Morrissey Strikes Again

[ice nine]

You could read at one?! Impressive.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Oh Christ, oh shit, oh bugger. Morrissey played my hometown Cambridge last night, and look at the setlist:

This Charming Man / Irish Blood, English Heart / Black Cloud / Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed / How Soon Is Now? / I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris / How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel? / Ask / Something Is Squeezing My Skull / When Last I Spoke To Carol / Girlfriend In A Coma / Best Friend On The Payroll / Let Me Kiss You / Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself? / One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell / I Keep Mine Hidden / Sorry Doesn't Help / Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others / The Loop / I'm OK By Myself // First Of The Gang To Die

http://tour.morrissey-solo.com/article. ... 15/1644234

Most of the wonderful Years of Refusal, earlier Moz and Smiths classics... but the one I've not seen on a Moz setlist before is one of my very faves of his career, 'Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others'. HE PLAYED IT TWO MILES AWAY AND I WASN'T THERE.

Pray, pray, pray that he plays it at Brixton - with special eye-watering poignancy as, as I'm sure you're all aware, the ONLY time the Smiths ever played it lives was at their very list gig in that very venue.

Not sure if he's played it on previous solo tours, would have to research that. He certainly has on other dates on the tour. Apparently he cancelled Birmingham, RAH and his Later slot this week, so Cambrridge was lucky to get him.

[pophead2k]

Amazing setlist! I feel your pain- he came to the brand new venue in my town in mid-March......and I was out of town for my one gig I'll probably play this year!

[Otis Westinghouse]

One of the best music book I've come across. Simon Goddard wrote the acclaimed Songs That Changed Your Life about The Smiths, and now has done Mozipedia, an encyclopedia of all things Moz. Contains entries for all the songs ever, loads of entries for films, musicians, other people's songs, and things like 'food', 'sex', 'Manchester', etc. You can surf it for hours.

People who are far more Moz-specialised than I claim that when they test it to see if it has so and so piece of obscure detail, it always does. Nevertheless, I felt let down by the inadequacy of the details on my guitar hero Vini Reilly in the 'Late Night, Maudlin Street'. I signed up to morrissey-solo to see what others felt, but alas, not a single comment. As the book says, the forum (the net's biggest on Moz) attracts the lunatic fringe, and so there's lots of inconsequential tittle tattle and very little real discussion. I offer ti ay fellow EC fan Mozlovers the following observations:

"Got mine within 2 days on free delivery from Amazon. Am loving it - can spend hours surfing the book from one link to the next. An electronic version would be good. Could have done with an index but, hell, it's already getting through enough trees as it is, and the cross refs come in handy.

The one thing I'm taking an issue with is Vini Reilly, who I adore, and whose entry plays down his contributions on Viva Hate by filtering Street's rather disparaging comments. What I find frustrating is that the 'Late Night, Maudlin Street' entry cites Street praising Vini's piano part on it, which is a nice touch, but what about the guitar playing, for crying out loud? The piano is a moment, but the Vini guitar is highly prominent from minute 4.00 on. Paresi's excellent drumming on it gets praise in his entry, but no ref to the guitar. For me the guitar playing is pure magic, hinting at the genius that could have come from Street's inspired pairing of Moz with Manchester's other guitar genius had things worked out. Reilly's unmistakable cadences and delay effects, the very nuanced emotional feel of it, in the context of one of Morrissey's great lyrics and performances is unbeatable. And he doesn't mention it!

This being my first post here and all, I have no idea if this topic has been discussed ever on this forum, but would be very keen to know if people here are similarly spellbound by this magical combination.

As a Mozlover but lightweight (compared to people here), I had no idea about Moz's love of Joni Mitchell, nor had it ever occurred to me that 'another false alarm' might be a direct echo of her brilliant 'Amelia'. I'm delighted to find this kind of stuff, and it's what I love about the book. Nor did I know that the loud electric drum beat that anchors the above LNMS was lifted from fellow Joni-lover (as Goddard observes) Prince's 'Housequake'."

[Mike Boom]

Otis
Indeed, great book, there are quite a few Joni references

Maladjusted
"In a low-cut blouse she brings the beer."
"They'll eat a working girl like her alive."

From "The Jungle Line".

"Last night the plans for our future war was all I saw on channel four"
From "Sheila" and

"Last night the ghosts of my old ideas · Reran on channel five"
from Don Juan.

Also compare "The Silky Viels of Ardour" with Seasick Yet Still Docked"

and there are also a few Rickie Lee Jones steals too

"living in a real world instead of a shell" - there is another one too but I can remember it



There is also the interview below, which I guess youve seen.

http://motorcycleaupairboy.com/intervie ... tchell.htm

[Otis Westinghouse]

Ah, there you are! Hope all's well. It's only been 15 months!!!

Good to know you have the book. Essential reading. Was aware of the Joni interview before getting this book, but hadn't actually read it. Ta. I like the description of Moz getting 'Don Juan's Reckless Daughter', reading the lyrics and finding it all too immense to take on board. That LP doesn't grab me anything like as much as 'Hejira' and 'Hissing of...', and I'm very partial to 'Mingus', which he seems to be sniffy about. I think her rendition of 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' is one of her great moments.

Haven't got round to the 'Maladjusted' and 'Southpaw Grammar' reissues, but will before long. And filling other gaps in my Moz collection (B sides, etc.).

[invisible Pole]

On October 26th Morrissey is releasing a compilation of b-sides of singles from his recent albums.

The track listing is as follows:

"Good Looking Man About Town"
"Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice"
"If You Don't Like Me, Don't Look At Me"
"Ganglord"
"My Dearest Love"
"The Never-Played Symphonies"
"Sweetie-Pie"
"Christian Dior"
"Shame Is The Name"
"Munich Air Disaster 1958"
"I Knew I Was Next"
"It's Hard To Walk Tall When You're Small"
"Teenage Dad On His Estate"
"Children In Pieces"
"Friday Mourning"
"My Life Is A Succession Of People Saying Goodbye"
"Drive-In Saturday"
"Because Of My Poor Education"

The stunning news for all Polish fans is that initial copies of the CD will include a bonus disc of eight songs recorded live in Warsaw in July. (Damn, how I wish I had been there )

[Otis Westinghouse]

Thanks, excellent. Was aware of this happening but hadn't seen details. Great way to immortalise the Polish gig, such a shame you couldn't make it. Will get one of those early copies. Know some of these songfs from live shows ('Ganglord') and often they can get a bit average, but I'm keen to hear all of them. Mozipedia has given me a thirst to know the complete oeuvre. I think 'Drive-In Saturday' is a live recording - I have a bootleg of him doing it. Like the fact that he did it despite his massive falling out with Bowie on their mid-90s tour (my first time seeing Moz live, and it was pretty dismal).

[johnfoyle]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p068y


Desert Island Discs

Kirsty Young's castaway is the singer-songwriter Morrissey.

Broadcasts

1. Sun 29 Nov 2009 11:15 BBC Radio 4 (FM only)
2. Fri 4 Dec 2009 09:00 BBC Radio 4

[Otis Westinghouse]

Indeed and apparently at long last it's now on Listen Again too, so I can play repeatedly. Heard a brilliant clip where Kirsty asked about him not wanting to lead a normal life or words to that effect, which was met with horror, so she reworded it as 'Have you never wanted to settle down?' which was met with the outburst 'But I want to explode! Settle down? I don't want to do that until they carry me out feet first.' Can't wait!

[invisible Pole]

http://www.true-to-you.net/

http://true-to-you.net/morrissey_news_091216_01

(Nice to see Warsaw listed as one of Morrissey's 5 fave gigs this year)

16 December 2009

Statement from Morrissey to True-to-you

On these last days of the old year, I thank everyone who attended the 2009 concerts.
My personal favorites were:

1 Dublin
2 Dusseldorf
3 Munich
4 Pomona
5 Warsaw

The three Brixton concerts were dramatic and perfect for me, and there was a great air of adventure in both Estonia and Latvia. The Russian concerts were a big thrill, but in the absence of even a speckle of publicity .. it's difficult. You begin to feel as if you're playing to a private club - and, in fact, you are. We pondered on the massive poster-campaigns for others and we wondered how such things become possible. The audiences in Russia were loud and greatly inspiring.
Hope denied in Liverpool, and the physical limits were tipped in Swindon – these were life's unfortunate lows.
I spent the night at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon where the staff restored my faith in humanity. I had no idea such kindness existed.
There were more stop-start-trap-doors and cancellations this year than ever before, and it's difficult to keep your mental balance and to remain unclouded at such times. Since every living person appeared to have some strain of flu, there seemed no reason why I should escape it, and I could not listen to medical advice that cautioned me to stand back from the audience and not to shake anyone's hand. Life has come to this? By tours' end I had no face worth rearranging.

[....]

What does the future hold? What does the next minute hold? It all rests as ever on determination – that which springs from somewhere deeper than the body. Record label interest is zero, but the sun will creep back into the room one way or another. It always does.

Small and bowed, I offer you my eternal thanks, and my hopes for a steady 2010, full of good grace and no darkness.

MORRISSEY
London, December 2009.