Sunday, June 14, 2020

Morrissey - Everyday is Like Sunday



Eight years ago I wrote a review about as many songs as I could muster about the end of the world: https://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.com/2012/11/27-songs-about-end-of-world.html

I always meant to return to that format eventually with different subject matters, but I never found the time or energy again. I must have had a lot more free time eight years ago.

The “27 Songs About the End of the World,” post was different experience on this blog. I did a lot of searching for new songs about Armageddon which led me to discovering a number of new songs and bands that I had not listened to previously, of which, the two big stand outs were, The Thermals “Here’s Your Future,” and Morrissey “Everyday is Like Sunday.”

The Thermals were a rather obscure modern punk band that I had never heard of before, and the more I learned about them and their music, the more I liked them. They were the perfect kind of band for my Music in Review blog, they are a really good band that pretty much no one knows much of anything about, now let me tell you more. So, five years after the end of the world post I it made sense to write a review for “Here’s Your Future”

https://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-thermals-heres-your-future.html

I always assumed I would end up writing about “Everyday is Like Sunday” eventually, and apparently the time has come. There were a lot of reasons why I dragged my feet, firstly because I am not really a big fan of Morrissey, not before I discovered “Everyday is Like Sunday” or after. I do not have anything negative to say about his music, I just never got into it. He has good songs, many in fact, just nothing I ever learned to be very passionate about, with the sole exception being the aforementioned single song.

It is important to be honest and my knowledge regarding Morrissey is limited, and that is another reason I put off writing this review for years. In my defence, I know a little about Morrissey.

I know Morrissey has an intense feud with Robert Smith of The Cure, but I know even less about Smith then I do about Morrissey. Their hatred for each other sounds like it has reached comical levels, so the whole thing is rather entertaining.

I also know that Morrissey is weirdly popular with Mexican youth. I have read a number of Chuck Klosterman books, and in one of them he wrote a great article about the strange phenomenon that is Morrissey’s popularity in Mexico.

“It’s possible this whole ‘Why do Latinos love Morrissey?’ question will haunt us forever.” – Chuck Klosterman, IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas

Knowing this, I got the Michael Pena’s Morrissey joke in the Marvel movie “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” so I got that going for me.

I know a few of Morrissey’s more famous songs, and but that is about the limits of my knowledge of Morrissey.

So why now? What made me stop pausing on all the trivial reasons not to tell the internet that “Everyday is Like Sunday,” and if you have not already heard it, go listen to it, you should like it; so why now?

The Tea Party did a cover, that is why.

The Tea Party Cover:

I love the Tea Party, I have seen them live eleven times, far more then any other band, I follow them on Facebook, I pay attention to what they are doing. Recently, The Tea Party have decided to record a pair of cover songs during this COVID19 quarantine. First, they released a Joy Division cover of “Isolation” and then Morrissey “Everyday is Like Sunday.” There is an obvious theme here, and I do not mind swimming with this current. Now might be as good a time as any to discuss “Everyday is Like Sunday.” These troubling times create an appropriate theme which harkens back to songs about the end of the world.

If you have not heard Morrissey’s “Everyday is Like Sunday” the first thing you should note is the somber sound. This is a sad but also mellow song. Everything is subdued, a perfect level of energy and emotion is used both in the instruments and Morrissey’s voice. Morrissey clearly knew how best to express a specific invocation here, a dismal quiet sadness.

The story within “Everyday is Like Sunday” is as follows. The world is over, and the only survivors are a town, so small and out of the way, that they were overlooked when the bombs started falling, and thus humanity survives by chance. The survivors have no reason to credit their survival to any virtue or ability, insignificance and random chance is all that separates them from the rest of the world of ruin. Luck is rather to brag about, and insignificance even less so. Now they live in a world cold and grey. Nothing ever happens anymore, everyone just limps on, and every day feels the same. A boring mundane and largely pointless existence are the sad remains which humanity now clutches to. The great violence has already passed, the horror that remains is the suffering of living on without purpose or greater hope.

There is a lot to take in, think about, and dissect, surely this is why the song grew on me so greatly. I like all the subject matter within “Everyday is Like Sunday.” What is there to do when there is nothing left but to keep on living, and having to live with the knowledge of having lost so much, and not just personally but globally, and if we have any pride in our species how would we feel after witness it’s great suicidal genocide? Badly of course, but how badly? Morrissey have given us a pretty good idea how depressing it must feel.

Those last three paragraphs I could have written at anytime, but as you can see as strong as a recommendation as I can give “Everyday is Like Sunday” I never had much to say other then how great it was until this moment. When I heard Jeff Martin singing this it felt like a natural cover, The Tea Party explore somber sounds and songs often and it was a good cover, but like most covers, even very good ones, the original is almost always better. I have to assume the original is, and will continue to be significantly more well known then the Tea Party cover, so for those reading this is beforehand knowledge of Morrissey, give The Tea Party a listen, their cover is good but their original songs are even better.

“Everyday is Like Sunday” is a great sad song, and appropriate listening at all times, but especially right now, with probably an unhealthy number of us thinking about the end times.

- King of Braves

2 comments:

  1. Love these reviews. Do you have a contact email?

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    1. Not one I am comfortable sharing in the comment section.

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