The Moz/Smiths Top 100, Part 104: LIFE IS A PIGSTY

[HIM]

[...] The lyrics are also uncommonly deft for a modern day Moz song. Thank heavens there is no mention of smelly uniforms, being thicker than pig-shit, entering with a key, kegs between legs, 15 miles of shit and all the other lyrical atrocities that dear old Moz seems to churn out these days.

what?! it's f***ing doggerel.

As with all the best Moz songs, he returns to an area of lyrical familiarity but acknowledges this (the same old SOS) like 'this story is old I know but it goes on', 'love at first sight may sound trite' etc.

which points, only, to a writer with no new inspiration, insight or ideas. it's turgid cack.

 

[mozmal]

Got to be honest - I think this song is very overrated. To be sure, it is epic, but that doesn't mean to say it's very good, does it? It's too long and the lyrics are uninspiring, and at times, monotonous. There are, in my opinion, several songs from ROTT that are superior to this, I can only give it a 5.

 

[HIM]

Its a bit to long one of the weaker ringleader tracks .

Please tell me your avatar's are a joke....?

"joke", or otherwise, i think the appropriate response is...

"ARSEHOLE"​

 

[vicarinatutugal]

ooo we can't be finished with Pigsty yet Houdini!
vote you swines. lol

 

[hatfull]

this song starts okay (musically) and gradually becomes ridiculously bad. it's several minutes too long, the lyric conveys nothing ("it's the same old sos" - yes it is, you prick. get some new ideas and change the f***ing record. "i've been shifting gears all of my life" - so what?) and the metaphor of the title is uninspired, to say the very, very least. i remember reading what music journalists had to say about this song, in advance of its release, and lost count of the number of times it was likened to radiohead's "paranoid android" simply because of the change in time signature, halfway through. the lyric is laughably crap and, in the context of fans' and journalists' hyperbole, it turns out to be overblown shite. it sounded pretty good, live, though.

This is one of the few songs we agree on! I know it's an unpopular thing to say, but it does nothing for me whatsoever. I'm giving it a 2. I don't even like it live I'm afraid!

 

[vicarinatutugal]

This is one of the few songs we agree on! I know it's an unpopular thing to say, but it does nothing for me whatsoever. I'm giving it a 2. I don't even like it live I'm afraid!

each to their own. *


*thanks to tmyem for the image, it was apt.

 

[hatfull]

each to their own. *


*thanks to tmyem for the image, it was apt.

I've tried to understand, but I think it's one of my least favuorite Morrissey songs ever!

 

[vicarinatutugal]

I've tried to understand, but I think it's one of my least favuorite Morrissey songs ever!

jesus!
*faints*

ok, each to their own *hyperventilates*
em I am frightened to ask but do you like southpaw?

 

[hatfull]

jesus!
*faints*

ok, each to their own *hyperventilates*
em I am frightened to ask but do you like southpaw?

the song? ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....................hmmmmmmmmmmmm...........yes sometimes, not one of my faves, but I don't hate it!

 

[vicarinatutugal]

the song? ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....................hmmmmmmmmmmmm...........yes sometimes, not one of my faves, but I don't hate it!

I can see me proper losing it if everyone pees on Southpaw, however this is pigsty so time enough for that.

 

[the more you explore me!]

i gave it a 7 for the music...the lyrics i find wearisome.

I feel, it's something that if you was critcal of his songs, this would be the easy one to point out and say"oh that Morrissey, he is a right miserable so and so".

 

[TLOTFamousIP]

Please tell me your avatar's are a joke....?

And an unfunny one at that

 

[HIM]

And an unfunny one at that

agreed, sir.

 

[Comtesse]

lol! I'm not deliberately trying to wind anyone up. I just find this song very dull, cringeworthy lyrics in places, doesn't seem to really go anywhere.

Just my opinion.

Cringeworthy lyrics??? Are we listening to the same song? I don't know how you can think that these lyrics are cringeworthy and not think that most Morrissey lyrics are cringeworthy, since they echo all of his favorite themes. This song is essentially a summary of everything that makes Morrissey beautiful. I can see the annoyance with the repitition of "Life Is A Pigsty" itself (although I love it), but tell me please - how can these other lines be cringeworthy?

It's the same old S.O.S.
but with brand new broken fortunes
and once again I turn to you...

I am the same underneath
but this you
...you surely knew?

And if you don't know this, then
what do you know?
every second of my life
I live only live for you
and you can shoot me
and you can throw me off a train
but I still maintain...

And I've been shifting gears all of my life
but I'm still the same underneath
this you surely knew?
I can't reach you
I can't reach you
I can't reach you anymore

Can you please stop time?
can you stop the pain?
I feel too cold
and now I feel too warm again
can you stop this pain?
can you stop this pain?
even now, in the final hour of my life
I'm falling in love again
again

As far as I'm concerned, if you think those lyrics are cringeworthy, then you'd also have to toss aside a huge number of Morrissey lyrics, including "Seasick, Yet Still Docked" and "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me". Complete insanity.

 

[Comtesse]

what?! it's f***ing doggerel.



which points, only, to a writer with no new inspiration, insight or ideas. it's turgid cack.

And since when has Morrissey had new inspiration, insight or ideas? He's been treading the same lyrical terrain since 1984 with a few exceptions. And this particular type of lyric is what he does best. Why mess with perfection? I mean, really, you could say that "Seasick, Yet Still Docked" was treading water too - but it doesn't stop it from being a brilliant and moving song.

Sheesh, I don't even understand how you people can be Morrissey fans, saying things like that...

 

[King Leer]

It seems to be the highest rated solo song thus far, and will probably remain in the top three. So the barking of the vocal minority will fall by the wayside anyway...

Edit: Second highest, my mistake. Of course Everyday has it beat.

 

[HIM]

It seems to be the highest rated solo song thus far, and will probably remain in the top three. So the barking of the vocal minority will fall by the wayside anyway..

so, what you're saying is that it's popular, rather than that it's good. have you looked at the 'top 40' recently?

 

[Bluebirds]

Shaggy put it best, a Mr Bombastic, telephone-tastic....

 

[Assassin]

And an unfunny one at that

Well it's sort of funny, because of it's ludicrious proclomation

 

[jeniphir]

I rate this song in the category I have heard elsewhere applied to the band Shudder to Think (and, more often, to some classical music): Difficult Music. This is not an easy song to appreciate, as it requires more than a passive listening. What the song asks of you is to drop everything and go on the journey it creates.

I could not find my way into this song to save my life, for quite a while. I thought it was over-arty, over-produced prog-rock of the worst order. Then I heard it live, and perhaps because my full attention was focused on Morrissey's performance of the song, I finally "got it." Did I ever! I felt it down to the bottom of my heart; Moz performed it with such a depth of emotion that I couldn't NOT feel it, myself. I was utterly disarmed. I felt gutted. (I was similarly moved by performances of "You Know I Couldn't Last" during the Quarry tour; there was no question that Moz was right there, in the center of these songs, while performing them, and that cannot be said for every song in his live sets.)

"Life is a Pigsty" is complex, deeply felt, lyrically understated yet vocally charged. It manages the balancing act of despair and hope; tragedy and comedy; outward- and inward-focus that only Morrissey handles so deftly. It will not be the song he is most remembered for, but it is one of his true masterpieces.

--jeniphir