:: The Wendy House ::

(lengthy fawning entry warning)

Morrissey’s lyric writing skill invariably captures my imagination.  ‘you are the quarry’ is a personal favourite.  It has powerful lyrcis touching on religion, identity (homosexuality), class, celebrity, nationality and more…. 

Lyrics loose something without the broader context, nonetheless,  here are a few favourite phrases from songs on ‘you are the quarry’: 

• “Lock-jawed pop stars thicker than pig-shit nothing to convey,  so scared to show intelligence it might smear their lovely career”  
• “the woman of my dreams,  she never came along,  the woman of my dreams,  well there never was one”   
• “why do I let you get away with the things that you say to me? Could it be I like you?  It’s so shameful of me I like you because you’re not right in the head and nor am I and this is why,  I like you”    
• “I have forgiven Jesus for all the love he placed in me when there’s no-one I can turn to with this love”   
• “You have never been in love until you’ve seen sunlight thrown over smashed human bone”   
• “I’ve been dreaming of a time when to be English is not to be baneful,  to be standing by the flag not feeling shameful, racist or partial”  
• “The teenagers who love you,  they will wake-up,  yawn, and kill you”  
• “Educated criminals work within the law”  
• “she told me she loved me which means she must be insane”  
• “I’ve had my faced dragged in 15 miles of shit and I do not, I do not, I do not like it“
• “drinking Tea with the taste of the Thames sullenly on a chair on the pavement here you’ll find,  despair and I“
• “He stole from the rich and the poor,  and the not very rich and the very poor“
• “this world is full/ so full of crashing bores and I must be one/ cos noone ever turns to me to say take me in your arms and love me“

This whole track ”America is not the world” , despite not mentioning khaki cargo pants,  is resonantly haunting me: 

America/your head’s too big/because
America/your belly’s too big
and I love you/I just wish you’d stay where
you is/in
America/the land of the Free, they said
and of opportunity/in a Just and a Truthful way
but where the President
is never black, female or gay
and until that day
you’ve got nothing to say to me to help me believe/in
America/it bought you the hamburger/well
America/ you know where you can shove your hamburger
and don’t you wonder
why in Estonia they say
“hey you, you big fat pig”/”you fat pig”
“you fat pig”-?
Steely-blue eyes/ with no love in them
scan the world
and a humourless smile with no warmth
within/greets the world
and I/I have got nothing/to offer you
just this heart deep and true
which you say you don’t need
See with your eyes
touch with your hands - please
know in your soul
hear through your ears - please
for haven’t you me with you now?
and I love you
I love you
I love you