Hello again, everybody. Welcome back
to Nobody Loves Us. If you
didn't catch the first post, basically, I'm making a list of my 20
favorite Morrissey Non-Singles from throughout his solo career. I'll
be counting down the list each weekday until October 26th,
at which I point I will have to spend two days preparing myself both
mentally and physically for Mozzer's show at The Orpheum on the
29th.
Also,
if you didn't catch the first post, this bit was initially titled
Found Found Found.
So, that's what's
happening here. So far the countdown looks like this.
20. One Day
Goodbye Will Be Farewell
On to number 19
then (click the title to check out the track):
19. Driving Your Girlfriend Home (Morrissey/Nevin)
From
the album Kill Uncle
Key
Line: “I'm parking outside her home, as we're shaking hands goodnight so politely"
(Click that video to give the song a listen)
Anybody who has paid attention to my rantings about music over the years knows that, deep down, I love pop music. I've always, ALWAYS been a sucker for a good hook.
Even though almost all fans found their way to The Smiths & Morrissey via they lyrical content, it was his ability to wrap his voice around a good hook that really got me... er... hooked.
For example, as teenagers, MinneSarah and I disagreed on most music. She was always listening to British stuff that I didn't care for while I was drowning myself in pop-punk. For reasons that completely escape me now, I just couldn't get enough Lagwagon. I know, I can't explain it either.
Anyway, The Smiths were one of those bands that MinneSarah loved that I just couldn't stand. A few years later, when I was probably 20 or so, I was driving from Red Wing to Duluth to visit a girlfriend and found myself looking for something new to listen to on the drive. I stopped at a Best Buy in the Twin Cities and started looking around.
For whatever reason, the "I really don't know and I really don't care..." line from "Hand In Glove" started kicking around in my head. On a whim, I went and picked up a copy of Louder Than Bombs. As you know now, this turned out to be a bizarrely important moment, as I've been borderline obsessed with Mozzer ever since
Why do I bring this story? Well, thanks for asking.
Being a person who's always been a fan of Morrissey (the singer) first and Morrissey (the lyricist) second, "Driving Your Girlfriend Home" was, for me, the standout track on Kill Uncle.
"Driving Your Girlfriend Home" is, initially, a pretty languid pop tune. The acoustic strums and swaying bass provide a lovely foundation, but they are far from attention-grabbers. Morrissey's initial verse does little to grab the listener.
Listening to it now, it's obvious that it grabbed me with the chorus. Moz builds to the chorus by vocally imitating the aforementioned swaying bass line. "'Turn left,' she says/I turn left/And she says..." are straight from the Lou Reed school of hyper-literal lyrics. However, with Linder Sterling providing some lovely backing harmonies, Mozzer delivers the chorus beautifully.
"So how did I end up so deeply involved in the very existence I planned on avoiding?" The lament of his friend's girlfriend is given both the weight & humour it deserves by Morrissey's lightness. The broadness of such a complaint is certainly laughable, but the underlying emotions that would lead to such a complaint are very real. The fact that he's able to toe the line between the two is one of the more underrated aspects of Morrissey's vocal ability.
Morrissey himself alludes to this delicate line in the second verse by observing that the woman is, "laughing to stop herself crying..."
In the second verse, the woman's narrows her complaint from the entirety of her existence to her dissatisfaction with her boyfriend.
"How did I end up attached to this person, when his sense of humour gets gradually worser?"
Two things come to mind here:
First, given Morrissey's notorious preference for solitude, it's no surprise that he would write a song in which a person's all-encompassing misery & confusion would later be boiled down to said person's companion.
Second, given Morrissey's equally-notorious inability to deal with conflict on a face-to-face level, it should come as no surprise that, after both questions, "I can't answer"
The song ends echoing this same sentiment:
"I'm parking outside her home/and we're shaking hands goodnight so politely"
Of course, the only way Morrissey could handle this woman's personal crisis would be with sterotypical English reservation and politeness. With just two and a half verses and two choruses, Morrissey has painted a brilliant vignette about himself.
