Moz Album Titles and the Meanings Behind Them

[Aly Panic]

I've read up on the meanings behind all of Morrissey's album titles but can't seem to figure out what "Morrissey, You Are the Quarry" means or "Ringleader of the Tormentors" signifies. Perhaps one of you would know?

"Bona Drag" This is palare slang.
'So bona to vada' means 'Good to see you'
Carry On star Kenneth Williams used to talk Palare on BBC Radio Shows.

"Vauxhall and I" Vauxhall is an area in S. London, next to Battersea. There is a 'Withnail & I' link too. Moz used to knock around that area, theres a pic of him in Battersea on the Bona Drag sleeve. He used a picture of Charlie Richardson, a S. London gangster, on the inner sleeve of 'Your Arsenal'

"Your Arsenal" Arsenal are a N. London football team, not a million miles from Camden. I don't think it's a pun on arses or liking arses.

Wasn't the "Quarry" a boxer or weightlifter from the 60's?

 

[Theo]

The N.M.E, again probably in the same article, claimed that Morrissey's flirtation with skinhead imagery was almost certainly 'a gay thing'.

Skinhead culture is homoerotic so that's not neccesarily a wild theory. I think it has more to do with his interest in working-class outsiders in general though. "National Front Disco" is a song that tries to empathize with a neo-nazi but not with approval for the mentality they've fallen into. It's similar to how the film Romper Stomper treats that one skinhead, the friend of Stoney Hando's who falls in love with the girl Stoney rejects when he sees her seizure. He's not all bad, he's just gotten caught up in some bad shit.

 

[Math Tinder]

Here are some more thoughts to join the many shades of meaning already evoked here.

Vauxhall + I - in addition to being an area of London, a subway station, a bar, etc, Vauxhall is also a make of car. Also, I've always thought Vauxhall + I was Morrissey's most shameless pun of a title, even moreso than Your Arsenal - 'vox, hall, and I'. If you're a singer, what else is there?

Southpaw Grammar - 'southpaw' means left-handed in several parlances/slangs/etc, and left-handed boxers are often called southpaws, but correct me if I'm wrong, coupling the word with 'grammar' is Morrissey's invention. I don't think 'southpaw grammar' is a term in boxing or in anything outside the Morrissey album?

You Are the Quarry - as many have pointed out, 'quarry' can mean 'prey'; it's also the name of a place where rocks, like limestone, are mined - a place where a gigantic whole is dug. I always enjoy the way the word also sounds like 'query', as in 'you are the question'. The specific phrase 'You are the quarry' comes from an untitled poem by the French-Lebanese poet Joseph Matar, which goes like this -

Somewhere,
far, far in the West,
in the mines of gold,
you are the quarry
whence I draw all the gold in the universe.
A quarry never exhausted,
fed by that river divine
whose name slips my mind...
At your feet,
all the world's riches
where the yellow metal gleams.
Fascinating quarry,
dazzling,
like a thousand stars

This night,
by the light of the moon I drown,
in the firmament of your eyes,
drunk with wine, drunk with the Spirit.
Helen, Marguerita, Astarte,
all goddesses...
all graces...
all mysteries...
you illumine my meditation
in this glory of what is holy.
Helen, Marguerita, Astarte,
like my dreams and my drunken delights,
you are pure and are sacred.
Bathed in moonlight we are united,
and in drunkenness I am enchanted.

The cosmic ocean
fill a corner in the ocean of my soul,
and their perfumed tides
explode on the shores of my heart....
We sail towards a posterity,
towards that invisible throne,
now empty,
where we shall sit in state.
Noble vessel,
bear me on thy course,
bear me to my own inner depths.

Terra Nostra

Planet Earth,
Planet Mother,
Planet Love,
Men transform you,
and women adorn you.

Generations like the waves
leave foam in their wake;
each telling its history,
each bearing its mystery,
they follow each other,
turned to the future
but with deep magic secrets
that long will abide.

Planet Earth,
Planet Mother,
Planet Love,
Safe keep my secret
and whisper in silence
the tale of my loves.


^I know that appears to be two poems, but evidently, it's all one poem with common themes.

Ringleader of the Tormentors - I'm still engaged in fierce+pleasant battle with that title. From Morrissey's press remarks, it looks like he thought it up without reference to any outside sources - just an idea he had. But ever since the title was announced, I've felt so oddly convinced that I've read that phrase, too, in a poem someplace - a translated poem, even, maybe, considering the bizarre arrangement of words. I'm not saying Morrissey read such a poem himself; he could have easily written the same phrases without having noted them elsewhere... but still, I swear, there's a wider context for those words, whether or not Morrissey sees it, and despite the fact that I dont yet. Who knows. I'll keep trawling through obscure translated poetry and maybe I'll discover something at some point.

I could talk on this topic for ages, but will spare you.


love
math+

 

[spectral hand]

Southpaw Grammar - 'southpaw' means left-handed in several parlances/slangs/etc, and left-handed boxers are often called southpaws, but correct me if I'm wrong, coupling the word with 'grammar' is Morrissey's invention. I don't think 'southpaw grammar' is a term in boxing or in anything outside the Morrissey album?

I see the title "Southpaw Grammar" in two, related ways. In both senses, "southpaw" seems to me to refer to a left-handed boxer, as Math says ... this makes sense given Morrissey's infatuation with boxing at the time ("Boxers", the "Southpaw Grammar" album cover, and so on).

But "grammar" appears to have two meanings:

(1) "grammar" = the system of rules in a language. So, southpaw grammar would mean something like: using violence as your language or means of communication, or dealing with people through aggression rather than reasoned argument. A logical progression from "Viva Hate", in a way.

(2) "grammar" = secondary school, in the UK. For example, a school not far from here is Maidstone Grammar, in Kent. This would then make the title mean something like "the school of hard knocks" - a place where you're brought up to be violent. This of course ties in perfectly with "The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils", appropriately enough ... and earlier works such as "The Headmaster Ritual". There was an interview from the time of the album's release where Morrissey basically said that this was what the album's title means ... wish I had a copy of that interview now!

I think these two meanings are both valid and complementary. It's a play on words, and a great title, I think.

 

[Math Tinder]

But "grammar" appears to have two meanings:

(1) "grammar" = the system of rules in a language. So, southpaw grammar would mean something like: using violence as your language or means of communication, or dealing with people through aggression rather than reasoned argument. A logical progression from "Viva Hate", in a way.

Yes, indeed, OR: the 'southpaw grammar' literally consists of words written on a page, by a lefty. ('Southpaw' can mean 'lefty' outside of boxing too). If we were feeling a bit associative, we also might say things like 'southpaw grammar' is the left-handed playing of an instrument, as musical notation has its own grammar. Or etc etc.

And the grammar school reference makes perfect sense too, of course. Brilliantly evocative album title.

love, math+

 

[Theo]

'vox, hall, and I'. If you're a singer, what else is there?

Clever! Never thought of that.

Southpaw Grammar - 'southpaw' means left-handed in several parlances/slangs/etc, and left-handed boxers are often called southpaws,

Calling lefties southpaws first came from baseball. It's because most ballparks put home plate to the west so batters don't have the setting sun in their eyes. That puts a lefty pitcher's arm south. This has nothing to do with Morrissey's album 'Southpaw Grammar," which refers to lefty boxers and means the school of hard knocks, but baseball rules over all other sports and I try and work it in whenever I can. (C.C. Sabathia is Cleveland's best southpaw and he shut out the Mariners yesterday - woo woo!)

Ringleader of the Tormentors...I swear, there's a wider context for those words, whether or not Morrissey sees it, and despite the fact that I dont yet. Who knows. I'll keep trawling through obscure translated poetry and maybe I'll discover something at some point.

It's definitely not a phrase Morrissey invented. Back when the title was anounced people Googled and Yahooed it (if you did so now it would be harder to find instances that don't relate to Morrissey). If you go to this thread and scroll about halfway down you'll find some of the search results. It's used in descriptions of movies on DVD boxes, summaries of sci-fi TV show episodes, shit like that. Not the sort of stuff you're trawling, but proof it's a phrase Morrissey picked up rather than coined. So your trawlings may strike gold someday, or maybe he was just reading a Babylon 5 web site.