The All Smiths/Morrissey Thread

[Dr. Medulla]

Setting apart his politics and personality, I got off the train at Maladjusted. Boring as hell, with the added whining about Mike Joyce. What's odd is that the album before, Southpaw Grammar, is probably my favourite of his solo records. But his views have become so odious and overt that they've had a certain bleeding thru to my enjoyment of records I used to like, so the only time I'll play something of his now is if a song just pops into my head.

Southpaw is pretty fantastic. I love Steve Lillywhite's production and Spencer Cobrin's drum sound is gigantic. I did not like Maladjusted when it was released. It sounded like a performer who had run out of gas/ideas - but when he re-imagined it in 2009 - it became a far better album. He still should have excised Sorrow Will Come to You in the End, however. Generally - I was okay with his reworking of several of his solo albums. As previously mentioned - Maladjusted was improved and even Southpaw is better in its 2009 version. Kill Uncle is one of my least favorite solo albums and I don't know if anything could improve it that much - but the 2013 version is admirable in its attempt.

What do mean by "re-imagined"? Did he re-record or remix all those albums?

[WestwayKid]

Setting apart his politics and personality, I got off the train at Maladjusted. Boring as hell, with the added whining about Mike Joyce. What's odd is that the album before, Southpaw Grammar, is probably my favourite of his solo records. But his views have become so odious and overt that they've had a certain bleeding thru to my enjoyment of records I used to like, so the only time I'll play something of his now is if a song just pops into my head.

Southpaw is pretty fantastic. I love Steve Lillywhite's production and Spencer Cobrin's drum sound is gigantic. I did not like Maladjusted when it was released. It sounded like a performer who had run out of gas/ideas - but when he re-imagined it in 2009 - it became a far better album. He still should have excised Sorrow Will Come to You in the End, however. Generally - I was okay with his reworking of several of his solo albums. As previously mentioned - Maladjusted was improved and even Southpaw is better in its 2009 version. Kill Uncle is one of my least favorite solo albums and I don't know if anything could improve it that much - but the 2013 version is admirable in its attempt.

What do mean by "re-imagined"? Did he re-record or remix all those albums?

He re-released them with revised track listings (songs were dropped, added, and rearranged) and new artwork.

Southpaw went from 8 to 12 tracks. He added 3 unreleased songs (all of them pretty good) and then the b-side Nobody Loves Us (which is also quite good).

Maladjusted had more work done to it. He thankfully tossed out Papa Jack and Roy's Keen - and then added 6 b-sides. He also got rid of the horrible green artwork from the original release. The "new" version sounds like far more cohesive of an album. It's still far from perfect - but much more enjoyable. My only complaint is that the album now ends with Sorrow instead of Satan Rejected my Soul. I would have just gotten rid of Sorrow.

Kill Uncle was re-sequenced and the tracks Pashernate Love and East West were added - both of which inject a little life into what was a pretty drab album.

[Marky Dread]

Setting apart his politics and personality, I got off the train at Maladjusted. Boring as hell, with the added whining about Mike Joyce. What's odd is that the album before, Southpaw Grammar, is probably my favourite of his solo records. But his views have become so odious and overt that they've had a certain bleeding thru to my enjoyment of records I used to like, so the only time I'll play something of his now is if a song just pops into my head.

Southpaw is pretty fantastic. I love Steve Lillywhite's production and Spencer Cobrin's drum sound is gigantic. I did not like Maladjusted when it was released. It sounded like a performer who had run out of gas/ideas - but when he re-imagined it in 2009 - it became a far better album. He still should have excised Sorrow Will Come to You in the End, however. Generally - I was okay with his reworking of several of his solo albums. As previously mentioned - Maladjusted was improved and even Southpaw is better in its 2009 version. Kill Uncle is one of my least favorite solo albums and I don't know if anything could improve it that much - but the 2013 version is admirable in its attempt.

What do mean by "re-imagined"? Did he re-record or remix all those albums?

Swapped out certain album tracks for others. So the running order doesn't have the same track listing as the original.

[Dr. Medulla]

Ah, gotcha—thanks to you both.

[WestwayKid]

Maladjusted really benefits from the retrospective fixes that were applied. It went from an album I barely listened to - to an album I listen to on a semi-regular basis. It sounds like a cross between Vauxhall and Southpaw.

[BR16ADE_R055E]

Alain Whyte on Jonesyʼs Jukebox recently:

[BR16ADE_R055E]

Alain Whyte on The Clash:

[oliver]

Alain Whyte on Jonesyʼs Jukebox recently:

Got to admit, I did laugh at the exchange around 42 minutes
Alain: We did Certain People I Know which people said sounded like Ride a White Swan by T-Rex
<plays it>
Steve: You've got to admit it does sound a bit like it
Alain: Because of the <plays the riff from RAWS and CPIK>
Steve: Dur!

[WestwayKid]

Alain Whyte on Jonesyʼs Jukebox recently:

Got to admit, I did laugh at the exchange around 42 minutes
Alain: We did Certain People I Know which people said sounded like Ride a White Swan by T-Rex
<plays it>
Steve: You've got to admit it does sound a bit like it
Alain: Because of the <plays the riff from RAWS and CPIK>
Steve: Dur!

Thanks for sharing. Good stuff. I always really liked Alain's playing (and song-writing).

[WestwayKid]

Alain Whyte on Jonesyʼs Jukebox recently:

Got to admit, I did laugh at the exchange around 42 minutes
Alain: We did Certain People I Know which people said sounded like Ride a White Swan by T-Rex
<plays it>
Steve: You've got to admit it does sound a bit like it
Alain: Because of the <plays the riff from RAWS and CPIK>
Steve: Dur!

I've also never heard a definitive story regarding his apparent ouster from Morrissey's inner circle. I've heard some speculation: not getting along with Boz, struggling with mental health issues, and so on - but I don't think the actual story has ever come to light - though with Morrissey's history of parting ways with people - it's not shocking. He had 5 songs on Years of Refusal - but didn't play on the album. Story I once heard was that he showed up to the studio - only to be intercepted by Boz who informed him that Morrissey didn't want him on the album.

[BR16ADE_R055E]

Your Arsenal is still my fave Moz album.

[WestwayKid]

Your Arsenal is still my fave Moz album.

It is indeed great - especially after the clunker of Kill Uncle. The lineup of Whyte, Boz, Day, and Cobrin was solid and with Ronno producing it was a great artistic rebirth. I saw him live on that tour and it was fantastic.

[BR16ADE_R055E]

Your Arsenal is still my fave Moz album.

It is indeed great - especially after the clunker of Kill Uncle. The lineup of Whyte, Boz, Day, and Cobrin was solid and with Ronno producing it was a great artistic rebirth. I saw him live on that tour and it was fantastic.

Yes, Kill Uncle was overall a disappointment at the time, especially after all the great singles. The rockabilly versions of “Sing Your Life” and “Place” recorded at KROQ sound so much better than the album versions. I miss that lineup. I went to 5 shows on the Your Arsenal tour, including Halloween. Saw them on Halloween the year before as well...that show is on the Your Arsenal “Definitive Master” DVD that was released in 2014.

[WestwayKid]

Your Arsenal is still my fave Moz album.

It is indeed great - especially after the clunker of Kill Uncle. The lineup of Whyte, Boz, Day, and Cobrin was solid and with Ronno producing it was a great artistic rebirth. I saw him live on that tour and it was fantastic.

Yes, Kill Uncle was overall a disappointment at the time, especially after all the great singles. The rockabilly versions of “Sing Your Life” and “Place” recorded at KROQ sound so much better than the album versions. I miss that lineup. I went to 5 shows on the Your Arsenal tour, including Halloween. Saw them on Halloween the year before as well...that show is on the Your Arsenal “Definitive Master” DVD that was released in 2014.

He had such success out of the gate as a solo artist - and his relationship with Stephen Street as a producer and song-writing partner really paid dividends. Street had engineered both Meat is Murder and The Queen is Dead before producing Strangeways...so there was a history to work off of. Langer and Winstanley just weren't the right producers and the songs sounded flat. I wouldn't even blame Mark Nevin - I just think Morrissey hit a rut lyrically and the production team wasn't able to give the songs any life. Take "You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side" which is a Nevin co-write. It's a butt kicker of an opening track in the hands of Whyte/Boorer/Day/Cobrin/Ronson - but I'm guessing it wouldn't have sounded the same had it been recorded by the Kill Uncle team.

[WestwayKid]

Interestingly - if you pull up Kill Uncle on Wikipedia - John Deacon of Queen is credited as playing bass on 3 tracks (Asian Rut, Mute Witness, Harsh Truth of the Camera Eye). I had always thought that Bedders had played bass on the entire album - so I Googled it and other people had asked the same question. I finally found a Tweet where someone had asked Nevin and he said Bedders played on the entire album. Weird.