Bona Drag, Morrissey’s first solo compilation album, released October 1990, highest UK chart position #9. Tracks: ‘PICCADILLY PALARE’, ‘INTERESTING DRUG’, ‘NOVEMBER SPAWNED A MONSTER’, ‘WILL NEVER MARRY’, ‘SUCH A LITTLE THING MAKES SUCH A BIG DIFFERENCE’, ‘THE LAST OF THE FAMOUS INTERNATIONAL PLAYBOYS’, ‘OUIJA BOARD, OUIJA BOARD’, ‘HAIRDRESSER ON FIRE’, ‘EVERYDAY IS LIKE SUNDAY’, ‘HE KNOWS I’D LOVE TO SEE HIM’, ‘YES, I AM BLIND’, ‘LUCKY LISP’, ‘SUEDEHEAD’, ‘DISAPPOINTED’.
The first 18 months of Morrissey’s solo career had been nothing short of triumphant: four consecutive top ten singles, a number one album and his rapturously received return to the stage in WOLVERHAMPTON. But by the summer of 1989, the honeymoon was over. Stephen STREET, Mike Joyce and Craig GANNON had all deserted him over separate financial disputes. Morrissey now faced the 1990s without a songwriting partner, band or producer. Street’s departure left Morrissey especially vulnerable, though in the short term the singer persevered, recording Street’s ‘Ouija Board, Ouija Board’ without him. The relative success of that session, prior to its critical mauling, offered some encouragement as to Morrissey’s immediate future. His best, if not only, available option was to simultaneously employ a multitude of co-writers and trusted session musicians, leaving the rest to ‘Ouija Board’ producers Clive LANGER and Alan Winstanley.
So commenced what Morrissey intended to be his second solo album. The assembled band comprised VIVA HATE drummer Andrew PARESI (back in the fold after briefly being replaced by Joyce), guitarist Kevin ARMSTRONG (who’d proven his worth on the ‘Ouija Board’ session and was now suggesting musical ideas), and ex-Smiths bassist Andy ROURKE, who unlike Joyce and Gannon had resolved his financial quarrel with Morrissey out of court and was now in the running as potential co-writer. Adding to the song pool, Langer was also invited to submit demos.
Recording commenced in the winter of 1989 at Hook End Manor where Morrissey had already taken to its historic charm during the brief ‘Ouija Board’ session. ‘The environment made him feel more confident,’ says Paresi. ‘Initially, all the signs were there that it was going to be great.’ With scant pre-planning, the album took shape as Morrissey showed little favouritism in choosing almost equal shares from the demos of Langer, Armstrong and Rourke. He’d also settled on a title, Bona Drag, a nod to the Julian and Sandy 60s radio sketches which likewise inspired two of its scheduled tracks, ‘Piccadilly Palare’ and ‘STRIPTEASE WITH A DIFFERENCE’. In palare slang, ‘bona drag’ literally means ‘good clothes’. (See also CARRY ON IV) WILLIAMS.)
It was only with the November release of ‘Ouija Board’ – his first solo single not to reach the UK top ten, panned by critics – that Morrissey’s confidence suffered a hammer blow. ‘The “Ouija Board” press wounded him terribly,’ confirms Armstrong. ‘That’s why Bona Drag was never finished. He was extremely depressed. He spent an inordinate amount of time locked away in his room.’ As progress ground to a halt while Morrissey consoled himself, his band made do with bowling trips to nearby Reading enlivened by Rourke’s supply of amyl nitrate. ‘We spent an album’s worth of time and money,’ says Winstanley, ‘but by the end of it we just didn’t have an album’s worth of material.’ Of the seven tracks completed, five were spread across the next two singles and their B-sides (‘November Spawned A Monster’ and ‘Piccadilly Palare’) while ‘Striptease’ and Armstrong’s ‘OH PHONEY’ were shelved indefinitely.
Instead, Bona Drag appeared later than planned as an interim compilation, rounding up Morrissey’s first seven solo singles and, more or less, one B-side apiece. ‘It was initially for the rest of the world,’ claimed Morrissey, ‘but EMI were determined to release it here.’ It proved to be a shrewd gambit, well received by most critics and an impressive testament to the musical scope and lyrical breadth of Morrissey’s first three years as a solo artist. In terms of songwriting, Bona Drag was an even stronger collection than Viva Hate (albeit duplicating ‘Suedehead’2 and ‘Everyday Is Like Sunday’), skilfully sequenced and even granting the unfairly derided ‘Ouija Board’ a fresh context worthy of reassessment. The album also helped rescue quality material such as ‘Hairdresser On Fire’ and ‘Will Never Marry’ from mere B-side status, allowing them a more prominent place in Morrissey’s discography.
Such was its cumulative impact, Bona Drag augured well for Morrissey as a 90s recording artist, a position he himself regarded as ‘one of the most challenging and interesting things that’s ever happened to British pop music’. As Bona Drag hit the shelves he was already ploughing ahead, recording his proper second album, KILL UNCLE: the early 90s were, indeed, about to be more ‘challenging’ than Morrissey could have dared imagine.