Morrissey-solo
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posted by
davidt
on Wednesday May 09 2001, @10:00AM
Joemoz writes:
This is what Neil Tennant from Pet Shop Boys says about a couple of his songs ('Miserablism' and 'Getting Away With It') in the liner notes to the reissue of their album Behaviour. Reissues of all their albums excluding the latest will be out next month. Miserablism: "I think we wrote this in the beginning of 1990, during the shoe-gazing period, when Morrissey was huge as a solo artist. It's another song sort of written from the point of view of being Morrissey - the first song like that being 'Getting away with it', The Electronic single, which I wrote most of the words of. 'Getting away with it' is looking at Morrissey's persona of being miserable and all the rest of it, and saying that he's been getting away with it for years. It's meant to be humorous. 'Miserablism' is a satire, a little like 'How can you expect to be taken seriously?' What bugged me about the shoe-gazers always looking really miserable is that people think someone like that is really serious. It's something that endlessly bugs me in pop music - that someone with the style of being serious is always accepted as being serious. And also that anyone being playful is then not taken seriously, whereas actually being playful is actually more difficult than being 'serious', and possibly can end up being a lot more serious at the same time. The words to this song were inspired by someone telling me that they asked their father on his deathbed what it was like, and he said: 'is is, isn't isn't'. And I thought that was a great quote, and a very kind of miserablist way of looking at the world. There's no romance - the only thing that exists is what really exists." Lyrics for the two songs: Miserablism Getting Away With It
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Neil Tennant on his songs about Morrissey in <I>Behavior</I> reissue liner notes
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Amazing!!!!! (Score:0)
is is and isn't isn't. (Score:1)
(User #799 Info | http://www.myspace.com/newlands)
so many songs (Score:1)
"make sure you always frown"
"so English , frowning "
he's listening ,somehow . A part of him is listening and taking notes.
But it stops right there.
(User #2345 Info)
Go Neil Tennant! (Score:1)
(User #2801 Info)
getting away with it (Score:0)
neil o'peel
What's his point? (Score:2, Interesting)
And as far as the song "Miserablism" is concerned, to me it hints of easy-answer pop-psychology with its implicit critique of, well, miserablism. It's basically saying "life is only bad because you define it that way."
Sell it to Oprah, honey.
If anyone could appreciate Morrissey's sense of irony, it should be Tennant, since he professes an admiration of ironic wit. Still, though I find much of what PSB do amazing ("Can You Forgive Her" would make a great cover for Morrissey, I think), I find their wittier moments are too often undone by a contrived, saccharine kind of vibe. And sometimes they're downright boring. Sometimes they are far worse then even Erasure when it comes to gay melodrama. I think Tennant is much closer to the kind of crap Elton John (particularly the Tim Rice songs) churns out than he is to Morrissey.
(User #1858 Info)
Re:What's his point? (Score:2, Interesting)
It really seems to me that a whole lot of artist and wannabe artist always have something to say about Morrissey. I guess the case might be that the more Moz ignores them all, the more they all obsess over him.
Some of the singers and musicians that have said things(and some who've written songs) about him over the years I think are cool, but I've yet to come across any songs at all where Morrissey himself has ever bothered to say much about any one from his generation or of the more modern one.
Either way, Tennant is a solid writer, at least. One of the best of his generation easily. And it never hurts to have someone the ranks of Tennant to talk about you, much less to have your work in good favor with him.
(User #100 Info)
Parent
Neil Tennant (Score:0)
Murder was the case (Score:1)
It is not right for people to be 'getting away with it'.
Sincerely,
Orenthal James Simpson
(User #720 Info | http://www.jimrome.com/)
I love Marr more than Marr loves me (Score:1)
(User #2398 Info)
Ouch! (Score:0)
that Morrissey is also a brilliant songwriter. I also like the shoegazers but I really think Neil Tennant has a point.