Morrissey A-Z: "You'll Be Gone" (live cover)

BookishBoy

Well-Known Member






Our song for today is Morrissey's live cover of this Elvis Presley song (written by Elvis, Red West, and Charlie Hodge). Elvis' version was released as a single in 1965 and was also on the soundtrack of Girl Happy.

The story behind its creation (thanks Wikipedia, quoting from liner notes by Ernst Jorgensen) is a good one: "When Priscilla came to visit Elvis in the U.S. in the spring of 1962, Elvis proudly played her the new recordings he had just made in Nashville. One of these was 'You'll Be Gone,' a song that he had written himself with his good friends Red West and Charlie Hodge. To his deep frustration, Priscilla remarked that she liked his rock 'n' roll recordings better. Elvis had a fit, Priscilla was devastated, and Elvis never tried to write a song again."

Morrissey's live version was released on the deluxe edition of Low in High School. What do we think?
 
Mmmmm.. just can’t make my mind up with this one...
I suppose there will be people who just can’t help falling in love with this..
People will be crying in the chapel today and in the Ghetto listening to this song.
One thing about this song though it’s always on my mind.

Morrissey doing an Elvis live cover!!
Most people will have a suspicious
Mind about it
 
Out of all the Elvis songs to choose from…he goes with this one. Not “The Girl of My Best Friend”, not “I Was the One”, not “One Broken Heart for Sale” or even “His Latest Flame” (which he tried out with The Smiths).
 
I believe this was moaned about as the B-side to Jacky's... as 'yet another cover' instead of new material.
Still, SER captured it as the opener to the Eventim Apollo's gig on September 21, 2015 (having been at the end of the set the night before):




Said night being the source for the released live version on the 7" and Deluxe Ed.
Regards,
FWD.
 
great cover,well i would say that being an elvis fan,remember going onto an elvis site when this came out and they were very positive about this version,would love to hear a studio version of this,the live version doesnt really do it justice.
8 hearts/10 flames.
 
I actually think it's kind of hilarious that Morrissey would occasionally open shows with this.

It's not a bad live performance at all and I can understand why he would choose it. The backstory is interesting.

Nothing to get too excited about, however.

In the poll on the Hoffman board it ranked 179th from 264 solo songs.
 
great cover,well i would say that being an elvis fan,remember going onto an elvis site when this came out and they were very positive about this version,would love to hear a studio version of this,the live version doesnt really do it justice.
8 hearts/10 flames.
Nice to know you’re a fellow fan of the King! 🙏🏻
 
I've been an Elvis fan as long as I can remember hearing music for the first time and will appreciate any cover by Morrissey, his voice fits the songs. 😍

Edit - also... is "You've had her" next? Because it has taken us rather a long time to get to my joint favourite song and I am not happy. I'm not sure if I blame BookishBoy or the alphabet for it taking so long.
 
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It’s should have started and finished in Hammersmith in 2015. Disappointing it was still opening proceedings 5 years on.
A decent enough cover, but the duration in live sets is odd, to say the least.
 
It’s should have started and finished in Hammersmith in 2015. Disappointing it was still opening proceedings 5 years on.
A decent enough cover, but the duration in live sets is odd, to say the least.
Quite right Janice... has it been the opening song as well ?
 
I've been an Elvis fan as long as I can remember hearing music for the first time and will appreciate any cover by Morrissey, his voice fits the songs. 😍

Edit - also... is "You've had her" next? Because it has taken us rather a long time to get to my joint favourite song and I am not happy. I'm not sure if I blame BookishBoy or the alphabet for it taking so long.
There are only 4 songs left and I'm afraid that's the very last one! My fault, obviously :)
 
Not really much to add here. It's a decent cover, one of the better deluxe covers anyway, although its set placement was always baffling; similarly, sticking "Judy Is A Punk" (as great a song as it is) as a final encore is just a slap in the face, really.
Anyway, the flamenco flourishes are entertaining, and Moz is obviously trying to be suave, and partly succeeds. However, it just always felt a bit nondescript, much like many of the pretty straight covers on the deluxe edition: we had to wait until CS for some reinterpretations that were actually pretty different.
5/10
 
Yep, good cover, love the Spanish guitars; he's in his comfort zone with this & nails it vocally without too much effort.
Splendidly smooth.
 
Regarding the song’s lyric, I feel he did it better with Interlude.

And as Gregor pointed out, it would have been nice if he went for one of the more interesting choices of Elvis numbers.


YBG is a little too much on the nail.
 
I love this cover!
I like the Latin sound and it’s cool that he chose one of the few songs Elvis actually co-wrote.
 
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