Morrissey A-Z: "Dial-a-Cliché"

Sweet & sad wee song.

Bit of gossip interest since he might have been under pressure to change.
 
I like it. I thought it may have been one of those songs never to be done live but, thank god for Nov/Dec 2018. :ahhh:
 
This part of the song...

But the person underneath
Where does he go?
Does he slide by the wayside?
Or does he just die?
And you find that you've organized
Your feelings, for people
Who didn't like you then
And do not like you now

...is one of the most beautiful things, for me, in the whole Smiths/Morrissey body of work.
 
I always wanted to like this song, but it never caught on for me. Lyrically interesting though.
 
nice little track,like the music,might not be everybodies cup of tea.
 
Beautifully sung , beautifully played. One of my favorite lyrics .
As I said here before Viva Hate is consummate work of art.
 
Short, sweet, empathetic and wistful. Not much to dislike about it. The live version from a few years ago was great.
 
Why would he dial a cliché?

Is there something that people would dial for???
 
Musically I think this is one of the lesser moments on the album, and indeed both Vini Reilly and Andrew Paresi have been quite dismissive of it.

The lyrics have quite a lot of depth to them and the same can be said for much of Viva Hate. It's still a contender for the strongest solo album, and there's a lot of substance to it.

In the poll on the other board it ranked 210 from 264 solo songs.
 
Why would he dial a cliché?

Is there something that people would dial for???

The way I interpret it is that 'dial-a-' indicates some sort of service, easily available at the end of a phone (e.g. 'dial-a-ride' for a mini-cab service). He then applies this to certain criticisms of his personal style and personality that were extant at the time and dismisses those criticisms by implying that they are too easily made and too readily available, whilst acknowledging the damage they do him personally.
 
The way I interpret it is that 'dial-a-' indicates some sort of service, easily available at the end of a phone (e.g. 'dial-a-ride' for a mini-cab service). He then applies this to certain criticisms of his personal style and personality that were extant at the time and dismisses those criticisms by implying that they are too easily made and too readily available, whilst acknowledging the damage they do him personally.

Thanks Radis!
 
It wasn't my favorite song on the album back then and probably isn't now.
But it reminds me of some qualities sadly lost over the years: poignant lyrics, simplicity, restrained instrumentation.
Viva Hate songs are standing up well to the test of time.
 
Not a bad song but it’s music is pretty standard acoustic strum. It’s all a bit bland though with maybe the exception of the lyric. Feel like morrissey is still sorta searching for his melodic groove here. Wonder if he had the vocal first
 
The way I interpret it is that 'dial-a-' indicates some sort of service, easily available at the end of a phone (e.g. 'dial-a-ride' for a mini-cab service). He then applies this to certain criticisms of his personal style and personality that were extant at the time and dismisses those criticisms by implying that they are too easily made and too readily available, whilst acknowledging the damage they do him personally.

If you are old-school TMBG's fan, you could always Dial-a-Song! Seriously - (844) 387-6962.
 
Dial-a-song is and was fantastic.

Dial a cliché meanwhile is absolutely wonderful, from a time when he was singing our lives.

Dial-a-Song....lives!

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