Morrissey A-Z: "Our Frank"

BookishBoy

Well-Known Member



We finish up the O's with this Morrissey/Nevin composition, released as a single in advance of Kill Uncle, and reaching #26 on the UK chart.

What do we think?
 
always been a fan of this,just a good tune and thats all i want in a song,never been a person who looked too deeply at the lyrics because none of us will ever know what M was thinking when he wrote them.wonder who he was phoning at the start.
8 our franks/10 anne franks.
 



We finish up the O's with this Morrissey/Nevin composition, released as a single in advance of Kill Uncle, and reaching #26 on the UK chart.

What do we think?

I never particularly cared for this album; let alone this song. Much like the rest of Kill Uncle, I find this song very bland. The only bearable track from that album was Sing Your Life.
 
I think it's great. I love that guitar in the opening and the lyrics are pretty funny. Don't you ever want to say just about any random line in this song to someone? Plus this was a very exciting time to be a Morrissey fan. They played this on the "alternative" radio station before alternative switched meaning from Depeche Mode to Nirvana.
8/10 rating partially based on nostalgia.
 
One of the best Kill Uncle tracks, it’s fitting that it opens the album up. The overall instrumentation is good, with lashings of Middle Eastern warblings and syncopated piano. The chord sequence is interesting and builds tension during the prechorus leading to a solid chorus. Overall, it’s a bit slight, as not much else gets added to it, but effectively sets the tone for the remainder of the LP. There are better (and worse) songs here, no doubt, but this is always a standout.
7/10
 
Moz Masterpiece
A glaring omission live over the last 30 years
With the passing of time, I think it would have sounded a lot better live over the years, than it did in 91.

see how the colors blend, indeed !
 
At the time I thought it was okay. Not brilliant. I liked the video and I remember Alain Whyte saying this was his favourite Morrissey track.
Johnny Marr on the other hand crudely called it 'Alf Wank' or something similar.
7/10
 
Never liked it. Mediocre, for me. The whole album was a disappointment.
 
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It's a great opener to KU - one of my favourite albums. I love Paresi's drumming (again), the punchy bass, and the plonky piano.
Interesting lyrics, to me suggesting the pains of inner turmoil & (over) self analysis:

"So deeply, so bleakly
So bleakly all the time
About everything
(Who I am, how I am, why I am)"


I really enjoy OF; happily sing along to it, but I don't love it for some reason.
 
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I still don't know why this single wasn't more successful. Catchy as hell and then this incredibly old-fashioned sound that Langer, Winstanley & Nevin were responsible for. At that time it wasn't a big hit because it didn't seem modern, from today's point of view the whole record and "Our Frank" in particular, is something very valuable. Plus: Skinheads in music videos are so british!
 
I do like this, and the lyrics for the most part are endearingly daft, but up until the 2.40 mark it does just kind of skip along without leaving too much of an impression: as a lead-off single to an album, you kind of want more than that?

But the last section of the song, as reference above by @Mozmar just totally transforms the song, for me - all of a sudden it feels urgent, passionate, and deeply human.
 
This would have been an ok album track, but it doesn't sound remotely like a huge hit single and it shouldn't have been a surprise when it was a relative flop.

I think in the verses you can hear the issue that Mark Nevin has spoken about regarding him writing musical sketches that he expected to be expanded upon later. They never were expanded upon, and it feels like the producers trying to make a silk purse from the proverbial.

It's another single that is pretty thin in terms of its lyrical themes and it is (to use the word again) disposable. It's gently amusing at times, but nothing more than that.

It's still one of the better songs on Kill Uncle...

In the poll on the Hoffman board it ranked 193rd from 264 solo songs.
 
The start of the skinhead phase.

At this point, his fan base was largely those who'd been around since the Smiths rather than those who 'discovered' him on tour and as such, this was musically very lightweight to those ears.

The fact that the author himself has dismissed this whole album as 'recording something for the sake of recording something' did little to convince the listener that it should be re-evaluated now.

'Journalists Who Lie' on the b-side was no better.

Still bought it on the day of it's release though because, well, that's what we did back then.
 
220px-Morrissey-our-frank-single.jpg


And he did look drop-dead gorgeous on the cover, let's be honest.
 
I love it. It's a fun song and the lyrics are endlessly quotable. One of my favourites on Kill Uncle.
 
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