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In un periodo di (giusta) riscoperta del Moz (inter)nazionale val la pena riscoltare quello che è il suo migliore lavoro solista: Your Arsenal.
Questo è l'album dello scandalo. Morrissey fu accusato di razzismo per la canzone "National Front Disco" e per l'esibizione live in cui cantò avvolto nella bandiera britannica (in un'epoca in cui la bandiera era ancora simbolo di destra) dietro a gigantografie di skinheads. In precedenza c'era già stata "Bengali in Platforms" dal primo album solista di Morrissey che aveva dato adito ai primi sospetti.
Credo che ciò che deluse maggiormente fu il fatto che ciò rappresentò un tradimento rispetto all'immagine e ai valori promossi fino a quel momento dagli Smiths. Gli Smiths rappresentarono la vendetta degli strambi, degli anormali, dei rifiuti della società e sopratutto liberarono il rock dall'egemonia machista fornendo un'alternativa anche rispetto al travestitismo allora in auge.
Quella di Morrissey era un sessualità ambigua, "malata", i suoi riferimenti letterari portarono ad una fusione originalissima tra cultura popolare e mondo intellettuale. L'infatuazione di Moz di questo periodo per i personaggi truci, skinheads, hooligans, etc sembrò giustamente un passo indietro e un tradimento.
Ormai la polemica è lontana. La possiamo chiudere dicendo che il Moz non è certamente razzista ma è stato certamente stupido. Non si gioca più o meno ambiguamente con l'immaginario più retrogrado della destra fascista.
Prendiamo "National Front Disco". Il testo è appunto ambiguo, ma ciò non toglie che la canzone è dannatamente riuscita, insieme ritmata e lirica come quando Morrissey è al suo meglio, come quasi ai tempi degli Smiths.
In effetti è l'album solista che più si avvicina al sound degli Smiths: ruvido, denso oscillante tra intense ballate (ottima "We'll Let You Know" che tratta degli hooligans con tanto di cori da stadio magistralmente inseriti all'interno della canzone prima dell'accelerazione finale) e canzoni rock ("Your'e Gonna Need Someone On Your Side" e "Glamorous Glue", le prime due canzoni che segnano un inizio scoppiettante del lavoro). Ma poi è un album vario, si va da "Certain People I Know" (con i suoi spunti cabarettistici che mi ricordano il Bowie di "Kooks" in "Hunky Dory") al "divertissement" di "You're The One For Me Fatty" fino a "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful", tipica eppur di buona fattura.
Forse cala leggermente nel finale ma Your Arsenal è decisamente un lavoro da avere per ogni persona interessata allo straordinario personaggio/icona che è Morrissey.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
02 Glamorous Glue (04:01)
The first day with the jar you find
Everyone lies
The first day with the jar you find
Everyone lies
Nobody minds, everyone lies
Where is the man you respect?
And where is the woman you love?
Where's the woman you love?
The third week with the jar you find
Everything dies
We won't vote conservative
Because we never have
Everyone lies, everyone lies
Where is the man you respect?
And where is the woman you love?
Where's the woman you love?
I used to dream and I used to vow
I wouldn't dream of it now
We look to Los Angeles
For the language we use
London is dead, London is dead
London is dead, London is dead
London is dead, London is dead
I'm too much in love
I'm too much in love
04 The National Front Disco (04:23)
David, the wind blows
The wind blows
Bits of your life away
Your friends all say
Where is our boy?
Ah, we've lost our boy
But they should know
Where you've gone
Because again and again you've explained
That you're going to
Oh, you're going to
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah
England for the English (England for the English)
David, the wind's blown
The wind's blown
All of my dreams away
And I still say
Where is our boy?
Ah, we've lost our boy
But I should know
Why you've gone
Because again and again you've explained
You've gone to the National, oh
To the National
There's a country, you don't live there
But one day you would like to
And if you show them what you're made of
Oh, then you might do
But David, we wonder
We wonder if the thunder
Is ever really gonna begin, begin, begin
Your mom says
I've lost my boy
But she should know
Why you've gone
Because again and again you've explained
You've gone to the National
To the National
To the National Front disco
Because you want the day to come sooner
You want the day to come sooner
You want the day to come sooner
When you've settled the score
Oh, the National
Oh, the National
Oh, the National
Oh, the National
Oh, the National
05 Certain People I Know (03:12)
I take the cue from certain people I know
I use the cue and then I hand it on to you
And when I swing it so it catches his eye
Weren't you there, you'd have died
I trust the views of certain people I know
They look at danger and they laugh their heads off
Their clothes are imitation George XXIII
Don't you find this absurd?
I'd hate to be like certain people I know
They break their necks and can't afford to get them fixed
They'd sacrifice all of their principles for
Anything cashable
I do believe it's terrible
Oh-woah-woah
Oh-woah-woah
Oh-woah-woah
08 Seasick, Yet Still Docked (05:07)
I am a poor freezingly cold soul
So far from where I intended to go
Scavenging through life's very constant lulls
So far from where I'm determined to go
Wish I knew the way to reach the one I love
There is no way
Wish I had the charm to attract the one I love
But you see, I've got no charm
Tonight I've consumed much more than I can hold
Oh, this is very clear to you
And you can tell I have never really loved
You can tell by the way I sleep all day
And all of my life no one gave me anything
No one has ever given me anything
My love is as sharp as a needle in your eye
You must be such a fool to pass me by
10 Tomorrow (04:06)
Tomorrow
Will it really come?
And if it does come
Will I still be human?
All I ask of you is one thing that you never do
Would you put your arms around me?
I won't tell anyone
Tomorrow
Does it have to come?
All I ask of you is one thing that you'll never do
Would you put your arms around me?
I won't tell anybody
Tomorrow
And what must come before
Oh, the pain in my arms
Oh, the pain in my legs
Oh, my shiftless body
Tomorrow
It's surely nearer now
You don't think I'll make it
I never said I wanted to
Well, did I?
Oh, the pain in my arms
Oh, the pain in my legs
Oh, yeah, oh, yeah
No, yeah, no, yeah
Through my shiftless body
Tomorrow
Tomorrow
All I ask of you, oh
Is would you tell me that you love me
Tell me, tell me that you love me
Tell me, tell me that you love me
Tell me that you love me
Ah, I know you don't mean it
Ah, I know you don't mean it
Tell me, tell me that you love me
Tell me, tell me that you love me
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