The Moz/Smiths Top 100, Part 247: YOU WERE GOOD IN YOUR TIME

How do you rate You Were Good In Your Time?


  • Total voters
    101

Houdini

Junior Member
In 2007, and early 2008, we put up polls for all 234 then released Morrissey and The Smiths-songs. More than 25,000 votes were cast and the result was The Morrissey/Smiths Top 100, or indeed, The Morrissey/The Smiths Top 234. This year many people have asked me to continue with the polls as 18 new Morrissey-songs have been released since. With the release of 'Swords' now seems as good a time as any to start them.

Song 247: YOU WERE GOOD IN YOUR TIME


Voting should be something along these lines:
10: Perfection
9: Near perfect, brilliant
8: Really good Moz/Smiths song
7: Good Moz/Smiths song
6: OK, Nothing special
5: Uninspired
4: Poor
3: Bad
2: Should never have been released
1: He should be ashamed

Previous polls (voting will remain open):

Part 246: It's Not Your Birthday Anymore
Part 245: One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
Part 244: When Last I Spoke To Carol
Part 243: Black Cloud
Part 242: Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed
Part 241: Something Is Squeezing My Skull
Part 240: Because Of My Poor Education
Part 239: Shame Is The Name
Part 238: I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris
Part 237: My Dearest Love
Part 236: Drive-In Saturday
Part 235: Children In Pieces
Part 234: That's How People Grow Up
Part 233: All You Need Is Me
Part 232 and previous
 
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Gave it an 8 because I think the lyrics are very poinant and he doesn't do enough slow songs these days.

However the "Goov" instead of "Good" and the bonkers "deadzone" section at the end don't work for me.
 
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Dreary. The worst thing he's done since 'This is Not Your Country' (similarly dreary).

This is what I think people who 'don't get Morrissey' hear when they listen to masterpieces like 'I Know it's Over', 'Late Night Maudlin Street', 'Come Back to Camden' and 'Life is a Pigsty' and shrug their shoulders in indifference.

I've ditched it from my own version of Refusal, along with 'That's How People Grow Up', replacing them with 'Shame is the Name' and 'Because of My Poor Education'. It's a much stronger album for it.

Don't get me wrong, the lyrics in isolation are pretty good, but as we're voting on the song...
 
I think it's an excellent song, one of his better ballads and certainly one of the best tracks on YOR. The strings arrangement is beautiful and just right, his vocals show a fine balance between restraint and intensity and the melody is fundamentally strong. It's got a sort of half-sad beauty that gives it a poignant mixture of melancholy and upliftedness, and the lyrics are very good. The only knock on it in my opinion is the long and pointless fade-out, perhaps his most misguided idea since the time it occurred to him to begin The Operation with a two-minute drum-solo.

Eight. and closer to nine than to seven.

cheers
 
6.

Despite some quite brilliant lyrics the whole thing is utterly boring. Lose the outro and it's just about bearable, but even then it's an average song.

oh dear. looks like poor old Goov is destined for a place in the 10 worst Morrissey songs of all time.
amazing how so many reviewers picked it out as a highlight. the melody's kind of ok but the lyrics are pretty dire, and the use of the first person plural is grating.
kinda proves my theory that you can tell how good a Moz song will be from its title.
 
a 7

just the oposite with 'birthday'it's a grower, first I had the idea this hardly
a b-side for a flim, but with the 2 already released singles [grow up, all needs]
who should've been on the album cause they were already released, somehow
i start get into to it.

It's not a 10 time a day song, but before sleeping,some easy music, not
so heady reading stuff, it's perfect or more likeable than day time killing time
with playing yer fav music

erm, you don't understand, I know, it became a match, celibate and writing
in 'what the hell he's about' burden.

a 7, a grower:o
 
oh dear. looks like poor old Goov is destined for a place in the 10 worst Morrissey songs of all time.
amazing how so many reviewers picked it out as a highlight. the melody's kind of ok but the lyrics are pretty dire, and the use of the first person plural is grating.
kinda proves my theory that you can tell how good a Moz song will be from its title.

Oh, it's not such a bad song.

YWGIYT has a lovely melody, the vocals are wonderful, and the lyrics are pretty decent - I even like the deathly noodling at the end. It's the perfect song to listen to when I'm feeling sorry for myself. :rolleyes:

I have to agree with you on the first person plural though, it kinda ruins the whole thing.
 
6.

Despite some quite brilliant lyrics the whole thing is utterly boring. Lose the outro and it's just about bearable, but even then it's an average song.

2 extra minutes of :sleeping: But the rattle at 3:59 reminds me of (the TV show) Paranormal State.

He is/was good in his time and I thank him, but it's a boring song that makes getting into Sorry Doesn't Help a relief. And that lyric, and hunchbacked :rolleyes: :sleeping:
 
I love it - it's the best track on Years Of Refusal, for me. A haunting song that grabbed me straight away. "Let the heart rest, lay back your head, you were good in your time and we thank you." It's just beautiful. 9 from me.
 
I love it - it's the best track on Years Of Refusal, for me. A haunting song that grabbed me straight away. "Let the heart rest, lay back your head, you were good in your time and we thank you." It's just beautiful. 9 from me.

My sentiments exactly
 
This is what I think people who 'don't get Morrissey' hear when they listen to masterpieces like 'I Know it's Over', 'Late Night Maudlin Street', 'Come Back to Camden' and 'Life is a Pigsty' and shrug their shoulders in indifference.

On the flip side, there are those of us who find it inconceivable that long time fans can find anything redemptive or remotely engaging in things like I Just Want to See the Boy Happy, That's How People Grow Up, and I'm OK By Myself. :sleeping: "You are sleeping and you want TOO HARD to believe."
 
On the flip side, there are those of us who find it inconceivable that long time fans can find anything redemptive or remotely engaging in things like I Just Want to See the Boy Happy, That's How People Grow Up, and I'm OK By Myself. :sleeping: "You are sleeping and you want TOO HARD to believe."

On the other flip, there are those of us who just like the songs we like!

For example, Boy Happy is average yet entertaining and would have made a very nice b-side (unfortunately it was a single), while That's How People is rather good and an interesting album track (unfortunately it too was a single) and I'm OK By Myself is an absolute classic, my favourite Morrissey closer since Speedway, and the most played song on my i-pod. I love it. :)

As for Good In Your Time, it's an oddity: great lyric (love the "hunchbacked" line), great melody, great production - a direction I would actually like Morrissey to explore more - yet somehow it ultimately only feels like a fantastically well-arranged average Morrissey track...

I can't wait until we're voting on Sorry Doesn't Help. :rolleyes:
 
Bit dull, really. A shame, because a slow song with little music can really work well for Moz, but even compared to something like "Dear God, Please Help Me", this falls far short. And while I appreciate a bit of experimental weirdness, on every listening after the first, the last two minutes just get skipped.

For some reason I've given it a 7. Really should have been a 6.
 
This is a tenner. Everyting about this piece of art is magic. And it could be his strongest vocal performance.
 
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