And I just remembered this story of someone nearly dying to the tune of Life is a Pigsty.
I was at the bookstore one day last June, and I noticed a man walking around wearing a Ringleaders tour shirt- the Piazza Cavour one. I couldn't bring myself to say anything to him. The next week I was there again, and saw the same man. He had on a plain dark green t-shirt. Feeling brave, I approached him and said, "You're not wearing your Morrissey shirt today?" He turned to me and his face lit up, and I saw that his shirt actually had The Queen is Dead sleeve image on it. We went on to compare notes on our careers as Morrissey enthusiasts (there is no good way to put that.)
He was from Ireland, but grew up mostly in Birmingham, and moved to Chicago in his early twenties. He could have seen the Smiths when they were playing tiny halls and colleges, but he was into metal and never did.
He told me that he'd had a stroke the previous year. He fell down in his living room, and he lay there, unable to breathe or move. He said he could actually feel his body shutting down. Then he heard a voice- it was the radio- singing, "Won't you stop this pain... would you please stop time... I feel so cold, and I feel too hot again..." He focused on the voice, and he didn't die.
However, he mentioned that he was going in for surgery in a couple of days, and I never saw him again.
And lest anyone be skeptical and doubt the fact that Pigsty was ever played on the radio, I have to say that WXRT in Chicago does play whatever it wants to, and I remember it gave Ringleader plenty of airtime when it was released. It would most likely have been a Thursday.
So that's the story. I think of him (among others) now, every time I hear Life is a Pigsty.