prue4ever
Can't Stop Feeling
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The Moz/Smiths Top 100, Part 189: THE OPERATION
- Thread starter Houdini
- Start date
Augustus
Junior Member
You know I quite like that and it's not a direct piss take as the audience are obviously amused by the lyric as well as the rendition. Interesting too for the fact that the audience is far in excess of the age group one would have associated with Morrissey or the Smiths but plainly know of them, and the song.
Augustus
Junior Member
This is the show from whence it came, known (thankfully) as ISIHAC, which has been running on the BBC since the early ice age and is a perennial favourite on UK radio. Can be very patchy but is often excellent.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/clue.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/clue.shtml
A 7 is a high score in my mind. Unlike most, I use the full 10 point range to vote.
Comtesse
Starved Of Mirth
Well, I do too, but I faithfully follow Houdini's guide - and a 7 is "Good". If I loved a song, it would have to rate higher than "good". But yeah, whatever, rate it however you like... I'm happy you only gave it a 7.
I think that you and I almost always vote exactly the same way, or at most, 1 point apart.
celibate
Forever Ill
an 8
the one and only Symphony, like all of Southpaw Grammar it took
me years to apreciate the album, but this song is a league of it's own
it's so not morrissey like, minor part is that the song is too long, thedrum
intro would suit if it was only half a minute
It's a typical autumn/winter song for me, cannot explain it, just a feeling
final line, its still growing on me, one of the best of Southpaw Grammar
the one and only Symphony, like all of Southpaw Grammar it took
me years to apreciate the album, but this song is a league of it's own
it's so not morrissey like, minor part is that the song is too long, thedrum
intro would suit if it was only half a minute
It's a typical autumn/winter song for me, cannot explain it, just a feeling
final line, its still growing on me, one of the best of Southpaw Grammar
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King Leer
Leering since '97
A lot of fans obviously don't like the drum solo, but I've always thought it was a bold way to start the song (or any rock song). I also think it builds the tension until the guitars and melody kick in. Love it.
Now, what's the "operation" in question? Metaphors aside, I've always thought it was something penis-related.
Now, what's the "operation" in question? Metaphors aside, I've always thought it was something penis-related.
Well I Wonder
Now, Today, Tomorrow.....
7/10. I like it once it actually gets going!
D
Dave
Guest
Comtesse
Starved Of Mirth
I always assumed it was plastic surgery. ("Ever since you don't look the same you're just not the same.") You know, it's that Ashlee Syndrome: suddenly, you think that you're attractive, so you start behaving like you're hot shite. And you annoy everyone who knew you "before".
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D
Dave
Guest
I never thought it was a real operation. It's someone that has changed and/or his opinion of them has changed. "What the hell have they stuck into you?" is "the operation".
I read somewhere that it's about a tranny operation, but that doesn't really fit.
King Leer
Leering since '97
Although Morrissey is a poet, I think a lot of times people look for deeper, metaphorical content when a lot of it is just the story of his life, albeit poetically conveyed. Not that he's the last word, but Spencer said as much in an old interview with morrisseytour.com
After the "honeymoon" period of Vauxhall, I've always taken Southpaw Grammar to be about Morrissey's relationship with Jake ending, especially on songs such as The Operation and Best Friend... Fighting and caressing, if you believe Morrissey's relationship with ex-boxer Jake wasn't platonic.
If we take the operation to mean actual surgery, what kind of procedure would boost an ego like that? Facial cosmetic surgery? Maybe, but that wouldn't entail something being "stuck in". The only thing I could think of was...penile implant.
After the "honeymoon" period of Vauxhall, I've always taken Southpaw Grammar to be about Morrissey's relationship with Jake ending, especially on songs such as The Operation and Best Friend... Fighting and caressing, if you believe Morrissey's relationship with ex-boxer Jake wasn't platonic.
If we take the operation to mean actual surgery, what kind of procedure would boost an ego like that? Facial cosmetic surgery? Maybe, but that wouldn't entail something being "stuck in". The only thing I could think of was...penile implant.
King Leer
Leering since '97
Although Morrissey is a poet, I think a lot of times people look for deeper, metaphorical content when a lot of it is just the story of his life, albeit poetically conveyed. Not that he's the last word, but Spencer said as much in an old interview with morrisseytour.com
After the "honeymoon" period of Vauxhall, I've always taken Southpaw Grammar to be about Morrissey's relationship with Jake ending, especially on songs such as The Operation and Best Friend... Fighting and caressing, if you believe Morrissey's relationship with ex-boxer Jake wasn't platonic.
If we take the operation to mean actual surgery, what kind of procedure would boost an ego like that? Facial cosmetic surgery? Maybe, but that wouldn't entail something being "stuck in". The only thing I could think of was...penile implant.
Oh, and The Boy Racer "thinks he's got the whole world in his hands / stood at the urinal"
After the "honeymoon" period of Vauxhall, I've always taken Southpaw Grammar to be about Morrissey's relationship with Jake ending, especially on songs such as The Operation and Best Friend... Fighting and caressing, if you believe Morrissey's relationship with ex-boxer Jake wasn't platonic.
If we take the operation to mean actual surgery, what kind of procedure would boost an ego like that? Facial cosmetic surgery? Maybe, but that wouldn't entail something being "stuck in". The only thing I could think of was...penile implant.
Oh, and The Boy Racer "thinks he's got the whole world in his hands / stood at the urinal"
Corrissey
lovable loser
Interesting points about the drum solo building tension/anticipation. I never thought about it that way….still I cannot stand that part. Fast forward to a nice jingle of a 7. I like the love (caress)/hate (fight) paradox. And I’ve used that great line before, “I’m sick to the back teeth of *so ‘n so*”
Jamie
Bluff, Ardour & Assoc.
The drum solo was used as the intro for both the Maladjusted and Oye Esteban tours (up to the latter part of February 2000, whenever On Her Majesty's Secret Service superseded it--Beacon Theatre, NY?). For those who haven't heard it, a shorter version of The Operation was played on the Southpaw tour. During the conclusion of Dagenham Dave, Spencer did a sort of truncated, three or four second drum solo bridge into the main part of the song. And the outro jam was greatly shortened.
I've always thought the main part of the tune would have been a great, lost single. There's a great energy and sadness in the main riff and overall feel. In an imaginary world, I would create a single mix by fading in the drum solo gradually at about 2:05 or 2:10 with the volume reaching its peak at 2:19 when the snare pattern leads into the main part of the song. Not sure what to do with the outro! But I love Alain's shouts into his guitar pick-up, here and on the rest of the album--a nice, unique trick. It's otherwordly--almost like primal scream therapy.
If I recall, there's been speculation about Jake being a drug user/addict (see also: Sunny, "with your jean belt wrapped around your arm," etc.). I always saw the lyrics as referencing this. I saw "The Operation" as a metaphor for the wholesale change in personality--"you're just not the same." Interesting, too, how Morrissey sounds markedly upset in his delivery. I figure any time he is reduced to profanity ("what the hell have they stuck into you"), his frustation has exceeded his utility with the written word. That it occurs in the same song with one of his best enigmatic lines ("you fight with your right hand and caress with your left hand") creates a unique emotional tension rarely seen in his other songs.
I would put this in the same category as Best Friend on the Payroll: a song he HAD to song, whatever its merits (or lack thereof, depending on your opinion).
Cheers,
Jamie
I've always thought the main part of the tune would have been a great, lost single. There's a great energy and sadness in the main riff and overall feel. In an imaginary world, I would create a single mix by fading in the drum solo gradually at about 2:05 or 2:10 with the volume reaching its peak at 2:19 when the snare pattern leads into the main part of the song. Not sure what to do with the outro! But I love Alain's shouts into his guitar pick-up, here and on the rest of the album--a nice, unique trick. It's otherwordly--almost like primal scream therapy.
If I recall, there's been speculation about Jake being a drug user/addict (see also: Sunny, "with your jean belt wrapped around your arm," etc.). I always saw the lyrics as referencing this. I saw "The Operation" as a metaphor for the wholesale change in personality--"you're just not the same." Interesting, too, how Morrissey sounds markedly upset in his delivery. I figure any time he is reduced to profanity ("what the hell have they stuck into you"), his frustation has exceeded his utility with the written word. That it occurs in the same song with one of his best enigmatic lines ("you fight with your right hand and caress with your left hand") creates a unique emotional tension rarely seen in his other songs.
I would put this in the same category as Best Friend on the Payroll: a song he HAD to song, whatever its merits (or lack thereof, depending on your opinion).
Cheers,
Jamie
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