Hello again, everybody. Welcome back
to the Nobody Loves Us
countdown.
If you
don't know, I'm counting down my 20 favorite Morrissey Non-Singles
each weekday up until his October 29th
concert at The Orpheum right here in Minneapolis.
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 Place
In Hell For Me And My Friends
12. Why Don't You
Find Out For Yourself?
Take a minute and scroll down to read my thoughts on those songs.
I'll wait...
(waiting...)
(waiting...)
Alright, on to #11:
#11. Come Back
To Camden (Morrissey/Boorer)
From the album You Are The Quarry
Key Line: “Your leg came to rest against mine, then you lounged with knees up and apart... and me and my heart – we knew... we just knew...”
When Morrissey returned to the pop world in 2004 much was made of the
opening track on You Are The Quarry. “America Is Not The
World” proved to be an interesting way to reintroduce yourself to
the world. Since the critical ruin of Maladjusted seven years
prior, the only relevant piece of news to come out regarding
Morrissey was that he was holed-up in Los Angeles. As far as public
figures go, few are as intrinsically linked to their home as
Morrissey is too England.
While the English press and, one assumes, English fans, were
titillated even the title of the opening track (this was 2004,
after all), they must have been a bit disappointed with the song's
content. Mozzer runs down a list of cliched criticisms of the United
States before finally conceding that he'd found a
'flawed-but-beautiful' place, ending the song with “America, I love
you, I love you...”
What does all this have to do with “Come Back To Camden?” Well,
here it is. Since coming to America Morrissey had treated England
like an ex-lover in the most brutal of ways. He would barely take
the time to even acknowledge his home country and when he did it was
usually to criticize it in some form. Meanwhile England just had to
sit and watch Mozzer have this fling with whorey old Los Angeles,
knowing full well that L.A. could never love him like England loved
him.
The second track on Quarry, “Irish Blood, English Heart”
showed that Mozzer's passions for England hadn't dulled, but it was
more like one last re-hashing of why he and his homeland were exes,
though it came with the acknowledgment that they'd always be linked,
that they'd always define each other, regardless of the
circumstances.
“Come Back To Camden,” then, is the moment when Morrissey sits down makes his peace with England-the-ex. He's tired of ignoring her. He's tired of the vitriol coming from both directions. He's certainly not promising to come back, but at least he can look back at the past and smile. With an opening line of, “There is something I wanted to tell you, it's so funny you'll kill yourself laughing...” is exactly the kind of awkward, “rehearsed-in-the-mirror” type of thing one would say if they were sitting down for drinks with a long-estranged love.
“Come Back To Camden,” then, is the moment when Morrissey sits down makes his peace with England-the-ex. He's tired of ignoring her. He's tired of the vitriol coming from both directions. He's certainly not promising to come back, but at least he can look back at the past and smile. With an opening line of, “There is something I wanted to tell you, it's so funny you'll kill yourself laughing...” is exactly the kind of awkward, “rehearsed-in-the-mirror” type of thing one would say if they were sitting down for drinks with a long-estranged love.
The conversations that Mozzer undertakes with England in the song is
delivered as personal (the song is rooted a real life relationship
with someone in Camden). However, it's nearly impossible to listen
to without hearing a plea for mutual acknowledgment between himself
and his country. Though they've grown apart, it's important for them
both to be able to look back and smile.
Mozzer brilliantly spells out a list of things that were annoyances
during his relationship with England that, in hindsight, are charming
in their triviality. “Slate-grey Victorian sky,” “tea with the
taste of the Thames,” “taxi drivers (who) never stop talking...”
All of these things bring him back to a time and place that was
somehow both flawed and perfect. A place, though, that he knows he
cannot return to. That time for England and for Morrissey, as it
eventually becomes for any former loves, is past, that place no
longer exists. Essentially, this is an elongated way of telling
England, in a breathtakingly poetic manner, that, in his own strange
way, he's always been true to her.
