Morrissey A-Z: "My Love Life"

BookishBoy

BookishBoy

Well-Known Member



Our song for today is this Morrissey/Nevin composition, released as a single in September 1991 and reaching #29 on the UK singles chart.

What do we think?
 
I always struggle to explain why I love this song so much. Lyrically it's wafer-thin and musically it just ambles along being quite pretty but somehow those parts combine to create something magical. Maybe it's Morrissey's voice (again!) or the theme of unrequited love - but for whatever reason I never tire of hearing this one.
 
Captures that moment in time well.
Great hair, great gigs.
Adore this song.
FWD.
 
BookishBoy said:
I always struggle to explain why I love this song so much. Lyrically it's wafer-thin and musically it just ambles along being quite pretty but somehow those parts combine to create something magical. Maybe it's Morrissey's voice (again!) or the theme of unrequited love - but for whatever reason I never tire of hearing this one.
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I don’t want to get into boring and subjective notions of authenticity, but this song works because we believe Morrissey. We can instinctually feel the yearning and honesty in what he’s singing to us. It’s genuinely romantic.

Songs like “Kiss Me a Lot” —also wafer-thin lyrically with pleasant enough music ambling along— sound like shit because there’s nothing real behind it. A little bit can go a long way when it’s got soul.
 
This song has always been sentimental to me since it was filmed in my home town. The Mission Hotel, at 2:37, was where my family and I stayed when we first moved to Phoenix in 1969. But, more importantly...those side burns!
 
I have always liked this but it's still one of those songs that I wish Morrissey would have written more lyrics for. It is a heartfelt plea and the backing supports it nicely, but it still remains more a sketch of a song than a proper song. But it's still in a different league than KMAL that Verso mentioned. This was also released during a period in which I worried that Morrissey was giving up writing properly lyrics, since so many songs around that time (We Hate..., ...Fatty, The Loop) consisted only practically repeating one verse or so.
 
great song,ambles along nicely.great look M had in those days.wonder why the video was shot in black and white,doesnt really add much.
8 love/10 life.
 
was checking out the wiki to see how many songs from the letter M were left to cover and in the N section theres a song called nightmare,it has no lyrics,no info,no live history,wonder why its even there.
 
I hear it the same way as @BookishBoy. All the ingridiencies together make for an irresistible Morrissey single. Chrissie Hynde knows how to blend her voice with Morrissey's in a wonderful way. Another unsung classic with Nevin, Paresi and Bedders. Morrissey, looking gorgeous in the video, merely requests "A little something", the old seducer.
 
Really like this song, from the pianos to the vocals (that “give a little something” part is beautiful) and the odd musical matchup with the video. The scenes when Moz is in the car always seems to epitomise the feel of this song: just driving around, maybe going somewhere, maybe not. All of this sums up the gloriously thin lyrics and, by contrast, layered instrumental: I love the antiphonal conversation between the piano and guitar during the pre chorus. So, yes, another great “M” song, this one more evocative as a whole rather than just pieces.
8/10
 
skull said:
Soooooo ovverrated. A c side at best.
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There is a lot out there that's overrated. That doesn't mean its still pleasant and enjoyable. And this song is one of those for me. But then again I am a product of that age of Morrissey...
 
gordyboy9 said:
was checking out the wiki to see how many songs from the letter M were left to cover and in the N section theres a song called nightmare,it has no lyrics,no info,no live history,wonder why its even there.
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Reading ahead are you Gordy? Live in the moment!

But since you brought that one up - (Nightmare?) you have peaked my interests...
 
MrShoes said:
Reading ahead are you Gordy? Live in the moment!

But since you brought that one up - (Nightmare?) you have peaked my interests...
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i dont usually check whats coming up next but with my love life i knew there wasnt many of the letter m to go.im sure somebody on here will know more about it but it seems like a red herring.
 
Interesting detail re; the video from autobiog:

“We had traveled [sic] with Tim to Berlin to make the girly-gush Pregnant for the last time video, and then to Arizona for the self-damned My love life, where I am seen driving through the streets of suburban Phoenix. In fact, local police will not allow the process of driving whilst being filmed, or filming whilst driving, or breathing whilst living, because the economy turns on permits and taxes and unimaginable local county charges, with the revolving lie that all laws exist only in order to protect someone. The world is not ours. The earth is not ours. The car in the video is therefore hoisted onto an automated platform whereon the camera also sits. With all sense behind me, I grab the wheel and attempt to look natural as I drive at 10 mph on a deserted side street (as one quite naturally would).”
 
Interesting detail from wiki re; the track & single:

Morrissey: voice, Mark E. Nevin: guitars, Mark Bedford: bass, Andrew Paresi: drums, Chrissie Hynde: backing vocals

Note: Morrissey's recently recruited live band, Boz Boorer, Alain Whyte, Spencer Cobrin and Gary Day, are erroneously credited on the single sleeve.
 
gordyboy9 said:
i dont usually check whats coming up next but with my love life i knew there wasnt many of the letter m to go.im sure somebody on here will know more about it but it seems like a red herring.
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There are c.22 tracks which are considered 'rumour', of which 'Nightmare' is one.
 
When this was released John Peel had very positive things to say about it as guest reviewer in the NME (while also criticizing the previous few singles).

I like it, but it doesn't really sound like a hit and nobody should have been surprised when it didn't really set the charts alight. It would have been more suited to being an album track and is better than most of Kill Uncle.

In the poll on the Hoffman board it ranked 61st from 264 solo songs.
 
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