Morrissey A-Z: "On the Streets I Ran"

BookishBoy

Well-Known Member



Today's song is this Morrissey/Tobias composition from the Ringleader of the Tormentors album.

What do we think?
 
While I love this album and as I have previously mentioned it was a fantastic tour,this song just hasn't made any impact on me yet.
 
Love this , some great words here..
Fits in very well with the rest of the album and marches on at a decent tempo....

Wet black holes/ has to be a 10/10
 
Probably my least favourite Morrissey song of all. It’s like trying to fit a vocal melody that’s barely there onto a track it just doesn’t belong on.
 
I always think of the song by song progression of Ringleader as scenes in a film. And to this track’s credit, I can imagine the main character darting down the streets, running from something. However, aside from some propulsion in the drums and guitar, the dynamic-less production kills any kind of epic momentum the song tries to build: every instrument sounds distanced from one another, even the vocals - which, admittedly, are pretty good. The chorus is great, but seems like an echo of “In the Future When All’s Well” rather than a distinct melody. The Pink Floyd “Echoes”-esque organ tries to enliven the stodgy arrangement, but is also dulled by the production. The lyrics work well with the album’s themes, and, along with the vocals, are probably the best things about this song. On the whole: something that could have been great ends up as something batting at average.
5/10
 
One of the least intriguing, least dynamic or interesting songs on the entire album, yet…harmless and too ordinary to dislike. Also quite fun. Poor Pittsburghians.
 
good song,has good energy about it.lyrics are decent.when the album was leaked early i remember listening to it and this was one of the songs that really stood out.
8 stillborns/10 newborns.
 
I think this is slightly sub-standard vocally (Moz seems to struggle in places), but the track is one of my favourites from this album.
I love the drum work on this (Matt Chamberlain), which is especially interesting & effective at the beginning, coming in with a single drum beat at irregular, almost off-beat intervals. Day's bass is divine, love the way it pounds & dominates throughout the track. Some really nice jangly guitar too. There's a mixture of decent & naff lyrics (croak, joke, Which isn't very nice), some Moz humour, along with some honesty & acceptance maybe especially in "Turned sickness into popular song" & then "Turned sickness into unpopular song". Quite clever.

Best lyric for me, as it's in typical Moz style:
"Oh, dear God when will I
Be where I should be?"


Wonderful.
 
I think this is slightly sub-standard vocally (Moz seems to struggle in places), but the track is one of my favourites from this album.
I love the drum work on this (Matt Chamberlain), which is especially interesting & effective at the beginning, coming in with a single drum beat at irregular, almost off-beat intervals. Day's bass is divine, love the way it pounds & dominates throughout the track. Some really nice jangly guitar too. There's a mixture of decent & naff lyrics (croak, joke, Which isn't very nice), some Moz humour, along with some honesty & acceptance maybe especially in "Turned sickness into popular song" & then "Turned sickness into unpopular song". Quite clever.

Best lyric for me, as it's in typical Moz style:
"Oh, dear God when will I
Be where I should be?"


Wonderful.
We all know where Moz is....
In Manchester guzzling liquor😆
 
Never really got this album as a whole. The sound was/is different to any other album in my opinion.
As for the song, I don’t mind it but, it’s not what’s known as “another Moz Masterpiece”. Unfortunately
 
Mediocre song from a lousy album, but I was living in Pittsburgh when this came out and couldn't help but feeling that Morrissey was communicating to me through this one.
 
why is it we get all this hatred for the album now whereas when it came out it was well received by most people on here,think the observer called it the morrissey masterpeice,time is a funny thing.
 
Morrissey's voice is shot here - he is REALLY struggling to get anywhere close to the high notes, and he's off most of the time, so it's quite painful to listen to. I just don't understand why they didn't lower the music by a couple of notes. I'm guessing this was recorded towards the end of the session, and he'd been singing so much his voice was crapped out by that point.
 
Notes are all over the place, lyrics are clunky and it's simply too derivative of other songs from the same album.
The vocal melody actually sounds like a demo of "In The Future When All's Well" - especially the section beginning, "A working-class face glares back" which follows exactly the same progression as "The future / Is ended by the a long, long sleep."
 
Possibly the weakest song on a very strong album. Nothing terrible about this, but nothing memorable either.

In the poll on the Hoffman board it ranked 195th from 264 solo songs.
 
I always think of the song by song progression of Ringleader as scenes in a film. And to this track’s credit, I can imagine the main character darting down the streets, running from something. However, aside from some propulsion in the drums and guitar, the dynamic-less production kills any kind of epic momentum the song tries to build: every instrument sounds distanced from one another, even the vocals - which, admittedly, are pretty good. The chorus is great, but seems like an echo of “In the Future When All’s Well” rather than a distinct melody. The Pink Floyd “Echoes”-esque organ tries to enliven the stodgy arrangement, but is also dulled by the production. The lyrics work well with the album’s themes, and, along with the vocals, are probably the best things about this song. On the whole: something that could have been great ends up as something batting at average.
5/10
Always thought if you reorder some of the songs on ROTT there’s almost a narrative arc of fleeing America and finding solace on the streets of Rome.
 
Idk even though I agree with the person who said he seems to be reaching for some of the notes, I love this song and his voice on it. Especially the last lines, but the whole thing is just badass, I think. I used to play it over and over when I first discovered it. I think it's a quality song.
 
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