Morrissey A-Z: "People Are the Same Everywhere"

BookishBoy

Well-Known Member






Today's song is this Morrissey/Tobias composition, originally recorded for the BBC's Janice Long show in 2011 and then included on the reissue of "The Last of the Famous International Playboys" in 2013.

What do we think?
 
bit of a rocker,i dont mind this the way some people do.some good lines in it.voice struggles a bit on this.
7 stumbles/10 stalls.
 
Honestly don't know why this is held in such low esteem. It's a bouncy pop delight that sits nicely alongside All You Need is Me, In the Future When All's Well, Satan Rejected My Soul etc.
 
Not nearly as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Sure, there’s not many discernible melodic passages, just a lot of overdriven guitar: this is by far the weakest part. The lyrics are slight and can be funny - playful is the word that reigns over this track. I think, though, that the vocal performance, given some of the track’s limitations, is well above average and finds some of the melodic elements that the half-interesting chord progression didn’t fully tease out. He’s done worse, I think, and by no means is this one of his best, but the onslaught of hate for the song itself is mainly unjustified - I’m guessing it’s more about the time and the place it was played that affected people’s outlook on it.
5/10
 
Totally horrendous and am glad it didn’t ever get put on an album proper. This song, The Kid’s A Looker (mainly because too many laaa laaaa, laa laaa laaa laaaa’s) and Golden Lights are the only three Smiths/Morrissey songs I would ever give the term “horrendous” — and I love both Kill Uncle and Maladjusted.

From the same sessions, I am glad Scandinavia was given an album release but think Action Is My Middle Name deserved it a lot more.
 
Unfortunately, not a Moz Masterpiece.
I thought this wouldn’t escape 2011, but was still still being given a run in 2015.
Not as bad as many perceive it to be, but not one of his favourites.
 
By 2011, this type of heavy guitar driven tunes had been churned out so many times that it became hard to sustain an interest when only average. As for the words, I find them slightly funny in places. It is good that even God makes mistake, otherwise we would not have Morrissey.
 
I certainly don't hate it, but I don't love it. The vocals on the 2nd vid (live performance) are much better for me. I like the energy of it all. Some great drum action courtesy of Matt W. People are the same everywhere, apart from Moz, of course, as he's been hoisted from the herd as a special exception! Marvellous.
 
Again, nowhere near as bad as some (most) make it out to be. Back in '11 it probably deserved its place near the bottom of the pile, but not now (and even back then it didn't totally suck, people were just bored with this type of straightforward rock he had been churning out since 1995).

Having been subjected to Low In High-School and WPINOYB, this and "The Kid's a Looker" f***ing rocks. Sure, the lyrics are a bit too misanthropic and self-aggrandizing, but there is a tune there somewhere and you can't argue with either the energy nor the attitude. Any time I hear it, I enjoy it.
 
I think it is quite catchy in a 'mildly irritating earworm' sort of way. Of the songs from that session it is not the worst (TKAL should have been strangled at birth) or the best (AIMMN should have had a more prominent release) but it is just a bit sparse and seems unfinished, as if Moz gave up on it before it was fully developed. Something of a surprise that it featured so heavily in concerts at the time...but that's why we love him, I guess.
 
It surely is the best of the 2011 tracks and could have been a one-off single, if the record market still would have been like in 1995.
 
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This was Morrissey at his most self-obsessed, but it's not that bad a song. It's a shame that it wasn't given a proper production, but it could only realistically have been a b-side and is much weaker than Action is My Middle Name.

Morrissey and Jesse have written several much better songs in the years since.

In the poll on the Hoffman board it ranked 211th from 264 solo songs.
 
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