Morrissey A-Z: "Kick the Bride Down the Aisle"

It feels very neo-realist. I'm sure there will be a film somewhere with a spurned lover telling their ex to just marry that young cow then.
 
Musically interesting but the lyrics seem to pander to misogynistic young men. "William, It Was Really Nothing" was fun and funny. This is just a visit with cranky old uncle Morrissey.
It's like he's lost empathy and direction. He wrote some pretty good lyrics later for the Dog record so I'm thinking that this period was just him being in some kind of state of mind where he doesn't care and somehow can't recognize that his worst impulses do not really justify being committed to a recording.
I do think he managed to snap out of it but lots of stuff from around this time should have just been put away.
 
This is a very odd one I find...
Loved it for the first few plays, then went off it.. this is the first time I’ve heard it in some years.
An odd subject matter, and I much prefer the music to the lyrics...
It does sit well in line with WP as there are some odd songs on it, and this is one of them.
 
Funny how an album can contain both my favourite song of his (“I’m Not A Man”) and my least favourite...
Awful lyrics, bland, sloppy instrumentation: completely out of character, even supposedly in character. Just the worst, I can’t bear to think about it for any longer.
2/10
 
Awful, awful song. Mostly because of the dreadful lyrics. It’s songs and lyrics like this one that makes me wonder what the hell happened to our Mozzer post Refusal. There are too many songs/lyrics between 2011 and 2020 (even though Dog has several exceptions) that completely lack finesse, wit, warmth and/or compassion. It makes me wonder. But hey, don’t get me wrong. There are many beautiful songs and lyrics from these years, as well.
 
I still have poems I wrote when I was a miserable, lonely, sexually frustrated 16 year old and they are remarkably similar to this kind of crap:

She just wants a slave
To break his back in pursuit of a living wage
So that she can laze and graze
For the rest of her days
 
i dont mind it,voice is nice and clear and theres the dreamy section which i always like.its amusing.it like a mash up of 2 or 3 different songs.
7 kicks /10 brides.
 
Rolling Stone called it "depressing", "sarcastically misogynistic" and a "dirge" when reviewing its first live outing.
That said,
You're that stretch of the beach
That the tide doesn't reach...

is an interesting couplet for a song I don't particularly care for.
Young's vocal on this actually isn't majorly out of place or jarring either.
Regards,
FWD.
 
I don't like this song very much, and the lyrics are borderline misogynistic. That said, I don't really understand the comments that this is somehow 'out of character' for Morrissey. This is the same guy who wrote 'Pretty Girls Make Graves' and 'William it Was Really Nothing', after all.
 
The most interesting thing about it is that it musically resembles System Of A Down's Lonely Day (2005), which Morrissey repeatedly mentioned as the last "new" song he absolutely loved ca. 2012.

 
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While this isn't classic Morrissey, I can't say that I have a problem with it. It's only right that he tackles the subject of marriage in a typically contrarian way.

There are one or two nice musical touches and the "stretch of the beach" section is indeed a highlight.

In the poll on the Hoffman board it ranked 155th from 264 solo songs.
 
So many beautiful churches in this city ( ha ha ha ) and each time i pass I always hear that tune ...








I always treasure this song . Funny but a little bit bitter satire on marriage.
 
I am surprised by the range of comments on this one, as if we are all listening to a different song!I suppose our differing interpretations of Kick The Bride Down The Aisle highlight Morrissey's honed skill for managing to load a heavy dose of ambiguity into his lyrics.

Given Morrissey's propensity for penning a fair few songs about the Middle East at this stage in his career (something I could, to be honest, largely do without), I always assumed this song was relating to arranged marriages and what we in the West largely consider as outdated gender stereotypes/roles. Lines such as ''It's the best you can do for everyone's sake' and a line (which I assumed to be from the bride's perspective) 'I know so much more than I'm willing to say' seemed to point me in this direction; a poor, bright and capable girl married off to a dull life, while her, husband who is expected to be the sole breadwinner, is now breaking 'his back in pursuit of a living wage.' While the tides of change have washed over most of us, this couple, this society, hasn't changed, they are 'that stretch of the beach that the tide doesn't reach.' Eventually this girl, knowing no better, accepts her station in her life, lazing and grazing for the rest of her days.

I admit that lines such as 'she just wants a slave' weaken the above argument - but I too assumed that this poor girl has been conditioned to think in such a way, through family, custom and tradition; that she was following the herd because she just knew no better and never thought of breaking the chain. 'Look at that cow in the field, It knows more than your bride knows now' I took as a comment relating to how this poor girl, now a mother, has not used her mind in life and has fulfilled all that was expected of her - a few years down the line she is little more than a teat to the next generation of calves...

Perhaps I have overthought this, but this all jumped out to me at first listen, and that seed stuck!
 
Not a great song but as with most of the album, the quality of the music is a good notch above most of the post-2000 material.
 
It’s just mocking marriage as not being about lovers joining in union but about horrible people who use the societal convention get through there cynical unhappy lives. I think we all know his views on marriage by now. I love the song personally and how it turns a wedding procession into a funeral March
 
I haven't heard it for a long time, and in the overall context of WPINOYB, I just didn't think it was good at the time. Isolated from the huge expectations, the piece can certainly be listened to today. But it is surely not part of the creme de la creme of his oeuvre. Chiccarelli's bold production never worked for me in the first place.
 
i am a huge WPINOYB apologist and think it's a great album but this song is an affront to God. Awful.
 
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