Morrissey A-Z: "I Am Hated for Loving"

BookishBoy

Well-Known Member



We start on the "I" section of the A-Z today (which will take us well into May!), with this track from the Vauxhall and I album.

What do we think?
 
I recall that during the early days of The Smiths that Morrissey stated that he was tired of the, "I...I...I" in pop music. You can tell by the number of songs that we will discuss in this section just how much his opinion has changed on that! :p

Much as I love Vauxhall and I, this is possibly my least favourite track. The lyrics are a little too self-pitying, although I can also see the black humour in them, and they are very much to be expected from Morrissey .

A fine production from Steve Lillywhite, but the music is a tad too repetitive for my tastes.

In the poll on the Hoffman board it ranked 102nd from 264 songs.
 
I like it, but along with "Used to be a Sweet Boy", this is probably one of my least favourites on the album. I enjoy the instrumentation, and the chord sequence, while lapsing into generic Whyte at points, is very pretty and aids the misty production. The lyrics are a little too repetitive for my liking, but I love Southpaw Grammar so lyrics aren't always a large concern: they do play into the "Morrissey Mythos", perhaps too much into cliché. It's nothing if not heartfelt, though. Begins Vauxhall's (relative) second-side slump, but, clearly illuminating the quality of most of the album, it isn't an earache in the least.
7/10 (leaning more towards a 6, though the ending key change brings it up).
 
always liked this,nice and easy going for a sunday morning.
 
I like the "anonymous call, a poison pen" part, the way he sings it. The music is fine. It sounds nice. It's kind of sedate but it's a pretty good album track.
 
I always thought, it was the weakest track on his best solo album. "Weak" in a sense, that the other cuts were simply outstanding and "I am hated for loving" was just a very solid album track. My best mate at vocational school around this time loved the song and thought it was amongst the 3 best tracks together with "Speedway" and "Now my art is dull". Truth, rest your head...
 
Excellent production work from SL. Great guitar from Alain. I've always loved this one, even though it's "just" a (very) solid album track.
 
A quite good song along with several others on Vauxhall. The large number of quite good songs on Vauxhall makes me surprised that so many people think it's the best album he's made. Viva Hate only has two songs that are less than brilliant.
 
It’s got a nice gliding/floating vocal melody and the production adds a nice airy quality but this song doesn’t call to me to much. Title to much on the nose for me and bit to trite
 
The music on this is just so incredibly pretty. It's gorgeous. One of those (for me) relatively rare songs where I just love listening to it for the sound of the thing, more than what Morrissey's singing about. It's not a stand-out song, obviously, but it's a long, lovely sigh of a song.
 
Not my favorite on Vauxhall & I either, but that can only mean so much. I very much like these light, breezy and melancholic tunes in combination with his warm voice. He's probably done better in this category too (The Boxers, Sunny, ...) but it won't stop me from enjoying this song.

The words may feel exaggerated - typical Morrissey - but when you're falling, how many people will be there to catch you? Or to catch him when we are taking it from his perspective?
 
I like the "anonymous call, a poison pen" part, the way he sings it. The music is fine. It sounds nice. It's kind of sedate but it's a pretty good album track.

Agreed! I think it works really well in the context of the overall album, and I do love the way he sings that part too, might be one of my favourite understated vocal performances on the album. I suppose the lyrics are a little self-pitying, but I don't necessarily mind that either. Sometimes it's nice to wallow!

A quite good song along with several others on Vauxhall. The large number of quite good songs on Vauxhall makes me surprised that so many people think it's the best album he's made. Viva Hate only has two songs that are less than brilliant.

I guess I would say that Vauxhall is one of those albums that is more than the sum of its parts. It just works so well as a unit, even if individual songs don't necessarily stand out themselves. That said, I think Vauxhall is full of brilliant songs. Viva Hate on the other hand.... :tongueout:
 
Agreed! I think it works really well in the context of the overall album, and I do love the way he sings that part too, might be one of my favourite understated vocal performances on the album. I suppose the lyrics are a little self-pitying, but I don't necessarily mind that either. Sometimes it's nice to wallow!
After all he is the Pope of Mope!
 
Surprised at how little love this song is getting - I think it's one of the best on the album. The guitar riff is one of the best things Alain ever wrote, and the production is incredible. It's easy to imagine how this could have been recorded with the standard live band sound, with stronger guitars, drums etc - it would have still been a good song, but the decision to pull everything back and do it in a more laid back way makes the whole thing incredibly atmospheric. I suspect Jonny Bridgwood and Woodie Taylor had a lot to do with this, and probably don't get the credit they deserve. As much as I love both Spencer and Gary, they clearly weren't quite suitable for this album.
 
At the time this was my least fave on the album, too. But it's grown on me considerably.
It's really mature sounding, musically, maybe you need to be a little older to fully aprreciate it ;)

Also, Uncleskinny once told me this is his favourite Morrissey-solo song, that may have helped too :)

8,4
 
Also, Uncleskinny once told me this is his favourite Morrissey-solo song, that may have helped too :)

8,4
That’s a rarity. I can’t remember him ever mentioning a song or an album that he likes.
 
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