Morrissey A-Z: "Good Looking Man About Town"

BookishBoy

BookishBoy

Well-Known Member



We kick of the week with this track, a B-side on the "You Have Killed Me" single and included on the Swords compilation.

What do we think of this one?
 
A fun, but ultimately slight, song that is saved from being buried by time by its more inventive/effective integration of Eastern melodic elements. Apart from that, it’s pretty standard.
 
A very obvious b-side. I prefer it to most of Ringleader but only because I'm not a fan of the album itself, Man About Town is rather average as Moz b-sides go.
 
There is something about this production that seems off. So much reverb that it feels like you're hearing it playing from a boombox in the next room. I can't say anything bad about it, though. He's got a few that I don't like but this isn't one of them. It's okay. I think if Maladjusted and Suedehead are 10/10 this is about a 3.5.
 
A typical b-side for Moz, slight but enjoyable. I like the eastern influence and the lyrics are quite funny. But haven’t listened to this all that much.

6,7
 
Some good melodic vocal ideas here, let down as usual by the instrumentation - such as the dull two-chord outro.
 
I’ve always liked the lyrics. They’re very quotable and funny, albeit classic Moz and not very groundbreaking. The music is driving and almost ominous, yet lighthearted at some level. Might be the eastern influence. All in all, a reasonably strong b-side from a fantastic era in his career (the mid 00’s).
 
always liked this,you wonder where the eastern influence came from with the music in this.voice is good but not really stretched in any way.all in all a good b-side but just falls short of being an a-side.
 
I consider this to be a slightly above average b-side.

It's not the most memorable of songs and it's not one that I often listen to, but it's nice to hear Morrissey having fun with the lyrics. There are also one or two neat phrases here and there.

Good to have Alain doing something different with the music, too.

In the poll on the other board it ranked 179 from 264 solo songs.
 
I absolutely LOVE the first minute of this song: it's playful, catchy, funny, and has a real energy to it musically and lyrically - and then the rest of the song doesn't quite match that, somehow.
 
As with most b-sides from this era, I prefer this one to many of the album tracks. An inclusion on Ringleader would have been superfluous, however, as it repeats some elements from other album tracks

The Eastern musical touch is slightly reminiscent of I Will See You In Far Off Places and the complete last section lyrically echos the late night street courting of Dear God Please Help Me, complete with "strings to my heart" [Edit: sadly, it's in fact "stings", not strings...], except this time he doesn't find a "good looking man about town" to calm himself down.

What's interesting is the change of perspective. It seems the first verses are about being or becoming/being perceived as a "good looking man about town" while the second half is about being with someone like that.

It is a nice addition to the better songs on Ringleader and I listen to this more often than the actual album.


Afterthought: The lines 'You've got your degree/And then you flew to Mars' seem to repeat the theme of comparing space travel with science and possibly success, previously touched upon in Fantastic Bird, while the next lines refer to the old conflict of mind vs body: 'But you still feel wretched because you've/Never been naked with a/Good looking man about town'. The subject has achieved academical and possibly career success but they aren't happy because after all the body does rule the mind.
 
Last edited:
That's Enough For Me said:
On the midnight streets, no moon and no stars and no one around, to calm me down and to soften the stings to my heart.

Vintage!
Click to expand...
The booklet of Swords has it written down as "stings to my heart", but I wonder if it is a mistake and should indeed be "strings to me heart", as mentioned in another post?
 
Mayfly said:
The booklet of Swords has it written down as "stings to my heart", but I wonder if it is a mistake and should indeed be "strings to me heart", as mentioned in another post?
Click to expand...

No, you're right. He definitely sings "stings".

I like "strings" much better though :straightface:
 
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