Whale blubber Wilde

butley

Well-Known Member
Is that really what Morrissey sings at the end of Cemetry Gates? Only just found that out from iTunes lyrics!
 
 
"'Cos Whale-blubber Wilde is on mine. Sugar."
Yes, it is. There are several lyrics that have been misheard, typed up on the internet, and been copied and spread all over the place, unfortunately. One of them led to masses of people believing he sang 'Weird lover Wilde', when clearly he doesn't.

This one has come up on this site several times before, for example:
https://www.morrissey-solo.com/threads/cemetery-gates-what-does-morrissey-say.64176/
Thanks. I still hear “Wailed-a-lover Wilde” which I doubt it is.
 
Whoa. This is revelatory for me. I just cannot imagine why a whale, much less blubber, would be associated with Wilde.
 
Whoa. This is revelatory for me. I just cannot imagine why a whale, much less blubber, would be associated with Wilde.


Because he was overweight.

WildeSH1985.jpg


Smash Hits, 1985.
 
Whoa. This is revelatory for me. I just cannot imagine why a whale, much less blubber, would be associated with Wilde.

The only connection between Oscar Wilde and whaling that I can find is this:

"According to Oscar Wilde, life imitates art. In his The Decay of Lying — An Observation (1891), he wrote:

"Where, if not from the Impressionists, do we get those wonderful brown fogs that come creeping down our streets, blurring the gas-lamps and changing the houses into monstrous shadows? To whom, if not to them and their master, do we owe the lovely silver mists that brood over our river, and turn to faint forms of fading grace curved bridge and swaying barge?"


And if Wilde was talking about Turner, Turner painted Whalers. See link above.
 
The only connection between Oscar Wilde and whaling that I can find is this:

"According to Oscar Wilde, life imitates art. In his The Decay of Lying — An Observation (1891), he wrote:




And if Wilde was talking about Turner, Turner painted Whalers. See link above.

Interesting, but seems like a stretch to me. Hey but who knows - he may have like to read by lamp light and developed an appreciation for where the oil came from....
 
Interesting, but seems like a stretch to me. Hey but who knows - he may have like to read by lamp light and developed an appreciation for where the oil came from....

Yeah, I thought it was a stretch as well. It would seem Morrissey is just calling Wilde fat. Which he wouldn't've been when imprisoned.
 
It always seemed to me that Moz had something against overweight folks. Except of course that one fattie he sang about that was for him...

Probably his own body issues - he thought he was a fat child, then he thought he was emaciated, then he was back to feeling fat. Too much time gazing at American GQ.
 
Probably his own body issues - he thought he was a fat child, then he thought he was emaciated, then he was back to feeling fat. Too much time gazing at American GQ.

If you are a fat kid, you are fat for life.

í was a right wee chubster until my teens, and, years later, at my sickest 44kg, í still thought í was 'porky' {to quote that disappointed Wolverhampton attendee!}

.
 
What would Mike Joyce know about The Smiths? "Weird lover Wilde" fits for me, in the context of the song (i.e. being in love with morbidity, like walking round a cemetery) and in Morrissey-life general. I will never buy "Whale blubber Wilde." Why would Morrissey insult one of his heroes by describing him in such an irreverent fashion? Makes no sense, especially as he doesn't insult Keats and Yeats; indeed, he furnishes no description of them whatsoever, positive or negative. Shrug.
 
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What would Mike Joyce know about The Smiths? "Weird lover Wilde" fits for me, in the context of the song (i.e. being in love with morbidity, like walking round a cemetery) and in Morrissey-life general. I will never buy "Whale blubber Wilde." Why would Morrissey insult one of his heroes by describing him in such an irreverent fashion? Makes no sense, especially as he doesn't insult Keats and Yeats; indeed, he furnishes no description of them whatsoever, positive or negative. Shrug.
Listening to both the original studio version and the Rank version, it is definitely 'whale blubber'. Doesn't sound like weird lover at all in the rank version.
It is a tongue in cheek description, I don't think it is meant as a genuine insult. And as to why he didn't give any description of Keats or Yeates, probably because it wouldn't really fit/scan if he did, and/or because there wasn't any particular tongue in cheek remark he wanted to make about them.
 
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