Where did this part of your question come from? I cannot say I've ever heard that Southpaw was more or less "British" than anyother Morrissey album. In fact, just reading the Observer article on Sunday, there would seem to be far more "British" references in the music of the Smiths than Morrissey's solo work.
-Vaux
From It May All End Tomorrow:
The title Southpaw Grammar is, as Morrissey says, referring to "the school of hard knocks" (southpaw being boxing slang for a left-hander). Note also that "left-handed" can also mean "homosexual".
Roger has this to say concerning the lyrics :
I don't think that it's lyrically disappointing at all. The problem with SG is that most people don't have a clue what Morrissey is singing about.
SG is very English.. The "I love Sharon on the windowscreen" for instance is often dismissed as silly lyrics, but when one knows what this line is actually about, it makes sense! The whole reason behind "Nobody Loves Us" being a b-side for "Dagenham Dave" speaks so much as well, IF you knew what he was talking about...
Also, people who critiscize SG's lyrics are generally American. No offence here, but I believe that English people (and us colonialists) actually understand what this album is about. I speak generally of course... I'm sure that there are Americans who do undertsand it, and English people who don't
Morrissey is very English, and he always has been.. from singing about the Moors murders, and the Thatcher woman to everything he sings about on SG. Southpaw Grammar to me is Morrissey singing about something he *wanted* to song about, something which obviously means something to him...
I don't expect Amerinans to understand it, just as I don't understand some things Americans sing about sometimes.. But does that make it a bad album? Because we don't undertsand it, are we entitled to call it rubbish?
I think that Morrissey himself, by including so many SG songs on his various tours thereafter, is telling us that this album means something to him. Morrissey *wants* us to understand it, and what it means to him, but we're failing him. Well some of us are anyway.. We demand what *we* want to hear, which I believe is wrong. Morrissey is an artist, and sometimes artists want to paint a picture for themselves.. Sometime artists paint something which they know will not be what their fans are expecting, but they need to paint it anyway... Fans dont' have to like things like this, but there's no need to rubbish it either
As a Morrissey fan, I listen to what he creates and I try to understand why he's done that. I don't always agree with or like what he does (eg. that Lawyer/Liar song) but I at least realise why he did it.
Southpaw Grammar is Morrissey's story of working class England. It's where he came from, and he obviously felt some need to sing about it. I'm sorry that so many people can't understand what he's singing about, but just maybe we should open our ears a bit and try to think, instead of just demanding what *we* want to hear about...