Morrissey - You Have Killed Me

Morrissey's eighth solo album was written and recorded in Italy, you know? If you were in any doubt, listen to 'You Have Killed Me', the first single to be taken from 'Ringleader of the Tormentors'. Within the first 20 seconds we learn "Pasolini is me / Accatone you'll be", a reference to the controversial Italian director's 1961 film debut about pimps and prostitutes living la vita violenta in the slums of Rome.

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As a subject for a straight-out-the-blocks hit single it's pretty out there and, of course, primetime Morrissey. What follows perhaps, isn't. "I entered nothing and nothing entered me / 'til you came with the key", is a bit of a do-what?! moment, both in the career of Manchester's most favoured son and pop music in general. For all of its parlaying around the perimeter, it's not often you hear direct references to sexual penetration outside of rap music.

So, gee whiz, here we are and we still haven't even gotten to the chorus. That, when it arrives, is something of a lyrical release, concentrating on the more familiar Morrissey turf laid out in the song's title, while being of a masterly once-heard-never-forgotten persuasion. If ever there were a writer who managed to "sing his life", while remaining resolutely out of reach, it is Morrissey. 'You Have Killed Me' adds new layers of both clarity and opacity to that particular glass onion.
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