We'll let you know

[Mimi]

That's one of my favourite songs you know.

I love it more for the music than for the lyrics though, infact I think it's so beautiful it makes me cry two out of three times I listen to it.

I first started listening to it very often back in my early days of fandom when I didn't know too many facts about Morrissey. And the "phase" I started researching into first was the "Your Arsenal" era when he presented very much of a gang image with the band and such. So what I was reading into "We'll let you know" was that he was infact talking about himself and the lads.

Then somewhere along the line I heard that the lyrics were actually dealing with hooligans and that messed it all up for me. I didn't like the whole song for a while. But then I rediscovered it and decided I wouldn't care who or what was the subject, the music was what mattered.

Now recently I've come up with a different theory, which is that Morrissey is infact talking about none other than himself whilst using the plural form, like he did a couple of other times aswell (e.g. "Nobody loves us"). I guess he does that to make it seem a bit less personal or something. And maybe that hooligan thing is just a legend he or someone else started.

Does anyone agree or have an opposite explanation? Am I mad? Or maybe just trying to kick off a sensible discussion...

 

[Cinderella]

Re: "what am I now but loves last home"

I always thought he was singing about the culture of football hooliganism. To me the song states the way of it, simply presents it as it is. It's very melancholy almost a lament. I love it, it makes me feel hopeless and miserable (but in a good way - if that is at all possible?!)

I love Leonard Cohen...

 

[half a shoplifter]

Re: a dreaded sunny day

this probably has nothing to do w/the ideas in your post, but...i sometimes wonder why i'm a morrissey/smiths fan. i'm not english, bisexual or vegetarian, and sometimes the songs i love most i'm not even sure what they're about.

so my favorite song right now is cemetry gates, because it's about death (something we like to avoid dealing w/in america), poetry, and the importance of remembering those that have died, which is a big part of morrissey's writing. but this is only my interpretation.

> That's one of my favourite songs you know.

> I love it more for the music than for the lyrics though, infact
> I think it's so beautiful it makes me cry two out of three times
> I listen to it.

> I first started listening to it very often back in my early days
> of fandom when I didn't know too many facts about Morrissey. And
> the "phase" I started researching into first was the
> "Your Arsenal" era when he presented very much of a
> gang image with the band and such. So what I was reading into
> "We'll let you know" was that he was infact talking
> about himself and the lads.

> Then somewhere along the line I heard that the lyrics were
> actually dealing with hooligans and that messed it all up for
> me. I didn't like the whole song for a while. But then I
> rediscovered it and decided I wouldn't care who or what was the
> subject, the music was what mattered.

> Now recently I've come up with a different theory, which is that
> Morrissey is infact talking about none other than himself whilst
> using the plural form, like he did a couple of other times
> aswell (e.g. "Nobody loves us"). I guess he does that
> to make it seem a bit less personal or something. And maybe that
> hooligan thing is just a legend he or someone else started.

> Does anyone agree or have an opposite explanation? Am I mad? Or
> maybe just trying to kick off a sensible discussion...

 

[suzanne]

Re: a dreaded sunny day

> this probably has nothing to do w/the ideas in your post,
> but...i sometimes wonder why i'm a morrissey/smiths fan. i'm not
> english, bisexual or vegetarian, and sometimes the songs i love
> most i'm not even sure what they're about.

When I first heard him, it was at about the time that I thought I was losing pleasure with all the music that I was finding. It doesn't boil down to that, "oh, that over commercialized Ace Of Base, why are they ruining music?" because I didn't know any other sort of music existed. That, and I did own one of their albums! :^)

C'mon! What do you expect? I didn't see any of you sending any care packages of Smiths' singles to my house. They don't have a Christian Children's fund for the musically starved.

Moz has such a wonderful voice to swoon to.

> so my favorite song right now is cemetry gates, because it's
> about death (something we like to avoid dealing w/in america),
> poetry, and the importance of remembering those that have died,
> which is a big part of morrissey's writing. but this is only my
> interpretation.

Hmm. I've extrapolated on my very favorites, so I will come up with a list of Mozsongs to drive to:

"Papa Jack"--'the chilly day, dying sun..' is my favorite image from that entire album.
"Ammunition"
"We'll Let you Know"
"Hated for Loving"
"Why Don't you Find out for yourself"

What do all of these songs have in common? They have that nice, settled-in feeling that you get when you've been on the highway for quite some time and the sun is starting to sink in the sky.

REM also makes really good music for that. "You are the Everything" and parts of "out of Time" and "Automatic for the people" are excellent for that as well.

 

[Mimi]

Re: There's gonna be some trouble

> this probably has nothing to do w/the ideas in your post,
> but...i sometimes wonder why i'm a morrissey/smiths fan. i'm not
> english, bisexual or vegetarian, and sometimes the songs i love
> most i'm not even sure what they're about.

I'm not English or bisexual either and I don't think those are requirements for being fan. But I've been vegetarian for quite a while and that's indeed one of the reasons why I thought Morrissey must be an interesting person in the first place. That and the fact that he liked cats so much.

And not being sure what the songs you love most are about is perfectly normal aswell. You start to love a song when it hits a very certain string within you and that doesn't necessarily have to be the same string that's really addressed. That's why I was so disturbed when I was made to believe that "We'll let you know" was about hooligans. That just totally wasn't what I was hearing. Musically I think it would have made a beautiful sad love song aswell.... I guess generally I have to thank Alain Whyte for it more than Morrissey.

My very favourite one is "Now my heart is full" and it's quite funny to see the mechanisms that start working when I put it on. I could be in the deepest state of depression but that song would always make my heart beat at the ceiling. My favourite version of it is included on the "Practising troublemaker" bootleg but I just can't explain what it sounds like so I won't even try to.