More "unofficial" music videos and a few different folks' YouTube covers of "Bengali in Platforms" and "Life is a Pigsty" posted: https://www.morrisseycentral.com/messagesfrommorrissey/various-clips
Calculated nonsense to keep the trash fire burning, or a way to say "I've always been like this, why notice now?"Beautiful clips again.
Wonder if any of these are going to make it to the intro films on the upcoming dates.
Clumsy? Yes. Beautifully clumsy? Absolutely. In any way racist? Nope.After listening to Bengali again, I really believe the racist overtones that haunt this song come down to his use of the word "belong".
oh shelve your western plans and understand
that life is hard enough when you "belong" here
This gives one the impression that he is not welcome, but I don't feel this is what Morrissey meant to convey. The lyrics that proceed this:
he only wants to embrace your culture
and to be your friend forever
to me shows Morrissey is trying to warn this newcomer that life in the western world is not all that it seems. If he had written:
oh shelve your western plans and understand
that life is hard enough "even if" you "were born" here
would have been a commentary on life in the western world and that the grass is not always greener on the other side. He didn't, and maybe the original was his intended message, but just my two cents.
we all belong somewhere.i think what he is saying is its not a bed of roses here no matter where your from.After listening to Bengali again, I really believe the racist overtones that haunt this song come down to his use of the word "belong".
oh shelve your western plans and understand
that life is hard enough when you "belong" here
This gives one the impression that he is not welcome, but I don't feel this is what Morrissey meant to convey. The lyrics that proceed this:
he only wants to embrace your culture
and to be your friend forever
to me shows Morrissey is trying to warn this newcomer that life in the western world is not all that it seems. If he had written:
oh shelve your western plans and understand
that life is hard enough "even if" you "were born" here
would have been a commentary on life in the western world and that the grass is not always greener on the other side. He didn't, and maybe the original was his intended message, but just my two cents.
It's absolutely Sam given he's already confirmed as much when posting the last batch..
I agree, evennow. I've never had a problem with 'life is hard enough when you belong here' - since Morrissey has made a career out of 'not belonging', this meaning always seemed clear to me. However, this song does make me uneasy.After listening to Bengali again, I really believe the racist overtones that haunt this song come down to his use of the word "belong".
oh shelve your western plans and understand
that life is hard enough when you "belong" here
This gives one the impression that he is not welcome, but I don't feel this is what Morrissey meant to convey. The lyrics that proceed this:
he only wants to embrace your culture
and to be your friend forever
to me shows Morrissey is trying to warn this newcomer that life in the western world is not all that it seems. If he had written:
oh shelve your western plans and understand
that life is hard enough "even if" you "were born" here
would have been a commentary on life in the western world and that the grass is not always greener on the other side. He didn't, and maybe the original was his intended message, but just my two cents.
FREE TOMMY ROBINSON!
I agree, evennow. I've never had a problem with 'life is hard enough when you belong here' - since Morrissey has made a career out of 'not belonging', this meaning always seemed clear to me. However, this song does make me uneasy.
'he only wants to embrace your culture
and to be your friend forever'
always feels a bit snide and mocking to me. I don't hear those words at face value, I hear them in a sarcastic way (maybe that's a British thing). Interesting to see in FWD's post above that the original lyrics were going to include a line about his awful jumper: '‘A shame it’s an old one/Has anyone told him?’ , which to me seems to suffer from the same problem.
So I'm never quite sure what to make of it.