Morrissey A-Z: 'All You Need Is Me'

This Charming Bowie

This Charming Bowie

Welcome to this knockabout world
Day 2... See yesterday’s threads for the first two songs in our Morrissey alphabet ('Action...' and '...Dykes'). Today’s song is 'All You Need Is Me' from Greatest Hits and Years Of Refusal (one of my personal favourite Moz albums). What do you think of it?

Good live version on here too:
FB3E4273-F18E-470B-B788-DF4039F11DE2.jpeg
 
I'm torn on this one. Musically it's dull - just bog standard slightly up-tempo alt-rock, whatever. Very little here for Morrissey to work with but he does a fairly good job with the vocal melody, particularly right at the end with "You don't like me but you love me; either way you're wrong" - which takes the song (very briefly) to another level. Lyrically it's quite funny, I think. Especially:

There's so much destruction
All over the world
And all you can do is complain about me.
 
I think the tune is average to good, but it's a really fun lyric. Quite underrated in terms of his single canon, IMHO.
 
I am kind of tired of songs that imitate the starting of an engine at the beginning. Probably heard this too often. I agree with Bookishboy that the extra spin at the end adds a necessary sparkle to the melody of the song.
That's also the point when the lyrical voice starts being carried away by the rapture of knowing that the other person's mental weakness is the foundation of his/her own intoxicating power trip of independence. I mean, Morrissey must've gotten real sick by all these old "fans" having turned into nagging housewives over the years. I think the fun part of the song is the "blame yourself"-attitude of the lyrical voice.
 
BookishBoy said:
I'm torn on this one. Musically it's dull - just bog standard slightly up-tempo alt-rock, whatever. Very little here for Morrissey to work with but he does a fairly good job with the vocal melody, particularly right at the end with "You don't like me but you love me; either way you're wrong" - which takes the song (very briefly) to another level. Lyrically it's quite funny, I think. Especially:

There's so much destruction
All over the world
And all you can do is complain about me.
Click to expand...
I think that, while the music is quite bog-standard rock, the intensity of the performances (throughout YOR) saves what could become bland Tobias arrangements.
His lyrics are also great on this track:
“Fate has just handed it to me - whopee” :)
 
born to mourn and yawn said:
I am kind of tired of songs that imitate the starting of an engine at the beginning. Probably heard this too often. I agree with Bookishboy that the extra spin at the end adds a necessary sparkle to the melody of the song.
That's also the point when the lyrical voice starts being carried away by the rapture of knowing that the other person's mental weakness is the foundation of his/her own intoxicating power trip of independence. I mean, Morrissey must've gotten real sick by all these old "fans" having turned into nagging housewives over the years. I think the fun part of the song is the "blame yourself"-attitude of the lyrical voice.
Click to expand...
His voice has just gotten better and better over the years (of refusal).
 
I really like this one a lot. It's fun for all the reasons mentioned already.

Musically it always reminds me of Echobelly's Can't Imagine The World Without Me, especially the beginning and bass line.
Not sure if others agree, but the similar title and the fact that Morrissey loved Echobelly makes me wonder if it's a coincidence.




"Me me me me me me me me me,
Me me me me me me me me"
 
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Great song, one of my favourites . Maybe even in my personal TOP 20 . I do like video too . Moz looks great in there .
it's still strange that they squeeze it on Refusal but ok you can get used to it. It is more suited to GH.
 
Mozzer1980 said:
Great song, one of my favourites . Maybe even in my personal TOP 20 . I do like video too . Moz looks great in there .
it's still strange that they squeeze it on Refusal but ok you can get used to it. It is more suited to GH.
Click to expand...

The video is really one of his best.

Short version, better quality:





Long version:

 
I don't enjoy this as much as most seem to, as it is Morrissey at his most self-obsessed. Obviously that wasn't a surprise by this point, but I much prefer some of the other songs on Years of Refusal.

Not a great choice of single imo and the kind of track that was always likely to be more popular with the hardcore fans than with the general music-buying public.
 
Great song, but it always slightly rankles me that Morrissey changed the original lyric of 'I was a small fat child in a council house', to 'welfare house' for the studio version. It gives the impression of pandering to an American audience and rewriting his own English roots.
 
Rememberin' hearin' this thing live on the Carson Daley show first.
It came out way before the record did and I listened to that live version plenty times.
Really liked the live version part "There was only one thing I ever dreeeeamed about".
 
The Wild Turkey said:
Rememberin' hearin' this thing live on the Carson Daley show first.
It came out way before the record did and I listened to that live version plenty times.
Really liked the live version part "There was only one thing I ever dreeeeamed about".
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It surfaced in mid 2007, and YOF eventually in Feb 09, after being delayed. It should have been released in 08.
Had a good innings as a live fixture as well, from its debut in 07, staying until 09, then resurfacing in 2014/2016/2018 and possibly a date or two since (not quite sure)
I’m a fan of this.
 
This Charming Bowie said:
Day 2... See yesterday’s threads for the first two songs in our Morrissey alphabet ('Action...' and '...Dykes'). Today’s song is 'All You Need Is Me' from Greatest Hits and Years Of Refusal (one of my personal favourite Moz albums). What do you think of it?

Good live version on here too:View attachment 67487
Click to expand...


"You bang your head against the wall..." Love it! He did this on Jools. Look it up.
 
I fondly remember the days when this was the worst Morrissey song I had heard. I didn’t know how lucky I was. Looking back, I kind of like it, and compared to some of the stuff he’s released since I f***ing love it. I did however like the 2007 live version right from the start. My feelings soured when the studio version was released.
 
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a-z all you need is me greatest hits morrissey -solo satellite of love years of refusal
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