Morrissey A-Z: "My Hurling Days Are Done"




Our song for today is this Morrissey/Tobias composition, which closed out the IANADOAC album.

What do we think?

Great closer for an all round superb album. Certainly not one of the best tracks on the album, but solid.
 
Beautiful song. It makes me cry almost every time thinking about his mother waking him and putting him to bed. Also a very funny song which would be funnier if it weren’t so soul crushingly true. Takes a song idea like oboe concerto and IMO makes it a million times better
 
It's one of the many tunes that I like , and I feel more of a connection with the words here than on several other songs on the album (e.g. Jim Jim Falls or Bobby). It's not the first time he ends on album reflecting on getting older (e.g. Oboe concerto) and I find it a fitting end to the album. Always good to hear that mama & teddy bear have a place in his heart - and this song was written when his mother was still around.
 
I love the title, the tune, and most of the lyrics ... but the line "mama and teddy bear were the first full firm spectrum of time" always bugs me. I think I know what he's saying (my mum and teddy were the first things I bonded with and thus feared losing). It just sounds clunky to me.
 
I love the title, the tune, and most of the lyrics ... but the line "mama and teddy bear were the first full firm spectrum of time" always bugs me. I think I know what he's saying (my mum and teddy were the first things I bonded with and thus feared losing). It just sounds clunky to me.

i took it to be the first way a child defines time. Mama and teddy bear to tuck him in and teddy and mama to wake up to is what defines a day for a child. That mama and teddy bear are almost the child’s whole world. When coupled with a song about growing old and dying it’s very moving whether your the child now or a parang thinking about there own children
 
I think it’s a good albeit overproduced song, but I don’t care for the kiddie chorus on it.
 
Excellent song - an easy 10/10. Much better closer than “Israel” (which I’ve listened to less than 5 times).
 
I like it a lot but I can't listen to it now (or 'Once I Saw the River...') without thinking about his Mum's death, even though she passed a year later. The nostalgia of the whole Dog album - I just get this uncomfortable sense of foreboding, like he sensed something coming round the corner. I don't know if he had any idea she was ill back then or if he was just reflecting on his own mortality but for some reason it feels a lot closer to home than, say, "The Never-Played Symphonies."
 
This song would be depressing if it wasn't so beautifully done.
The song is in contrast to:

"Age shouldn't affect you. It's just like the size of your shoes - they don't determine how you live your life! You're either marvellous or you're boring, regardless of your age."
 
I like it a lot but I can't listen to it now (or 'Once I Saw the River...') without thinking about his Mum's death, even though she passed a year later. The nostalgia of the whole Dog album - I just get this uncomfortable sense of foreboding, like he sensed something coming round the corner. I don't know if he had any idea she was ill back then or if he was just reflecting on his own mortality but for some reason it feels a lot closer to home than, say, "The Never-Played Symphonies."

The song certainly hits harder now than 15 months ago when the album was released. I still take the song as a reflection on aging and mortality. While it is my understanding that his mother's death came rather unexpectedly, he must have observed his mother getting older and perhaps becoming weaker with older age. At some point, you begin to realize that the best of times with your beloved mother (father) are stretching out behind you (to quote another lyric).
 
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