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"My Name Is Mortimer" (unreleased) - Mort Shuman song?
posted by davidt on Wednesday January 24 2001, @10:00AM

 John Fidler writes:

I've read that 'My Name Is Mortimer' (if it exists) is a Morrissey/Street composition. However if you look up the title on the BMI site, there is a song of that name by Mort Shuman. Is it possible that we are talking about a cover version, or has Moz just taken the title for himself?

Mort Shuman co-wrote 'His Latest Flame' with Doc Pomus, so it seems quite likely that Morrissey might be aware of this song. (Also, another co-writer of 'My Name Is Mortimer'is listed as El Moro, which might add to El Mozzo's interest!) Does anyone have an MP3? I couldn't find it anywhere.

On a vaguer note, I'm sure I remember hearing a song on UK Radio One once (around the time of Sunny?) which was announced as Morrissey's forthcoming single. It was quite a poppy number, with the line 'If what you say is true, why do you continue to inject yourself?' and also included a female name (Deborah?)' Does anybody else in the world remember this, or am I dreaming!

Here are the lyrics to "My Name Is Mortimer." If anyone fancies providing a translation, go ahead. I ran it through a web translator but it was a tad garbled.

(more)



My name is Mortimer
Je suis venu de loin
Que tu sois là, que tu sois là près de moi
Ca va me faire du bien

My name is Mortimer
Je me sens un peu perdu
J’aurai besoin d’un coup de main
C’est quelque chose que je n’ai jamais eu

Please call me Mortimer
Je sais, c’est un drôle de nom
Je ne te demanderai rien
Et je te chanterai une chanson
Je te chanterai le matin
Quand le monde ne bouge pas encore
Je te chanterai l’enfant qui dort dans tes bras
Je te chanterai me vent d’hiver
Qui a épousé la fille du Nord
Je voudrai ta main
Pour me sentir bien
Faire l’amour peut-être
Et quand je serai très loin tu comprendras

My name is Mortimer
Oui ça va beaucoup mieux
Tu as souri, tu as compris
Il a suffi de peu

Pour poor old Mortimer
C’est vrai je ne suis pas beau
Je n’ai pas grand chose pour te faire quelque chose
Je ne sais même pas dire de jolis mots

My name is Mortimer
Amène-moi dans ta maison
Installe-moi dans un coussin, ou dans tes draps de lin
Et je te chanterai une chanson
Je te chanterai cette fille que j’aimais quand j’étais
Un petit garçon
Je te chanterai ma tristesse et ma joie
Je te chanterai ma vie qui n’est qu’un piano et quelques chansons
Je te prendrai la main pour me sentir bien
Faire l’amour peut-être
Et quand je serai très loin tu comprendras
Lorsque je serai très bien tu m’oublieras

 
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    "My Name Is Mortimer" (unreleased) - Mort Shuman song? | Log in/Create an Account | Top | 71 comments | Search Discussion
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    The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
    No, You Are Not Insane (Score:2, Interesting)
    John, I can vaguely confirm your story about the song on the radio. A few years ago, a friend told me they had heard a new Moz song, due to be a single, which had the refrain: "Melanie, don't inject yourself tonight..." I think this was on the Simon Mayo show around the time of Interlude or Boxers. I later assumed he had just misheard the lyric to Sunny, but perhaps there is (yet) another unreleased Moz song in the vaults. You would have thought that one person in the UK would have managed to tape it, wouldn't you?
    Dirk McNasty -- Wednesday January 24 2001, @10:39AM (#6839)
    (User #406 Info)
    • Re:No, You Are Not Insane by Anonymous (Score:1) Wednesday January 24 2001, @10:53AM
        • Re:No, You Are Not Insane (Score:2, Informative)
        4 songs were recorded for boxers , sunny was left off the release , there were some test pressings with it on, the song also mentions needles. as for melanie , it's a nice song but it's no moz song
        boz and lyn -- Thursday February 01 2001, @01:59PM (#7230)
        (User #2053 Info)
        [ Parent ]
      My Name is Mortimer (Score:1, Informative)
      My Name Is Mortimer sung by Mort Shuman is available on Napster...I just saw it there this morning.
      Anonymous -- Wednesday January 24 2001, @11:32AM (#6843)
        Unreleased Morrissey (Score:1)
        No! You definitely did not dream this. I remember listening to Danny Baker on a Saturday morning, and he played "Morrissey's new single". I only heard it once, but I liked it. It was quite a poppy number, I seem to recall. Then "Boxers" came out and the song wasn't on there. I DO remember reading that "Sunny" was supposed to be on "Boxers", but was pulled at the last minute (presumably so EMI could release it as a single to act as a spoiler for the release of "Dagenham Dave"). I thought maybe that "Sunny" was the track that I'd heard, but I don't think it was. So yeah, we could have another outtake here...
        The Magic Fairy <keg.tvp@cwcom.net> -- Wednesday January 24 2001, @12:23PM (#6847)
        (User #1878 Info | http://www.televisionpersonalities.co.uk/ )
         "It was the trousers."
          Translated as best as could (Score:2, Informative)
          My name is Mortimer
          I cam from far
          so that you are there, so that you are there near me
          It will do me some good

          My name is Mortimer
          I feel a little lost
          I need a hand
          which is something I've never had

          Please call me Mortimer
          I know, its a funny name
          and I'll sing you a song
          While the world still hasn't moved
          I'll sing you the child cradled in your arms
          I'll sing you the winter winds
          That has married the Northern Girl
          I would like your hand
          So that I can feel better
          Make Love perhaps
          And when I'll be far, you'll understand

          My name is Mortimer
          Yes, things are much better
          You smiled, you understood
          That's all that was needed

          Pour poor old Mortimer
          It's true, I'm not handsome
          I don't have much to make you something with
          I don't even know how to utter pleasant words

          My name is Mortimer
          Take me home
          Put mw on a pillow, or the covers
          and I'll sing you a song
          I'll sing you this song, never a girl, never a boy (?)
          I'll sing to you my sad & pretty one
          I'll sing you my life, just a piano and a few songs
          I'll take your hand to feel better
          Make love perhaps
          and when I'll be very far, you'll understand
          When I'll be well, you'll forget me
          Fence -- Wednesday January 24 2001, @12:24PM (#6848)
          (User #1034 Info)
           Heel in the back, size 13
          The single you heard indeed was intended to be (Score:1, Interesting)
          The single you heard was indeed intended to be a single

          that song is titled "A Girl I Used to Know", however it was trashed due to egos and label-hopping...

          just wanted to inform you.

          Goodbye
          Anonymous -- Wednesday January 24 2001, @02:00PM (#6852)
          "A girl I used to know" (Score:2, Informative)
          This is what the lyrical database has to say about "A Girl I used to Know." Could this have been put out before boxers?
          ---
          "This song is mentioned as part of the the sessions that produced Jack The Ripper in David Bret's "Landscapes Of The Mind", a Morrissey biography. It is
                    possible this was an early version of B-side You've Had Her."
          Andy-Mats -- Wednesday January 24 2001, @02:43PM (#6858)
          (User #151 Info)
            Song heard on radio: lyrics and download (Score:3, Informative)
            The song you heard sounds very much like a song that was played on (I think) Dutch radio once, I don't know when. It was introduced as "the new single from Morrissey." There is a Morrissey-esque guitar intro followed by a voice that sounds astoundingly like Morrissey singing "Oh Melanie" - my heart skipped a beat when I first heard it. But after this first line, it is clearly not Morrissey; the intonation is all wrong. It begins:

            Oh Melanie
            You say you really love me
            You say that I'm the best thing that's ever happened to you
            Oh Melanie
            You keep telling me you love me
            You say that no one else in this cruel world has ever loved you like I do
            Oh Melanie, honestly
            There's something really troubling you
            If what you say is true
            Why do you continue to inject yourself?
            Inject yourself, inject yourself
            Oh, inject yourself, inject yourself, inject yourself ...

            It's actually quite a good Moz knock-off, clearly inspired by him, with fairly similar subject matter to that of "Sunny."

            If you want to hear the song, get it (soon, it won't be there forever) here.

            ::noelbows::
            noelbows -- Thursday January 25 2001, @02:15AM (#6894)
            (User #2232 Info)
            great lyrics (Score:1)
            I read the lyrics ... they're very Morrissey-esque ... it reminds me of 'There is a light ...'
            Am I the only one?

            The french lyrics are great and it's very odd to see that you can perfectly translate them into English.
            Vincent <alf2nd@yahoo.com> -- Thursday January 25 2001, @05:56AM (#6900)
            (User #1110 Info | http://www.theworldwilllisten.be/ )
             Don't rake up my mistakes, I know exactly what they are!
              Mark Radcliffe on BBC Radio 1 (Score:0)
              I 've taped this on Mark Radcliffe's morning show on Radio One years ago and I always thought the title would be "Oh Marilyn".

              Mark made this song a mysterium. He never said the name of the artist, and for me was it the new Morrissey single...
              Anonymous -- Thursday January 25 2001, @07:59AM (#6911)
                "Melanie" - clever hoax... (Score:1)
                but not that clever. Any real Moz fan will know this is bogus -- funny tho.
                measurectal -- Thursday January 25 2001, @07:06PM (#6940)
                (User #186 Info)
                Dear Anonymous... (Score:1)
                If you think this is Morrissey, you're nuts! Lyrically it's very lame... musically as well. I don't think Moz would ever release something this shitty as a single, hopefully not even as a b-side. But all that aside, the voice just isn't Moz!
                measurectal -- Friday January 26 2001, @12:16AM (#6951)
                (User #186 Info)
                  fraudulent uh...fraud (Score:1)
                  is there really any debate on whether or not this is actually morrissey? the lyrics aren't very good. the music isn't very good. the singing certainly isn't very good.
                    if, by some remote chance, this really IS morrissey. i think it would be best if he and anyone else kept this little gem a secret, for it is really quite horrible. the end.
                  spaceboy -- Friday January 26 2001, @10:27AM (#6967)
                  (User #124 Info | spaceboy.morpheus.net )
                    Alain.. (Score:1)
                    This is very interesting. The voice sounds like Moz, even though it seems very experimental..the guitars are very 1980 - something, don't you think? Who wrote it and who played on it? If it's post - 91 it should be Alain and Boz. But, well, it baffles me, because it got this almost glossy feeling to it, with those keybords..hm, very interesting indeed..I'm not making any sense, am I?:)
                    Puppet on string <tweedcoat@hotmail.com> -- Friday January 26 2001, @01:46PM (#6978)
                    (User #2114 Info)
                     Everyday I have the blues!
                      Has anyone seen this? (Score:1)
                      I searched in Yahoo! and the first listing was for this site:
                      http://www.oz.net/~moz/lyrics/othermor/mynameis.htm

                      It just says "My Name is Mortimer"
                      "This is an unreleased song by Morrissey and Stephen Street in 1990."

                      ShielaTakingABow <pole@samband.net> -- Tuesday January 30 2001, @03:02AM (#7130)
                      (User #1780 Info | http://www.geocities.com/ragry/rogr.htm )
                       "We´re all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" OW
                        Morrissey was Dutch!? (Score:0)
                        Come on... The minute I heard this song it was easy to detect an accent. Possibly Dutch or Austrian... Even easier to detect near the end. It's not even a very good song... Sounds like some "Your Big Break" reject.
                        Anonymous -- Sunday August 19 2001, @07:39AM (#17264)
                          It's very possible (Score:0)
                          Since everyone knows that Morrissey has a wide range of vocal styles and was the actual singer for "Milli Vinilli" in the 80's -- it's quite possible this song is authentic.
                          Anonymous -- Sunday August 19 2001, @07:51AM (#17265)

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