Morrissey A-Z: "I'm Not Sorry"

BookishBoy

Well-Known Member



Meanwhile, back in the world of music instead of animated shenanigans, today's song is this Morrissey/Boorer composition from You Are the Quarry.

What do we think of this one?
 
another good one from quarry.some good lines in this.this could be a quiet section today.
8belows/10waterlines.
 
Probably my favourite non-single track from Quarry, a great production illuminates this windswept gem of a song. I love the long ending, with the acoustic textures mixing with more electronic ones. A pensive look on refusal to concede in the face of oppression, perhaps, given the wholly convincing “tired” delivery.
8/10
 
It feels like a song about the (midlife) existential crisis to me, with the opening line "On returning / I can't believe the world is still turning" and "existence is just a game" further down.

And those people hoping that Morrissey will ever apologize for anything he has said or done, will find little comfort here.

The music is simple, but also subtle and effective with the addition of some electronic effects to the acoustic guitar lines and the flute at the end.
 
Dreary, dull, middle of the road crap for bored housewives to listen to whilst they do the ironing. In my bottom 10 Moz songs, and by far the worst song on the album.
 
Nice to hear the flute in it.
I believe it was asked here a long time ago who was playing said.
My notebook lead me to Rhys Williams - who did indeed play on the track - not Boz as asserted by some.
Source here.
Excerpt:

"Firstly, wow, you’ve played flute for Morrissey! How did that come about?

I went to university in Sheffield and was in a band called The Ankle Stars. The singer from The Ankle Stars met Morrissey’s guitarist Boz Boorer at a T-Rex convention (where else?) and handed over a demo for him to listen to. He turned up at a gig we played in London, then offered to manage and produce us. I left the band when I moved to London but stayed in touch with Boz. I was recording at his studio in West Hampstead and took a flute along to play on one of my tracks. When the time came to record the You Are The Quarry album, he remembered me and got in touch to ask if I’d play flute on I’m Not Sorry. So I went along to Hook End studios in Berkshire and recorded three takes – they used the last minute of the last take on the record. Then I played the song live at Morrissey’s Manchester comeback gig a few months later (wearing a gangster suit). Thinking that my mother would take now my music career seriously, I showed her the DVD. She said I looked like Tony Blair."


FWD.
 
I remember the production was singled out for praise for this track and Jerry Finn did his best to enliven what is a fairly dull Boz tune.

I quite like it in an understated kind of way and the lyrics are more thoughtful than most that had appeared on the previous couple of albums.

I'm not sure it was the right song to follow Come Back to Camden, as there isn't exactly a lot of energy with those two back to back.

In the poll on the Hoffman board it ranked 93rd from 264 solo songs.
 
Understated, atmospheric and hypnotic. One of many highlights from one of his best albums.
 
My brother likes this one. I don't.

Although in terms of understanding the artist, there is a breakthrough line in the song.

'The woman of my dreams, well, there never was one'

Was he waiting/hoping/expecting a woman to come into his life or is he telling us that those he dreamt about were never women?
 
'The woman of my dreams, well, there never was one'

Was he waiting/hoping/expecting a woman to come into his life or is he telling us that those he dreamt about were never women?

This song was full of interesting lines and thoughts.
On the woman of my dreams part, I'd go for the second interpretation, certainly now after we had an opportunity to read autobiography.
 
when first hearing the flute, made me think of some Gil Scott-Heron tune, wonderful addition.


My favorite from Quarry, a song so great, that even a producer like Finn couldn’t mess it up.


MOZ CLASSIC !!!!!


:cool:
 
This song puts me in a melancholy mood, and i enjoy every time I hear it. I reached his hand few times and i won this race . btw , great flute part in Who Put The 'M' In Manchester version
 
I clearly remember listening to You Are the Quarry for the first time when it came out. I was looking forward to something really exciting, given his long absence, but what I got was this? On that first listen, I was fed up by the time I'd got to this song (specifically, the "waterline" bit). I remember sitting there thinking, "I wish you had slipped below the f_cking waterline." Lyrically, it's just the same, tired, old Morrissey themes. He'd exhausted these "ideas" well before 2004. The music, however, repelled me even more: so bland and polished that it would've sounded right at home on a George Michael album in the late 80s. The only offering more insipid on this record was America is Not the World.

Nauseating. Just horrible.
 
I like this one a lot. The drums sound great and the instrumental section with flute and guitar is really nice. It seems like a kind of minimal arrangement that allows for the mood to change based on how the performers are feeling at the time. Here it is relaxed "slipping below the waterline" but it's easy to imagine it being done in a more abrasive "wild man in my head" style, too. I always think he is saying "Wilde man" but I guess not according to lyrics I looked up.
I always thought this song was about returning to "competing" when he was starting to record again, so more about his career than his life.
Others rated 8/10 and I think that feels right.
 
One of my favorites from Quarry. A melancholy poolside lounger, certainly Morrissey's most MOR track to date. But the only thing with a groove on the whole record and some of my favorite lyrics. He brought this one back for the first time in years last time I saw him at the Hollywood Bowl, which was a surprising treat.
 
One of my favourite tracks on the album. I think the lyrics are clever at being somewhat revealing, yet ultimately elusive...it’s an intriguing balance.
 
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