"Come Back To Camden": Prequel To "Back To The Old House"?

[carlos]

i made a mix CD for a friend the other day, and the theme of the CD was memory. i decided to include on the CD: "Come Back To Camden", & "Back To The Old House".

as i was listening to the latter, it occured to me that the two songs might very well be related. in Camden, the narrator is reflecting on a lost love, and describes a home, that one can presume the two once shared together. he is pining, longing, yearning to see this person again... and makes a desperate plea to "be good" if the person were ever to return.

"back to the old house" could be that other person's point of view.

"are you still there? or have you moved away?", we hear in "Back To The Old House". yes, the person is still there, waiting. but as fate will have it, the lost love vows: "i NEVER will" at the thought of going back.

like waiting for Godot, the Camden narrator painfully & tragically waits, unaware that his love has no intention of ever returning. he therefore waits "for evermore".

thoughts?

did Morrissey provide a clue by placing the word "back" in both titles?

[Let's Go Theo]

[Theo van Gogh Martyrs Brigade]

[Martin Maher]

Interesting point!
My take on "Camden" is that the song is about Mozzers one time best friend/PA/lover Jake Walters (who he shared a house in Camden with). I think the narrator shifts between Moz himself and his lost love (so that "I" sometimes means Moz and sometimes means the other person) and how they're both affected by meeting again after so long time... and the pain of understanding that nothing has changed, although nothing really is the same.

The fact that "Camden" was written over 10 years after "House" makes me believe that the aren't connected, although I think your poiting out of the similarities between the two songs is really interesting.

Am I making any sense? Probably not. Oh well.

> i made a mix CD for a friend the other day, and the theme of the CD was
> memory. i decided to include on the CD: "Come Back To Camden",
> & "Back To The Old House".

> as i was listening to the latter, it occured to me that the two songs
> might very well be related. in Camden, the narrator is reflecting on a
> lost love, and describes a home, that one can presume the two once shared
> together. he is pining, longing, yearning to see this person again... and
> makes a desperate plea to "be good" if the person were ever to
> return.

> "back to the old house" could be that other person's point of
> view.

> "are you still there? or have you moved away?", we hear in
> "Back To The Old House". yes, the person is still there,
> waiting. but as fate will have it, the lost love vows: "i NEVER
> will" at the thought of going back.

> like waiting for Godot, the Camden narrator painfully & tragically
> waits, unaware that his love has no intention of ever returning. he
> therefore waits "for evermore".

> thoughts?

> did Morrissey provide a clue by placing the word "back" in both
> titles?