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+