More than happy to be laughed out of town for suggesting this, but I'm hearing echoes of "Speedway" in a song on Taylor Swift's new album. The song in question being "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?"
Sample lyrics:
If you wanted me dead
You should've just said
Nothing makes me feel more alive
*
So tell me everything is not about me
But what if it is?
Then say they didn't do it to hurt me
But what if they did?
*
That I'll sue you if you step on my lawn
That I'm fearsome, and I'm wretched, and I'm wrong
Put narcotics into all of my songs
And that's why you're still singing along
*
and then they way she sings:
Well, you should be, you should be, you should be (You should be, you should be)
You should be, you should be, you should be (You should be, you should be)
makes me think of: "Well they weren't lies, they weren't lies, they weren't lies".
I'm not for one moment suggesting that Swift is on Morrissey's level (I like her, but she's not) or that this song has any of the greatness of "Speedway" (it doesn't), it just seems like she's treading some similar ground now in terms of self-awareness, self-mythologizing, and melodrama.