FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE....WITH MORRISSEY (Part 38)

mp3 : Morrissey - All You Need Is Me

Not quite true, but an ideal way to end this long-running series which has looked, in what I hope has been an objective way, at all of the singles Morrissey has released during his solo career.

I've kept this till last, partly as I thought it was a great title to round things off, but also because of something bizarre that happened about two-thirds of the way through the series.

When I started out, I wasn't sure if I was in fact going to cover every single, mainly as I didn't have all of them in the collection either on vinyl or CD. As time went on I realised with a little bit of wheeling and dealing on ebay and discogs that I could get a hold of everything and so I went about sorting things out.

I hadn't bought all three version of All You Need Is Me on its original release in June 2008, going instead for just the CD as it was on offer in the indie record shop. Then maybe two or so months back , I noticed someone was selling both 7" singles. So I went into make a bid....and discovered that the seller was none other than Rol of Sunset over Slawit fame.

I sent Rol an email asking if, instead of a bidding war on ebay, he perhaps had a price in mind over which we might be able to come to an arrangement. To my delight he said yes. And to my delight and astonishment he said I could have them for free and that he would even pay for the postage.

It's those sort of gestures and acts of kindness that make all this blogging malarkey so worthwhile.

Rol said that he was happy to do all this as a thank you for all the postings I had done over the years and for giving him the chance to listen to some songs he had either long forgotten about or which were new and enjoyable. I still would have been happy to pay the going rate for the singles.....

So what are the three final b-sides brought forward for your aural pleasure? Well, one is a quite rare live cover version that the great man only ever performed on about seven occasions while the other two are songs that would have improved his last LP if they had been kept back for that:-

mp3 : Morrissey - Drive-In Saturday (live)
mp3 : Morrissey - My Dearest Love
mp3 : Morrissey - Children In Pieces

The more than passable cover of the David Bowie single dates from May 2007 and was part of the encore of the gig held at the Orpheum Theatre in Omaha, New England. It was preceded by Everyday Is Like Sunday and followed up with the last song of the evening, You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side.

My Dearest Love is a fabulous song, one that is heavily dominated by the piano and as such a real welcome move away from the brash guitars that have been such a prominent part of most tunes since Jesse Tobias joined the backing band and got involved in writing material. It's inclusion on a forthcoming CD rounding up most of the recent b-sides will hopefully bring it some deserved attention to a wider audience.

Children In Pieces may well have been inspired by the 2002 movie The Magdalene Sisters which was written and directed by the superbly talented Peter Mullan, a resident of Glasgow (and with whom I once got drunk at an awards ceremony!!). Morrissey's song deals with similar themes covered in the movie, and while the lyrics are direct and unflinching, it doesn't quite work as they are sung over an upbeat and plodding tune that is completely out of sync with the sentiments. Maybe one day Morrissey will return to the lyric and re-record it with a more appropriate tune...but I doubt it.

Both of the two new b-sides were produced by Oscar-winning composer Gustavo Santaolla, who is best known for his score for Brokeback Mountain, while the photo on the sleeve was again taken by Jake Walters.

All You Need Is me only reached #24 in the UK charts when it deserved so much better. But as this series has shown, an awful lot of the singles suffered a similar fate.

It's not long now until Morrissey's next LP hits the shops - its called Swords and it is actually a 18-track collection made up of the b-sides of the singles taken from You Are The Quarry, Ringleader Of The Tormentors and Years Of Refusal. Like all Morrissey LPs, it has some high points and one or two low points, but is well worth investing in. And even although I have all the songs in the collection, I'll be suckered into parting with my cash just so that I can pick up the initial bonus CD with eight live tracks recorded at a gig in Warsaw, Poland on 7th July 2009.

Finally, I've done mentioned this before, but this series just would not have been possible if I hadnt been able to call on the facts, figures, info and detail on what I reckon is the best Morrissey fan site out there - Passions Just Like Mine, which is run by Stephane Dagle. Stephane also offers a fantastic selection of rarities for sale at very competitive prices, the proceeds of which help maintain his site.

Click here for more details.

Next Friday sees the official start of the series looking at great 45s from Scotland.

Morrissey? We're gonna miss him when when he's gone........