Morrissey A-Z: "You Should Have Been Nice to Me"

[BookishBoy]

Our song for today is this Morrissey/Boorer composition, unreleased for years but then included on the expanded release of Southpaw Grammar in 2009.

What do we think?

 

[Light Housework]

Our song for today is this Morrissey/Boorer composition, unreleased for years but then included on the expanded release of Southpaw Grammar in 2009.

What do we think?

Beautiful song.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

This is almost as good as it gets, when it comes to Moz ballads. Maybe it doesn’t reach the heights of “I’d Love To”, “ICMPTG” or “Trouble Loves Me”, to name a few, but it’s close enough. A stunning, simplistic arrangement and lyrics that go straight for your heart.

 

[Deleted member 30524]

Magical...
How the hell has this song never had a proper release?
And why did it make its debut on the minced up SG.
It’s full of feeling, pain and all the other horridness that makes for spectacular Moz derge fest...
I really love this song ....

Could it be a Christmas number 1 ?
Bet your bottom Dollar it could ..

 

[This Charming Bowie]

A soft, almost Sigur Ros before they existed, tune, especially with the small crescendo at the end. It’s pleasant, and builds in intensity as the composition progresses, and the addition of tambourine and synth strings make this an outlier in his discography: it definitely doesn’t sound much like the other songs he was releasing around the mid 90s. Moz sings with real passion, as usual.
The lyrics are thinly spread, but since I love this song’s deemed parent album, that’s not really a problem, as long as the music’s good. And here it’s fine, very dreamy, but not overly spectacular. That sums up my feelings about the track as whole: good, but doesn’t stick in your head that much.
7/10

 

[Light Housework]

My delusional take on this song:

The Drivel Thread

375lb of blubber won’t have been much fun either She didn't hurt me physically with her weight, but emotionally.

www.morrissey-solo.com

 

[Kostia]

An achingly beautiful song, sounds more like a Maladjusted/Vauxhall kind of song than Southpaw and that's a very good thing.

 

[Phranc & Open]

Very reduced and very personal. A bitter reckoning with Jake, another conclusion does not allow this dreamlike remnant of a bygone era. With more production from master Lillywhite a clear candidate for a planned softer Vauxhall successor. I like it a lot and was glad he got it out.

 

[SuedeMoz]

I like it, very much a 90's Morrissey track... and I mean that in a good way. It sounds more like a b-side than an album track, and I agree with @Phranc & Open ... with more effort and production it could have been a stellar album track... somewhere... perhaps on that V&I successor that we never got. 😥

 

[gordyboy9]

great song,travels along at a nice pace,words and music are great and his voice is upfront in the mix which i like.
9 kisses/10 touches.

 

[Mayfly]

I wonder if this track was ever really finished (production-wise) or just abandoned when it became clear that SG would take an entirely direction? Agree with Gregor Samsa, a very decent and touching ballad that could have been even better with additional production.

 

[Janice]

A feckin wonderful song.
I’m forever grateful it was pressed onto vinyl, albeit it only 10’, last year for RSD. It’s going to get a spin or three later. 🧡

 

[Eldritch]

An absolutely lovely song, both musically and lyrically. The true jewel of the Southpaw Grammar reissue. Somehow this has a latter-day a-ha vibe to it.

 

[Mozmar]

A truly beautiful, yet sad song, lyrics so full of pain & despair. Vocals amazing. Absolutely love it.
'You could have once just spoke in favour
You'd never need to ever touch me'
Stunner.

 

[Deleted member 30524]

A truly beautiful, yet sad song, lyrics so full of pain & despair. Vocals amazing. Absolutely love it.
'You could have once just spoke in favour
You'd never need to ever touch me'
Stunner.

Stop it .... I’m in bits 😭😭😭

 

[crotty32]

One of Morrissey's finest ballads,again it kills me that I will never hear this sung live.

 

[Flibberty]

A pleasant song, and it's superior to much of Southpaw Grammar, but I don't see it as a lost classic.

The overall self-pitying tone isn't really to my tastes and it's the kind of thing Morrissey could write in his sleep. It also feels a little unfinished with the anti-climactic, "You could have waited, you could have waited" ending.

In the poll on the Hoffman board it ranked 175th from 264 solo songs.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

One of Morrissey's finest ballads,again it kills me that I will never hear this sung live.

Yes. Could be a nice set closer.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

An achingly beautiful song, sounds more like a Maladjusted/Vauxhall kind of song than Southpaw and that's a very good thing.

Guess it just didn’t sound like a Southpaw song, and not the harder direction he wanted to take. Below an excerpt, from a French interview 1995 ...


Q: Is this trust what made Southpaw Grammar a more basic, more direct and less intimate album than Vauxhall And I ?

M: I didn't want to give birth to a sort of Vauxhall And I : Part Two. I was delighted by the original version. What's the use of trying to invent a sequel to it ? So I asked Steve Lillywhite, the producer, to work with me, explaining to him that I wanted to record a hard and solid album without any slow songs. I wanted to create for myself a new universe, more twisted, rougher.

Q: On this album you sound more distant, less lyrically involved.

M: It's certainly a good thing, isn't it ? I gave a lot with Vauxhall And I. If I had written, once again, very introspective lyrics it probably would have bored everybody.

 

[southpawcomprehensive]

One of my favourites. However it looked at the time, in 1995 he had this, Boxers, Sunny, Southpaw, Nobody Loves Us, A Swallow On My Neck… was it his best ever year?