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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of When Morrissey Finally Dies (EP), Hurricane, I, Chat Room Days, Terra In Cognita (pre-release single), 4st, 1987, Chrysanthemums, London, and 8 more.
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ABSTRACT: The author explores the relationship between his own life and that of Steven Patrick Morrissey, famed singer for the band The Smiths and of a similarly illustrious solo career. The author explores the liminal space between life and death, between singer and fan, and observes his own potential for grief in the face of an intangible loss. The author interweaves the mystical (prayer) with the practical (the lives of both singer and fan) in the effort to set down a future-as-now narrative. Pain and joy are offered as the potential result of the working out of these converse planes.
LYRICS:
Punctured bicycle, rusts in the slough of despond
Sign posts he made famous are now misaligned
They’re better left laying where they lie
But who will replace the stars in our eyes?
When Morrissey finally dies
When I was kid, he made a brave sound
But when we both grew old, he seemed so alone
“Well-read”, I suppose, is how he would like to be known
But what I want to know is will three words on a headstone suffice?
When Morrissey finally dies
He was healthier than he ever let on// But in the end his body let him down, Oh!
His sickness was one of the heart// The legend of the young man gone soft
Who will now rearrange the furniture?
He backed his way into the future
Was he “one with the younger ones”?
No one thought his time would ever come
When Morrissey has finally GONE!
No!
Mic stand is stable, whip crack the cable
The songbird of Man-city,
young blue eyes
When Morrissey finally dies...
Clock on the wall, [the] hour’s come ‘round
Cummings, Stevens, Williams, and Pound
I wear black on the outside: it’s my vocation
When his time comes, I’ll pray for his salvation
When Morrissey finally dies
When Morrissey Finally dies
When Steven [Patrick] Morrissey finally dies
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2. |
Our Hands Are Tied
06:54
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ACTION ITEMS:
1) Call everyone you know and wish them well
2) Deep, cleansing breaths
3) Write Mother a letter
4) For no reason, try another direction
5) Manifest Destiny?
6) Graveyards!
7) Set clock forward one hour, and then sleep late
LYRICS:
Like a ghost
above the ground
A hungry ghost
floats,
a mist on the shore
And in that pale
exterior
A heart beats in
a red
contrary air
Our hands are tied
The ties that bind
Rebound,
Doctors unwind
Tears in the waiting room
There’s no getting through
I’ll hide
I’ll hide away
Like a Lost Boy
A Lost Boy afraid
All these cupboard loves
All these closet fears
I slay the beast
Pull the curtain and find nothing here
Our hands are tied
These doctors in white
Descend with bread and wine
Friends in the waiting room pray that I’ll wake soon
Are your hands tied?
Are my hands tied?
Are our hands tied?
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3. |
Strange Cars
05:05
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STUDY QUESTIONS:
1) Are "Careless Hands" related to "Careless Whispers"? Cite three reasons for or against such a relationship.
2) Where does the song go when you are not singing it? Discuss.
3) Admit that you are unsure what the phrases "make believe" and "fake love" have to do with anything. Don't you feel better?
LYRICS:
Pass the drinks
Careless Hands in the air
It’s all make believe
It’s fake love
Let’s try to Care
Sunday parties we love
Can be ours for a song
All those parties that we love
Can be ours for a song
We were made in a Garden
and stripped of our robes
We were made in that Garden
But everyone knows
That we are children who get into strange cars
We are like children who get into strangers’ cars
We were born in a garden
We were born in a garden
I raise my hand too quickly and lift the crystal to the light
I try to drink too swiftly, lift the crystal to the light
We are children!
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Champion Leader Beaufort, South Carolina
J. Bozeman, of Luxury and They Sang As They Slew makes music under the borrowed moniker "Champion Leader", which itself is a name given to Mary the Mother of God.
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