Morrissey's verses catchier than choruses?

[Velvis]

Hi all, just wanted to celebrate my 100th post by starting my first thread.

Just an observation about Morrissey's songwriting:

Traditionally in pop music I would say that choruses are supposed to be more
catchy than verses.

That is to say the 'hook' is usually in the chorus.

However, when I find myself singing in the shower / car etc that the verses from Morrissey songs pop into my mind more readily:

i.e. "Lord these words I beg of you..."

also "I was driving my car, I crashed and broke my spine..."

another: "Pasolini is me..."

more: "Learn to love me, assemble the ways..."

I could go on...

Just wondered if this had occurred to anyone else or whether this is the most musically obscure, silliest thread ever?

 

[someofusisturningnasty]

Hi all, just wanted to celebrate my 100th post by starting my first thread.

Just an observation about Morrissey's songwriting:

Traditionally in pop music I would say that choruses are supposed to be more
catchy than verses.

That is to say the 'hook' is usually in the chorus.

However, when I find myself singing in the shower / car etc that the verses from Morrissey songs pop into my mind more readily:

i.e. "Lord these words I beg of you..."

also "I was driving my car, I crashed and broke my spine..."

another: "Pasolini is me..."

more: "Learn to love me, assemble the ways..."

I could go on...

Just wondered if this had occurred to anyone else or whether this is the most musically obscure, silliest thread ever?[/QUOTE]

Probably a combination of the two

I think with alot of Morrissey's stuff, there's no clearly defined chorus alot of the time. Therefore random (and often brilliant) lines tend to stand out more.

Aside from anything else he puts his heart and soul into his words and they tend to stick in our minds cuz they are just so damn good. Very few musicians have the ability to make a single line stand out so well.

 

[Scarlet1987]

Hi all, just wanted to celebrate my 100th post by starting my first thread.

Just an observation about Morrissey's songwriting:

Traditionally in pop music I would say that choruses are supposed to be more
catchy than verses.

That is to say the 'hook' is usually in the chorus.

However, when I find myself singing in the shower / car etc that the verses from Morrissey songs pop into my mind more readily:

i.e. "Lord these words I beg of you..."

also "I was driving my car, I crashed and broke my spine..."

another: "Pasolini is me..."

more: "Learn to love me, assemble the ways..."

I could go on...

Just wondered if this had occurred to anyone else or whether this is the most musically obscure, silliest thread ever?[/QUOTE]

Probably a combination of the two

I think with alot of Morrissey's stuff, there's no clearly defined chorus alot of the time. Therefore random (and often brilliant) lines tend to stand out more.

Aside from anything else he puts his heart and soul into his words and they tend to stick in our minds cuz they are just so damn good. Very few musicians have the ability to make a single line stand out so well.

Completely agree! It's the words that stick in my head. Yesterday I kept singing the end of 'the father who must be killed'. I find that a lot of Morrissey's songs don't tend to have a chorus, the words just all roll together like a poem.

 

[bored]

Traditionally in pop music I would say that choruses are supposed to be more
catchy than verses.

That is to say the 'hook' is usually in the chorus.

This is 100% true. It's part of the pop formula.

It doesn't surprise me that you find yourself singing verses over choruses people who have written songs for Morrissey often say he turns the verses into the chords, sings over bridges and basically defies a lot of the pop structures.

I think good example of this is Suedehead which a friend of mine who is a very experienced musician said that the reason this song was so good was because it was basically 3 choruses.

 

[Kewpie]

This is 100% true. It's part of the pop formula.

It doesn't surprise me that you find yourself singing verses over choruses people who have written songs for Morrissey often say he turns the verses into the chords, sings over bridges and basically defies a lot of the pop structures.

I think good example of this is Suedehead which a friend of mine who is a very experienced musician said that the reason this song was so good was because it was basically 3 choruses.

Two weeks ago Johnny Marr answered a question from audience at University of Salford that Morrissey always supplied vocal melody, which also explains that verses are very catchy and tuneful.