THE MOZ SINGLES (35)

It was back in 2008/09 that I originally ran with the Moz singles series.  Part 35 featured what was then his most recent 45 and this is what I said

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When he played his live gig at Glasgow earlier this year, Morrissey expressed surprise that his latest single from Years of Refusal had been such a monumental flop.

Peaking at #46, this is the lowest chart placing for any of the 37 solo singles other than Hold On To Your Friends, but given the general decline in sales of singles over the past 15 years, it’s reasonable to assume that Something Is Squeezing My Skull is the poorest selling Morrissey product of all time.

On its own it’s a song that doesn’t deserve such a poor testimonial for it is a reasonable romp of a tune with an amusing enough lyric -and I do find it hard to accept that fans were more driven to purchase the drivel that was Roy’s Keen – but then again given the heinous crimes committed on the b-sides of the 2 x CDs and the 7″ bit of plastic, then SISMS really got all that was coming to it:-

mp3 : Morrissey – Something Is Squeezing My Skull
mp3 : Morrissey – This Charming Man (live)
mp3 : Morrissey – Best Friend On The Payroll (live)
mp3 : Morrissey – I Keep Mine Hidden (live)

I know I’ve harped on about it before in previous parts of this series, but over the years, his various bands have consistently failed to do justice to originals by The Smiths, and I’m guessing that now the whole approach is now to just to bludgeon them to death. Truly awful.

But to be fair they’ve added a bit of spunk to an otherwise ordinary track from the very ordinary Southpaw Grammar LP.

The one saving grace about the single is the artwork. The cover photos are of the great man beside the grave of Johnny Ramone, while the inner sleeves feature two rather nice paintings, one of The Bowery at Night (1895) by William Sontag that is normally on display at the Museum of the City of New York, while the other is of Camden Town Engine Room (1838) by John Cooke Bourne that is normally on display at the National Railway Museum in York, England.

Will this be the last ever single he releases???? Who knows……and I’m guessing that growing numbers of people will be saying ‘who cares?’.

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As it turned out, it wasn’t his last ever single but that’s something I’ll turn to in the future (when all’s well…..)

Happy Listening.