Morrissey A-Z: "Lenny's Tune"

BookishBoy

Well-Known Member









Our song for today is Morrissey's cover, from California Son, of this Tim Hardin composition (see above), best known for being performed by Nico (also see above).

What do we think?
 
Hard to beat Nico’s version, but it’s still one of the best tracks off of CS.
 
I find the entire California Son project kind of pointless and baffling. So many songs that I’d theoretically love to hear Morrissey perform —this one being a prime example— ended up having no effect on me whatsoever.

It’s difficult to balance the pathos and the pantomime when covering ballads. Morrissey used to be quite good at this, but I don’t think it works here.
 
voice is good on this without having to do too much,love the piano on this,reminds me of nightporter by japan.all in all,decent.
7 lennys/10 tunes.
 
I quite like this, being a sometime fan of Tim Hardin. But what's that rattling in the background? It sounds like the piano stool wasn't screwed together properly.
 
While I have a soft spot for CS, this is one of my least favourites. But, due to the overall quality of the songs, and the fact that none of them are really that bad, this is still a solid cover. As the album reaches its final stages, the mood becomes more sombre, with this powerful ballad. The disintegrating piano sounds help to establish a running theme of sub-musqique concrète throughout the album (which I love) and overall, the production is great. Just the quality of the other songs places this down the album tier list, for me, rather than any individual component.
7/10
 
I like this, but its one of those songs that makes more sense in the context of an album. Listening to it on its own doesn't have quite the same effect.
 
I haven't listened to this since right after it was released and I enjoyed it, The voice and the simple piano sound really good. This is a style he should do more of with his own songs. I'm not going to start listening to this regularly but it was a nice surprise to hear it again and realize I'd overlooked it when listening to CS as a whole.
6/10
 
I rarely, if ever, take CS for a spin, but listening to this, courtesy of the A-Z, I think this track is really quite lovely.
Moz's voice, as ever, is beautiful.
 
I am not a huge fan of Nico's version and I adore Tim Hardin's, but Morrissey's performance here is very good.
 
There are two songs on California Son that I can easily called perfect by Morrissey's rendition . This one is one of them. Breathtaking.
8/10
 
Just listened to the 3 versions in a row twice. Can't say Morrissey is outdoing the other versions, but it still feels good to hear Morrissey's voice backed by mainly just a piano and some ambient noise (reflecting his love for Nico?) and I am pleased he included this moody cover.
7/10 seems about right to me.
 
This isn't one of my personal favourites from the album, but Morrissey sings well and it has a pleasantly moody atmosphere.

Morrissey clearly put a lot of thought into the running order and this and Some Say I Got Devil work very well to close the album.

In the poll on the Hoffman board this was the most recent album which always tends to skew the results. This was also the most popular song from California Son and so ended in an absurd 9th from 264 solo songs.
 
This isn't one of my personal favourites from the album, but Morrissey sings well and it has a pleasantly moody atmosphere.

Morrissey clearly put a lot of thought into the running order and this and Some Say I Got Devil work very well to close the album.

In the poll on the Hoffman board this was the most recent album which always tends to skew the results. This was also the most popular song from California Son and so ended in an absurd 9th from 264 solo songs.
Haven't you been giving placings for the Dog on a Chain songs for this mysterious poll (that you still refuse to link to!)?
That would make California Son not the most recent. The problem with the poll from what I can gather (i.e. your comments) is that there was only a handful of people voting.
 
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