Come Back To Camden

[WHY!]

How funny! JUST this morning, when I drove to my work, I was sitting in my car hearing this song and thought (again) what a beautiful song it is!!! So emotional and I really love synth-strings. The music in this song is just perfect!! Definitely one of this best songs ever!

And I love the lines "There is something I wanted to tell you, It's so funny you'll kill yourself laughing / But then I, I look around, And I remember that I am alone, Alone. For evermore".

 

[chelsea_steve]

I think Come Back To Camden wouldn't sound out of place in a West End stage show. It's got a certain feel to it! Epic, plenty of mood shifts & key changes, along with a big finish. I've loved it since I first heard it.

It just goes to show how versatile Moz is. Completely different styles seem to come easily to him. He could probably even carry off thrash metal, though I won't lose any sleep if he gives that one a miss.

 

[English Heart]

I think Come Back To Camden wouldn't sound out of place in a West End stage show.

That's exactly what I thought when I first heard it, I thought it was *too* over the top to begin with, but then I realised that's what he does best. It reminds of being at the Smiths disco and looking out of the window at the industrial skyline after a few drinks and saying to my friend ''under slate-grey victorian sky..''.

 

[Marrso]

Hello.one of my favorites too.Strong melody and funny lyrics.Please don't listen this if you have a hangover, at least it makes me wanna cry.Just other night I tried to learn how to play it with guitar,well chords ok and I remember words,but still working with melody.

 

[the more you explore me!]

i could get a bus through camden every day... it isn't as romantic as the song!
but the song quite showy and glamorous which is always good in my books

 

[Kuiper]

I don't think it's ever been played live - he couldn't even finish it during a soundcheck - just too emotional. One day, maybe. Cheers

He actually soundchecked it? Or at least half of it? I heard the same thing about him not being able to finish it because it was too emotional for him about Dear God, Please Help Me, but managed to pull that one off and I didn't see him tear up. I would be more likely to break down while singing I Know It's Over, Late Night, Maudlin Street, Asleep, How Soon is Now?, I've Changed My Plea to Guilty, Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore, Used to Be a Sweet Boy, Unlovable (aslo only soundchecked), Now My Heart is Full, Seasick, Yet Still Docked, I Won't Share You, There is a Light that Never Goes Out, I Won't Share You, or Trouble Loves Me than Come Back to Camden or Dear God, Please Help Me. But yeah, those two are probably more personal to him than most of the others.

 

[Reggie Kray]

one of my favourites ever...

he must play it sometime...

'sipping tea with the taste of the Thames"

 

[mozmal]

Just looking at Scandal and Passion by David Bret, the following is said about the song...

Many drew the conclusion rightly or wrongly, that the song was a cri de coeur to Jake, particularly when Morrissey told i-D's Ashley Heath, "The song is about a particular person. I have a history, yes. And that whole time in my life is a very emotive period for me." If it was about Jake, then one cannot begin to imagine how special this young man must have been to have left such a void in the singer's life, albeit one that inspired a veritable masterpiece.

Cheers

 

[I am a Ghost]

As regards singing it live, I so hoped during the Quarry tour that he would do so, but it never happened
But I also thought he would never sing "I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero Now", my favourite song from ROTT, and I was thrilled when he did. It also features high falsetto like CBTC, but because he sang it in a lower key, it was possible. So of course the same could be done with CBTC, but I think, as was intimated earlier, the song is too personal to be sung live.
Or perhaps I am just talking out of my arse...

 

[Captain Tractor]

As regards singing it live, I so hoped during the Quarry tour that he would do so, but it never happened
But I also thought he would never sing "I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero Now", my favourite song from ROTT, and I was thrilled when he did. It also features high falsetto like CBTC, but because he sang it in a lower key, it was possible. So of course the same could be done with CBTC, but I think, as was intimated earlier, the song is too personal to be sung live.
Or perhaps I am just talking out of my arse...

I don't think you are!

Spot on.

 

[lightupvirginmary]

I always thought it could have been amazing but something was missing for me.

 

[imogen11]

I think the lyrics are just beautiful: 'me and my heart we knew, we just knew'. Sublime! It just kills me,
BUT
I think the music is all wrong - way too over the top. It takes away from the beauty of the lyrics. It's such a shame!

Does anybody else out there think it would have been perfect with a sparse musical arrangment along the lines of Maudlin Street or Dear God?

 

[lilybett]

I like the music.

Dear God.. is rubbish.

"Where taxi drivers never stop talking
Under slate-grey, Victorian sky"

Ahh <333

 

[nightandday]

Just looking at Scandal and Passion by David Bret, the following is said about the song...

Many drew the conclusion rightly or wrongly, that the song was a cri de coeur to Jake, particularly when Morrissey told i-D's Ashley Heath, "The song is about a particular person. I have a history, yes. And that whole time in my life is a very emotive period for me." If it was about Jake, then one cannot begin to imagine how special this young man must have been to have left such a void in the singer's life, albeit one that inspired a veritable masterpiece.

Cheers

If you are going to speculate, I'd say it is far more likely to be about the person, whoever it was, that Morrissey admitted to having had a relationship with circa 1995-1997 (in the 1997 interview in The Guardian - the first time he's admitted to having had a recent relationship). Not that it matters much to any of us.

He actually soundchecked it? Or at least half of it? I heard the same thing about him not being able to finish it because it was too emotional for him about Dear God, Please Help Me, but managed to pull that one off and I didn't see him tear up. I would be more likely to break down while singing I Know It's Over, Late Night, Maudlin Street, Asleep, How Soon is Now?, I've Changed My Plea to Guilty, Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore, Used to Be a Sweet Boy, Unlovable (aslo only soundchecked), Now My Heart is Full, Seasick, Yet Still Docked, I Won't Share You, There is a Light that Never Goes Out, I Won't Share You, or Trouble Loves Me than Come Back to Camden or Dear God, Please Help Me. But yeah, those two are probably more personal to him than most of the others.

I don't see why those two would be more personal than the others. Especially not Dear God. Come Back To Camden seems to be personal indeed, but so do many, many other songs he's regularly sang live so many times. I always thought that he just teased the audience in Rome with singing 'Dear God' because he was in Rome and the song is about Rome. Then someone came up with the theory that Dear God was 'too personal' for him to sing, which I always thought was rather silly. The song wasn't on the setlist on the tour, so he was never going to sing it. You don't really believe that people decide which songs they are going to play on the spur of the moment, in the middle of a concert?! And he's sung Dear God since, so it's not like he can't sing it live.

 

[nightandday]

I think the lyrics are just beautiful: 'me and my heart we knew, we just knew'. Sublime! It just kills me,
BUT
I think the music is all wrong - way too over the top. It takes away from the beauty of the lyrics. It's such a shame!

Does anybody else out there think it would have been perfect with a sparse musical arrangment along the lines of Maudlin Street or Dear God?

And I love the song, too, it's one of my favourites from YATQ. I don't find the music OTT. I have no problem with the arrangement, If anything, the music to Dear God sounds more melodramatic than the music to Come Back To Camden. And so does his singing. I prefer his singing on YATQ to his singing on ROTT.

 

[Your Arsenal]

this song is definately beautiful.
I love the way the song builds up to the end, and Morrissey just lets go of the vocals, very nice.

 

[spmorrissey]

Love the song mine and my dad's fav YATQ song

 

[konstantinl]

Definately one of the best recent songs Morrissey has performed. Although with a little of the fat cut off it could have been even better.

Perhaps the younger element here will disagree but I'd really like Morrissey to put out a 'torch song' album.

If he did I think he has the voice and the emotional resonance to really put out one last great album but in order to do that he has to move away from indie/guitar pop and try a radical shift in direction towards more 'grown up' music.

I really think he could pull it off.