What is I Won't Share You about?

i dont bother analyzing songs cause i sometimes think that the writers themselves dont even know what they're about, they just like the bouquet all the words and lines create. so if one or more lines means something to me than that's good enough for me.

songs are not poems. they dont have to have the same sort of internal integrity and inevitability as great works of art.
He actually does keep a notebook of lines from different things -plays, movies, novels - that he goes to when writing songs, some lines end up in the songs, some end up as titles and they may mean nothing at all
 
He actually does keep a notebook of lines from different things -plays, movies, novels - that he goes to when writing songs, some lines end up in the songs, some end up as titles and they may mean nothing at all
yeah, it's cool. being a lyricist would be SO EASY compared to being a future nobel prize winning novelist
 
You give a lot of thoughtful analysis in responding to your opinions about the Smiths discography. And I figured, that it was likely, that you have been a fan since their inception.
I was too young for The Smiths the first time around but when I discovered them, I loved the aesthetic. All of Morrissey’s 50s/60s references, cultural touchpoints, obsessions, problems, his whole personality. I wanted to learn everything I could, so I absolutely ate up all that (interviews, books, etc) – fans here lovingly archived most of it - and I look at the music in that context. I was thrilled with the memoirs too.

Then I realise that it has been 40 years since The Smiths and there are new fans now, who are less obsessive and for whom that entire, very English Smiths ‘world’ is an alien entity – they are not interested in the books or gobbling up the kitchen-sink dramas, the context is lost and they judge these songs as if they fell from space. Songs and ideas that would have been ‘obvious’ in an earlier time become totally obscure. And I understand that’s inevitable but it baffles me, all the same, and I feel like there might be ‘older’ generations of fans who feel similarly. It makes me feel a strange sense of loss. Then I remember that Morrissey himself is 62 and still 'fixated' on his teenage world and what Manchester was like in 1974 and ... ugh, the passing of time.
 
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I was too young for The Smiths the first time around but when I discovered them, I loved the aesthetic. All of Morrissey’s 50s/60s references, cultural touchpoints, obsessions, problems, his whole personality. I wanted to learn everything I could, so I absolutely ate up all that (interviews, books, etc) – fans here lovingly archived most of it - and I look at the music in that context. I was thrilled with the memoirs too.

Then sometimes I realise that it has been 40 years since The Smiths, and there are new fans now who are less obsessive and for whom that entire very English ‘world’ is an alien entity – they are not interested in the books, or gobbling up the kitchen-sink dramas etc, the context is lost and they judge these songs as if they fell from space. Songs and ideas that would have been ‘obvious’ in an earlier time become totally obscure. And I understand that’s inevitable but it baffles me, all the same, and I feel like there might be ‘older’ generations of fans who feel similarly. It makes me feel a strange sense of loss. And then I also realise that Morrissey himself is 62 and yet still sort of 'fixated' on his teenage world and ... ugh, the passing of time.
the feeling of the songs is still the same even without the context. the first time i heard a smiths song--"this charming man"--the essence of all of that was there in it, and i knew what it was about, even if i couldnt articulate it. it's interesting learning about the background and picking apart this 'essence' and seeing all the components of it, everything that goes into it, but it's not necessary.
 
i just wanted to add my two cents cause i was bored! i dont think ive ever even heard the song! is it the song to that black and white video where moz and his dude squad are driving around in a car?
You're f***ed but you're great.

That would be My Love Life. dummy.
 
the feeling of the songs is still the same even without the context. the first time i heard a smiths song--"this charming man"--the essence of all of that was there in it, and i knew what it was about, even if i couldnt articulate it. it's interesting learning about the background and picking apart this 'essence' and seeing all the components of it, everything that goes into it, but it's not necessary.
Oh no, definitely not necessary - they're great pop songs that haven't aged, they stand alone. But I guess Smiths fans have this reputation for being notoriously obsessive and I always assumed it would be part of the package, to be hunting down the info. "This Night Has Opened My Eyes", for example - I've seen threads where fans discuss it as though Morrissey himself has become trapped in some unwanted-baby situation, without realising that the whole thing is A Taste of Honey put to music, or that "William..." follows the plot of Billy Liar, etc. Moz said that "Now My Heart is Full" is about growing up and finally draining all his reference points, which I understand, but it sort of means that The Smiths 'world' is ebbing away. It still means something to me.
 
I was too young for The Smiths the first time around but when I discovered them, I loved the aesthetic. All of Morrissey’s 50s/60s references, cultural touchpoints, obsessions, problems, his whole personality. I wanted to learn everything I could, so I absolutely ate up all that (interviews, books, etc) – fans here lovingly archived most of it - and I look at the music in that context. I was thrilled with the memoirs too.

Then I realise that it has been 40 years since The Smiths and there are new fans now, who are less obsessive and for whom that entire, very English Smiths ‘world’ is an alien entity – they are not interested in the books or gobbling up the kitchen-sink dramas, the context is lost and they judge these songs as if they fell from space. Songs and ideas that would have been ‘obvious’ in an earlier time become totally obscure. And I understand that’s inevitable but it baffles me, all the same, and I feel like there might be ‘older’ generations of fans who feel similarly. It makes me feel a strange sense of loss. Then I remember that Morrissey himself is 62 and still 'fixated' on his teenage world and what Manchester was like in 1974 and ... ugh, the passing of time.
You're 45-ish, hyper-intelligent, overweight, not inherently unattractive.
 
You're 45-ish, hyper-intelligent, overweight, not inherently unattractive.
Umm... ok?. Laughed at the last part, not sure how I'm meant to respond (or where you got some of those ideas, ha).
Am I supposed to guess some stuff about you now? :lbf:
 
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Oh no, definitely not necessary - they're great pop songs that haven't aged, they stand alone. But I guess Smiths fans have this reputation for being notoriously obsessive and I always assumed it would be part of the package, to be hunting down the info. "This Night Has Opened My Eyes", for example - I've seen threads where fans discuss it as though Morrissey himself has become trapped in some unwanted-baby situation, without realising that the whole thing is A Taste of Honey put to music, or that "William..." follows the plot of Billy Liar, etc. Moz said that "Now My Heart is Full" is about growing up and finally draining all his reference points, which I understand, but it sort of means that The Smiths 'world' is ebbing away. It still means something to me.
im confused about what you mean by the smiths world. do you mean the physical external world as portrayed in kitchen sink dramas? or do you mean the collage of things referenced by the smiths? because the latter has no external reality and can only exist in anyone who is aware of it, so so long as you're still aware of it it sill exists.

im notoriously obsessive in general, but ive never been that invested in smiths tidbits. i do enjoy learning about things on the way, and ive learned about a lot of interesting things and people from morrissey, and it's cool to see someone with so many and variable interests like myself, but i would never actively try to seek out information on them. i dont know why. i think i only do that when i find something a bit 'haunting', like david bowie. i want to figure out what it is that haunts me, as though the answer will contain the very secret to life itself. but i dont feel that way about the smiths. for me, being a smiths fan, however uninvested i may be, is just a cool club to belong to, and i sort of like that the references are a bit obscure to the general public.
 
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