This person has it all wrong!
His fans, for better or for worse, did indeed follow. Southpaw sold 90,000 copies in the U.S without any radio play! Maybe the insatiable top 40 market didn't care (thank God), but his fans certainly followed.
Journalists who lie...

Just for the record, I adore "Southpaw Grammar"; with the possible exception of his vocals on "Nobody Loves Us", Morrissey`s voice never sounded so good as in "Reader Meet Author".

Personally, I think Southpaw Grammar is excellent. I don't understand why so many Moz fans knock it. I wish Moz would put out more guitar driven albums such as this one (that is, if he ever gets back into the studio).

My two favorite Moz cds...

Southpaw Grammar and Kill Uncle. The two most commonly knocked by Moz fans. Go figure.

Well i have to agree that Soutpaw Grammar wasn't Moz's best work but i wouldn't go off and call it a commercial flop and who cares what position it landed on the charts most mainstream music is crap anyways.

I just wanted to say that I love this album....it's ingenious. And what constitutes a commercial success? Is publicity factored in? Comparable to say a Brittney Spears, Moz gets very little publicity but still sells an astounding amount of albums...

This is actually my favorite album. Just out of curious, I have a copy on vinyl that comes with a very, very cool photo album. Does anyone else have this? I have never seen another one. It's awesome!

If you read the tag line for the article on AP's website, you see they're not slagging Morrissey ("This just in - the record-buying public doesn't always know what's good or bad"). The journalist isn't lying - he's actually got it dead on!

I reckon southpaw grammar was Moz attempting to weed out the casual Moz fanbase by firstly not having him on the front and then having needlessly long songs and stupid drum intros. Thus the casual moz fanbase was trimmed away leaving only the lean hardcore ready and prepared...for alma matters...

Southpaw is one of the Strongest albums. An enduring favourite. Especially the way it was recorded live, rather than the instruments being recorded separatley. I hope that in the future he'll record everything live again. It comes off much more energetic and, I'll say it again: Strong!

Southpaw is a good album, not Morrissey's personal best, but a good album. It just lacks a little bit.

I think the reason why people usually trash this album is because, of the 2, 10 minute songs that are on the album, instead of just cutting the songs short at a 5min length and have added other songs on to the album, but instead those 2 songs drag on and on, and also you have to notice that theyre's only 8 songs on the album a little less then what Morrissey usually puts on an album, and thats where I feel the album lacks a little bit on how many songs are on the album, but over all I enjoy the album, it be nice if he could experiment more in this style music that he did.

just as my words are pure... southpaw kicks ass. just as much so as your arsenal. and spencer cobrin's finest work to date.

well, it's cool to see that "southpaw grammar" is recognized as a great album. It's actually one of my favorite albums as it has excelent guitar works, sound patherns diferent from the normal Moz records and excelent and unusual lyrics. It's almost like a book. Don't knock this album down, dudes, its securely one of rock 'n rolls 50 best albums. Though, it seems i'm the only guy from Brazil who loves it. Cheers.

If Morrissey made more albums like this one you can believe I would be the first one in line to buy it.
This album didn't make it commercially but it always seems to be in my player. In fact if I want to get to know someone better I give it to them to listen to their reaction to the album. This lets me know how to talk to them... you know like in the book The Little Prince how he showed the boa constrictor eating the elephant.

in retrospect this l.p. was a commercial flop.
in success terms with vauxhall which made the u.k. no.1 spot.
southpaw flashed in the top 20 and vanished in a couple of weeks.
the fact that we love or loathe it is not the point.
the journalist was just being factual.

however there are many more flops granted and that shouldnt be in any top 10, bigger names have had equally unsuccessful albums- but it was just a bit of a flop considering mozz's previous outings.

i dont think the journo meant to over-offend.

maybe i'm slightly baised as southpaw is my least mozz l.p. by far.
if the b-sides to dag.dave were chucked on it , it would of salvaged something.

I`m sure this will come as no surprise to most of you out there but I loved "Southpaw Grammar".Sure it was a different direction for Morrissey.But that only made it even better.Great artists always experiment and try to go in different directions.I think that`s good.Morrissey has never been boring."Southpaw"is my favorite song on that album.Daganham Dave and The Boy Racer are also fantastic(as well as the videos for those songs).
Just a side note here.The article was called 10 ESSENTIAL flops.The journalist was not insulting Morrissey he was just saying the masses don`t always know what`s good and that these are just ones that you should own.Included on this list were also Radiohead for The Bends and The Velvet Underground for Andy Warhol.

It's funny that everyone refers to The Operation and Southpaw as the songs that are too long. I actually think Teachers is much too long and rather boring. It seems a bit out of place on the disc. Southpaw is actually my favorite song and I feel that if it were any shorter it would take away from the song. Very emotional song indeed.

Actually, i was similarly dissapointed with REM's "monster", which i took back and exchanged for "in utero". but about southpaw. it wasnt exactly experimental, and moz puts no effort into singing whatsoever. although i do like the drumming on this one.

I can't deny it, I really didn't like it! Granted, Boy Racer and some of the B-sides were nice.... But, ahhhhhhhhh, it was no Vauxhaul and I, nor was it even a Maladjusted... Maybe our man Mozz just isn't made for the heavier sounds...

On Mozz like Oprah on a baked ham,
Sincerly,
DeB of the West Sider Riders ;-)

It's funny that there is all this talk of Southpaw, as I have been listening to it continuously in my car for the past few weeks. It's a great album, and a highlight for me. Every player is at top form...the drum intro on "The Operation" is brilliant. The opening bass riff for "Do Your Best and Don't Worry" love it!! My favorite however, is "Southpaw". One of Morrissey's best. Perhaps I'm crazy, but when he sings the part about running back to Ma, and he stretches the "Ma" out, it almost sounds like he is saying Maher. Is Morrissey the girl of his dreams? We may never know...

I dig the Boy Racer video. It's a bit anachronistic, and beautiful nontheless.

I LOVE this ALBUM!!! everytime I listen to it...I get shivers down my spine!! it gets my blood pressure going...Every single time I hear it..I feel like I'm gonna have a heart attack!!(that's how good it is..well to me)

I feel that this album blows away Maladjusted. While I liked Maladjusted, it just fell very short. I could put Southpaw on a listen to it any day. Maladjusted just does not have that quality. It's a bit of a dark album, even for Morrissey's standards. It seemed a bit rushed even though it took so long to be released.

I have recently rediscovered Southpaw. I finally installed a powerful system in my car and let me tell you, Grammer was intended to be listened to loud. This album in a word is MUSCULAR. The instrumentation on best friend is my favorite, I want to cover it. Its just a very cool record proving that Morrissey is ahead of his time as usual.

I ran out and bought Southpaw after I saw Morrissey live for the first time. I couldn't believe what I had been missing!

Southpaw was the best Morrissey solo album. I must listen to one time in the morning to start my day. I would even go as far as to say to it's better than anything The Smiths ever done. Someone needs to fire these fools.

Maladjusted, Southpaw Grammar and Kill Uncle are all mediocre at BEST. The only solo albums that hold up in their entirety are Your Arsenal & Vauxhall. Some good bits on Viva Hate as well. The rest of the good stuff is sitting on his b-sides and scattered singles.

I can't stand the blind adoration that goes on here.

patchy (like most people's albums) but once you grab a few bsides together you're normally guaranteed 4 or 5 brilliant songs.

Southpaw Grammar however is the only moz album without a single brilliant song (those sessions are saved onlyu by the awesome 'nobody loves us').

If SG had been the last Moz album I wouldn't hace cared if he'd done nothing for 4 years assuming he's run out of good songs.

However, Maladjusted (+ bsides) provided the usual batch of fantastic songs (the edges, lost, trouble loves, wide to receive) so I am desperate to hear any new stuff.

Please hurry!

Steed.

"Southpaw" stands as one of Morrissey's better efforts- solid songs w/a bit of meat to them.

i don't have a problem with the lengthy intros & drum solos. it's standard rock fare. not very original but a bit surprising for Morrissey.

what i have a problem with is the "sound" and the "feel" of the record. the manner in which it's actualized and executed. it could have been very dynamic & lean.

instead it collaspes under it's own weight. it becomes tedious and dull. so much more could have been made of those songs. but i suppose we can say the same of most Moz records.

and the long shot: "teachers are afraid" eventually pulled its own weight. it's the
perfect intro for his live shows. sets an eerie, tense mood as well.

Hi there... i am Todd Hutlock and I wrote this article. I know some of you got the point of it, but it seems many of you didn't... the whole point of "10 ESSENTIAL Commercial Flops" is the word "ESSENTIAL", as in, "You should buy these albums, they are good even though the general public didn't take to them as much as previous albums" which even the most zealous of you must admit is true. I really do appreciate those of you who had my back on this, and for thsose of you quick to judge my comments... try reading the whole article - or even just the intro, which explained the point of the piece - in context next time before you call me (or anyone else) a LIAR or IDIOT or anything like that. Thanks...