When does Morrissey sound most northern?

SweetnTenderYorkshireman

Well-Known Member
Thinking as though Morrissey is from the North, and being one of Manchesters most famous sons, people never assocsiate it within his singing voice unlike Jarvis Cocker/Alex Turner/Mark E Smith/Gallaghers.
Even as a Northerner myself I dont mind that Moz doesent fit this pattern, but on what songs does Moz's location come through?

The only one jumping out to me is on 'He Knows Id Love to See Him', the pronounciation of 'does' is very flat.
 
Blimey! Reckon "most famous son"? He hates Manchester and hates even more the entire UK! That's why he lives half a world away from you in LA. It's more like "when does Morrissey sound more like a Malibu surfer dude".
 
I would say the, "It takes guts to be gentle and kind" line in "I Know It's Over."
 
Me reckon he sounds more San Fernando Valley than Malibu. When he orders his vegan tacos for lunch at The Sunset Marquis, he says "taaaw co"
 
He mentioned this quite early on in his career in a filmed interview I remember well. He never wanted to let the accent define him so that others would judge him and put him in a bracket.

People who wanna make a career are always told to get rid of their accent and it makes sense although I personally love accents.

He was of the view that he did not have to sound like the place he came from and that in itself is very mancunian as most mancunian bands during the indie era all had the motto "it's just a place we come from".
 
Things like "Give us a drink" and "Give it a rest, won't yer" from Our Frank (he pronounces 'you' as 'yer' quite a bit, especially on 'Kill Uncle', where he manages to rhyme 'suprise yer' with 'Tizer').
 
Me reckon too, when he says Guacamole, he just says "Guac" like they do in Redondo Beach. Morrissey really has a varied LA accent.
 
There is a line in The Queen is Dead where he sounds as Manc as he ever gets (in a very gentle South Mcr accent), when he sings 'dressed in your mother's bridal veil'. The flat Northern vowel on 'mother', obvs, but then the 'ai' sound in 'bridal' is v Manc.
 
When he sings "Ask me, ask me, ask me". Very blunt and Northern. Southerners say "arsk". He also pronounces "can't" nicely but strangely. I think that is the Irish influence.
 
I would agree with "guts" on "I Know It's Over" and "does" on "He Knows I'd Love To See Him." He also interjects a very flat "What?" in the patter after the Beethoven version of "The National Front Disco."

I found it fascinating how much he rolled his r's on Rank. Some of the rolls on "Bigmouth Strikes Again" are very forcefully trilled.
 
London; he just rrrrrols the R like a true Northern lad

I noticed the rolling R in other songs and words too and remember " Is It Really So Strange? " where he sings
" Brrrreakk ". It sounded almost like the Scottish accent to me, or is Scottish a language on it's own?
Don't want to offend anybody. so I guess that is really " Northern " but I don't know for sure.

I like it when he does that. I mean the rolling R of courrrrse :rolleyes:
We have be so careful with the words we use, nowadays.:squiffy:

I like this thread! :thumb:
I am hoping for more posts about Northern Moz and words he pronounced in a Northern accent!
 
as a scot we have our own slang version of English,we roll our rrrrs quite a lot depending what part of Scotland you come from.somebody above mentioned yer, well we use that instead of your,as in YER A FAN OF MORRISSEY.
 
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I really like it the way he sings the words in "A RRRush And A Push" on the Who Put The M In Manchestàh? DVD.
I am the ghost of Trrroubled Joe.

Some eightteen months ago,
I trrravelled to a mystical time zone
But I missed my bed, so I came strrraight home

There's too much caffeine in yerr bloodstrrrream
And the lack of rrreal spiesss in yerr life

I said, leave me alone because I'm allrri- ight.
But I'll shut up now, cause as I feel I'm overdoing it.
And surely the way he says: Wot?
:)
 
Crykey blood hell. Reckon don't you people know LA is in Southern California not Northern California. He doesn't sound "Northern". Look at a map in nn it.
 
Crykey blood hell. Reckon don't you people know LA is in Southern California not Northern California. He doesn't sound "Northern". Look at a map in nn it.

Hi AZtec, is there a difference in the way southern or northern Californians prrronounce the word tah-qooh?
I really need to know.
 
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