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Reader Meet Author Lyrics
You don't know a thing about their lives
They live where you wouldn't dare to drive
You shake as you think of how they sleep
But you write as if you all lie side by side
Reader, meet Author
With the hope of hearing sense
But you may be feeling let down
By the words of defence
He says "No-one ever sees me when I cry"
You don't know a thing about their lives
Books don't save them, books aren't Stanley knives
And if a fight broke out here tonight
You'd be the first away, because you're that type
And the year 2000 won't change anyone here
As each fabled promise flies so fast
You'll swear it was never there
Oh, have you ever escaped from a shipwrecked life ?
So safely with your software, miles from the front line
You hear the way their sad voice sings, and you start to imagine things
Oh, any excuse to write more lies
They live where you wouldn't dare to drive
You shake as you think of how they sleep
But you write as if you all lie side by side
Reader, meet Author
With the hope of hearing sense
But you may be feeling let down
By the words of defence
He says "No-one ever sees me when I cry"
Books don't save them, books aren't Stanley knives
And if a fight broke out here tonight
You'd be the first away, because you're that type
And the year 2000 won't change anyone here
As each fabled promise flies so fast
You'll swear it was never there
Oh, have you ever escaped from a shipwrecked life ?
You hear the way their sad voice sings, and you start to imagine things
Oh, any excuse to write more lies
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Wow! No comments yet? I love this song, in so many ways it seems so political and interesting. I know that in many lines he is referencing to publicists, but what place was he referencing to?
This song is clearly a swipe at Johnny Rogan. Rogan mentiones in his book. The text details people from Moz past that Rogan is professing to be close to. In the forward, he mentions years in seclusion writing the book where he cried to himself (reference a line in the song).
This song is clearly a swipe at Johnny Rogan. Rogan mentiones in his book. The text details people from Moz past that Rogan is professing to be close to. In the forward, he mentions years in seclusion writing the book where he cried to himself (reference a line in the song).
It really seems like this song has something to do with Johnny Rogan, author of such books as "Morrissey and Marr: The Severed Alliance". It is a great song though. I don't get why Southpaw Grammar gets so much flack. This track and the next 3 are all pretty good songs in my opinion, and the rest of the album is listenable at the least.
I get the feeling this is a song Morrissey wrote about himself regarding his attraction to "tough guys" who he didn't really know or actually associate with (certainly not an a frequent basis anyway).
I should add that I wasn't "suggesting anything" by my use of the word "attraction", in case any of you people squeamish about butt sex get your feathers ruffled.
I should add that I wasn't "suggesting anything" by my use of the word "attraction", in case any of you people squeamish about butt sex get your feathers ruffled.
He had/has, especially at this time, a pretty obvious pre-occupation with the "tough guy" persona for years.
He had/has, especially at this time, a pretty obvious pre-occupation with the "tough guy" persona for years.
@raytownian I don't think that really explains all the talk about writing lies etc. It seems to me that it's just a dig at music critics.
@raytownian I don't think that really explains all the talk about writing lies etc. It seems to me that it's just a dig at music critics.
I think that in this song Morrissey reflects himself in the situation of the song's protagonist: a bad writer constantly destroyed by critics who fail to understand his work. In this hypothetical encounter between reader and author, Morrissey himself is the defense attorney, exposing the life circumstances that makes the writer so plain in his work, just as Oscar Wilde, of whom Moz is a fan, quotes him in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" about how bad artists live the work they they cannot write and vice versa. In the last verse you can see the ambiguity of both paths, that of the writer and that of Morrissey, the misunderstood artist so criticized for his lyrics from day one.