Let me quickly apologizing for not posting this blog yesterday. Monday's are an especially tough day for me to be productive and I succumbed to sleep before I had a chance to jot this one down. So, I'll post this one now and later today I'll post #9. Hopefully this will help calm the rioting among Morrissey fans who were waiting with baited breath for my post yesterday. People! It's only a blog! Life will go on!
If you haven't been paying attention here's what the list looks like so far:
20. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
19. Driving Your Girlfriend Home
18. Munich Air Disaster 1958
17. Seasick, Yet Still Docked
16. I Don't Mind If You Forget Me
15. Sister I'm A Poet
14. On The Streets I Ran
13. There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends
12. Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?
11. Come Back To Camden
Which brings us to the Top 10!
#10. Disappointed (Morrissey/Street)
B-side from the Everyday Is Like Sunday single
Key Line: "This is the last song I will every sing (crowd cheers), No, I've changed my mind again (crowd groans), goodnight and thank you..."
As I mentioned in the earlier post on "Sister I'm A Poet," the success had old Morrissey feeling very playful. Obviously he felt quite validated by the success of his solo debut and that led to some of his most boastful and biting tracks. Sadly, nearly all of them were relegated to b-sides (though eventually they were collected onto the album Bona Drag, arguably the most essential "odds and ends" album ever).
On "Disappointed" Morrissey masterfully walks the line between reality and myth, sarcasm and truth, and stereotypes and the truth behind them.
Before Morrissey even makes an appearance on the track, it's clear that he and Stephen Street are having a bit of laugh. The music for the track is clearly meant to echo the atmosphere of The Smiths iconic "How Soon Is Now?" In fact, according to Stephen Street, the initial version of the track didn't sound much like the finished bit. At Morrissey's request, the song was re-worked into the "How Soon Is Now?" echo that was eventually presented to the public. It's hard to believe that this wasn't intentional, with Morrissey sitting behind the producer's mixing board sporting a wry grin...
Lyrically, Morrissey's mix of sarcasm and truth is really the essence of Morrissey's early solo career. Opening line, "Our unsleepable friend gets the message on an ill wind, 'All your friends and foes would rather die than to touch you..." is an obvious joke, as, by this point, a Morrissey concert was typically an open invitation for fans to run on stage to touch and hug the singer. Clearly, Mozzer was not at a lack of people willing to touch him.
(Sidenote: Special kudos to Morrissey for inventing the term "Unsleepable," which draws the mind immediately to the Smiths' tracks "Unloveable" and "Asleep," two of Morrissey's best "I'm sad and alone" tracks. Clever bastard.)
However, Morrissey also manages to mix in a healthy dose of truth and spite on the track. A line such as, "Young boy, I wanna help you..." can easily be read as reference to Johnny Marr (though there's no proof that this is indeed a reference to Marr). Further on, the lines, "Don't talk to me about people who are 'nice,' 'cause I have spent my whole life in ruins because of people who are 'nice.'" are nearly impossible to read as anything but truth. Especially when one considers that the seeds of lawsuits from Mike Joyce, Andy Rourke, and Craig Gannon had been firmly planted by now.
(Sidenote II: I submit this video as reason number 3,065 why the 90's were the best thing ever.)
Still, the ending of the track sums up everything one needs to know about Morrissey at this stage of his career. "This is the last song I will ever sing..." is met with "cheers" from an overdubbed crowd. Followed by the line, "No, I've changed my mind again..." and the subsequent overdubbed jeers, it's clear that Morrissey is well aware of the many detractors lurking in his post-Smiths landscape. By adding those crowd noises, Morrissey shows that he is keenly aware of his standing and is more than willing to take the piss out of it himself.
