Morrissey A-Z: "Neal Cassady Drops Dead"

“It's not really rap”



Morrissey goes off during the song on a free-associative spiel about "babies with rabies," before asking, "Victim, or life's adventurer?" Producer Joe Chiccarelli told Radio.com that he jokingly called it," "the rap section," much to the singer's chagrin.

"Moz looked at me and said, 'It's not really rap,'" he added. "He's very quick-witted, he's very colorful. But I thought of the 'babies/rabies' thing as a poem. If you come from the punk rock school, it's about pushing the limits and seeing what you can get away with. He's a master of words, he's a novelist more than anything."


Whether you want to call it rap or not, Morrissey had never used his voice in this way before. Or rarely if you want to consider "Sorrow...". But we're gonna get more rap from him if it is true that he has recorded songs with AP&P Rocky anyway.

I like the "Victim, or life's adventurer" part, but overall it is a complicated piece of music, a bit the opposite of many Ringleader compositions (to quote TCB here). Does that make it a better song? Not sure. If he wanted to showcase Gustavo's talent as a composer, he should have gone for "One of our own".
 
Whether you want to call it rap or not, Morrissey had never used his voice in this way before.

Given the subject matter, I think it’s pretty obvious a nod to beat poetry. But most prefer the drama of ‘Moz is rapping!’ :ahhh::drama:


Or rarely if you want to consider "Sorrow...". But we're gonna get more rap from him if it is true that he has recorded songs with AP&P Rocky anyway.

I like the "Victim, or life's adventurer" part, but overall it is a complicated piece of music, a bit the opposite of many Ringleader compositions (to quote TCB here). Does that make it a better song? Not sure. If he wanted to showcase Gustavo's talent as a composer,

Yeah we don’t know if he’s ‘showcasing Gustavo’s talent’ I don’t think he is. Though he may of had these lyrics in a notebook just waiting for the right music to put them to. I can imagine Morrissey being excited by this piece of music, knowing that it’ll give him the opportunity to do something a little different.
he should have gone for "One of our own".
 
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It sounded intriguing at first but soon revealed itself to be total gibberish. Placing it as the momentum-killing second track on the album was also a disastrous decision. The worst example of Morrissey trying to find new subjects to write about, since the result is a tuneless and non-involving mess.
 
It sounded intriguing at first but soon revealed itself to be total gibberish. Placing it as the momentum-killing second track on the album was also a disastrous decision. The worst example of Morrissey trying to find new subjects to write about, since the result is a tuneless and non-involving mess.
I disagree! I love it.
 
I really like it but get sick of people misspelling it as “Cassidy”.
 
Given the subject matter, I think it’s pretty obvious a nod to beat poetry. But most prefer the drama of ‘Moz is rapping!’ :ahhh::drama:




Yeah we don’t know if he’s ‘showcasing Gustavo’s talent’ I don’t think he is. Though he may of had these lyrics in a notebook just waiting for the right music to put them to. I can imagine Morrissey being excited by this piece of music, knowing that it’ll give him the opportunity to do something a little different.
It’s Rap....
I’ve also heard Moz is to be on the next Jay Z album....

You never know this Rap thing just might catch on ...
 
It’s Rap....
I’ve also heard Moz is to be on the next Jay Z album....

You never know this Rap thing just might catch on ...

No one’s stopping you from calling it what you want. Don’t take my opinion or Morrissey’s own comment on the subject personally.

I don’t think hip hop artists would call it rap though.
 
Victim?
Or life's adventurer?
which of the two are you?






:cool:
 
Hard to imagine a less valuable song in Morrissey’s career. Bored in a hotel room writing inane puns and then setting them to boring rock music.
 
Given the subject matter, I think it’s pretty obvious a nod to beat poetry. But most prefer the drama of ‘Moz is rapping!’ :ahhh::drama:
That's the right interpretation. Not that the words of his Beat poem are making a lot of sense to me, but that was the intention.
Yeah we don’t know if he’s ‘showcasing Gustavo’s talent’ I don’t think he is. Though he may of had these lyrics in a notebook just waiting for the right music to put them to. I can imagine Morrissey being excited by this piece of music, knowing that it’ll give him the opportunity to do something a little different.
Gustavo's musical influences are different from what the others have to offer, going in all directions, sometimes less structured. It sort of works with the lyrical reference to the Beat Generation writers. Can't see that with a more conventional Jesse or Boz composition.
 
Menace within tent. Tears shampooing beards, hosed down in a barn, babies full of rabies, get that thing Away From Me... what more do you people want! After the slow-burn see-saw alluring nursery-rhyme waltz of Track One, this song grabs you by the balls and has you up the wall. Track Two perfected, a thrilling prelude to the monstrous genius of Track Three, which will make anyone sane self-combust if they know what's good for them. A thrilling trilogy announces a thrilling work of art...
 
A wonderful song; very inventive, more than a little funny, and it really works within the whole to help make World Peace a truly great album.
 
That's the right interpretation. Not that the words of his Beat poem are making a lot of sense to me, but that was the intention.

Gustavo's musical influences are different from what the others have to offer, going in all directions, sometimes less structured. It sort of works with the lyrical reference to the Beat Generation writers. Can't see that with a more conventional Jesse or Boz composition.

"Gustavo's musical influences..." - ok, nothing against that guy, but if he played his cards right, Morrissey could have worked with anyone in the world, but he chooses to work with musicians that will simply wear the costumes and t-shirts without complaint.
 
That's the right interpretation. Not that the words of his Beat poem are making a lot of sense to me, but that was the intention.

maybe the disgust for babies is symbolic. A thing that an adventurer wouldn’t want in their life, something that would get in the way of living, tied down to what is expected by society. To become a victim, to be
‘normal’ = family life, proper job, etc..



 
maybe the disgust for babies is symbolic. A thing that an adventurer wouldn’t want in their life, something that would get in the way of living, tied down to what is expected by society. To become a victim, to be
‘normal’ = family life, proper job, etc..
The adventure seems to be to care about babies with rabies etc.
 
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