Morrissey A-Z: "(The) Teachers Are Afraid of the Pupils"

Though this would be better had it not come in at 11mins
I agree - I adore this song, but it's just too damn short in my opinion. Would love to hear an extended 20 minute version of this. šŸ˜
 


Original take with same drums as Glass Menagerie and much shorter.
 
Mammoth, beast of a track coming in at >11:00; very dark, almost sinister start, lots of sliding, almost eerie, guitar work & strings. Great drum work again from Cobrin (as is the case on most of SG - probably the reason I love the album). Love the way the track explodes into action around 4:30, & then gently sidles out the back door with strings & more eeriness for the last minute or so. A most unusual, yet brilliant, track from Moz.
Love it.
 
Some notes of interest from PJLM:
"This song must have been written at some point in 1994. An instrumental was recorded in December 1994 at Miraval Studios in France, with Boz Boorer (guitar), Alain Whyte (guitar), Johnny Bridgwood (bass) and Woodie Taylor (drums), but no Morrissey.

It came together at rehearsals in January 1995 at Abbey Road studios in London, with Spencer Cobrin replacing Woodie Taylor at the drums. The song was recorded with producer Steve Lillywhite at Hook End Manor the following March-April alongside most of the rest of the "Southpaw Grammar" album."
 


Original take with same drums as Glass Menagerie and much shorter.

Unless my ears are deceiving me, that sounds like the same vocal take as on the finished version, so I guess this was the original earliest mix which they built around and expanded upon. It just shows just what a good production job Lillywhyte did on the track, as in it's raw form this is pretty uninspiring, and I can easily imagine it being abandoned at this stage.
 
Proof that Morrissey is always capable of coming up with a surprise. Southpaw Grammar was once my favorite Morrissey record and I feel that comments about the length of the songs miss the point. It is a certain type of 70's influenced record in my opinion and using classical themes was "a thing" then. Morrissey as prog rock? This is an ambitious work and that's not always a word you associate with "lazy" Morrissey.
I have to be in the mood now to really enjoy it but I appreciate it and respect the insane gamble of putting it as the opening track. I have to give a couple of extra points just for that. 9/10
 
I think that marriage between Shostakovich, Boz & Moz was quite perfect for the time it lasted (= 10 minutes).
As impressive and haunting an opening track as Maladjusted.
I just donā€™t feel that this track blended well with the rest of the albumā€™ which completely changes gear after Reader.
Keep this opener and Southpaw as the closer and have mostly different songs in-between.... and Southpaw Grammer could've been a top 3 solo album.
 
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Keep this opener and Southpaw as the closer and have mostly different songs in-between.... and Southpaw Grammer could've been a top 3 solo album.
Indeed, I would also swap some of the in-between songs with the tracks that were added on the enhanced version.
Nobody loves us should definitely have been include, as Alain once said.
 
Indeed, I would also swap some of the in-between songs with the tracks that were added on the enhanced version.
Nobody loves us should definitely have been include, as Alain once said.

I wonder where it could have gone on SG though, where would you put it?

Maybe between Dagenham and Do Your Best ?
 
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ouch,iv just cracked a rib,iv never heard that one before,wank.
Ironically, however, the "ouch,iv cracked a rib" line is one that you use repeatedly.

I meant it as a serious question, though. Are you not a cleaner? Caretaker, perhaps? I'm trying to think of what role you might competently perform in a school; one that wouldn't require you to be familiar with even elementary spelling or punctuation.
 
A brilliant foreboding opening to Southpaw Grammar, promising depth and intrigue that the rest of the album can't deliver. Some reviewers criticized Morrissey for sympathizing with the teachers instead of the pupils like he did in the eighties, but I thought that was a fresh and valid angle to write a song about.

Stretching the song to 11 minutes is just taking the piss though, 7 minutes should be long enough.



This live version (below) clocks 5:57 and works, makes me wonder if Lillywhite and band extended the album version because
they didnā€™t have much material for the album(?).

soundboard mix ? overdubbed sounds good ..
 
Unless my ears are deceiving me, that sounds like the same vocal take as on the finished version, so I guess this was the original earliest mix which they built around and expanded upon. It just shows just what a good production job Lillywhyte did on the track, as in it's raw form this is pretty uninspiring, and I can easily imagine it being abandoned at this stage.

That's what I'm hearing, too. Or this is a scaled-back mix removing the layers of instrumentation. I think they did the same thing for the "acoustic" version of A Swallow On My Neck that appeared on the scrapped Vauxhall expanded Rhino reissue CDR. It's definitely the completed vocal take. The drum loop also got buried/enhanced with what's probably a loop of Spencer playing real drums.

It's an interesting oddity to hear a la the alternate mix of Southpaw which sounds like an Echo and the Bunnymen outtake. But Lillywhite obviously steered them right in the final forms of the songs.

I certainly believe there were places on this album for Nobody Loves Us and You Must Please Remember, but Honey You Know Where To Find Me and You Should Have Been Nice to Me just never seemed to fit. They skew more towards the Vauxhall/Boxers spectrum - but, even so, they don't sound finished or fully realized.
 
December 2015 - a good end to the year.
This is the early Miraval version (possibly edited down from full 13 mins & probably utilising 'Glass Menagerie' elements?).
Mr. Reynolds sharing things like this is greatly missed.
(He described it as the 'original take').
Regards,
FWD.
 
It's a song I generally like (stupidly long instrumental aside), but it's one I find hard to read - I can never quite tell whether he is being sympathetic towards teachers or criticising them. Is it just me?
 
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