Saw him sing this in a funny wee toon last night and it was spellbinding. It even managed to transfix me depsite the constant stream of mouth-breathing beer-monsters dragging their knuckles back and forth to the bar.
It is the dark shining heart of the new setlist, and, for me, serves a similar purpose to songs such as 'Moonriver', 'Life Is A Pigsty', 'Seasick, Yet Still Docked' et al have done on previous tours. It lets Moz greet on stage. Amongst other things.
It's awesome that the vast majority were singing along, word-perfect, to a song that isn't really seen as a Smiths popular standard in the way that 'HSIN', 'Charming', 'Panic', etc are. I think it reflects the latent power of the song; watching people sing it last night you got the sense they were channeling back to those nights twirling in front of their stereo in the box bedroom; perhaps singing it out loud for the first time since those nights.
I didn't sing along myself as I just wanted to hear Morrissey's rendition, which was holy immaculate perfection. The 52 year old man captured something last night that the 26 year old boy couldn't even dream of, especially at the epic refrain. To hear 800 people, give or take, repeatedly sing, louder than The Kop, 'Oh Mother, I can feel / The soil falling over my head' is something that will stay with me for good.