Mama Lay Down on The Riverbed

[Bill Poster]

I have to say, this is a really weird and creepy and somewhat disturbing song. What's Moz trying to say, that his mother (using the 'I' invites this sort of first-person analysis) has committed suicide and he can't wait to be dead beside her in their graves? Yeesh. He could be talking about some character he has invented, but still...you wonder. Have to say though, it's actually one of my fave tracks from YoR, which is really growing on me, especially musically.

 

[mcrickson]

*Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed

 

[bored]

I have to say, this is a really weird and creepy and somewhat disturbing song. What's Moz trying to say, that his mother (using the 'I' invites this sort of first-person analysis) has committed suicide and he can't wait to be dead beside her in their graves? Yeesh. He could be talking about some character he has invented, but still...you wonder. Have to say though, it's actually one of my fave tracks from YoR, which is really growing on me, especially musically.

I take it as how you said it. Obviously it's not biographical as his mum is still alive but it could be a metaphor for something that happened to her or it could be about a fictional person... whatever it is, the concept is the same.

 

[CrystalGeezer]

This song has the potential to be the saddest song of all time.

 

[Bill Poster]

Half the songs on the album have that dubious distinction. This song nearly made me cry the other day.

 

[Scarlet Ibis]

I love it when he gets creepy.

I also love it when he gets violent. ("slit their throats for you")

KILL KILL KILL!!!

 

[Bill Poster]

It's an oddly Freudian tale altogether.

My nomination for saddest song of all time would be a song called Heaven by Even in Blackouts, who were an acoustic pop punk outfit. See if you can find it. Sounds like an acoustic guitar player on a heavy valium and sadness overdose. Yay!

 

[Kewpie]

Re: Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed

Crime is one of Morrissey's recurring subjects.
Sadly living in a crazy modern world it's unavoidable to hear about terrible incidents almost every day.

Good thing is, art form helps to bring cathasis to those awful things in life.
Morrissey brilliantly does it.

 

[Poppy Full]

I heart Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed. I once managed to shoehorn a few lyrics into an essay on the work of Caribbean poet Derek Walcott, oh the little victories.

 

[CrystalGeezer]

Re: Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed

Crime is one of Morrissey's recurring subjects.
Sadly living in a crazy modern world it's unavoidable to hear about terrible incidents almost every day.

Good thing is, art form helps to bring cathasis to those awful things in life.
Morrissey brilliantly does it.

Like when a young man murders a scientist and stuffs her body in a wall because he's territorial about the mice she's experimenting on?

 

[prisoner77]

This reminds me of a Elvis title Softly (as I leave you)..Also a tearjerker..

 

[skull]

I think in the song there are details referring to war...So I suppose it could be told by the son of a woman who's been victim in a war. From here this sense of revenge and the desire to reach the mother, because now "life is nothing much to lose". You know, the value of life is different in certain places...

 

[Bill Poster]

No, it's clearly about a woman who has killed herself over money worries and being chased by 'bailiffs with bad breath' and the need for her son (questioning why she has killed herself - he may not even be right about the bailiffs) for understanding of her suicide and potential revenge on those who persecuted her. War does not figure in it.

 

[mcrickson]

No, it's clearly about a woman who has killed herself over money worries and being chased by 'bailiffs with bad breath' and the need for her son (questioning why she has killed herself - he may not even be right about the bailiffs) for understanding of her suicide and potential revenge on those who persecuted her. War does not figure in it.

Cleeeeearly
Thanks for the input, Mozzer

 

[Raphael Lambach]

Half the songs on the album have that dubious distinction. This song nearly made me cry the other day.

All Morrissey's songs are dubious. It's one of most interesting factor for llistening them.

 

[phuckstar]

This is probably one of my favorite songs out of any Morrissey's ever released. There's a line I replay in my head, over and over and over again...

 

[Bill Poster]

Don't tell me, 'it's just so lonely here without you' and the wistful wishful way he sings it. Least that line's been going through my head for daze now. And what the song about is absolutely obvious; there's no real subtext; he lays it all out quite simply. No need to look for depths that aren't there, at least not the ones you might think. There's some stuff in that song I would rather not discuss, and it has to be said no other major artist would ever have written that song, great as it is.

 

[Girl-with-the-Thorn]

No, it's clearly about a woman who has killed herself over money worries and being chased by 'bailiffs with bad breath' and the need for her son (questioning why she has killed herself - he may not even be right about the bailiffs) for understanding of her suicide and potential revenge on those who persecuted her. War does not figure in it.

That's how I always saw it as well. I find it to be a rather heartbreaking song, and think it's one of the best tracks on YOR.

 

[joe frady]

This song has the potential to be the saddest song of all time.

I agree, very much.

 

[mcrickson]

That's how I always saw it as well. I find it to be a rather heartbreaking song, and think it's one of the best tracks on YOR.

The last song I ever performed at my highschool -- because of this it will always be close to me