Lets talk about Southpaw

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Southpaw Geeza

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Southpaw. The closing track to Morrisseys deepest, darkest and dankest album 'Southpaw Grammar'. (In my opinion his greatest project and era by a mile not counting the shoddy re release)

A powerful 10 minute song set the pace for the rest of his days. The opening guitar creeps in and builds into a whirlwind of sound. The despair, loneliness and longing from the guitars and whistle like noises at the start really put the song in a league of its own straight away.

We here the story of a boy, who through the harsh course of life turned around and realised his closest childhood pals and friends were no where to be seen. Running back to "ma" the pace for the rest of his days is set.

We learn how the "girl of his dreams" is all alone. Not just alone mind you, sad and alone.

You can interpret what you like from this song. I see it as a song about how tough becoming a man is and how in life we often never get what we want. Whether it be the girl of your dreams, loyal friends or not having to run for help from others.

Morrisseys most powerful song, and only a very small fraction of fans know of it. It is one of rocks greatest records and could of easily been a hit single. (Way better than songs like layla or stairway to heaven) .

After putting out the album, what upset me the most is the fact Morrissey does not acknowledge this piece of art at all. His greatest song (or at least deepest) is never sang live.

There is something Steven should know...
 
Agreed 100 % Fills me up every single time.
One of his finest and most personal songs.
I think that's also the reason it has never been performed live. Just too close to the bone.
But he has acknowledged on more occasion than one that SG is his favourite album of his.
 
It's such a good album and a great track. I've been listening to it a lot lately, which is interesting. I liked it enough at the time and since those were the days when you still listened to cassettes repeatedly in your car, it got its fair airplay before sort of falling away for me.

But I recently bought the reissue CD and the liner notes make it clear that he sees that song as of a time and place, never to be repeated outside of the studio. I'm not sure he's said that about any other song, at least explicitly.

The liner notes alone make the reissue worth purchasing.

I also only recently stumbled on the alternative version, which I adore, and somehow never knew existed until YouTube randomly served up something useful for once.
 
It's alright. A bit long.

I think that is the point of the song LMAO. Southpaw would not work as well as a 3 minute bop. You have to dwell in the dark guitar work of Alain Whyte it just adds so much to the song as a finale. Fun fact the song would of been even longer but they ran out of tape when recording the song hence the abrupt yet so fitting ending to the song.
 
This would seem a good spot to share this. If only they could make nice in order for Alain to do a one-off walk-on to play this song...

 
I think that is the point of the song LMAO. Southpaw would not work as well as a 3 minute bop. You have to dwell in the dark guitar work of Alain Whyte it just adds so much to the song as a finale. Fun fact the song would of been even longer but they ran out of tape when recording the song hence the abrupt yet so fitting ending to the song.
I'll agree that it marked a high point for Alain.
 
Far and away my favourite solo Morrissey song. But is he saying "ma" or "Marr"...?
 
It's about twice as long as it should be (which goes for much of that album), but is still one of the better tracks. I think Danton Supple (maybe) states that the running time was chosen arbitrarily by Morrissey and that they recognized that there was no real reason for it to be that length.
 
Far and away my favourite solo Morrissey song. But is he saying "ma" or "Marr"...?
ma as in mam or mammy.i first listened to southpaw on a train home from Glasgow and thing that intrigued me the most was of him sounding as if he had a real bad cold,still ,sounded great.great album,i don't mind the length of a song as long as its interesting.
 
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ma as in mam or mammy.i first listened to southpaw on a train home from Glasgow and thing that intrigued me the most was of him sounding as if he had a real bad cold,still ,sounded great.great album,i don't mind the length of a song as long as its interesting.

M's vocal quality was something Danton Supple remarked upon to Goddard in the Mozipedia entry for the album, attributing it to congestion and excess mucus from his (at the time, apparently) dairy-heavy diet. It seems to have been a protracted issue because it was already audible on the "Boxers" single (and "Sunny") which was recorded in November 1994. The final vocals for Southpaw proper were laid down in March or April 1995. Even so, there was quite a paucity of falsetto moments on Maladjusted as well, with Alain singing more of the high range lines.

In retrospect, I feel it adds to how the album stands out. Everything is just a little off-kilter and apparently evoked where his mental and emotional life was at in that span of time. It's intriguing to listen to Vauxhall and Southpaw as bookends, companion pieces, a triumph of spirit and then a plumbing of the depths.
 
How could any album be darker than the current? "Low In High School" is by far the darkest record to date. Not only musically but lyrically. "Southpaw" is a lightweight!
 
No coincidence Morrissey material has become unlistenable since Alain’s departure. He really was the glue holding it all together.
 
Currently working on a humble cover of this epic track, and this just occurred to me: you can superimpose Johnny Marr's string-emulation line from "There Is a Light..." quite neatly onto the cycling closing bars... in much the same way, I find that what he does on "Hi Hello" hints at that very specific melody line from 1986... thoughts?
 
It's about twice as long as it should be (which goes for much of that album), but is still one of the better tracks. I think Danton Supple (maybe) states that the running time was chosen arbitrarily by Morrissey and that they recognized that there was no real reason for it to be that length.

That just isn't true. It was meant to be longer, but they ran out of tape - see Mozipedia.
 
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