Morrissey A-Z: "Teenage Dad on His Estate"

BookishBoy

Well-Known Member






Today's song is this Morrissey/Whyte composition, a B-side on the "First of the Gang To Die" single.

What do we think?
 
Of the "Dad" songs it's not as good as "Don't Make Fun of Daddy's Voice" 6/10 but it's miles above "The Father Who Must Be Killed" 2/10 so I'll give it a 5/10. I did learn what a Jenson Interceptor is so t's not all bad. I'd seen them but didn't know the name.
 
Of the "Dad" songs it's not as good as "Don't Make Fun of Daddy's Voice" 6/10 but it's miles above "The Father Who Must Be Killed" 2/10 so I'll give it a 5/10. I did learn what a Jenson Interceptor is so t's not all bad. I'd seen them but didn't know the name.
There's a kid in my daughter's class at school whose first name is Jenson and his middle name is Interceptor.
 
I’ve always liked this. As with a few songs, largely ignored live - the Swords gigs aside, which is a shame.
There’s an argument the Quarry b-sides are better than a number of the a-sides.
**an argument.
Hashtag Bring back Teenage Dad
 
favourite of mine,its singing about schemes all over the world where young people with a small child find themselves living in a place which isnt up to much but they get used to it and spend their whole life their.if this appeared on quarry i would not have been disappointed.good lyrics and his voice is decent on this.
8 jensons/10 interceptors.
 
The music is quite average here, but the lyrics and vocals can save it. It’s interesting that he refers to the teenage dad when the majority of teenage parents are probably teenage mother, but this song is a plea to be more tolerant of less commonl lifestyles. That is the part I like about it. And I note just now that he was already complaining about TV news and newspapers in 2004.
6/10
 
A brilliant little song, again, geared towards societal observation, snobbery, & how people judge others. Some great lines in this one, great vocals. Love the mention of the Jensen Interceptor (a prestige car, back in the day)...who else has that line in one of their songs?
'And you hate the teenage dad on his estate
Because he's poor but he's happier than you'

Wonderful.

jensen.JPG
 
Morrissey's voice is pleasing on this one, but it's a below average song.

This is Alain at his least inspired and it is musically turgid. Plenty of albums nowadays are given the box set treatment with instrumental versions. I can't imagine it ever being desirable for Morrissey's releases however, as without the vocal melody this kind of track would be fairly worthless.

The lyrics aren't exactly stunning here and can't conceal the fact that Moz had probably completely lost touch with the working classes many years before.

In the poll on the Hoffman board it ranked 162nd from 264 solo songs.
 
Some notes of interest from PJLM:
"The song appears to have been written at some point between the years 2000 and 2002. It was first recorded in 2002 at Cherokee Studio in Los Angeles with guitarists Boz Boorer and Alain Whyte and bassist Gary Day for the audition of drummer Dean Butterworth.

The definitive version is credited as having been recorded during the "You Are The Quarry" sessions in Los Angeles in 2004, but the latter sessions were actually split between Sarm Hook End in Berkshire in the autumn of 2003 and Conway Studios in Los Angeles in late 2003 or January 2004, with producer Jerry Finn. Musicians on this recording were Boz Boorer (guitar), Alain Whyte (guitar), Gary Day (bass), Dean Butterworth (drums) and Roger Manning (piano)."
 
Love this song. Easily one of the best of the Quarry era. There are some very weak songs on the Quarry album. America I'm looking at you. This should've been on the album.
 
It’s kinda blah musically, maybe a bit lazy and meandering sounding, but it’s not bad at all. That’s true that morrissey did sorta go down a different route by making it about the father. Usually the guys are the villas in these stories so that is nice to see and hear
 
Do you remember that criticism of Moz in some review where it said something like 'Morrissey writes the most interesting song titles and then forgets to write an interesting song to go with it' ?

That critique was made for his song.
 
Do you remember that criticism of Moz in some review where it said something like 'Morrissey writes the most interesting song titles and then forgets to write an interesting song to go with it' ?

That critique was made for his song.
I thought it was Elvis Costello who said that? (Could be wrong, though.)

It's a great song title with some vaguely interesting lyrics (mainly due, as others have noted here, to the perspective being not what you might expect at first glance) but as an overall song...it's not very memorable.
 
I thought it was Elvis Costello who said that? (Could be wrong, though.)

It's a great song title with some vaguely interesting lyrics (mainly due, as others have noted here, to the perspective being not what you might expect at first glance) but as an overall song...it's not very memorable.
Regards,
FWD.
 
I remember I originally thought he said jetsons interceptor. The music does kinda have a windswept quality to it maybe echoing the anyway the wind blows directionless quality of the teenage dad
 
A proper solid b-side, from an era where he almost couldn’t do any wrong. The music’s nothing much, but he manages to pull out a nice little vocal melody, and the lyrics acutely describe the trials and tribulations of the underclass. This is the kind of that political stuff he really should be doing.
 
A proper solid b-side, from an era where he almost couldn’t do any wrong. The music’s nothing much, but he manages to pull out a nice little vocal melody, and the lyrics acutely describe the trials and tribulations of the underclass.

This is the kind of that political stuff he really should be doing.

Yeah, but then people will say he doesn’t understand the working class, so he shouldn’t write songs like this. To some, he can’t win can he.
 
Yeah, but then people will say he doesn’t understand the working class, so he shouldn’t write songs like this. To some, he can’t win can he.
Very true. Personally, I’d say that the working class in ingrained in him, no matter what his bank account and his habits of today says. He lived it and he lived through it. You can’t just shake that off, and I don’t think that’s what he wants. It’s a matter of where your heart lies and what kind of values you have. Same goes for Springsteen.
 
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