The Harsh Truth Of The Camera Eye (unofficial video)

One of several good ideas wasted in Kill Uncle because he had to put himself in the middle of it.

Would have been much better as the follow-up to "Margaret On The Guillotine" as the fallen public figure has to shuffle off into obscurity.
 
the only album i could never get into apart from frank and leer.
 

smiler dont know if you have ever heard of Cathy Come Home which was on tv at christmas,not saw it for fifty years,this is probably the most important play for today of them all,it was all about the housing crisis in the sixties,shocking at the time but is so apt in 2025.
 
the only album i could never get into apart from frank and leer.
Always thought Kill Uncle is a 'good' album. It just came as a disappointment after the grandeur of Viva Hate. Viva is sweeping and majestic. Morrissey had the world at his feet. Then something clearly went amiss. Bona Drag was shelved and became a compilation album only, with some great songs, of course. But it was clear that Morrissey was in search of a productive relationship album-wise. Eventually came Kill Uncle. There is something small and claustrophobic about this album. It's the opposite of sweeping and majestic. It came close to killing off his career. His career was saved by Your Arsenal.
 
Always thought Kill Uncle is a 'good' album. It just came as a disappointment after the grandeur of Viva Hate. Viva is sweeping and majestic. Morrissey had the world at his feet. Then something clearly went amiss. Bona Drag was shelved and became a compilation album only, with some great songs, of course. But it was clear that Morrissey was in search of a productive relationship album-wise. Eventually came Kill Uncle. There is something small and claustrophobic about this album. It's the opposite of sweeping and majestic. It came close to killing off his career. His career was saved by Your Arsenal.

He wasn't doing too badly. Although KU got poor reviews in the UK press, he went out to his first world tour and had a huge success, broke through to lots of young Americans, and got his band broken in and ready to make the next album.

On the other hand, that was the time he made a lot of money selling merch and tickets but then discovered the American music biz has its own special ways of counting money, and that would be the start of the grudginess and resentment and paranoia and all the other joyfulness we've had to get used to. On balance I think I prefer the cocky know-nothing indie hero who went on Earsay and said he wasn't interested in touring the world if it didn't agree with him.
 
He wasn't doing too badly. Although KU got poor reviews in the UK press, he went out to his first world tour and had a huge success, broke through to lots of young Americans, and got his band broken in and ready to make the next album.

On the other hand, that was the time he made a lot of money selling merch and tickets but then discovered the American music biz has its own special ways of counting money, and that would be the start of the grudginess and resentment and paranoia and all the other joyfulness we've had to get used to. On balance I think I prefer the cocky know-nothing indie hero who went on Earsay and said he wasn't interested in touring the world if it didn't agree with him.
Oh, I don't know. I think the 'grudginess, resentment and paranoia' were always there. And, given the 'dengue' and 'physical exhaustion' cancellations, I think his not turning up when he doesn't feel like it, is just as current with him now as it was in the early days. His career management and self promotion seem to remain that of the 'amateur'. Hardly a slick professional operation.
But KU was certainly a time when Moz seemed to realise there was more to life than rainy England. Perhaps the poor reception of the album in the UK cemented that for him? It was on his next album, of course, that he was to declare - London is dead, we look to Los Angeles...
 
I think KU would have been better if the album leaned heavy into the rockabilly sound, like the version of There Is A Place in Hell at KROQ did
 
I think KU would have been better if the album leaned heavy into the rockabilly sound, like the version of There Is A Place in Hell at KROQ did

Trouble is he didn't rediscover all that until he started looking for a live band for the tour he was committed to. The rockabilly stuff was only recorded in the new 1991 sessions before the tour, the album was in the can already.

I prefer the album version of TAPIH, but would like an even bigger album that had the rockabilly sessions and "Tony The Pony" plus some more ideas from the original KU sessions, in particular the abandoned title track. And wasn't there supposed to be something called "Jodie's Not Dead"?
 
Trouble is he didn't rediscover all that until he started looking for a live band for the tour he was committed to. The rockabilly stuff was only recorded in the new 1991 sessions before the tour, the album was in the can already.

I prefer the album version of TAPIH, but would like an even bigger album that had the rockabilly sessions and "Tony The Pony" plus some more ideas from the original KU sessions, in particular the abandoned title track. And wasn't there supposed to be something called "Jodie's Not Dead"?
Ah, that is a shame. If only he had discovered that sound earlier, it would have made an amazing album. (It is a good album, don't get me wrong, but I don't often listen to it)
Wait, there was supposed to be a Kill Uncle title track?
Never heard of "Jodie's Not Dead"...
 
Ah, that is a shame. If only he had discovered that sound earlier, it would have made an amazing album. (It is a good album, don't get me wrong, but I don't often listen to it)
Wait, there was supposed to be a Kill Uncle title track?
Never heard of "Jodie's Not Dead"...
Very doubtful those are real lyrics. But the song did exist.
 
The lyrics were a troll.

‘Kill Uncle’ (Morrissey/Nevin), Morrissey’s second album owes its name to an abandoned title track inspired by a low-budget 1966 American horror comedy, Let’s Kill Uncle. The film’s plot is very similar to the basic premise of Lemony Snicket’s later A Series Of Unfortunate Events books: a young orphan who is bequeathed a fortune finds himself stranded on an island with a mad uncle who concocts various evil schemes in order to kill him and steal the inheritance. The boy and his friend, a resourceful girl the same age, must therefore ‘kill uncle before uncle kills us’.
According to Andrew PARESI, Morrissey’s lyric reversed the scenario. ‘The spine of the song was that uncle’s got money and he’s not giving it to us,’ recalls Paresi, ‘but if we kill him, then we’ll have the cash.’ Morrissey’s song had a repeated chorus hook (‘Kill un-cle! Kill un-cle!’) and even made it as far as a finished vocal take before he abandoned it. According to Paresi, the singer asked ‘the tapes to be trashed’ but kept the title for the album in any case.


The above is formed by face to face interviews with Nevin and Paresi.
FWD.
 
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