Redondo Beach

Morrissey Covers Patti Smith

Cover of the ‘Redondo Beach / There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ single

Released March 28, 2005 in Europe (April 5, 2005 in the US), Morrissey’s cover of ‘Redondo Beach’ is his 31st single and consists of a double A-side, being shared with ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’. It was the only single from Morrissey’s Live at Earls Court¹ album.

Back cover of the single

Along with ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’, ‘Redondo Beach’ was recorded live at Earls Court in London on December 18, 2004. The single peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart.² Listen to ‘Redondo Beach’ here:

Morrissey recorded the song at Maida Vale Studios on December 9, 2004 for Janice Long’s BBC Radio 1 Program, which was broadcast on the 17th of December. The musicians on this performance were Boz Boorer (guitars), Jesse Tobias (guitars), Gary Day (bass), Dean Butterworth (drums) and Michael Farrell (keyboards).

Listen to the Janice Long radio session of ‘Redondo Beach’ here:

The single’s cover art features a photograph of a ruminating Morrissey sitting on his haunches at Hollywood Forever cemetery³ with an autographed teardrop shaped guitar, which is credited to Johnny Thunders of New York Dolls fame via “the Morrissey archive.” The instrument is a Vox Teardrop BJ Model guitar.

Despite being credited to Johnny Thunders, the guitar is autographed by fellow Dolls guitarist and pianist Sylvain Sylvain. Also written on the guitar is ‘New York Dolls’ as well as ‘Trash 1973’ (the latter being the name of the Dolls’ 1973 single).

See Johnny Thunders playing the teardrop guitar in a New York Dolls performance of ‘Looking for a Kiss’ in 1973:

Morrissey has only performed ‘Redondo Beach’ seven times in concert, with each performance on the final dates of his You Are The Quarry tour in November - December 2004. In light of the paucity of live performances of the song, it is curious that he chose to issue it as a single, regardless of it being on a shared A-side.

‘Redondo Beach’ was originally released by Patti Smith in November 1975 as the second track⁴ on her debut album, Horses. Smith's version of the song was set to a reggae musical arrangement, which Morrissey copied with noted fidelity notwithstanding saying back in 1985 that he thought reggae music to be “vile”⁵.

The cover of Smith’s debut 1975 album, Horses.

The lyrics of ‘Redondo Beach’ involve the suicide by drowning of a young woman