You were good in your time - Who is it about?

[Stanley Ogden]

Do you think he is refering to a specific person?

[Practising Troublemaker]

Mike Joyce.

Love PTxx.

[Dothatagain?]

I reckon it's about himself - the way he thinks everyone's always trying to get rid of him.

Sorry Doesn't Help is definitely about Joyce, though - and I wonder if the line about sorry not being enough to bring Mozzer's true love back to him is a reference to Marr?

[Jones]

I don't think Sorry Doesn't Help is about Joyce. I think it's about a parental figure.

[CrystalGeezer]

Sorry Doesn't Help is definitely about Joyce, though - and I wonder if the line about sorry not being enough to bring Mozzer's true love back to him is a reference to Marr?

:doh:

[moztour]

I think it's about Frank Sidebottom.

[CrystalGeezer]

It's probably about Jake.

[Stephane]

I take it that it's about himself.

And it's my favourite song off the album.

Stephane

[vivabob]

i think its about himself too

[someofusisturningnasty]

I also think it's about himself. It's a beautiful song.

[troubleluvsme]

I think he was referring to himself.....back in the day when he wrote clever lyrics.

[ClintBoon]

Yeh when he used to be good, last two albums have been a joke, now i have to sit and wait another 2 years to ee if he releases anything bareable.

[CrystalGeezer]

Yeh when he used to be good, last two albums have been a joke, now i have to sit and wait another 2 years to ee if he releases anything bareable.

You think?

[Danny_]

I think it's a general song to all his heroes. I don't think it's about him, although I can imagine he might see that people will feel about him the way he feels about his heroes.

[MozIsGod]

Ian Curtis.

[PregnantForTheLastTime]

Yeh when he used to be good, last two albums have been a joke, now i have to sit and wait another 2 years to ee if he releases anything bareable.

I thought the Greatest Hits was the bare-able album. At least the sleeve was... :confused:

[motorways]

anyone who speaks french care to translate the samples? please/thank you.

[Seasick]

I take it that it's about himself.

And it's my favourite song off the album.

Stephane

Ditto.

[Sidney24]

According to the french forum, the voices in this song are taken from the french movie "Pepe le Moko" (starring Jean Gabin). An US remake was shot by John Crowell : Casbah (Algiers, 1938) with Charles Boyer.

Here, the english subtitles from the movie, corresponding to extracts used :

Will you come again?
- Tomorrow.
- You sure?
- Same time.
Here?
I really like you.
You're beautiful.


What did you do before?
Before what?
Before the diamonds.
I dreamed of them.

You really can't get rid of this Casbah?
Why do you ask?
No, they've got me boxed in. I can't hole up anywhere else. They're hunting me. If I leave here, they nail me.

Happy now? You're reassured ?
I'm neither happy nor reassured.

You're right, because I could do anything, even come looking for you

[Sister Rose]

Oh good, theres a thread about this song! Cos I've listened to it a few times now...who could it be about? I dunno

1) I like the song, its growing on me.
2) I find the end bit a bit creepy!?! hahaha I dunno why, I just do....


I'm not sure I have the lyrics right but he say's something like..."Then you grip with your hand, now so small in mine. Are you aware?, wherever you are, that you have just died"... and then it goes a little strange! :eek:


I just find it eerie...I still like it but....ya know!

[ellay mort]

"Then you grip with your hand, now so small in mine. Are you aware?, wherever you are, that you have just died"... and then it goes a little strange!

I just find it eerie...I still like it but....ya know!


i LOVE the abrupt ending. love it.

i also really like those lines. i don't really like the idea of it being about himself though :confused:

[Depeche609]

Father Jack Hackett

[StillillGal]

what an a great album
i'm so happy!!!:horny:

[justme]

I take it that it's about himself.


Stephane

I Agree. To me the lyrics go full circle with Rubber ring - :)

[Danny_]

Isn't the whole point of the weird ending that you wait for the song to restart but it never does because whoever he is talking about is "dead" and not coming back. So you just get the impression of someone searching the airwaves for something that doesn't exist anymore.

[justme]

Isn't the whole point of the weird ending that you wait for the song to restart but it never does because whoever he is talking about is "dead" and not coming back. So you just get the impression of someone searching the airwaves for something that doesn't exist anymore.

Oh, I haven't heard it - so reading the lyrics I though about rubber ring and how it would go full circle :o - this just shows how Morrissey should be heard (and not just read his lyrics) -and I should know better :o

I'm not sure I should visit this site until February :eek: because everytime I do, I get more and more curious and the urge to download increases :)

[Life_Is_A_Pigsty]

Kinda makes me think its about Marc Bolan, Paint A Vulgar Picture was also supposedly written with him in mind. The lines about saying more in one day than most people say in a lifetime remind me of the interview on youtube about Marc Bolan, where he says its we shouldnt speak badly about someone who was once so great when most people in life are never great.

Whoever its about, it is a great track, probably as good as anything on the last two for me except for Come Back To Camden and Life Is A Pigsty.

[Comtesse]

I have to say that upon repeated listenings this song has really grown on me. It's quite beautiful, and the ending - which used to annoy me - now has an eerie quality that is mesmerizing. It really sounds like I would imagine death to feel: empty, otherworldly, hollow, lonely, serene. And I also agree that the song is about himself - and he sums himself up quite well! The "we thank you" doesn't even bother me anymore. Lovely.

You said more in one day than most people say in a lifetime, it was our time, and we thank you so.

[Dave]

Mother Teresa

[Orson Swells]

I would say it's another Johnny Marr-inspired lyric. He WAS good in his time, of course. But the inference in the lyric is that when Johnny split up the Smiths (for Morrissey) he died musically and - given the extended atmospheric, noodling at the end - the rest was silence...

[triumphs&charms]

Because the 'uninformed' line is such a memorable one, I started thinking about who or what might have inspired it (well aware of Moz's tendency for pinching and pastiche). Anyway, the best I could come up with is Larkin's poem 'Church Going' (hands up - it's tenuous):


Bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt
Dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground
Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt
So long and equably what since is found
Only in separation - marriage, and birth,
And death, and thoughts of these - for which was built
This special shell? For, though I've no idea
What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;

[TOBIN]

i have listened to this track a few times and i am i right its coming from a fans view about moz?,,does anyone agree with me that i feel the part at the end i feel the droning noise at the end is supposed to be the noise representing someone crossing over to the other side as they have died on their deathbed and it sounds like a random foreign radio station playing in the backround as the dead person is dying and crossing over,,it really is a bit spooky,,,am i way of the mark or what....steve.

[HIM]

hitler.

[years of acceptance]

"I would say it's another Johnny Marr-inspired lyric. He WAS good in his time, of course. But the inference in the lyric is that when Johnny split up the Smiths (for Morrissey) he died musically and - given the extended atmospheric, noodling at the end - the rest was silence... "

I'm glad you brought Marr up - a few of the reviews of YOR have said what most Moz album reviews say - "It's good, but with Johnny Marr it would have been MUCH better."

Johnny Marr is good, but if he is such a creative wellspring and genius, why is it that he has alnost vanished off the face of the earth, and Morrissey has put out nine albums in the meantime? Moz continues to grow and create, and tour, while Marr rests on his laurels.
Seems unjustified, somehow. I'm just sayin'.

[Anaesthesine]

When I listen to this song I think of every artist who has ever meant anything to me, and lived to grow old and fade away. Authors, musicians, filmmakers, anyone who changed my life and to whom I feel indebted. Morrissey knows he's on a millions lists.

Jerry Finn's shadow really looms large over the whole album, especially this song. That tragedy makes it even eerier than it would otherwise have been.

The only complaint I have about this song is the factory preset sample at the end. That's just plain lazy.

[PregnantForTheLastTime]

I don't think it's a factory preset sample. I keep listening to it, trying to piece it out. There's an ultrasound-like muffled heartbeat, but not fast like a baby's, it's slower, an adult's heart. And I hear those dry strings that open "Death of a Disco Dancer". And somewhere around 4:44, a man's voice says something that sounds like calling a name- calling from which side, I don't know. I'm straining to hear the conversation between the man and woman, they don't sound urgent or impassioned at all. If it's half the song, it's meant to be something, it's not just sound effects.

[EPbabe]

Oh good, theres a thread about this song! Cos I've listened to it a few times now...who could it be about? I dunno

1) I like the song, its growing on me.
2) I find the end bit a bit creepy!?! hahaha I dunno why, I just do....


I'm not sure I have the lyrics right but he say's something like..."Then you grip with your hand, now so small in mine. Are you aware?, wherever you are, that you have just died"... and then it goes a little strange! :eek:


I just find it eerie...I still like it but....ya know!

It's good that you pointed out the end of the song, because the first time I heard it I was thinking "okay, I heard it somewhere before". And I really did: the song "No regrets" by Robbie Williams (sorry) has a very similar ending. The last verse is "I guess the love we once had is
Officially dead", and the word "dead" is sung without music.

Sorry. :o I'd like to add that it's still my second favourite song from the album.

[Explosive Kegs]

It's good that you pointed out the end of the song, because the first time I heard it I was thinking "okay, I heard it somewhere before". And I really did: the song "No regrets" by Robbie Williams (sorry) has a very similar ending. The last verse is "I guess the love we once had is
Officially dead", and the word "dead" is sung without music.

Sorry. :o I'd like to add that it's still my second favourite song from the album.

I thought the same as you about the Robbie Williams song:thumb:

[joe frady]

I think it's written about a parent dieing; Morrissey channeling the grief into these words and a beautiful vocal. The angle that it's about the fan/star relationship is there, but only in the usual sly Moz way. Same as he did on 'All You Need Is Me' which is, I think, about a disgruntled lover, but could also be referring to the disgruntlement of fans.
I could be wrong, cos to be honest I don't really like the idea of him writing songs about the fan/star thing ('Paint A Vulgar Picture' excluded). It seems unworthy of him. It's all subjective of course, but I would rather believe it to be about something more substantial. It seems to work on this song. I choked up. :o

[Anaesthesine]

I don't think it's a factory preset sample. I keep listening to it, trying to piece it out. There's an ultrasound-like muffled heartbeat, but not fast like a baby's, it's slower, an adult's heart. And I hear those dry strings that open "Death of a Disco Dancer". And somewhere around 4:44, a man's voice says something that sounds like calling a name- calling from which side, I don't know. I'm straining to hear the conversation between the man and woman, they don't sound urgent or impassioned at all. If it's half the song, it's meant to be something, it's not just sound effects.

I should have been more precise. Right near the beginning of the long fade-out there is a chorus sound, like monks moaning. I think there are two or three hits of it. This sounds like a factory preset that comes with whatever synth/sampler they were using. It would be easy enought to modify, throw some effects on, whatever, but it just sticks out like a sore thumb to me.

I love the fade-out, I think it's very well done (it sounds a lot like my last band). It's just residual electo-geek nitpicking on my part to point this out.

[EPbabe]

I think it's written about a parent dieing; Morrissey channeling the grief into these words and a beautiful vocal. The angle that it's about the fan/star relationship is there, but only in the usual sly Moz way. Same as he did on 'All You Need Is Me' which is, I think, about a disgruntled lover, but could also be referring to the disgruntlement of fans.
I could be wrong, cos to be honest I don't really like the idea of him writing songs about the fan/star thing ('Paint A Vulgar Picture' excluded). It seems unworthy of him. It's all subjective of course, but I would rather believe it to be about something more substantial. It seems to work on this song. I choked up. :o

That's an interesting idea, I was unable to drag myself away from the fan/idol element.

[anon x]

I think it's about Morrissey himself.

[EPbabe]

I think it's about Morrissey himself.

Same here. It's either him or any singer in general.

[CapriciousCorin]

Isn't the whole point of the weird ending that you wait for the song to restart but it never does because whoever he is talking about is "dead" and not coming back. So you just get the impression of someone searching the airwaves for something that doesn't exist anymore.

Well put.

That's excatly how I take it too but didn't think of the airwaves until now... interesting. Just like somebody's trying to tune in a radio station where there's nothing on air.