As for what passes through Morrissey's mind to come up with these crazy-ass decisions ~ I would assume that it's the same firing synapses that came up with 'This Charming Man', 'There Is A Light That Will Never Go Out', 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me', 'Suedehead', 'November Spawned A Monster', 'National Front Disco', 'The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get', 'Southpaw', 'Maladjusted', 'Trouble Loves Me', 'The First of the Gang To Die', 'Dear God, Please Help Me', 'Christian Dior', 'Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed', 'My Dearest Love', 'Scandinavia', and a few other songs you may remember. You take the rough with the smooth.
This is not a justification for blind adoration; it's just an attempt to suggest that the same head that cuts an intro, or meddles with a beloved middle eight, or alters a sleeve, also concocted a quarter century's worth of cracking stuff. And that the very same oddness, a unique oddness, that causes the one, is also responsible for the other. So. I'm just saying a certain leeway is due. Emotionally, as well as clinically.
And is anybody actually shocked and offended anymore? He is mmmental. Anybody that's followed him for more than even a few years must soon realise that.
With these recent excisings too, it could have been worse, given that in 1990 he stated that "at least half" of 'Viva Hate' should be best left forgotten, and saw the LP as little more than a living sign that he hadn't killed himself. By 2002 he was unearthing 'Late Night, Maudlin Street' in concerts in a fairly drastically re-drawn version (to not alot of opprobrium I seem to remember); it always struck me as one of his most unremittingly personal songs (literally 'his diaries set to music') and one that might be problematic to him looking back. The fact that he's licking his hankie and wiping it's mucky cheek now, some twenty odd years later, suggests that these things continue to be of very personal concern to him.
I do also distinctly remember more than a few Morrissey fans back in '88 whispering, very softly, that 'Maudlin Street' did go on a bit. So at least they'll be happy. If they're around. Which they're probably not. Or if they are, they'll probably be saying Morrissey's a twat for daring to fiddle with an untouchable classic. Such is life.
huh? All 3 were originally the b-sides of "Everyday is Like Sunday", they just got slapped on Bona Drag because they weren't on Viva Hate itself. I think the real run of "Bona Drag" singles started with Playboys.
. I'm not sure Bona Drag has any recognisable 'feel' to it... to me at least, it's always sounded like what it is: a very scattered collection of (excellent) songs written years apart and pasted together more or less randomly. When I listen to it I don't sense any particular 'mood'from the music or the writing. I always wondered if the reaction to Bona..might have been different were it marketed as a "proper" album rather than a compilation. I can't really understand why it wasn't, but Moz was in a fierce mood, firing out singles from every angle. Perhaps he was simply eager to prove that there was life after the Smiths.
