Thursday 21 December 2017

Fantasy Cover Version #10 - if Morrissey covered "The Asylum"...

A blog series that you can contribute to...

Here's the gist. I want to hear about your fantasy cover versions. Simply make the case for the cover version that you'd love to hear but, fairly obviously, does not actually exist. And send me that case, here. By case, I mean explain why artist X covering song Y would be good, don't just send me their respective names.

In the absence of any new suggestions from readers, the tenth contributor to this series is me. My gaff, my rules, so here goes:

I would be intrigued to here Morrissey cover "The Asylum", an album track from depressingly-shortlived Anderson-Butler collaboration The Tears. Here's the original:

Now Steven has a previous conviction for covering Brett and Bernard - here he is, 25 years ago, making an excellent fist of covering early Suede B-side My Insatiable One:

That works, doesn't it? Now, think about the lyrics of The Asylum:

When I hear the men outside my window kicking down my door,
All the megaphones are screaming letters of the law,
Would you walk in through the gate and visit me?
Would you please? In the asylum.

When they're counting out the chemicals and doing daily tasks,
Giving out prescription drugs and putting on their masks,
Would you wander through the ground to visit me?
As they opened up the gates and turned the key.
Would you please? In the asylum.

If they burn my brain away would you understand?
If they try to hold me down would you hold my hand?
Could you stand, stand the asylum?

I reckon that Morrissey would feel right at home, singing this. He's always felt victimised and misunderstood, now more than ever. And there are plenty of people out there (and by there I mean the press and the blogosphere) who think Moz has lost it in recent years. Either way, I think he could make this song his own, a crooned lament to himself. Here's a live rendition of the original, recorded at some festival or other in 2005. Have a listen, and imagine it in Morrissey's hands:

Conclusive proof, I think you'll agree, that Moz would be well suited to The Asylum (insert your own joke here). While I'm at it, I should add that the solitary Tears album, the cleverly titled Here Come The Tears, is worth investigating, even if it suffers from an overly bright production at times.

Think you can suggest a fantasy cover version this good? Then please, try your luck and remember - the more you make the case, the better! The list of past submissions may inspire you.

2 comments:

  1. Yes another one I can just imagine. There is something about Brett and Morrissey's vocal lines - generally - that are quite similar, I'd never thought of that before and, as you say, it's not hard to think of Morrissey singing those lyrics. You've just reminded me I should dig out 'Refugees' by The Tears again too - the only thing we have by them on the shelf, but such a great song.

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    1. It's a great album, and currently less than £4 on Amazon! Although the first embed on this post is basically the whole album, so...

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