What are the new songs about?

[ThePoliticalRevolution]

Maybe the entire album is inspired by a singular James Baldwin poem. A poem which reminds me very much of my shy darling, M.


The giver

If the hope of giving
is to love the living,
the giver risks madness
in the act of giving.

Some such lesson I seemed to see
in the faces that surrounded me.

Needy and blind, unhopeful, unlifted,
what gift would give them the gift to be gifted?
The giver is no less adrift
than those who are clamouring for the gift.

If they cannot claim it, if it is not there,
if their empty fingers beat the empty air
and the giver goes down on his knees in prayer
knows that all of his giving has been for naught
and that nothing was ever what he thought
and turns in his guilty bed to stare
at the starving multitudes standing there
and rises from bed to curse at heaven,
he must yet understand that to whom much is given
much will be taken, and justly so:
I cannot tell how much I owe.

James Baldwin

 

[cat on a train]

yeah, I can catch the similarity, and I guess in that way M would be repeating himself.

Don’t mind being wrong, but I’m gonna risk the speculation that the song The Night Pop Dropped may be about Iggy, for various reasons.

i hear you. Sounds very reasonable to me. Pop dropped by, and Cassady dropped dead.

 

[Mimi Ramone]

Yeah, I was curious for that one, too, does it sound even more smithy than Rebels? It was also written years before the letter. But maybe it had been a long way coming...

I stumbled upon this picture of Johnny right after the Smiths with Electronic where he had a fake tattoo drawn on his arm saying "Ex-Smith - '82-87" so maybe that's really the sentiment for the title "I Ex-Love You" with "a certain Smith-sound". Shame we can't hear it but maybe he plays some of the remaining songs on the upcoming concerts?

 

[j*e*t]

I stumbled upon this picture of Johnny right after the Smiths with Electronic where he had a fake tattoo drawn on his arm saying "Ex-Smith - '82-87" so maybe that's really the sentiment for the title "I Ex-Love You" with "a certain Smith-sound". Shame we can't hear it but maybe he plays some of the remaining songs on the upcoming concerts?

Good point about Johnny. I'm reading List of the Lost again, and just after being let down by the new team member the boys visit Harri's grave and Justy tells him he loves him, and there follows a passage in the novel on ageing that includes the phrase 'Unsown, the I-ex-love you yatter becomes a nightclub act of yesteryear gags...' It seems to be connecting the true friendship of youth with the failure to become a grown man, although I find it somewhat confusingly expressed. Perhaps someone else can explain it more clearly.

 

[goinghome]

Good point about Johnny. I'm reading List of the Lost again, and just after being let down by the new team member the boys visit Harri's grave and Justy tells him he loves him, and there follows a passage in the novel on ageing that includes the phrase 'Unsown, the I-ex-love you yatter becomes a nightclub act of yesteryear gags...' It seems to be connecting the true friendship of youth with the failure to become a grown man, although I find it somewhat confusingly expressed. Perhaps someone else can explain it more clearly.

BookishBoy posted an interesting review about List of the Lost a while back, which I've been meaning to peruse properly since spotting it- https://www.morrissey-solo.com/threads/scholarly-article-about-list-of-the-lost.149575/

Maybe it'll shed some light? As others mention, Many Icebergs Ago may have an environmental aspect, considering stories like this about glaciers melting fast than predicted - https://www.irishtimes.com/wires/gu...rned-as-antarctic-sea-ice-reaches-record-low/

More mundane concerns will probably come into it too, recalling 'from the Ice Age to the Dole Age' : )

 

[j*e*t]

BookishBoy posted an interesting review about List of the Lost a while back, which I've been meaning to peruse properly since spotting it- https://www.morrissey-solo.com/threads/scholarly-article-about-list-of-the-lost.149575/

Maybe it'll shed some light? As others mention, Many Icebergs Ago may have an environmental aspect, considering stories like this about glaciers melting fast than predicted - https://www.irishtimes.com/wires/gu...rned-as-antarctic-sea-ice-reaches-record-low/

More mundane concerns will probably come into it too, recalling 'from the Ice Age to the Dole Age' : )

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I remember reading the thread and the scholarly article at the time and it was helpful up to a point. I suppose what I am really wondering is whether the novel's context for the particular phrase 'I ex-love you' sheds any light on its meaning. If, say, there is in some sense an allegory for the break-up of The Smiths in the downfall of the track team, where does ex-love fit in, as by the end of the novel the boys have all died without having stopped loving each other beforehand. There are a few passages in the novel that I don't really understand, and this just happens to be one of them. Of course, it might have no bearing on the new song and nothing really to do with The Smiths but it is interesting to me that this phrase has been re-used by Morrissey. Perhaps we will soon hear the song live and all will become clear!

 

[Mimi Ramone]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I remember reading the thread and the scholarly article at the time and it was helpful up to a point. I suppose what I am really wondering is whether the novel's context for the particular phrase 'I ex-love you' sheds any light on its meaning. If, say, there is in some sense an allegory for the break-up of The Smiths in the downfall of the track team, where does ex-love fit in, as by the end of the novel the boys have all died without having stopped loving each other beforehand. There are a few passages in the novel that I don't really understand, and this just happens to be one of them. Of course, it might have no bearing on the new song and nothing really to do with The Smiths but it is interesting to me that this phrase has been re-used by Morrissey. Perhaps we will soon hear the song live and all will become clear!

Thank you for pointing out. It's intriguing that he already used that exact phrase and also in the context of the novel, which is often seen to be related to the Smiths' story. I've only read it once. Do you know on which page that is?

 

[goinghome]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I remember reading the thread and the scholarly article at the time and it was helpful up to a point. I suppose what I am really wondering is whether the novel's context for the particular phrase 'I ex-love you' sheds any light on its meaning. If, say, there is in some sense an allegory for the break-up of The Smiths in the downfall of the track team, where does ex-love fit in, as by the end of the novel the boys have all died without having stopped loving each other beforehand. There are a few passages in the novel that I don't really understand, and this just happens to be one of them. Of course, it might have no bearing on the new song and nothing really to do with The Smiths but it is interesting to me that this phrase has been re-used by Morrissey. Perhaps we will soon hear the song live and all will become clear!

An unreleased BOT track. I'd say you're right, or close, since the term is not in common usage at all, while of course hearing the song will decide it. Enjoy the rest of List of the Lost : )

 

[j*e*t]

Thank you for pointing out. It's intriguing that he already used that exact phrase and also in the context of the novel, which is often seen to be related to the Smiths' story. I've only read it once. Do you know on which page that is?

Page 93 in my copy (Pengin paperback).

 

[Famous when dead]

"No claims made on the body, but the poetry of true friendship looked down on the juvenility of mannishly boyish fumblings which could only appear in so many juvenescent permutations before it all becomes so predictably cubbish and the grown man appears ungrown after all, and vulnerable and unfinished; virginal at 50, fallow at 60. Unsown, the I-ex-love-you yatter becomes a nightclub act of yesteryear gags, a bed forever too neatly made, tripped up by dated 20th Century Fox 1940s dialogue, as 25-year-olds who weren’t even born at the time when you were already sick of it all now looked over at you and smiled a nod of compassionate pity."

FWD.

 

[Mimi Ramone]

Ah, found it. Thanks to both of you!

 

[ThePoliticalRevolution]

theres gonna be at least one song about his fondness for orange cakes. i'd bet my life on it. ok, i maybe i dont wanna do that. but i think im gonna be right.

 

[Ryan]

BookishBoy posted an interesting review about List of the Lost a while back, which I've been meaning to peruse properly since spotting it- https://www.morrissey-solo.com/threads/scholarly-article-about-list-of-the-lost.149575/

Maybe it'll shed some light? As others mention, Many Icebergs Ago may have an environmental aspect, considering stories like this about glaciers melting fast than predicted - https://www.irishtimes.com/wires/gu...rned-as-antarctic-sea-ice-reaches-record-low/

More mundane concerns will probably come into it too, recalling 'from the Ice Age to the Dole Age' : )

On the topic of that, scroll here:

Arctic sea ice decline - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

And watch that video on the right from 1984 to 2016. The difference from then to 2016 is scary. Then you remind yourself 2016 was 7 years ago.

 

[Mimi Ramone]

So with the Graceland gig I think we can safely expect as already suspected that "Suspicious Minds" indeed will be a cover.

 

[Mayfly]

So with the Graceland gig I think we can safely expect as already suspected that "Suspicious Minds" indeed will be a cover.

I think that was already clear from the song credits posted in another thread.
It just means we are more likely to hear this cover. And I was just happy that his latest run of gigs didn’t include any covers.

 

[YourArse'n'All]

I thought that about "I Ex-Love You", which sadly we'll probably never hear now. Supposedly it has 'that unmistakeable Smiths sound.'

Oh how I wish we could get to listen to this one.

 

[YourArse'n'All]

I stumbled upon this picture of Johnny right after the Smiths with Electronic where he had a fake tattoo drawn on his arm saying "Ex-Smith - '82-87" so maybe that's really the sentiment for the title "I Ex-Love You" with "a certain Smith-sound". Shame we can't hear it but maybe he plays some of the remaining songs on the upcoming concerts?

That's really interesting!

 

[Mimi Ramone]

I think that was already clear from the song credits posted in another thread.
It just means we are more likely to hear this cover. And I was just happy that his latest run of gigs didn’t include any covers.

Yeah, but didn't they mess up the credits so there was slight chance that it's a new song? Anyway I'm not to fond of him covering either, but that's just out of personal preference. But looking at no "Paris" in Paris he probably won't even play that at Graceland but in Israel or something ^^

 

[Famous when dead]

Yeah, but didn't they mess up the credits so there was slight chance that it's a new song? Anyway I'm not to fond of him covering either, but that's just out of personal preference. But looking at no "Paris" in Paris he probably won't even play that at Graceland but in Israel or something ^^

Post in thread '"New Recording." (February 20, 2023)' https://www.morrissey-solo.com/threads/new-recording-february-20-2023.150709/post-1987506019
Regards,
FWD.

 

[Mimi Ramone]

The songs are:

The Night Pop Dropped - already played live
Zoom Zoom The Little Boy
Boulevard
Headache
Without Music the World Dies - already played live

Suspicious Minds - probably an Elvis cover
Notre-Dame
Many Icebergs Ago
Happy New Tears
The Monsters of Pig Alley
And from BOT:

Ha Ha Harlem
My Funeral
Diana Dors
I Ex-Love You

I'm still curious. What songs are you guys most curious about and why?