Morrissey A-Z: "I Like You"

To me this encapsulates and expresses perfectly the ecstatic and very rare feeling you experience when you meet someone you completely click with.
These lines...

Why do you think I let you get away
With the things you say to me?




No one I ever knew
Or have spoken to resembles you




They look at you and I
And envy makes them cry




You and I just smile
Because we're thinking the same lines




You're not right in the head
And nor am I
And this is why
This is why I like you



...are brilliant.



Could it be I like you?
It's so shameful of me / I like you
-
only Morrissey...

As others have stated, it's so rare to hear a song about liking someone. Maybe that's part of the reason why this feels so real and authentic to me.
The 'magistrates' and 'forces of containment' parts are also interesting and add a certain 'us against the world' aspect.

The song feels like it must have been written about a particular person, and given the time I wonder if it was Tina.
 
To me this encapsulates and expresses perfectly the ecstatic and very rare feeling you experience when you meet someone you completely click with.
These lines...

Why do you think I let you get away
With the things you say to me?




No one I ever knew
Or have spoken to resembles you




They look at you and I
And envy makes them cry




You and I just smile
Because we're thinking the same lines




You're not right in the head
And nor am I
And this is why
This is why I like you



...are brilliant.



Could it be I like you?
It's so shameful of me / I like you
-
only Morrissey...

As others have stated, it's so rare to hear a song about liking someone. Maybe that's part of the reason why this feels so real and authentic to me.
The 'magistrates' and 'forces of containment' parts are also interesting and add a certain 'us against the world' aspect.

The song feels like it must have been written about a particular person, and given the time I wonder if it was Tina.
Yeah, the words are interesting and original but is the music here not just, well, dull?
Amazed to hear the love for this especially so soon after we've been reviewing the musical splendour of I Know Very Well, I Know It's Gonna Happen etc. Musically, this is light years below the quality of those songs.
 
A fun song to be sure, could have easily been Quarry's 5th single. Definitely as a duet with Robbie ;)
Moz at his most exuberant. Not a fave of mine though, but nice to hear every once in a while, like just now.

7,3
 
Yeah, the words are interesting and original but is the music here not just, well, dull?

I would possibly come to the same conclusion if I were to rate the individual parts that make up the song but as a whole I think it's very enjoyable and that's almost completely due to Morrissey's contribution. The words and vocal melody make the song and give it all its personality.
 
Dude, this was a boorer song not whyte. Hard to believe that after a 7 year gap, music as plain, plodding and uninspired as this was considered good enough to make the album. Dismal.
Yep, realise that now. I just said it because Whyte was the more prolific composer at the time and couldn’t be bothered to check, TBH. ;)
 
...
Yeah, the words are interesting and original but is the music here not just, well, dull?
Amazed to hear the love for this especially so soon after we've been reviewing the musical splendour of I Know Very Well, I Know It's Gonna Happen etc. Musically, this is light years below the quality of those songs.

Yeah, I don’t think Finn was up to the job of elevating these songs to where they rightfully belong. Like the songs you mentioned above, imagine if the Quarry songs were in better hands. And no, I don’t believe
it’s the songs at fault here. I feel the same way about the KU production.
 
To me this encapsulates and expresses perfectly the ecstatic and very rare feeling you experience when you meet someone you completely click with.
These lines... You and I just smile
Because we're thinking the same lines


These lines make me think of the second time I met him, I actually met him for the first time just a couple nights before. It was at an airport I was the only fan there, we talked for a while, mostly about music and some of the records that I gave him the other night. While we were talking, this person comes up to us trying to sell us something, we didn’t say anything to this person and we just looked at each other and smiled at each other and at the odd situation, the person just looked at us in bewilderment and quickly walked away. Lol.

 
These lines make me think of the second time I met him, I actually met him for the first time a couple nights before. It was at an airport
I was the only fan there, we talked for a while, mostly about music and some of the records that I gave him the other night. While we were talking, this person comes up to us
trying to sell us something, we didn’t say anything to this person and we just looked at each other and smiled at each other and at the odd situation, the person just looked at us in bewilderment and quickly walked away. Lol.

What a great memory. :)
 
It's funny, this song sounds sort of average to me now but I absolutely loved it when it was debuted in 2002. I think it may have been my favorite of the new tracks. I recall being slightly disappointed upon hearing the album version, as I had gotten accustomed to the line "no one I ever knew / or have spoken to / resembles me" which turned out to be a live ad-lib and not the actual lyric.

As other have mentioned, the music is a pretty unforgiving blur of dull chords and unimaginative drumming. It's a true showcase of Morrissey's talent for melody and arrangement that he turned it into the song that it became. I do believe there's a better version of it lurking somewhere deep within, maybe even as a stripped-down reggae kind of thing like "Redondo Beach."
 
These lines make me think of the second time I met him, I actually met him for the first time just a couple nights before. It was at an airport I was the only fan there, we talked for a while, mostly about music and some of the records that I gave him the other night. While we were talking, this person comes up to us trying to sell us something, we didn’t say anything to this person and we just looked at each other and smiled at each other and at the odd situation, the person just looked at us in bewilderment and quickly walked away. Lol.
That was me, asshole. I'll never forgive you two for how rude you were. Those candy bars go towards funding my school's basketball team.
 
...


Yeah, I don’t think Finn was up to the job of elevating these songs to where they rightfully belong. Like the songs you mentioned above, imagine if the Quarry songs were in better hands. And no, I don’t believe
it’s the songs at fault here. I feel the same way about the KU production.
I thought that Jerry Finn's approach was mainly trying to capture the strength of the band in a semi-live setting. The 2 times he worked with Jerry Finn, several songs had already been on heavy rotation in live shows prior to recording. On this one, I feel he actually did a decent job capturing the positive energy from the song.
 
The "envy makes them cry" part elevates this one. I like the guitar tones and the drums. I like the part about "forces of containment." I think this is a really good one. I feel like there is some kind of reevaluation of Quarry by lots of people who somehow seem to like it less now than at the time of its release, but that hasn't happened for me. I thought it was a great collection at the time and I still like every song.
Overall I'd give this one an 8 just because you can't give them all 9's and 10's.
After six years of waiting, I was disappointed by Quarry at the time. I’m probably more disappointed by it now because I feel most of Refusal and all of World Peace realised a ‘vision’ Morrissey was actually reaching for (but falling short of) then.

But time has clarified something for me: for all Alain Whyte had contributed to the world of Morrissey—and that includes two highlights of Quarry—he had, in truth, been wrung dry by 2002 (when fans heard his two great contributions to the album).
 
The 2002 live version is miles better than the album one.
 
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