Most remarkable, ground-breaking and original moments!

[Paulc]

Is there another artist on the planet who has given us so many jaw droppingly amazing songs, albums and words? I wanted to make a list of the times Morrissey has astounded me with the top end of his genius - heres a few to start and in no particular order:

Meat is Murder - gave the vegetarian movement new impetus and shocked the world in 1985.
Suffer little children - who would write a song about the Moors Murderers?
Picadilly Palare - 1. its about rent boys!! :eek: and 2. Its partly written in a dialect hardly anyone understands!
November Spawned a Monster - the bravery to write a song about someone in a wheelchair.
Some girls are bigger than others - now what is that all about?
There is a light that never goes out - whether you both die under a 10 tonne truck or a double decker bus the fact that you die together is the most romantic line in pop.
Suedehead - the sheer genius of this song both lyrically and musically.
Jack the Ripper - i'm gonna get you
Last night i dreamt somebody loved me - just another false alarm
(I'm) the end of the family line and Will Never Marry - to write about never getting married and having kids is just so Moz!
National Front Disco - so astoundingly brave and risky
Life is a Pigsty - an anthem!
Speedway - simpy unbelievable
We hate it when our friends become succesful - and if the're northern....i love that!
Please Please Please....has a more beautiful song ever been written?

Am sure there are many more...

[redpathetic]

I agree with you on Speedway.

[EPbabe]

My Love Life - a lovely song music-wise, but as for the lyrics, one of the filthiest, not for the things said, but for the things insinuated...:p

Edit: Reel Around the Fountain - who would write such an erotic song about a pedofile?

[London By Night]

"The Queen Is Dead" taking anti Royalist sentiments into the top ten album chart...the Sex Pistols had done it too, but this was something else entirely.

"Barbarism Begins At Home" domestic violence tackled head on, a very unusual choice for a pop song in 1985.

"Asleep", singing about suicide is nothing new but rarely is it done with such grace and dignity.

"This Night Has Opened My Eyes" - although lyrically vague, I think the opening lines are about infanticide ("In a river the colour of lead, immerse the baby's head...") though others have said it may be a baptism of sorts before abandoning the child. Whichever, it was still shocking and original. One of the most chilling opening lines to a song, ever.

[EPbabe]

"Asleep", singing about suicide is nothing new but rarely is it done with such grace and dignity.

Couldn't agree more. :)

[London By Night]

"Death Of A Disco Dancer" - whether a drug fuelled death by misadventure or a murder (the lyrics are vague) it was a brave choice for a song at a time when all the ravers were beginning to 'turn on' and live recklessly. Acid House was only one year away at the time of its release and this song was very prophetic.

"Girlfriend In A Coma" - I don't think there has ever been another song in the UK charts about someone in a coma!

"Headmaster Ritual" - though largely a song of its time, this homage to teacher brutality was genuinely shocking. The situation now is, of course, reversed...something the writer revisited and acknowledged on "The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils". It would be interesting to hear these songs sung back to back in concert just to illustrate how greatly the balance of power in the modern day classroom has shifted.

[Virgil Tracy]

Nice Thred!

[someofusisturningnasty]

I agree, Please Please Please is literally the most gorgeous song ever ever ever.

I'll add Well I Wonder to that list too. No words can describe the beauty of that song. The perfect pre-curser to Life Is A Pigsty.

Let's face it, the man is a lyrical genius. And of course, that VOICE that seems to fill all the cracks and faults in my soul.

[EPbabe]

I agree, Please Please Please is literally the most gorgeous song ever ever ever.

I'll add Well I Wonder to that list too. No words can describe the beauty of that song. The perfect pre-curser to Life Is A Pigsty.

Let's face it, the man is a lyrical genius. And of course, that VOICE that seems to fill all the cracks and faults in my soul.


I agree with you totally on Well I Wonder, that song is really heartwrenching, and when I feel down and just want a good cry, I listen to it, and hey presto! :o

As for Please Please Please, I find it terribly difficult to forget how popular that song has become and appreciate it for its true beauty.

[mozmic_dancer]

Particularly in his solo work, he does pull off these little novellas that give you just enough detail as to what's going on.

My top ten, in no particular order:

November Spawned a Monster -- Wheelchair bound looking for love and independence

Boy Racer -- classical theme of jealousy

Maladjusted -- Moz speaking in the voice of a young runaway

Alma Matters -- I think it was Uncleskinny who came up with the theory of this song being about a transgender. If true, then this is extraordinary. I can only recall the Kinks touching this subject. Perhaps Lou Reed, too.

Sunny -- heroin addiction of a loved one

Come Back to Camden -- just a nice rememberence of thing's past, brown staircase and slate-grey Victorian skies

Dear God Please Help Me -- Moz and God confessional shocker!

Father Who Must Be Killed -- Patricide/Suicide melodrama

Christian Dior -- Man finds comfort sensually stroking the weaves of a sleeve

You Have Killed Me -- Describing found love using an Italian movie montage of names and places

[Sharron Needles]

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that I believe one his most remarkable, original moments is We'll Let You Know. Unconventional subject matter, but pure poetry. It's the perfect Morrissey song. That, and Now My Heart Is Full, which needs no explanation really.

[Anaesthesine]

Meat is Murder - gave the vegetarian movement new impetus and shocked the world in 1985.

That album is the reason I'm here today. I was well on my way to vegetarianism without Morrissey, but the moment I saw that album cover (back in '85) I fell hopelessly in love with his attitude. One of my very favorite pop-cultural moments ever.


(I'm) the end of the family line... to write about never ... having kids is just so Moz!

Very few people write about this subject from my perspective.


National Front Disco - so astoundingly brave and risky

I love Alain's story about this - very funny.


Life is a Pigsty - an anthem!

When I first heard it, I couldn't believe he had, yet again, written a song that so eerily reflected my life at the time.

To this I would add:

Irish Blood, English Heart - Quarry came out in a brutal election year here in the US; that line "And I will die with both of my hands untied" meant the world to me, and gave me strength.

[oye terence]

Edit: Reel Around the Fountain - who would write such an erotic song about a pedofile?
well.bradford wrote skin storm and their drummer was arrested for kiddie porn,so i guess bradford can also write such an erotic song about being a pedophile
:p

just sayin'
:p

[mcrickson]

well.bradford wrote skin storm and their drummer was arrested for kiddie porn,so i guess bradford can also write such an erotic song about being a pedophile
:p

just sayin'
:p

In no way to ever diminish RATF, 'Ici Les Enfants' by the Monochrome Set can be added to the list of beautiful songs about pedophiles. And as for INCEST, well there's 'Eine Symphonie des Grauens' by the Monochrome Set.

oh..no one mentioned incest...oops :o

[London By Night]

In no way to ever diminish RATF, 'Ici Les Enfants' by the Monochrome Set can be added to the list of beautiful songs about pedophiles. And as for INCEST, well there's 'Eine Symphonie des Grauens' by the Monochrome Set.

oh..no one mentioned incest...oops :o

...and "Incestuous Love" by Barbara, a very obscure French song that's been translated into English.

I'm amazed these songs get published!

[Kewpie]

Bump :)

[I'mThuperThanksForAthking]

I agree with you on Speedway.

I agree with Thpeedway too. Whenever I thing this thong I cry.

[Kewpie]

I agree with Speedway too. Whenever I sing this song I cry.


Fixed.

[LukaInExile]

Now My Heart Is Full -- I do not even know what he is talking about during parts of the song, but it still comes off as remarkably beautiful.

The only other artist that thrills me is David Bowie.

[applebuttaz]

whatever happens, i love you- loving someone and not caring about what other think

to me you are a work of art- wanting to love someone but cant

the edges are no longer parallel- his only mistake was hoping:p kinda wanna say it was like you said you loved me but in the end you really didn't everything was meaningless and all i ever did was wait and hope and now everything is for nothing

[Musley]

This Night Has Opened My Eyes, amazing lyrics. Sometimes we are too busy listening to the song as a whole that we forget the intensity of the lyrics. What other artist writes songs with such force and emotion. Even Noel Gallagher said Morrissey was the best lyricist he had ever heard!

[NovemberJesus]

Life is a Pigsty - an anthem!

An anthem indeed.. It is incredible how He can make such painful songs. And its the same for My Dearest Love... (speechless)

[Mclenarr]

Bump :)
Isn't a bump when you do without a reason...maybe they just wanted to post something and it just so happened....

[starless]

There are a few in each and every song but off the top of my head:

Trouble Loves Me: when you think this song can't get any better, he sings "Then at midnight I / Can't get you out of my head"

Lifeguard Sleeping: the eeriest song ever? effortlessly brilliant. "The sky became marked with stars / As an out-stretched arm slowly / Disappears"

Seasick, Yet Still Docked: Sheer poetry: "You must be such a fool / To pass me by"

[Orson Swells]

Seasick, Yet Still Docked: Sheer poetry: "You must be such a fool / To pass me by"

I am a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through all these highs and lows
I heard there was no sickness
And no toil or danger
Just mercy and plenty
Where peaceful waters flow
Where peaceful waters flow

Come all you fair and tender school girls
Be careful now-when you court young men
They are like the stars
On a summer morning
They sparkle up the night
And they're gone again
Daybreak-gone again

If I'd only seen through the silky veils of ardor
What a killing crime this love can be
I would have locked up my heart
In a golden sheath of armor
And kept its crazy beating
Under strictest secrecy
High security

I wish I had the wings
Of Noah's pretty little white dove
So I could fly this raging river
To reach the one I love
But I have no wings
And the water is so wide
We'll have to row a little harder
It's just in dreams we fly
In my dreams we fly!

[raincoated lover]

Morrissey's delacacy and devotion to beauty is what makes his words so poignant and elegant - for me at least, and it is this coupled with his fantastic capability to present vital, romantic and beautiful situations and tales within his songs that makes his work so vibrant - the stories themselves being intreguing, sometimes challenging, always provocative and never stale.

[sistasheila]

bump...

[Girl-with-the-Thorn]

1. 'Now My Heart Is Full' needs no explanation whatsoever. It just is.

2. 'The Queen Is Dead'- shocking, blunt and funny.

3. 'The Father Who Must Be Killed' is possibly the Morrissey song that surprised me the most when I first heard it. It's extremely intense, but quite brilliant.

4. I agree with 'Reel Around the Fountain' as well, it is intensely beautiful and a remarkable opener to the first album, but am I the only person who thinks that it was never necessarily about paedophilia?

5. 'Maladjusted' for reasons already explained. And, well, I just love it. :)

[tigergolf06]

2. 'The Queen Is Dead'- shocking, blunt and funny.

Brilliant, amazing song. I love when the tom-tom drums come in after the initial sample in the beginning-- totally awesome and pumping!

[Girl_Drowning]

Seasick, Yet Still Docked: Sheer poetry: "You must be such a fool / To pass me by"


Absolutely agree, 'My love is as sharp as a needle in your eye', gets me everytime.

I've Changed My Plea to Guilty is another of those Morrissey songs I find so intense, love the line 'emotional air raid exhausted my heart' and adore this live version because you can see just that : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB-CQvEWmkw

[Raphael Lambach]

Now My Heart is full from Introducing.