Morrissey A-Z: "The Boy Racer"

BookishBoy

Well-Known Member



Next up in the A-Z is "The Boy Racer" (appearing alphabetically as "Boy Racer, the) - the second single from Southpaw Grammar. What do we think of this one?
 
I’ve liked this on first hearing it and remain to do so to this day. It’s criminal that a Perth outing in 2011 aside, it’s not had a live run our since 99. :swear - a modern day tragedy
 
Love the drama of it.

Also he's very cute in the video.
 
It goes on a bit, but it’s a great stomper. Raucous, bawdy, brutish, yet not without a nice vocal melody. Wouldn’t put it on my Mozzer top 50, but still.
 
Great lyrics, minimum effort, maximum effect, typical Morrissey.

It's a decent tune, too. A good single.

However, this...

is entirely superior and deserving of its own release. Suppose Morrissey thought so too but then he went "Ah no, we're gonna kill this pretty thing" and buried it deep in the vault.
 
In the days where you'd rush to be frisked :)
Think the video didn't need the triple dose of Eastenders wedged in to kind of go along with the theme.
O'Brien must have contacts at Borehamwood.
The strobing is a bit much at times too.
The two part single was a good idea, but really needed something more than live tracks.
They're from a great gig, but 1995 could have done with a full live album to capture the zeitgeist and The Boy Racer could have done with some new tracks.
Given the harder 'edge' to Southpaw - this sits well on the album and I enjoyed hearing it live.
Regards,
FWD.
 
It fine but it doesn’t do much for me. Energetic and catchy enough but it feels slight. There’s not much in the lyrics I’m interested in and i don’t like the go though oh bit
 
If this song were surrounded by a few deep and meaningful tracks on Southpaw Grammar, I might have more positive feelings towards it. Unfortunately it is another overly long and lyrically uninteresting song on an overly long and lyrically uninteresting album.

Musically it is reasonable, but not exactly noteworthy and certainly not interesting enough to merit its length. It is about 90 seconds too long and everything on that LP was stretched ridiculously.

The video is a little embarrassing due to Morrissey's attempts to look tough and Alain's attempts to look like a rock god.

In the poll on the other board it ranked 89 from 264 solo songs.
 
It fine but it doesn’t do much for me. Energetic and catchy enough but it feels slight. There’s not much in the lyrics I’m interested in and i don’t like the go though oh bit

Agreed. Marks the beginning of the age of repetition in Morrissey songs - ad nauseum. I just felt like he began to not give it his all - lyrically - in each and every song.

But having said that, I admit it is catchy.
 
Agreed. Marks the beginning of the age of repetition in Morrissey songs - ad nauseum. I just felt like he began to not give it his all - lyrically - in each and every song.

But having said that, I admit it is catchy.
That's true up to a point, but I think the warning signs were there back in 1992. I felt that - with the exception of The More You Ignore Me - Morrissey almost forgot how to write singles at this point and over that 5 year period you had the likes of We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful, Fatty, Dagenham Dave, Alma Matters and this one. All very repetitive and none of them with much lyrical substance.

2004 brought a big improvement, thankfully.
 
Love this song, and 'Southpaw' as a whole. A bold, muscular move, and a nice contrast to the fluffy softness of 'Vauxhall'. All you haters can chow down on my bulbous salutation.
 
The thing about Boy Racer was, it was written at a time when the boy racer was the common enemy of all lads with even a strand of panache in their pursuit of the young ladies of the day.

It was an incredibly current observation of youth culture from a man who was increasingly moving away from ever being exposed to youth culture.
 
Central has 2 new posts - a Nancy Sinatra picture & a bloke in a Moz t-shirt plus a video with a Moz reference.

I'm in M & S so a bit awkward to post it.
 
Central has 2 new posts - a Nancy Sinatra picture & a bloke in a Moz t-shirt plus a video with a Moz reference.

I'm in M & S so a bit awkward to post it.

Is that Marks & Spencer? Do they sell little cucumber sandwiches there?
 
The thing about Boy Racer was, it was written at a time when the boy racer was the common enemy of all lads with even a strand of panache in their pursuit of the young ladies of the day.

It was an incredibly current observation of youth culture from a man who was increasingly moving away from ever being exposed to youth culture.

Well, that's enough for me as well! I was not aware of the degree of young British speeders out there at that time.

Although placing the name of your girlfriend on one's window screen shoulda been a clue for me on Dagenham Dave!
 
Rogan mentions this



We used to sing this in primary school. 😆 I'd completely forgotten about it.
 
This was clearly Martine McCutcheon's greatest moment. Moz ought to redo this with her as a duet at some point.
 
Tags
morrissey a-z
Back
Top Bottom