Morrissey, Autobiography: The Music

Here are all of the name-dropped songs and singles that furnish Morrissey’s Autobiography (excluding his own, of course) compiled as a playlist with all that Spotify will allow. Warning: it’s (predictably) quite brilliant…Here is the Spotify link: Morrissey: Autobiography playlist and the track listing is below. Treat yourself to my review of the Autobiography here. 

Track listing:

Millie – My Boy Lollipop

Roy Orbison – It's Over

Manfred Mann – Pretty Flamingo

New Vaudeville Band – Peek A Boo

Four Tops – Bernadette

Paul Jones – I've Been A Bad Bad Boy

Francoise Hardy – All Over The World - English Version of "Dans Le Monde Entier"

The Righteous Brothers – You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - Single Version

Jimmy Jones – Good Timin'

Tony Orlando – Bless You

Marianne Faithfull – Come And Stay With Me

Love Affair – Rainbow Valley

The Foundations – Back On My Feet Again

Small Faces – Lazy Sunday

Sandie Shaw – You've Not Changed

Lulu – I'm a Tiger

Rita Pavone – Heart

Diana Ross & The Supremes – Reflections - Single Version

Diana Ross & The Supremes – I'm Livin' In Shame - Juke Box Single Version (Stereo)

Matt Monro – We're Gonna Change The World - 2010 Digital Remaster

Shirley Bassey – Let Me Sing and I'm Happy

Paper Dolls – Something Here In My Heart

David Bowie – Starman - 2002 Digital Remaster

Buffy Sainte-Marie – Soldier Blue

Buffy Sainte-Marie – Moratorium

The Pioneers – Let Your Yeah Be Yeah

Dave And Ansel Collins – Double Barrel

Bob & Marcia – Young, Gifted And Black

Springwater – I Will Return

Hurricane Smith – Don't Let It Die

Jo Jo Gunne – Run Run Run

The Elgins – Heaven Must Have Sent You

T. Rex – Jeepster

T. Rex – Metal Guru

T. Rex – Telegram Sam

Mr Bloe – Groovin' With Mr Bloe

Blue Mink – Melting Pot

Roxy Music – Virginia Plain

New York Dolls – Jet Boy

New York Dolls – Trash

Mott The Hoople – All The Young Dudes

Faron Young – It's Four In The Morning

Melanie Safka – I Don't Eat Animals

Iggy & The Stooges – Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell - Iggy Pop Mix

Sex Pistols – Anarchy In The UK

Sparks – This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us

New York Dolls – Frankenstein

New York Dolls – Personality Crisis

Nancy Sinatra – Happy

Dionne Warwick – Loneliness Remembers What Happiness Forget

Jobriath – Morning Star Ship

Pony Club – Single

Ewan MacColl – Morrissey and the Russian Sailor

Kirsty MacColl – You Know It's You

Nancy Sinatra – Let Me Kiss You

Patti Smith Group – Because the Night

Brigitte Bardot – Bubble Gum

Herman's Hermits – East West 

David Bowie – Drive In Saturday - 1999 Digital Remaster

People: a play by Alan Bennett, National Theatre on tour, The Lowry, Salford, 15.10.13

Lady Dorothy Stacpoole (Siân Phillips), former model and socialite, is approaching her dotage and sitting on a fortune in the shape of a crumbling family home stuffed to the gills with antiques. It’s just the kind of stately pile the National Trust would love to get their hands on, and that’s just what Dorothy’s sister June, an Archdeacon, has in mind. Horrified at the prospect of people swarming about the place, Dorothy is persuaded to consider a rival offer from a mysterious wealthy sect who promise to pay over the odds and keep the house mercifully free of people. After all, ‘People spoil things...’

History is once again Alan Bennett’s theme, specifically our attempts at preserving heritage. Oddly enough, it only becomes apparent that the play is actually a farce in the second half of the production, round about the time you notice the stage is peopled with two porn actors, a camp bearded Welshman and a bishop. Nobody actually mounts the stage with a toilet brush at any point, but subtlety takes a back seat during Bennett’s medium-to-heavy roasting of The National Trust and the Church of England, whose membership ‘is virtually the same’.

Dorothy nobly resists becoming ‘a metaphor for England itself’, though the play doesn’t do much to help, variously accessorising her with British hits of the ‘60s, Henry VIII’s rosary, and a collection of chamber pots containing original deposits from the likes of Kipling and Elgar. Iris (long-time companion but actually half-sister to Dorothy, played beautifully, if quietly, by Brigit Forsyth) punctuates proceedings with some glib relief, delivering a mix of blunt truth and endearing misunderstanding.

Overall though, the too-varied plot threads and dramatic motifs, and some oddly mismatched characters, drag on the play’s momentum, but the set is a character in itself, majestic and ramshackle, there are witty one-liners aplenty, and Dorothy is a gem – sad, but not sentimental, rugged and forward-facing, even against the odds – in fact, terribly English, you might say, and certainly worth preserving.

The Lowry, until October 19th.