Bona Drag

At the time of it's initial release, 20 years ago, Morrissey seemed to be at the end of his career. Having not toured for four years, nor released an album for two years, and his output having reduced to a crawl of occasional singles of varying quality and occasionally even worse b-sides, "Bona Drag" - his long trailed second record - was reborn as a hasty assembled compilation of his seven solo singles and a b-side from each. And at the time, it sounded like it.With an album far from complete, and several songs being rejected or left in a dusty bedroom drawer, and no band to tour it, the stop gap compilation became, by default Moz's second solo album. In countries where singles weren't released, this meant that the second Morrissey album also contained a couple of songs from his debut.At the time, this collection was a hotchpotch of various songs, lineups, styles, and sessions that didn't quite make sense - and even more so now. Some of his finest b-sides - "Sister I'm A Poet", "I Know Very Well How I Got My Name", "Girl Least Likely To", were excluded in favour of the maudlin, and ploddingly dull "He Knows I'd Love To See Him" and "Yes, I Am Blind" (and these exceptions remain uncorrected on the reissue). As a record, "Bona Drag" is far from an unqualified success.In true Morrissey style, this reissue follows the path of previous orphans "Southpaw Grammar" and "Maladjusted" : songs are tampered with, sections added and taken away, and the package appended with a non-chronological, and baffling, selection of out-takes, demos, and appendices that sounded like an iPod playlist set to Shuffle. "Ouija Board", never Moz's finest solo work, now has a verse excised. "Piccadilly Palare" has a new one added.Of the extra tracks, most have, in some form or other, been heard before. "Oh Phoney" is a delicate acoustic strum far removed from the previously circulated full band recording. "Bed Took Fire" is a primitive "At Amber", whilst "Happy Lovers At Last United" and "Lifeguard On Duty" are Viva-Hate era extras that would be better served on a remaster of that record. To then throw in an alternate version of 1992's "Let The Right One Slip In" breaks continuity - recorded two years after "Bona Drag" was released, and more deserving for a reissue of "Your Arsenal".The gem of this crown is "Please Help The Cause Against Loneliness", which is a beautiful song previously performed by Sandie Shaw, here presenting one of Morrissey's finest vocals, lyrics, and melodies.What is perhaps more confusing is that these Morrissey reissues seem to be coming out in an utterly nonsensical manner - some albums, chosen at random, with new covers, songs shuffled around, bits missing or added, some songs even removed completely, and the bonus tracks seemingly taken completely at random from all parts of Morrissey's solo career and not the period each album represents : think if you will, if the reissue of "The Joshua Tree" had added a verse to "With Or Without You", taken the guitar solo off another song, and added a demo of "Vertigo" from several years later to get an idea of how little respect for chronology this collection has.Throw in the reworked cover with a garish font that breaks all of Morrissey's previous styles, and what you have here is another, somewhat disrespectful attempt to rewrite history with corrections, tippex, and forgetfulness. Don't forget : Han shot first. And the world was better that way. Good music, with bad intentions.

First off, can Smiths fans PLEASE STOP quoting Morrissey's lyrics from 'Paint A Vulgar Picture' every time a new CD of Smiths/Morrissey material is released- It's getting really tiresome now (not to mention unoriginal). This version of Bona Drag would have had 5 stars were it not for some curious decisions regarding the CD as a whole. On the plus side, the sound quality is SIGNIFICANTLY improved from the rather limp sounding original and there is also a completely unexpected (and most welcome) debut for the full-length version of 'Piccadilly Palare', with an extra verse cut from the original single release. (Whether the compilers intended this version to be put out or not I really don't know). But what they give with one hand they take away with the other, so 'Will Never Marry' is still the shortened version that fades out early and for some reason 'Ouija Board, Ouija Board' has also been edited down whereas the original CD had the full version. Also, the decision to crossfade a lot of the tracks into each other will frustrate a lot of fans who might want to rip the odd track here and there and I don't think it was a good idea. As for the bonus (unreleased) tracks there's no revelatory 'Morrissey Masterpiece' here but they're nice to have I suppose. I liked 'Happy Lovers At Last United' and 'Lifeguard On Duty' the most even though they don't come near to a lot of the songs already released (you can see why they were left in the can). Ultimately, this edition of 'Bona Drag' falls short of 5 stars because of the odd changes I mentioned earlier but if you are coming to Morrissey for the first time (a good enough reason for re-issuing his material you lyric-quoting Smiths fans), then it's a great place to start.

I loved the Smiths; Morrissey's solo work a little less so - but this reissue does gather together most of the early period of his work which I enjoy most, and has a fair few bonus tracks thrown in for good measure. His first seven solo singles are here in newly remastered form along with six previously officially unreleased tracks and a few others making 20 tracks in all. This twentieth anniversary edition has been newly remastered by Bill Inglot and Dan Hersch at Digiprep, which is always a top credit on any CD.Morrissey had a big hand in this expanded release - artwork and choice of tracks etc. One of the strangest things about this reissue, however, is that EMI have reactivated the old Major Minor label! This label was started in the late sixties by Philip Solomon who was one of the directors of Radio Caroline at that time. Major Minor released discs by the Dubliners and David McWilliams, amongst others, which were played to death on the station! After Radio Caroline closed down Major Minor was sold to EMI who have made this Morrissey reissue the old labels first release since 1970. How strange -perhaps the idea must have somehow appealed to Morrissey's Irish roots!Nicely presented in a gatefold replica album sleeve this reissue includes a thin illustrated booklet with a small amount of information on this release. The Product Description gives an original release date of October 1980 - which obviously should be 1990 as this is the twentieth anniversary edition! Even so, it is hard to believe it has been twenty years since this Morrissey solo album first appeared. Personally I would rate the music with four stars, but I will give this reissue a full five stars for the work involved with its release and the somewhat surreal feeling of owning my first ever CD on the Major Minor label!

Shows the brilliant work of 80's era Morrissey.

All good! Thank you nothing to dislike..

Great compilation up the Moz

ok

Big Morrissey fan. Arrived when it was meant to and very happy with the extra songs on the CD.