The Songs That Saved Your Life Is Shit.

Am I the only person to think this? I skipped through it at a local Borders then bought it on an impulse buy, then wept through it, where Uberfan Bore Goddard did things like try to say Morrissey had predicted the Hacienda gun violence with Death of a Disco Dancer. My fave bit was when he wrote down the chords for an unreleased Smiths song, as if writing them down would help us understand what it actually sounded like or something. Ridiculous. He can shove that Mozipedia up his bahookey; there's only so much pedantic trivial crap one man can take.

And yet, I am a glutton. I bought Morrissey: The Pageant of His Bleeding Heart and have yet to read it. I genuinely think it will be terrible, but got it with part of a $25 gift card, so at least I didn't waste my own cash on it. I just very briefly flicked through it and it looks pretty academic and lame, as I suspected it might though I had no samples to go from. It's no surprise that Morrissey/Smiths fans bring out the most books, I would imagine, of any musician's fanbase, cos they're the most bookish and shut-in and have too much time on their hands. But when a line like "Oh my sacred one" from What Difference Does it Make is misinterpreted as "I'm a sacred one," which makes no sense in the context of the song text...you know you're onto a loser. And if you care to argue the toss with me on that one...I don't give a toss. The world carries on regardless; I can see past all that shite. And arguing about shite like that...makes you like the authors in question and this is to be avoided at all costs.
 
It's a good book if you only paid a fiver for it in HMV (like I did) but I probably wouldn't be so kind if I'd paid full price.

Still, it's better than Mr Rogan's 'Morrissey-The Albums'
 
I've bought songs that saved your life but have yet to even look at it, not because I think it'll be crap, just not had much time. I expest it to be good from what I've from other people. I've only been on here for 1 day but I get the inpression that bill poster just wants to cause arguments for no appart reason.
 
Y'know what's annoying about Bill Poster? It's not his threads, it's the 1,2,3,4,5 etc etc posts along the lines of 'what a dickhead' before someone bothers to type a worthwhile response.

How about in response to a thread called 'Songs That Saved Your Life Is Shit', you respond with 'I agree' or 'I disagree' & then explain your reasons.

Name calling is just wasting the muscles that connect your fingers to the rest of you.

Anyway, Songs That Saved Your Life isn't shit, it's very interesting. Now The Severed Alliance, that truly IS shit. If I'd wanted to read about the complete history of Ireland, I'd have bought a book called The History Of Ireland.

What I'm waiting for is a well researched book, featuring interviews with all the key players, for the albums that make up Mozzer's solo career. And don't point me towards Mozipedia because if it doesn't mention Jo Slee (and it doesn't) then it is incomplete. If Goddard finishes it, I'll buy it.
 
Y'know what's annoying about Bill Poster? It's not his threads, it's the 1,2,3,4,5 etc etc posts along the lines of 'what a dickhead' before someone bothers to type a worthwhile response.

There's plenty of threads where people discuss fully. But BP is obviously attempting to stir the shit. Reading BP gets dull after a while. Predictable, and sadly limited in ambition.

How about in response to a thread called 'Songs That Saved Your Life Is Shit', you respond with 'I agree' or 'I disagree' & then explain your reasons.

Name calling is just wasting the muscles that connect your fingers to the rest of you.

Anyway, Songs That Saved Your Life isn't shit, it's very interesting. Now The Severed Alliance, that truly IS shit. If I'd wanted to read about the complete history of Ireland, I'd have bought a book called The History Of Ireland.

What I'm waiting for is a well researched book, featuring interviews with all the key players, for the albums that make up Mozzer's solo career. And don't point me towards Mozipedia because if it doesn't mention Jo Slee (and it doesn't) then it is incomplete. If Goddard finishes it, I'll buy it.

Well, that about wraps it up. Thanks for putting me straight.
 
I've bought songs that saved your life but have yet to even look at it, not because I think it'll be crap, just not had much time. I expest it to be good from what I've from other people. I've only been on here for 1 day but I get the inpression that bill poster just wants to cause arguments for no appart reason.

I'm new here too and his review made me think twice about paying full price for it. Thanks BP. :thumb:
 
"Predictable, and sadly limited in ambition."

What the f*** IS my ambition? If you're talking about my life's ambition, it doesn't involve this place much, if at all, and I just say what I feel and like. Take it or leave it. I believe what I said here. Others don't. So what. I still unfortunately bought and read the stupid f***ing book and can say what I feel. Know what I thought was shit? How Goddard says he had interviews and info about the band he never stuck into my edition. Which means he withheld it on purpose to milk Smiths fans further down the line, meaning he never provided the best book he could when I bought it. For which the sad obsessive prick can suck my prick; know I sure as shit will never buy another edition. And I know many people here don't want to stir the pot, or say what I say, but I have no particular affiliation to anybody or anything here and so can speak as freely as I want without caring if I annoy a dolt like the author.

I liked The Severed Alliance. The bits about Ireland explain some of Morrissey's lyrical ("A rush and a push and the land we stand on is ours") and genetic makeup.

f*** it.

Sigh.
 
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The Songs That Saved Your Life is one of the few truly essential Smiths guides. I wasn't at all impressed with The Severed Alliance- that's not being sycophantic, I just thought it was boring and badly written...
 
Know what I thought was shit? How Goddard says he had interviews and info about the band he never stuck into my edition.

Source?

If you read Goddard's introduction to the second edition, he quite explicitly states that permissions for new interviews were granted AFTER the first edition was published and he also discovered various errata that he wished to correct. Not to mention the fact that Johnny Marr allowed himself to be interviewed. If I'm writing a book about the songs of the Smiths, the closest thing to the gospel is Johnny's and Morrissey's take on things. Since the latter seems to be nigh-on impossible to obtain, Goddard got the next best thing. To me, that seems like an overwhelmingly worthy reason to publish a second edition.
 
Actually it gives a real insight into the Smiths, for a new fan, it's not for everyone though. :|

Um yeah and so does listening to the Smiths' music. But I guess if you need to know absolutely everything that isn't necessarily interesting then read away!

Apart from Shot by Linder Sterling and Peepholism by Jo Slee all of these so called books are quite lame. They usually cater to fans who need to suck the life out of every song and lyric which caters to the so called author's pockets :D

Reader feeds author :)
 
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I have to disagree:) As a guitar player who was really into the technical aspect of how the music was put together, where the ideas for the riffs etc. came from or how it happened in the studio, it really is a catalogue of every recording they ever made and was inspired by the book Revolution In The Head, a catalogue of all the Beatles' recordings. I think the only thing missing is input from Moz - it's no use trying to second-guess what the real meaning of the lyrics were, only he can explain that. Johnny's input was fantastic and he took it upon himself to correct the innacuracies that were published in the first edition - I think he said 75% of it was spot-on, something like that, so it must be at least correct from that point of view. I've read the book over and over and when the author talks about chord changes and things, I'm able to hear the song in my mind, so it does serve some purpose. I kind of understand that it's probably not interesting on a certain level to some people, but for me it's a pretty essential guide to their back catalogue, demos and so on. I'm glad Simon Goddard went to all that trouble to do it and it could be expanded vastly further if Morrissey were ever interested in contributing. I'm just really pleased that detailed things like this exist, that somebody cares enough to do it for the love of the music. :thumb:
 
....I bought a copy for 75 pence in the local "Music Zone" shop, ( before it closed.....sadly missed...) and Thought it was OK.....Maybe a bit TOO Much Guitar/technical orientated, ( No, I don't play...) but still well worth a sit on the bog with a ciggie and a coffee as a pastime.....
 
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