Morrissey A-Z: "Tony the Pony"

BookishBoy

Well-Known Member



Today's song is this Morrissey/Nevin composition, a B-side on the "Our Frank" single. (It was included on the Kill Uncle album itself in North America.)

What do we think of this one?
 
I only properly discovered this one earlier in the year, after writing it off when I first listened to it a few years ago.
I've fallen in love with it since. It's quite underrated imo.
Strong lyrics and storytelling.
A kind of inverse to There speaks a true friend.
Music is a tad forgettable and lets it down a little.
 
Terribly underrated. Catchy as hell, with a strong vocal melody and interesting lyrics. And it’s really a sort of sanitized rockabilly, isn’t it?
 
It sounds like a Kill Uncle b-side which is not a positive.

The music is quite repetitive and monotonous, and the lyrics feel half-baked. Morrissey, as he knew himself, was not at the top of his game at this point.

In the poll on the Hoffman board it ranked 214th from 264 solo songs.
 
What’s not to like?!
I remember one gig, someone shouted out “Tony the Pony” only for M to respond with “I can’t possibly sing that” 😐🤣
 
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its always been a bit of a joke the M community,not one of his best but certainly not terrible.think if the music had a different lyric it might be taken a bit more seriously.is this the only time M has used the F word in a song.
best line=Theres A Free Ride On f***ed-Up Tony.
7 ponies/10 tonies.
 
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its always been a bit of a joke the M community,not one of his best but certainly not terrible.think if the music had a different lyric it might be taken a bit more seriously.is this the only time M has used the F word in a song.
best line=And We Ride On f***ed-Up Tony.
7 ponies/10 tonies.
Isn’t it “there’s a free ride on f***ed up Tony?”
 
Isn’t it “there’s a free ride on f***ed up Tony?”
thanks for pointing that out,i was doing two things at once,god bless the edit button.
 
What’s not to like?!
I remember one gig, someone shouted out “Tony the Pony” only for M to respond with “I can’t possibly sing” 😐🤣
It’ s a good thing that he’ll never play it live, there are far better songs to play.
 
I suppose the music plods a bit - but the there's a lot of passion in the story, so it's kind of lovely.
 
This one gets a bit of a hard time, even from Moz himself, who once described it as 'the worst song in the history of music', but I've always had a soft spot for TTP; love the 'twangabilly' guitar bits, love the bassline, &, as ever, love Paresi's drumming. Upbeat, catchy & addictive.
Love it.
 
its always been a bit of a joke the M community,not one of his best but certainly not terrible.think if the music had a different lyric it might be taken a bit more seriously.is this the only time M has used the F word in a song.
best line=Theres A Free Ride On f***ed-Up Tony.
7 ponies/10 tonies.

Listen with headphones - it's clearly 'there's a free ride on soft touch Tony'.
Read the lyrics to the previous verse - 'there's a free ride on gullible Tony'.
Gullible and 'soft touch' mean virtually the same thing.
Soft touch is defined as 'a person who readily gives or does something if asked' which is in keeping with the song's lyrics.
Morrissey has sworn on some of his songs but not on Tony the Pony.
He was a bit more subtle back then.
 
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Listen with headphones - it's very clearly 'there's a free ride on soft touch Tony'.
Read the lyrics to the previous verse - 'there's a free ride on gullible Tony'.
Gullible and 'soft touch' mean virtually the same thing.
Soft touch is defined as 'a person who readily gives or does something if asked' which is totally in keeping with the song's lyrics.
Morrissey has sworn on some of his songs but not on Tony the Pony.
He was a bit more subtle back then.
Yep, I agree: 'soft touch Tony'.
Guess everyone's gone to get their headphones now...then they can 'Re-evaluate the song' :lbf:
 
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well genius lyrics has f***ed up tony.
 
Those were the days when bonus tracks were included on the CD as an incentive to buy. Younger Spotify users won't quite remember. After the second half of Kill Uncle is really very quiet and dignified, this light little pop song is a nice counterpoint (for CD listeners in 1991). I always liked it and can still enjoy listening to it today.
 
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