Morrissey A-Z: "You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side"

Love the song and the sentiment. Weird that I never thought about the surf vibe before now but yeah. I also kinda wanna yell Batman sometimes but that’s ok. Easy to see why it wasn’t a single as its to slight in scope and doesn’t have a memorable ear worm like hook
 
Without doubt this would have made top 5 in the UK if released as a single.
This song has a lot going on
A thumping baseline
Motörhead like guitars
And sarcasm in the lyrics
What isn’t there to like / love about this song.

In a way I can see what Morrissey has done here by not releasing this song and Glamorous glue as the two lead singles.
It makes the album much stronger with tracks one and two just being album tracks.
He’s done this a few times on certain albums where the obvious singles can scream out to everyone
But something lesser will be chosen as singles.
Very clever
But very annoying 10/10
Love it, but I don’t hear a single. Your Arsenal is the only album where I feel the correct single choices were made.
 
Like all old fans I guess, I remember my surprise when first listening to Your Arsenal in summer 1992 - a friend of mine asked me if it was the new Pixies album when You're Gonna need started.

It was exciting and a little strange, but let's face it, it is pretty rustic.

Now that you've said that I could see the music being a pixies/earlier Frank Black solo song.
 
Speak of the Devil...




Regards,
FWD.


(will be repeated in Strange thread).
 
Just want to add that Buffy Saint-Marie’s song ‘You’re Gonna Need Somebody on your bond’ based on a traditional gospel/blues song, was on her first album ‘It’s My Way!’ a favorite album of Morrissey’s that he’s talked about in interview. She also had other song titles that influenced two other song titles of his, her ‘Better To Find out for yourself’ and ‘Suffer the little children’.


give the song below a listen, and picture the young teenage Morrissey
in his little room sitting cross legged in front of his record player being taken over by the powerful strange intoning of Buffy !

 
Don’t know if anyone has ever pointed this out, but with a lyric like

‘Someone kindly told me
That you'd wasted
Eight of nine lives’


This song is obviously about Morrissey’s cat!


:cool:
 
I don't think a single Morrissey album has been bookended as perfectly as Your Arsenal. [Edit: Of course I thought of Vauxhall & I two hours laters.] Absolute perfection at the beginning and end, with very few flaws in between.

The impact of Mick Ronson was glaringly obvious from the very first crashing chord of "You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side." It's just a stunningly powerful and resolute kick-off. And it is a mighty diptych with "Glamorous Glue."

Unquestionably 5 out of 5.
 
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Like all old fans I guess, I remember my surprise when first listening to Your Arsenal in summer 1992 - a friend of mine asked me if it was the new Pixies album when You're Gonna need started.

It was exciting and a little strange, but let's face it, it is pretty rustic.
Can you elaborate on "rustic"?
 
Agreed, a total missed opportunity not releasing this as the initial single. It would have telegraphed the quality to come much better than "We Hate It...". He seemed to understand how to use it live though - at the 2 shows I saw on the YA tour - the first night he opened with it and the next night it was the first encore. 9/10
 
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Only You’re The One For Me, Fatty and You’ve Had Her left to go, right?

Moz, make some song titles with X and Z!
 
I can still clearly remember the thrill of hearing this as the opening track on 'Your Arsenal' all those years ago. This is a stomping, swaggering, great song, and was a revelation at the time. There were loads of Morrissey's solo stuff before this that I adored, but it all seemed very slickly produced, and very obviously the product of a solo artist with vocals pushed way out front, accompanied by session musicians several miles behind him. This was the first time Morrissey had sounded sonically embedded in a band - and an equal member in the mix - since the Smiths split, which was pretty thrilling at the time.
 
Only You’re The One For Me, Fatty and You’ve Had Her left to go, right?

Moz, make some song titles with X and Z!
xanadu and zombie is all he needed to cover and we had the whole set.
 
I stand corrected: he also lacks Q and V as well.
 
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