JM in M lirycs

[Dan133269]

didn't Andy and Mike say they thought "I won't share you" was about Johnny?

 

[nightandday]

didn't Andy and Mike say they thought "I won't share you" was about Johnny?

Andy did. But that was just his impression. IMO it is highly unlikely. Apart from the title, why would it sound like it was about Marr?

"The note I wrote
as she read, she said:
Has the Perrier gone straight to my head
or is life sick and cruel, instead?"

 

[nightandday]

Now I'm not saying it is about Marr, but...




Considering Marr was pretty much managing the band for the last couple of years that could easilly be about the pressure Marr was under at the time and Moz wishing that he'd been more co-operative and helpful at the time.

Not saying that's true at all, but it's a possibility don't you think?

Of course it is, there are many possibilities in regards to almost every song. But it seems like people are always assuming that Morrissey's songs are about Marr - as if there have never been any other people in Morrissey's life. (And that's assuming that a song is about a specific person in the first place.) You would think that Morrissey never writes songs about anyone who wasn't in The Smiths or isn't famous enough.

 

[Christine]

"It was written with Johnny Marr in mind and it is the only song that I have written with him in mind, post Smiths. I saw him in the music industry being used and being pushed around and being manipulated and I felt I was in a situation and I thought, 'Look at me, look at you - it's the same, it's a mess and this is as far as we will go' which wasn't quite true in the end but at that moment it felt pretty despairing for both, I felt despairing for both of us but I was wrong."
Moz on Angel Angel

I love that song but after I read that quote I did sort of wonder, I mean if well I realise this is extremely cynical but if Moz used the song sort of to patronize Marr. It is a beautiful song thou so..

 

[floodzonex]

With the sucess of both Johnny and Morrissey at the time of release, I always gathered that "We Hate It When..." was written about Johnny or from Johnny's point of view about Morrissey

 

[mspendl828]

What success was Johnny having in 1992? This isn't me just being anti-Marr, I honestly don't know what was going on around that time for him.

And isn't that song about James?

 

[nightandday]

What success was Johnny having in 1992? This isn't me just being anti-Marr, I honestly don't know what was going on around that time for him.

And isn't that song about James?

I thought that song was about people in Manchester being envious of anyone who becomes successful... or rather, of Morrissey feeling that people are envious of him.

I remember this being mentioned when the Morrissey-James connection was discussed some time ago, but nobody explained why they thought that song was about them? Is there any source that backs it up?

 

[Kewpie]

Two things come to mind:

1 James had a chart success in 1992 (sitdown reached No.2)
2 James did cover the song at Glastonbury in honor of Morrissey who pulled out from the festival

Probably people thought that Morrissey was not happy seeing James' success, but they misunderstood about the song because there's no rivalry between Morrissey and James.

 

[mspendl828]

A lack of rivalry doesn't automaticly mean it isn't about James though; it could always be tongue-in-cheek?

 

[half a person]

Break up the Family?

 

[nightandday]

Break up the Family?

"The song 'Break Up The Family' is strongly linked with 'Suedehead' and 'Maudlin Street', that whole period in 1972, when I was 12, 13. 'Break Up' is about a string of friends I had who were very intense people and at that age, when your friends talk about the slim separation between life and death - and you set that against the fact that this period of your youth is supposed to be the most playful and reckless - well, if you utilised that period in a very intense way, well, that feeling never really leaves you."
Did you all consider the family a bad idea?
"No, we didn't feel that at all. The family in the song is the circle of friends, where it almost seemed, because we were so identical, that for anybody to make any progress in life, we'd have to split up. Because there was no strength in our unity. And that's what happened, we did all go our separate ways, and quite naturally came to no good. I saw one of them quite recently, and it was a very headscratching experience."
Because he'd turned into the complete opposite of what you all had been?
"No, not at all. Which is the confusion."
And your gang, were you outcasts, victimised by "The Ordinary Boys"?
"Yes, but half of it, I have to confess, was the effect of deliberate choosing. We chose to reject the normality of life, and be intense and individual."

http://motorcycleaupairboy.com/interviews/1988/songs.htm

 

[half a person]

"The song 'Break Up The Family' is strongly linked with 'Suedehead' and 'Maudlin Street', that whole period in 1972, when I was 12, 13. 'Break Up' is about a string of friends I had who were very intense people and at that age, when your friends talk about the slim separation between life and death - and you set that against the fact that this period of your youth is supposed to be the most playful and reckless - well, if you utilised that period in a very intense way, well, that feeling never really leaves you."
Did you all consider the family a bad idea?
"No, we didn't feel that at all. The family in the song is the circle of friends, where it almost seemed, because we were so identical, that for anybody to make any progress in life, we'd have to split up. Because there was no strength in our unity. And that's what happened, we did all go our separate ways, and quite naturally came to no good. I saw one of them quite recently, and it was a very headscratching experience."
Because he'd turned into the complete opposite of what you all had been?
"No, not at all. Which is the confusion."
And your gang, were you outcasts, victimised by "The Ordinary Boys"?
"Yes, but half of it, I have to confess, was the effect of deliberate choosing. We chose to reject the normality of life, and be intense and individual."

http://motorcycleaupairboy.com/interviews/1988/songs.htm

Ah, well, I'll sit down and be corrected then.

 

[floodzonex]

What success was Johnny having in 1992? This isn't me just being anti-Marr, I honestly don't know what was going on around that time for him.
QUOTE]


Electronic's first album and all the singles from it had just done quite well in both the US and UK. A couple years before that The The had put out their stunning "Mindbomb" record