…than with Kermit the Frog and Debbie Harry duetting on “Rainbow Connection”?
Category: Songs (Page 60 of 96)
They doth call him the Pope of Mope, and it’s a title he’s earned a hundred times over…and then some. Whilst fronting the Smiths in the mid-1980s, Morrissey quickly became known as the poster child for all those lonely teenagers who craved love and acceptance but were finding it hard to come by, and when the Manchester four-piece broke up in 1987, the majority of those morose music fans followed Mozzer to his solo career, where he further trumpeted his woe-is-me mentality. (C’mon, now: it’s such a hallmark of his work that even he makes fun of it sometimes!) Morrissey’s recording career has spanned almost 25 years, and although he’s been a staple of the UK charts – and of US college radio – for the majority of that time, there are plenty of his songs, both solo and with the Smiths, that can be readily classified as Deep Cuts.
A few samples…
“Work is a Four Letter Word,” The Smiths – Just Say Yes: Sire’s Winter CD Music Sampler
Does anyone else remember these great compilations that Sire Records used to release? They were awesome, particularly this first volume, which is as good a one-stop lesson on modern rock circa 1987 as you’re likely to find. In addition to tracks by Depeche Mode, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Ramones, and the Replacements, you’ll find the Smiths covering Cilla Black. Johnny Marr declared the recording of the song to be “the last straw” — and given that it was recorded during what would prove to be the Smiths’ final session, that’s apparently exactly what it was.
“Get Off the Stage,” Morrissey – Piccadilly Palare single
While it’s not exactly the albatross about Morrissey’s neck that the line “hope I die before I get old” is for the Who, you can understand why this goofy but fun diatribe aimed at aging rockers with limited musical palates isn’t pulled out more often. It’s a little risky for a man which such a recognizable sound to be crooning, “And the song that you just sang / It sounds exactly like the last one / And the next one / I bet you it will sound / Like this one.”
“Sorrow Will Come in the End,” Morrissey – Maladjusted
Yikes, dude! Bitter much? Essentially a spoken word piece, with Mozzer launching into a tirade against the results of a royalties battle with his former Smiths bandmate, Mike Joyce. “A man who slits throats has time on his hands,” sneers Moz, “and I’m gonna get you!” It’s so over the top that it’s a laugh — but not as funny as Joyce’s scoffing response to the lyrical threatening: “If Lemmy had written it, I might be concerned.” Ouch!
Check out the whole piece here, then stop back by and offer your opinions and / or alternate suggestions for the list!
Mixed July 10, 1993
Actually, the tape was called “So Fucking Special,” for reasons that will soon become clear for those who haven’t already figured it out. But I’m not that same young punk anymore, and decorum compels me not to lead a piece with an expletive. Drop one in the first line of the piece, sure. But the headline? That’s just crazy.
Side One
“Daddy’s Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car,” U2 (Zooropa)
In retrospect, the actual verses to this song are pretty flat, but hot damn, do I still love that intro and that backward bass line.
“In Yer Face,” 808 State (Ex:El)
To quote Jason Thompson, this album PWNZ. I always wanted to find an a cappella version of House of Pain’s “Jump Around” and lay it over top of 808’s “San Francisco.” If anyone can help me find that a cappella, I’d be forever in your debt.
“We Don’t Take/Hack/Charlie X,” Information Society (Hack)
Hack was one of the last records released before the sampling laws forced you to pay anyone and everyone you stole, which effectively killed sampling as an art form. You almost get the sense that they knew the window was closing when they made this song, because this song samples everyone, from James Brown, Beastie Boys and Digital Underground to Kraftwerk and Malcolm McLaren.
“Big Car (Limo Mix),” Severed Heads (Rotund for Success)
I had seen this record in stores for years, and I just knew that it was something that I would like Eventually, I found the 12” at a steep discount, and took the plunge. Now for the strange part: as much as I love this song – and I looooooove this song – I never sought out any of the band’s other stuff, though I’ve been wondering for years where that “All the way to the bottom, Maggie. You’ve made it!” quote came from.
“Thieves Like Us,” New Order (Substance)
The instrumental mix, thank you very much. Do you suppose the Human League contemplated a lawsuit for the song’s similarity to “(Keep Feeling) Fascination”? Speaking of the Human League…
“The Lebanon (extended version),” The Human League (Hysteria)
…and while we’re talking about songs that could have benefited from less singing, I will admit that I never realized how crap the lyrics to this song really were until much later. The music track, though, is fab, and the extended instrumental bits throughout confirm that.
“She Sells,” Roxy Music (Siren)
Most people have forgotten this, if they ever knew it, but Roxy Music used to rock, dude. Love that “Trampled Underfoot” bit right after the chorus.
“People Are Strange,” Echo & the Bunnymen (The Lost Boys Soundtrack)
I had recently upgraded this to CD from LP. Doors songs sound much better when they’re not performed by the Doors.
“Hayfever,” The Trash Can Sinatras (I’ve Seen Everything)
I am not joking when I say that I nearly fell out of the shower the first time I heard this song, I was so blown away. Years later, I joined an email list for fans of the Trash Cans, and one of those fans was…Will Harris. Yep, that’s how we met, for those keeping score at home.
“Sheila Take a Bow,” The Smiths (Louder than Bombs)
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“Ride (Moby’s Odessa Mix),” Soho (Thug)
Moby had done a crazy-ass remix of “Beat It” in 1992, so when I saw that he was working with my Smiths-sampling sistahs, I was intrigued. Imagine my surprise, then, when the track was actually smoothed out rather than ramped up. While no one would ever dance to it, something about that repeated line – which I never quite understood; is she saying “Now the voices fly you”? – hypnotized me. Years later, Moby would pull a similar ambient stunt with Blur’s “Beetlebum.” I was not as amused.
Side Two
“Creep,” Radiohead (Pablo Honey)
I made this tape after visiting my buddy Steve in Cleveland. This song was all over the place that summer, and Steve and I would just walk around imitating the chunk-chunk sound of Johnny Greenwood warming up his guitar for the chorus. I bought a CD single of “Creep” instead of the album because I was convinced that they would be a one-hit wonder, and that this would be all that I would ever need from the band. Huh.
“Hollywood,” World Party (Bang!)
When I made this tape, I wouldn’t have dreamt that one day I would be interviewing Karl Wallinger, World Party’s lead singer. But one day, I did, and he was the coolest.
“Goodnight Song.” Tears for Fears (Elemental)
I was a bit burned out on “Break It Down Again” by this time, so I opted for what I was positive would be the next big hit from the album. Huh.
“The Prisoner,” Howard Jones (Cross That Line)
This one may appear to be a little out of step with everything else, but keep in mind that HoJo released his awesome Greatest Hits album on June 29 of that year. Since I never bought Cross That Line, I was thrilled to finally have this song.
“Second to None,” Electronic (“Feel Every Beat” CD single)
I bought anything and everything associated with the first Electronic album, which meant the collecting of a bunch of crap remixes, a couple decent ones, and this great B-side.
“It Must Be Obvious,” Pet Shop Boys (“So Hard” CD single)
“We’re meant to be friends. That’s what it says in the script,” Neil Tennant said. I couldn’t help but think that he was telling me something, since I was dating someone that I had no business dating. “Everyone knows when they look at us / Because they do, it must be obvious,” he says in the chorus. I always projected that the rest of that sentence was, “It must be obvious that we don’t belong together.” I would date that girl for a total of six years.
“Walking in My Shoes (Random Carpet Mix),” Depeche Mode (“Walking in My Shoes” CD single)
Thanks to his work with Scritti Politti and Seal, I was all about William Orbit in the early ‘90s, and while I am still a huge fan of his Strange Cargo III album, it is now clear to me that everything this man will ever do will sound just like this.
“Cold as Stone,” a-ha (Memorial Beach)
Anyone who hasn’t heard a-ha since the glory days of “Take On Me” and “The Sun Always Shines on TV” will be shocked, shocked when they hear this. Eight minutes in length, with a pseudo-spaghetti western intro and outro and booming drums, this is not your mother’s a-ha. Of course, because it wasn’t their mother’s a-ha, no one cared, and the album stiffed. But they should have cared, damn it.
“UMF,” Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)
There are times when Simon LeBon is as subtle as a jackhammer. “I’m making love to the ultimate mind”? Gee, what ever could that ‘F’ in the title stand for? Still, as British faux-funk goes, this was a fun one, and I always wondered if this would have fared better as a follow-up to “Come Undone” than “Too Much Information” did.
“Deep Forest,” Deep Forest (Deep Forest)
Courtesy of my then-roommate Hope. I never realized until now how much that vocal sounds like Bjork.
“Future Love Paradise (Reprise),” Seal (Future Love EP)
I have at least one alternate version, and in some cases seven versions, of every song from Seal’s first album. This was the last piece to fall, and while this reprise isn’t earth-shattering or anything, it’s still pretty cool.
“Beauty Stab,” ABC (Beauty Stab)
I had a couple minutes of tape to fill, and while ABC’s “rock record” is generally frowned upon, I still dig it.
No one asked for it, but here it is, anyway: a new feature on ESDMusic which, hopefully, will become a regular reason for you to visit the site…provided, of course, that we can come up with enough material to maintain it. But, frankly, when you hear the premise, I think you’ll agree that with all of the music geeks we’ve got around here, that shouldn’t be an issue…
Borrowing on the same general concept as Bullz-Eye’s Mix Disc Monday, Flashback Friday will allow our writers to venture into the depths of their possibly-embarrassing personal histories by pulling out old mix tapes and writing about them. In theory, this should reveal a lot about where we were musically at the time we made the tapes; in reality, however, it may just indicate how limited our budget was at the time…or, at least, that’s what this tape of mine shows.
That’s right, as the person who came up with this idea, it’s only fair that I get the ball rolling, and lemme tell ya: I was attending Averett College in Danville, VA (go, Cougars!), and it was a real rarity for me to buy anything that wasn’t on its second or third markdown in the cut-out bin…and, believe me, you can tell.
Title: Greetings from Averett, Vol. 2
Date of creation: late March 1991 (approximate)
Side 1:
“Main Title / Rebel Blockade Runner,” John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra (Star Wars: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
I’ve always been of the mind that every mix needs to start off with something witty, clever, funny, or just, y’know, something memorable. Given that this was 1991 and we were on what would turn out to be a 16-year drought between new “Star Wars” films, beginning the tape with the familiar main titles from the original flick – now known as “Star Wars: A New Hope” – certainly qualified. Unfortunately, the title theme segues directly into another track, ”Rebel Blockade Runner,” and as a result, the whole thing ends up going on longer than most normal people would ever maintain interest. I mean, I love that soundtrack, and even *I* started to get bored. By the way, while I’ve attributed this to the actual “Star Wars” soundtrack, given my budget, I have to believe that this was much more likely taken from an el-cheapo recording done by, say, the Generic Philharmonic Orchestra…which means it’s almost certainly not John Williams conducting but, probably, his non-union Mexican equivalent. (Juan Williams?)
“Losing My Religion,” R.E.M. (Out of Time)
This is the track on Side 1 which most definitively dates the tape for me. As noted, I was a man with limited funds, and most of my purchases were CDs and cassettes that I’d rescued from the cut-out bin at the record chain in the local mall, but I sucked it up and bought Out of Time on its first day of release. I still remember writing a review for the Averett College newspaper, The Chanticleer, and declaring that this song’s lyrics sounded like a parody of the band’s style. (“I think I thought I saw you try” is the one that leaps immediately to mind.) I must’ve made this tape within a day or two of the album’s release and only known this song; otherwise, I almost certainly would’ve put “Texarkana,” “Near Wild Heaven,” or “Shiny Happy People” on here instead.
“This Is the World Calling,” Bob Geldof (Deep in the Heart of Nowhere)
Wow, did this album get reamed when it was first released. I’m sure Bob didn’t expect much else, though; after you’ve been held up as the pop star who fed the world, you ought to know that the press is going to tear your next LP a new center hole. Yeah, that’s right, Geldof’s fallible. So what? And, anyway, Deep in the Heart of Nowhere wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone said; it just wasn’t as good as, say, your average Boomtown Rats album. I still say the first half of the album is pretty damned good, and this song, which leads off the record, is definitely a highlight.
…I present the following fantastic collaboration for your approval: Mr. Gouldman performing an acoustic version of 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love,” accompanied on acoustic guitar and harmony vocals by…wait for it…Neil Finn and Roddy Frame.
Fuck me. That’s quite a trio, innit? Hey, David, I think we’ve found yet another answer to the question, “Name three people I’d like to have a drink with.”
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