Most Underrated/Overlooked Morrissey Songs?

joe frady said:
It was. Dublin, 29th of July 2011. Here's how it went down, as posted on 'The Cissy Site' at the time :rolleyes: ~

It was a truly beautiful moment. You had a hunch something special was about to happen because Jesse strapped on that pretty red guitar that he uses for 'There Is A Light..', then Morrissey and his band all crowded together in a loose huddle around Matt's drumkit, there was a bit of discussion, Matt looked at Moz with a 'Right?' look, Moz took a swig of water, then gave a firm nod; and off we bloody well went. Clearly there must have been some doubt as to whether they would play it.

Despite the clueless dolts about me in the balcony, I yelped with glee when I heard the opening line, as did many others down below who realised the momentousness of the...moment. Well actually they roared. I yelped. Each to their own, etc.

I was literally biting my knuckles whlist grinning, if that's physically possible, in the manner of a sweet-stuffed chubby child, for the entirety of the rendition.
The band nursed it gently, like an 'unpriapic fawn' being born into this world, and Morrissey was clearly nervous, which was incredibly charming. Mere minutes before he'd delivered 'Scandinavia' in a version that was so perfect in it's dark and twisted potency, so breathtaking in it's phrasing, control and precision, so pure in intent and intent on purity, that to see him switch to another skewed ode to the joys and misery of love, memory {and geography}, and address it so differently was...sublime. There was a devoted fragility to the performance that could have been debut nerves, or it could have been Moz channeling the emotion that first inspired the lyric. Who can say? Not even the man himself I'd wager. I prefer to pick the latter option.

He made some self-deprecating comments after it, over the wild yawps and screams, along the lines of 'You can't mean that' etc, etc. but that's just Morrissey. What does he know?

I hope he does it again. And I hope he doesn't. Weird.

To see him tightly closehis eyes, open his loving mouth and sing "and here is the very last plea from my heart, my heart / forevermore " is one of those heghtened memories I'll have forever...more

...we knew, we just knew...:bow:
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Holy smokes! I've got chills...

Maurice E said:
Hey, it's not my list - it's the fans'!
As for Nobody Loves Us, it's consistently voted as a favourite. In the big poll that I took the list from, it's in the top 20 (of nearly 200 Morrissey songs).
The problem is that it was only a b-side. Had it been a single, it would be getting played on radio stations and at indie discos across the land to this day!
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Precisely. It should be ubiquitous, like "Mack the Knife" or "Le Chant D'Amour." A classic.
 
Skylarker said:
Christian Dior.


Once, many years ago, I was playing this song while driving a friend home; a friend whose presence had for some time started to wear thin on me.

He started laughing, saying how ridiculous the lyrics were. I pulled over to the side of the road, we were about a mile and a half from his house.

"Listen man, I think you can walk the rest of the way. Take care."

True story.
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Seems fair enough. People have to be taught beauty. He's lucky you didn't reverse over him, 'accidentally'...
 
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Skylarker said:
Mozzer...is that you?!
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The World is full of crashing bores, I have Forgiven Jesus, I not Sorry, How can anybody know how I feel, and every song on Years of Refusal just flows into a master work.
Not the music but Morrissey just keeps getting better with age.
 
Maurice E said:
Hey, it's not my list - it's the fans'!
As for Nobody Loves Us, it's consistently voted as a favourite. In the big poll that I took the list from, it's in the top 20 (of nearly 200 Morrissey songs).
The problem is that it was only a b-side. Had it been a single, it would be getting played on radio stations and at indie discos across the land to this day!
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I agree. There are a number of Morrissey songs that I'm sure would be standards (or on their way to being) had they been released as singles. Since Everyday Is LIke Sunday, he seems reluctant to release the more mid-tempo or ballard-inclined numbers. I'm thinking of:

I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
Nobody Loves Us
Lost
Come Back To Camden
It's Not Your Birthday Anymore

Not underrated by many of the fans perhaps, but unknown and therefore overlooked by the public at large.
 
Orson Swells said:
I agree. There are a number of Morrissey songs that I'm sure would be standards (or on their way to being) had they been released as singles. Since Everyday Is LIke Sunday, he seems reluctant to release the more mid-tempo or ballard-inclined numbers. I'm thinking of:

I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
Nobody Loves Us
Lost
Come Back To Camden
It's Not Your Birthday Anymore

Not underrated by many of the fans perhaps, but unknown and therefore overlooked by the public at large.
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I hope I've changed my plea to guilty isn't overlooked. :)
It's a classic.

Sunny.
Black-Eyed Susan
Southpaw
Life is a Pigsty
 
Ammunition and Christian Dior, my favorite two Morrissey tracks.
 
Orson Swells said:
I agree. There are a number of Morrissey songs that I'm sure would be standards (or on their way to being) had they been released as singles. Since Everyday Is LIke Sunday, he seems reluctant to release the more mid-tempo or ballard-inclined numbers. I'm thinking of:
I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
Nobody Loves Us
Lost
Come Back To Camden
It's Not Your Birthday Anymore
Not underrated by many of the fans perhaps, but unknown and therefore overlooked by the public at large.
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I've never really understood the appeal of Camden. I think the clunky lyrics and the synth strings really put me off - there may well be a great tune in there somewhere.
But, yes, Birthday really would be a standard (and one of very few Morrissey songs that genuinely deserve the term). It's so frustrating that on the few occasions when he co-writes an absolute blinder, it's just left to languish in obscurity. Similarly, When Last I Spoke To Carol would've been all over the radio. The music is so catchy that you don't even have to like Morrissey to enjoy listening to it.
Lost is indeed also up there - musically it's a beauty. The lyrics are not spectacular but they're good enough.
I don't think that he's necessarily reluctant to release mid-tempo songs, he's just not very good at realising what his best songs actually are, musically, at the time (e.g. the nonsense of releasing Roy's Keen as a single and then removing it completely from the Maladjusted re-release).
 
The Smiths

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle
Well I Wonder

Morrissey

The Bed That Took Fire/At Amber
There Speaks A True Friend
You Must Please Remember
Oh Phoney (piano)
Sweetie Pie
East West
Girl Least Likely To
 
The thing with You Must Please Remember is, it's only ever appeared on the Dagenham Dave single, and never on any future compilation of re-release.

Only song in the catalogued to be so tucked away like that...
 
Ryan. said:
The thing with You Must Please Remember is, it's only ever appeared on the Dagenham Dave single, and never on any future compilation of re-release.

Only song in the catalogued to be so tucked away like that...
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I quite enjoy it myself. It's a good song :)
 
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