Margaret On The Guillotine
| MORRISSEY song | |
|---|---|
| Name | Margaret On The Guillotine |
| Album/single | Viva Hate |
| Length | 3:42 |
| Writer/composer | Morrissey/Street |
| Producer | Stephen Street |
| Release | March 1988 |
| Recorded | Autumn-Winter 1987 |
Information
Margaret On The Guillotine is a song that appears on Morrissey's debut album, Viva Hate. It was co-written and produced by Stephen Street.
The song's title was also the proposed title of "The Queen Is Dead" as asserted by [Rhino Records]
'Produced by Morrissey and Johnny Marr in conjunction with engineer Stephen Street, who’d proven his mettle on Meat is Murder, the process of recording The Queen is Dead began with the album tentatively set to be called Margaret on the Guillotine, a title which – as fans of Viva Hate well know – Morrissey recycled a few years down the line.'
Recording
Recording for Viva Hate commenced at The Wool Hall studios in Bath, England in early October and would last until late December. Street recruited Durutti Column guitarist Vini Reilly and session drummer Andrew Paresi to back Morrissey, with Street himself taking over bass duties.
Release
Viva Hate was was released on 14 March 1988 by HMV Records and debuted at #1 on the UK charts.
Re-releases
EMI, in celebration of their 100th anniversary, released a special edition of Viva Hate in the UK in 1997. In addition to featuring brand new artwork, including a new cover shot by Eamonn McCabe, the Centenary Edition features 8 bonus tracks — only one of which was contemporaneous with the album. Surprisingly, "Hairdresser On Fire" does not appear on this version despite originally appearing on the North American version of the album as a bonus track.
On 02 April 2012, a newly remastered special edition of Viva Hate, supervised by Stephen Street, was released. Controversially, Morrissey chose to omit one of the album's original tracks, "The Ordinary Boys," and include the session demo "Treat Me Like A Human Being." In addition to the track list changes, the intro and extended fadeout of "Late Night, Maudlin Street" has been edited. The original album artwork was restored for this release, however, the typeface font on the front cover has been changed, as was the case with the 2011 Bona Drag remaster.
Lyrics
The kind people Have a wonderful dream Margaret on the guillotine
Because people like you Make me feel so tired When will you die? When will you die? When will you die? When will you die? When will you die?
And people like you Make me feel so old inside Please die...
And kind people Do not shelter this dream Make it real
Make the dream real Make the dream real Make it real Make the dream real Make it real
Live History
Play count (Morrissey concert): 0
Appears On
Related Forum Threads
- Morrissey A-Z: "Margaret on the Guillotine" - Morrissey-solo (Jun 06, 2021)