Morrissey A-Z: "Moon Over Kentucky"

He can do as many Smiths covers as he wants, but other than that, I'd say one cover at most.
And preferably something more exciting than this one, Rose Garden for example.
I don't think of those as covers, really, but I know what you mean!

I liked what Belle & Sebastian did for a while, where they'd play one cover at each show, which was connected to that town or city. (Or sometimes they'd improvise a cover based on a shout-out from the audience, although that's clearly not Morrissey's style!)
 
...sometimes they'd improvise a cover based on a shout-out from the audience, although that's clearly not Morrissey's style!)
I can easilysee Moz doing a few bars of a local-based song during the gap in 'Speedway'.
 
I don't think of those as covers, really, but I know what you mean!

I liked what Belle & Sebastian did for a while, where they'd play one cover at each show, which was connected to that town or city. (Or sometimes they'd improvise a cover based on a shout-out from the audience, although that's clearly not Morrissey's style!)
I went to these earlier Belle & Sebastian shows too, good fun, but you'd have to do your homework to find a fitting cover for every place.
Morrissey has done it on a few occasions, like Rose Garden, El Condor Pasa, and I think he once mentioned Chrissie Hynde in Akron, OH, but these are just rare occasions.
 
When Morrissey sings these covers like this now, I can picture the 12 or 13 year old Steven in his room singing along to this record while he imagines himself up on stage one day singing it to an audience.

Out of all the Sparks songs an original choice he did choose, its always a selfish choice, meant only to please himself, of course.

I simply adore Sparks; should I have seen Morrissey perform this wonderful number I would have been over the (Kentucky) moon! If only this had been given the full studio treatment…
A bigger debate here, maybe: if you're paying £60 / $100 / whatever to see Morrissey, how many cover versions are acceptable during a 20-25 song setlist?

26.


;)
 
When Morrissey sings these covers like this now, I can picture the 12 or 13 year old Steven in his room singing along to this record while he imagines himself up on stage one day singing it to an audience.

Out of all the Sparks songs an original choice he did choose, its always a selfish choice, meant only to please himself, of course.




26.


;)
Do you imagine him in his underpants singing with Jackies hair brush ???
 
I don't like it when Live Morrissey sings too many covers. I'd rather expect him to surprise us with songs he hasn't performed for ages, instead. One cover, sometimes, is okay, but two is a crowd. California Son is the only "Morrissey" album I don't care to buy.
 
I don't like it when Live Morrissey sings too many covers. I'd rather expect him to surprise us with songs he hasn't performed for ages, instead. One cover, sometimes, is okay, but two is a crowd. California Son is the only "Morrissey" album I don't care to buy.
Your point here is accepted and respected....
we want songs, as you say haven’t heard for years 👍
 
I don't like it when Live Morrissey sings too many covers. I'd rather expect him to surprise us with songs he hasn't performed for ages, instead. One cover, sometimes, is okay, but two is a crowd. California Son is the only "Morrissey" album I don't care to buy.
It’s over..
Wedding bell blues ..
Loneliness remembers....
Lady willpower..
When you close your eyes..
Are the only songs I can listen to from CS
 
A bigger debate here, maybe: if you're paying £60 / $100 / whatever to see Morrissey, how many cover versions are acceptable during a 20-25 song setlist?
It isn't the number really as much as what it is. I used to really like his cover versions and if he was doing songs I want to hear I could accept up to four or five? Things like "Trash," "Song From Under The Floorboards," "That's Entertainment," and a few more from earlier-mid times I'd love to hear. Lately I don't like his choices as much, though. One song from California Son is plenty, and while I do like some country music I don't want to hear him cover "Rose Garden," or "Hank," ever.
Keep it to the semi-obscure semi-punk stuff and I love his choices.
Also, while it was exciting to hear some Smiths songs I'd prefer he keep that to a minimum and go for things he might not have played too often before. If he never played a Smiths song I'd be okay with it. There are so many of his solo songs i want to hear that anything outside that can seem like a missed opportunity.
 
I think the placing of any covers is very important in a set. Having a couple around the second half of the set is fine - it's the time you are looking to relax a bit, and hear something a bit different.

The worst thing is when he starts or closes a gig with a cover. You get all the intro build up, Morrissey hits the stage, and then all the energy disappears as he does 'You'll Be Gone' and 99% of the audience are scratching their heads wondering what this unfamiliar song is. Similarly, I've been at shows where he's done a Ramones cover song for an encore, and it kills the moment. Instead of saying goodbye to Morrissey, you're left with another artists song ringing in your earholes.
 
Weird, moody and atmospheric. He’s definitely done worse than this.
 
This bloody Sparks song has been haunting me since I first heard it here a few days ago. It's like a weird vaudeville track done with dirty slutty pre-punk guitars and early 80s splatter film synth years early. Sung by somebody just out of (or just checked into) an insane asylum. It just...got in me somehow. You know what I mean. And lyrically, this is absolutely the song Morrissey never wrote.
 
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I just watched the new Sparks doc, The Sparks Brothers, last night. Quite fascinating, as I knew nothing about them. I know they are not flavour of the month round here, as they dismissed Moz, but some of the more flamboyant ululating on this song reminds me, oddly, of The Headmaster Ritual and, indeed, of some of Moz's higher-end singing altogether. I wonder how much of an influence they were on him when he was younger.
 
I just watched the new Sparks doc, The Sparks Brothers, last night. Quite fascinating, as I knew nothing about them. I know they are not flavour of the month round here, as they dismissed Moz, but some of the more flamboyant ululating on this song reminds me, oddly, of The Headmaster Ritual and, indeed, of some of Moz's higher-end singing altogether. I wonder how much of an influence they were on him when he was younger.
A massive influence. Here's Morrissey himself on Sparks:

Morrissey On Sparks (From Under The Influence liner notes
"In a glorious surge of deserved success in 1974, the very comprehensive lyric sheets accompanying Sparks albums prove that Ron Mael is clearly driven to tell, yet he answers the media by skillfil Quietism and by impersonating various walls. Ron Mael is an undoubted genius, and where else would a true genius live but in the catacombs of hell? Ron asks his younger brother Russell to sing the words - in chilling falsetto. Russell sings in what appear to be French italics, and has less facial hair that Josephine Baker. It is a scream, because the songs are screams. (...) Who on earth would write a pop song in such a way? A song about an arts and crafts competition where 'lovely Claudine Jones/has to come to push her quilt', but where Tracy Wise gets a prize. There is no category for this madness - except the category of madness, and Sparks are only let down by their name. At 14, I want to live with these people, to be - at last! - in the company of creatures of my own species."
 
A bigger debate here, maybe: if you're paying £60 / $100 / whatever to see Morrissey, how many cover versions are acceptable during a 20-25 song setlist?
Has Morrissey ever done a 25 song set? 19-22 is about the range lately.

On the "Maladjusted" tour you'd be lucky to get 16!

To answer your question, one cover.
 
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