Lighten Up, Morrissey

Album: Exotic Creatures of the Deep (2008)
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Songfacts®:

  • Sparks were so adored by Smiths vocalist Morrissey in his younger days that he allegedly used to steal bits of the bread rolls they had for breakfast. The Mael brothers returned the favor with this song. Russell Mael told Q magazine: "The song is about a guy telling himself that if Morrissey would lighten up he would maybe stand a better chance with this girl (who was obsessed with him). We wanted to head any possible misunderstanding off at the pass and we got Morrissey a copy of it early on. He loved it and was apparently playing it before some of his shows."
  • In a Songfacts interview with Sparks, Russell Mael talked about Morrissey's reaction to this song. "He didn't promise to lighten up, but he really liked the song a lot. We were happy that he liked it."

    Russell added: "It wasn't meant to be a derogatory thing towards him. It was observational. We did hear from him, and he liked it so much, in fact, we did a video for that song and he used the video to precede some of the shows that he did. He used it as one of the projections before he goes on. He has a sense of humor enough to like the spirit of that song. He likes Sparks so much that he can bypass that."

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