ballads are really directionless and tuneless and "You're The One For Me, Fatty" is just a disaster.

As for why the fans listen - I think fans think of Moz sometimes like a well-respected soul singer. You know that a new Aretha or Al Green album, for example, is likely to be poor but you might end up listening out of respect and a wish to hear their voice even on dreadful material. Apply that impulse to a different genre and perhaps you've got some idea as to why some people still love Moz.

Morrissey solo...a patchy affair at best. There's no one album I would even suggest, except for Bona Drag, which does a good job of collecting the early (and many of the best) singles.

He's simply too inconsistent -- usually at least one absolute gem per album, but the rest tends to be pretty extraneous. I like more than what most consider reasonable, though.

Definitely destroy Bengali in Platforms, Ouija Board, You're the one for Me Fatty, and some other ones that are awful but not memorable enough for me to think of right off bat.

Nick Dastoor is absolutely right about one thing: VIVA HATE is by far the best 'proper' long-player.

But I am a tad confused about this 'S&D' concept: wasn't it meant to be about picking *one* thing for each category, not lengthily dividing the entire oeuvre in two?

Regarding "Alma Matters" in response to the other query -- the pun is feeble, but the song's enjoyable, and when I saw him do it live in 1997, it was really grand and the audience went nuts. So sorry, I have to allow for that one. ;-)

And it was absolutely awful, Ned! The worst kind of latter period Morrissey. It sounds like the only reason it goes on so long is he's still looking for a tune. And the lyrics! Morrissey's songwriting seems to have degenerated into singing the same banal line over and over again, or variants thereof, for want of anything resembling lyricism. This song seems to form part of his endless succession of non-specific moaning torchsongs, each of which sounds like a ham-fisted stab at an elegaic summation of his career. "My one big mistake is I'm hoping / My only mistake is I keep hoping etc etc." - yawn! And that "All of the things you said oh so meaningful / They are all so suddenly meaning-LESS". Wow, clever wordplay - cheers. I never thought Morrissey would end up making such artless miserablism. Is this Emo?

____

Troussé seems to me to have caught the spirit of the 'Search & Destroy' concept better than most - his answer would actually require a 'search' and justify a 'destruction'.

Could I request a spot of editorial clarification of 'S&D' procedure?

Destroy: EVERYTHING ELSE HE EVER DID. And hopefully the man himself too. God I loathe Morrissey.

Pick one (1) thing you would recommend searching for and one you want destroyed. A thing can be an album, track, single, tour, whatever. It must be musical!

If you pick an S you have to pick a D. And vice versa.

There you go!

Destroy: Loathsome 8 minute cover version of "Moon River".

Destroy: "Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference" (sticking to things that I know - I've never heard the last two studio albums, though I was tempted to put in "Sorrow Will Come In The End" purely on the basis of the words. SALTMSABD is terribly weak lyrically, with a feeble over-fussy arrangement and little in the way of a tune).

Anyway, I say: Search: "Vauxhall & I", "Bona Drag", Morrissey live with the Polecats, lots of songs off "Viva Hate" but not the album itself Destroy: [that song he did with Siouxsie Sioux], er that's it - although I don't like much of Morrissey's solo career I don't have the antipathy that so many others do to it.

Oh, sorry, this is the MORRISSEY thread, isn't it? Well, I have decided to have another crack at it.

Notes.

- I had forgotten about that cover of 'Moon River' - it really was a woefully wasted opportunity.

- It's true, 'Such A Little Thing' isn't great - and Steady M does a masterful job of naming - and indeed shaming - its shortcomings. But I still don't think it's quite *that* bad.

- I would agree with Stevie T, really, that 'King Leer' is probably as bad as it gets; and 'Asian Rut' strikes me as pretty awful too. But I've heard neither for years, and can't even remember how the former goes. So my final answer, with respect to all the other fascinating ones given, is:

SEARCH: "Sister, I'm A Poet" - one of those cases of an unaccountably good track being a B-side; really Smiths-vintage material, and the stonking video performance from '88 has a couple of old Smiths on it, if I'm not mistaken. One more run at that old scenario, 'malcontent youth in a dead-end provincial town', with details to remember and reuse: 'All over this way / outside the prison gates / I love the romance of crime / And I wonder does anybody feel the way I do?'. It's so unpredictably predictable, it's irresistible. And that's not to mention the music.

DESTROY: I think I have to plump for "Have-A-Go Merchant". The idea that it was about Natalie Merchant is not much sillier than the 'song' itself.

'Kill Uncle': Personaly, I find this album a vastly underappreciated album from Mr. Morrissey. It has long since been my belief that it's a case where too many people have followed the opinions of others to decide it's unjust fate. Sure, there are a couple of throwaways to be within 'Kill Uncle', but...no more than most any other pop/rock album. The solid tracks clearly and easily (in my mind) outweight those filler/throwaway tracks. The fact remains that, within 'Kill Uncle' can be found some of the most interesting tracks of Morrissey's solo career, along with some of the most weirdly bouncy/up tracks (such as "King Leer"). Out of the 10 official tracks (not counting "Tony the Pony") I count 7 from that 10 to be keeper quality tracks (with only "Our Frank", "Sing Your Life" and "Found Found Found" as being the weaker tracks) and...7 out of 10 ain't bad. Ain't bad, at all, for a pop/rock album.

The rest of Morrissey solo? Destroy. Sure, keep a single here and a single there, but.

Tom — abt a thousand years upthread — called it his "ScoobyDoo" alb. What mean this?

I'm one of those freaks who actually enjoy the sounds of a lost soul. Such as The Cure 'The Top' or Prince 'Around The World In A Day' or Leonard Cohen 'Death Of A Ladies Man' or the late 60's Brian Wilson tracks (and the album 'Love You') or some might even add Scott Walker 'Climate Of Hunter' or the ultimate sounds of a "lost soul" collection William Shatner 'The Transformed Man' (which, I know, is a different case altogether than the rest, but still...that Shatner album is the BigDaddy of "lost soul" albums, whoa) - such is the case with Morrissey 'Kill Uncle'.

So, there you have it. Just in case you were wondering "How in the hell could someone actually listen to, much less enjoy listening to, an album like 'Kill Uncle'."

A classic example of this and probably what she had in mind is my liking Metal Machine Music, Trans and Dazzle Ships bestest out of their creators' respective careers. (Though I do like the OMD singles stuff too)

Otherwise, search: VIVA HATE, YOUR ARSENAL.

destroy: KILL UNCLE

Not quite.

I hate to be predictable, but...

search: Individual songs
destroy: Albums
double destroy: All his worthless repackaging

destroy: viva hate (only if you have to choose between that and Bona Drag), Kill Uncle, Maladjusted, My Early Burglary Years (save "Cosmic Dancer")

Surprise (ie non-45, didn't-know-it-was-coming) highlight so far: 'Will Never Marry'! What an interesting track!

I'd forgotten Tom said this. Really great comment!

I love your post, PF. It's a great post! Pointing out that you love someone's post is a good thing and we should do it more often, especially on a Friday afternoon. So I did. And I applaud you for doing so.

x-post. Yes I think Tom's comment isn't quite spot-on when applied to Morrissey, but it's still a great observation that has made me think about my approach to some, ahem....long-standing favourites. (Of which Moz isn't one.) I think with Moz, Mexican nutjobs aside, there's a sense that it's all been said and done. With the Smiths and maybe to some extent his early solo career, there was a sense of anticipation about what he would say next, and about whom. Also a collective 'yes! yes! yes!' when he said it. 'Quarry' is better than expected, but pretty thin pickings really.

time to write my memoir of those times: sinkhead

Lol

related to the subject of whether or not Morrissey is actually well read, is "your nephew is true, he still thinks the world of you" from Boxers a reference to J.R. Ackerley's novel 'We Think the World of You'? He might just have seen the film version

i mean he only needs to have read the book's spine tbh

xxxxpost though cynically which he deserves at this point, wrt to last of the gang, i guess you could say morrissey could be open hearted to a group of people only to the degree to which they worship at the altar of morrisey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suedehead_(subculture)

xpost pinefox: yep "that's entertainment" was the b-side of the og "sing your life." this comp is nearly a one-stop shop for moz singles if you're so inclined; word to the wise tho: it's missing the live at kroq version of "sing your life" which is right up there with "the loop" as some of his best material for me.

i have such a hard time with this, but i just can't not think of beethoven was deaf as anything other than completely fucking awesome. big sigh. i haven't listened to it in probably 5 years, minimum. maybe i should just not revisit and keep it in my memory as the last hurrah or whatever.

Morrissey– Journalists Who Lie

forgot about this turd, a sign of things to come

Love "Tomorrow," song and video. (Zero interest in the person.)

Never read a Richard Allen book or to be honest ever seen one in the wild. I’d imagine this is one of the times you can judge a book by the cover.

just listening again and realising how much I love 'seasick yet still docked' and 'i know it's gonna happen someday' back to back. the latter is in my top ten moz vocal performances, maybe top 5.

also peak smiths/moz solo is so funny as a lyricist yet so unfunny when interviewed even when he's trying to be. v strange.

i think it's much more meaningful as a part of his catalog to his considered hispanic fanbase in america, seems like it was his acknowledgment of them. maybe the last semi cool thing he did.

Love "First of the Gang to Die," alas, though not the studio version compared to this Letterman live version. And like Alfred did it at karaoke once when it was still appropriate to do so.

lol so i clicked on the suedehead (subculture) wikipedia entry that tom d. linked to (adding the missing bracket to do so) and read it -- it's not very long -- and then clicked on the footnote called "morrissey gets iut off his chest", in case it featured him explaining why he used this word as a title

it did not: instead it took me to some strange-looking possibly abandoned site which required some of sort "prove yr human" thing to go further, except i got no further and got bored instead and came back here again

only now my mac seems to be infected with a little (fake!) notification which pops up every few minutes to tell me i have viruses (i don't), to deploy mcafee against them (no) and that someone is right now downloading my files ("is it you?") (p sure they're not, tho the fake notification is v annoying)

anyway one more little thing to blame steven patrick for

Ugh

I’m so sorry

It's all my fault.

that's actually a pretty potent dis— "you're so phony the sources on your wikipedia are viruses."

Once a few decades ago I went to see a friend perform at an open mic in the Lower East Side and one of the other performers had this bit about “We are the virus!” which I am now hearing as a Morrissey album title.

Don’t believe I am familiar with Moz’s cover of “Back on the Chain Gang,” but it seems like something I might like.

His covers show good taste and are generally fair enough but I can't think of one that adds anything to the original, or (apart from Interlude) has introduced me to a song or artist I would otherwise been unfamiliar with.

I knew that the word 'suedehead' was from a book title, and / or from a subculture. I just don't know what it has to do with the song.

>>> Don’t believe I am familiar with Moz’s cover of “Back on the Chain Gang,” but it seems like something I might like.

In his review for AllMusic, Ned Raggett reported that the cover was 'most fine, well performed and sung all round'.

I think some of the covers have actually been rare highlights of the otherwise wretched recent years. I really loved the version of Jobriath's "Morning Starship" and also have a lot of time for this cover of an old Melanie song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMDD16-EkRY

I knew that the word 'suedehead' was from a book title, and / or from a subculture. I just don't know what it has to do with the song.

You just hear him talk and he seems like… a dunce.

Back in the day you'd get long lists of lines he'd borrowed from various sources. Wonder if he stopped doing that? It seems impossible that any of the mostly terrible lyrics he's produced in the last 20 years could have been taken from elsewhere. He sounds so thick in his songs now, for sure. It's tempting to imagine that much of what made him sound clever in the early songs were the words of other people. But to be fair, even if you supposed that ALL of the words were stolen (which no one has ever suggested), those lyrics would still be smart works of editing/collage. It's mystifying where that talent went. I agree with the comments above that outside of the songs there has always been something dull and shifty in the way he speaks about pretty much everything.

xp someone enterprising will have to read the book then! SPM possibly never cracked the spine of the acklerley but he absolutely definitely positively read suedehead (and all the rest)

meanwhile i have not rid my laptop of the non-virus virus he gave me >:(

“I did happen to read the book when it came out and I was quite interested in the whole Richard Allen cult... suedeheads and skinheads and smoothies were very much part of daily life. There was a tremendous air of intensity... something interesting grabbed me about the whole thing.” Morrissey

suedehead is about a skinhead who decides he wants to move up the social ladder, so he has slightly longer hair. then, as expected, he reverts to his old ways and the boots go in... hard (this is how richard allen likes to end a chapter whenever he can.)

How does he stack up against David Peace?

Sorry about Mark’s Morrissey virus protection problem.

Enjoying the threadmotif of the pinefox reacts to Ned reacting to Moz..

I am indeed all over AMG and thus Wikipedia with them earlier comments. Ah well, ya live and learn.

Anyway:

Love "Tomorrow," song and video.

Still amuses me greatly said video was one of the earlier things by Zac Snyder!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDdQcfz6pbo

https://www.morrissey-solo.com/threads/zack-snyders-recollection-of-making-tomorrow-promo-video.148161/

Because I would have loved to have been Morrissey's creative visualist. I remember I wrote a treatment for him for another song on that album. It was going to be all Giant. You know the movie Giant with James Dean? It was a take on it, and he was going to play the James Dean role.

Mm, of course.

holy shit!

Is there some kind of Wikipedia AMG connection I am unaware of?

Morrissey never sexier than in the "Tomorrow" video.

Morrissey never sexier than in the "Tomorrow" videoy

FTFY

Don’t think I ever noticed those somewhat notorious Mary Margaret O’Hara vocals on “November Spawned a Monster” until just now. I wonder what Ned had to say about them.

Interlude is a keeper.

The stories of Siouxsie and Morrissey arguing over the video are quite good.

“The original video idea,” Siouxsie said, “was to show Ruth Ellis being led to the gallows, which I loved, but which didn’t happen. Instead he wanted a bulldog, which I didn’t understand. Why a bulldog? So I questioned him about his pro-British thing and told him I couldn’t have that. I said, ‘pick another dog, like a chihuahua or something. A monkey, anything!’ . . . I don’t know why he wanted to stick to his guns so much. And no, we’ve not spoken since.”

https://thenervousbreakdown.com/tanderson/2011/02/rock-fight-siouxsie-morrissey-and-the-collaboration-that-time-forgot/

Is there some kind of Wikipedia AMG connection I am unaware of?

All dates back to the early days of both sites; AMG content was freely available and that made it a handy reference source for a lot of Wikipedia entries.

I like all of the music videos that Tim Broad directed for Morrissey (basically all of them up until Tomorrow, he also did the videos for Girlfriend in a Coma and Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before)

Oh, right, thanks, Ned. I kind of figured that, but then I started thinking that maybe these days AMG content, such as it is, might not be freely available anymore.

On the website Allmusic, Ned Raggett stated that Mary Margaret O'Hara's backing vocals were "fine and definitely adequately pleasing, adding up to an agreeable performance".

Hmm. Very amusing. But I see something different.

A curious note comes from the guest appearance of cult vocalist Mary Margaret O'Hara, who ends up only contributing a series of yelps and gurgles in the instrumental break mid-song.

I assume that these days Wikipedia can’t add AMG content quite so freely but AMG can’t claw it back either.

(james R&tB will be relieved to know i have solved my virus problem, which was i think only a rogue fake-mcafee notification problem lol)

(For I second I did a double-take and thought "rogue" was "Rourke")

(uh oh)

My friend just let me know they are seeing Morrissey @ the Hollywood Palladium tonight.

https://imgur.com/iqv4Fij.jpeg