Best songwriter (so far) of Morrissey's solo career?

  • Thread starter Deleted member 1074
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Best solo songwriter so far?

  • Kevin Armstrong

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Clive Langer

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Mark E. Nevin

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Gary Day

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Spencer Cobrin

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Jesse Tobias

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Mikey Farrell

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Gustavo Manzur

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    37
D

Deleted member 1074

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In your opinion, who is the best songwriter of Morrissey's solo career?

Stephen Street?
"Suedehead", Everyday Is Like Sunday", "Late Night, Maudlin Street", "Interesting Drug", "Will Never Marry", "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys", "Sister I'm A Poet", "Hairdresser On Fire", "Ouija Board, Ouija Board", "Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference"

Andy Rourke?
"Girl Least Likely To", "Yes, I Am Blind", "Get Off The Stage"

Kevin Armstrong?
"Piccadilly Palare", "He Knows I'd Love To See Him", "Oh Phoney"

Clive Langer?
"November Spawned A Monster", "Mute Witness", "Found Found Found", "Striptease With A Difference"

Mark E. Nevin?
"Sing Your Life", "Driving Your Girlfriend Home", "Our Frank", "(I'm) The End Of The Family Line", "The Loop", "Pregnant For The Last Time", "My Love Life", "I've Changed My Plea To Guilty", "You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side", "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday"

Alain Whyte?
"The National Front Disco", "Tomorrow", "Seasick, Yet Still Docked", "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself", "The Boy Racer", "Alma Matters", "Trouble Loves Me", "Irish Blood, English Heart", "First Of The Gang To Die", "I Have Forgiven Jesus", "Let Me Kiss You", "The Never-Played Symphonies", "Dear God, Please Help Me", "Life Is A Pigsty", "Ganglord", "Something Is Squeezing My Skull", "It's Not Your Birthday Anymore", "My Dearest Love", "When Last I Spoke To Carol", "Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed",

Boz Boorer?
"Jack The Ripper", "Now My Heart Is Full", "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get", "Speedway", "Reader Meet Author", "Satan Rejected My Soul", "Maladjusted", "Ammunition", "I Can Have Both", "Come Back To Camden", "I'm Not Sorry", "The World Is Full of Crashing Bores", "I Like You", "Christian Dior", "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris", "That's How People Grow Up", "One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell", "Action Is My Middle Name", "World Peace Is None Of Your Business", "Istanbul"

Gary Day?
"Pashernate Love", "You Know I Couldn't Last"

Spencer Cobrin?
"Wide To Receive", "Lost"

Jesse Tobias?
"You Have Killed Me", "The Youngest Was The Most Loved", "In The Future When All's Well", "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy", "On The Streets I Ran", "I Knew I Was Next", "If You Don't Like Me, Don't Look At Me", "Children In Pieces", "All You Need Is Me", "Sorry Doesn't Help", "I'm OK By Myself"

Mikey Farrell?
"At Last I Am Born", "Sweetie-Pie"

Gustavo Manzur?
"Earth Is The Loneliest Planet"
 
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Alain, by a country mile - though to be fair he was so prolific over so many years, he has a wealth of songs to choose from. Even so - looking back at the last couple of albums as he was being edged out of the picture - all my favourites: It's Not Your Birthday Anymore, Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed, Dear God Please Help Me, Life is a Pigsty - were all Alain compositions.

The scary thing looking over this is how many great songs the Street/Morrissey partnership produced in only about a year (or max two years) of being together. Imagine in another universe where they didn't get into a petty argument over money and Street stuck around for the next decade or so. How many more classics would we have had?
 
fantastic thread!

for me - steven street - 'cause he came after 'the smiths' and showed (me :)) moz can 'last' without johnny marr.

i had highly appreciated morrissey/marr artistic companionship and was desperate when 'the smiths' fell apart.

whyte, boz, nevin, tobias and manzur are good, but steven street is my favourite.

p.s. apologies
 
oops, correction: stephen street




p.s. apologies
 
I am so glad you made this thread. I was getting rather annoyed with all the "Alain Whyte is the only decent songwriter Morrissey has ever worked with in his solo career" posts. Even ignoring the fact that Boz wrote some of Morrissey's best solo material (Jack The Ripper, Now My Heart Is Full, Speedway come to mind) it seems bizarre to completely ignore the existence of Viva Hate.

I voted for Stephen Street. It's not even close for me. Which is not to say Whyte was a bad song writer--he wasn't.
 
Stephen Street. Alain a close second.

Someone at least should vote for Mark E Nevin though. He did some great work for Morrissey - it was the lyrics that were hit and miss during that period.
 
Stephen Street. Alain a close second.

Someone at least should vote for Mark E Nevin though. He did some great work for Morrissey - it was the lyrics that were hit and miss during that period.



Those plinky plonk Madness pianos did for Nevin. I think the tunes themselves were alright too.
 
Street and Whyte have both written about 20 brilliant compositions for Morrissey.
The thing is, Whyte's are 20 out of about 80, and Street's are 20 out of 25.
Nearly everything Street wrote was brilliant - tons of what Alain wrote was mediocre.
On top of the sparkling gems, he unfortunately wrote the music to most of the dreary landfill indie that Morrissey's been putting out since the mid 90s. Father must be killed, On the streets I ran, Roys keen, Have a go merchant, Do your best and don't worrry, Good in your time, Dagenham Dave, Best friend on the payroll, the list of poor quality Alain-composed songs is very long.
So, although Whyte and Street have an equal number of good ones, the average quality of a Street song is much, much higher.
 
Street because, as previously mentioned, his success rate was superb. Not just on the first album but on the b-sides as well.

Whyte did a good job but there is a lot of very samey stuff that he wrote.

Nevin gets a bad press but his songs got better and better as he got used to Morrissey`s way or working. You`re Gonna Need Someone on Your Side and I Know it`s Gonna Happen Someday are the 2 strongest songs on Your Arsenal imo.

Boorer deserves a lot of credit for writing several of the highlights on Vauxhall in particular.
 
this:

Street and Whyte have both written about 20 brilliant compositions for Morrissey.
The thing is, Whyte's are 20 out of about 80, and Street's are 20 out of 25.
Nearly everything Street wrote was brilliant - tons of what Alain wrote was mediocre. ...
...
So, although Whyte and Street have an equal number of good ones, the average quality of a Street song is much, much higher.

bold

'statistically':) proven


p.s. apologies
 
Honestly I cannot decide between Street and Whyte. Both are so great and did so much for him.
 
Honestly I cannot decide between Street and Whyte. Both are so great and did so much for him.

They both wrote lots of great songs but, unlike Street, Whyte wrote loads of really bad songs too, including many of Morrissey's worst ever.
Street wrote virtually nothing but brilliantly composed pieces of music.
Really, there's no competition.
 
I would love to hear what a new Morrissey album could sound like composed with nothing but Street and Whyte songs and with his Viva Hate era band (but with Whyte on guitar as well)...
 
I wonder why, after a string of hits, Stephen didn't go on writing music. He produced some of the best albums of the 90s, but still..I liked what he did, very poppy, uptempo, and simple, but still indie cool. Kinda reminds me of the effortless songs Marc Bolan made but with added synths and a drum machine. Viva, why didn't you include Lucky Lisp, Michael's Bones, and Disappointed as well?
 
I wonder why, after a string of hits, Stephen didn't go on writing music.

I think just because his ambition had always been to be a producer rather than a songwriter. The songwriting only came about because he saw an opportunity after Johnny left The Smiths. Maybe if he had worked with other solo artists who needed a songwriting partner then he would have written more songs, but it didn't happen. Or, maybe it did but with some obscure artist nobody remembers.
 
(added comment) Looking at Allmusic, he is credited as having written songs for Babyshambles, The Pretenders and a couple of lesser-knowns.
 
I would love to hear what a new Morrissey album could sound like composed with nothing but Street and Whyte songs and with his Viva Hate era band (but with Whyte on guitar as well)...

Before Vini Reilly began having health issues, I dreamt of a final Morrissey album which would feature different line-ups, alternately produced by Street and Lillywhite. At least a third would be the original Lads and another third would be the Quarry-era quintet. A handful of songs would be by the Viva Hate crew and a few others would be the Vauxhall crew - something with Bridgwood on double bass.

That was nice of five of Jesse's relatives to vote for him. Or five children from the Home For The Deaf, whichever.
 
Stephen Street by a great distance.
The output from 1988 through 1989 was ideal. The perfect balance of indie and commercial pop.

Sister, I'm A Poet
Everyday Is Like Sunday
Will Never Marry
Suedehead
The Last Of The Famous International Playboys ....


......Whyte is still on the starting grid.
 
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