Roy's Keen

Morrissey's lackluster Single

Morrissey's 25th single, 'Roy's Keen' was released October 6, 1997.  It was the second single from Morrissey's Maladjusted studio album, which was released two months prior.  Not unlike the album, the 'Roy's Keen' single elicited little fanfare, reaching only number 42 on the UK Singles Charts.  As a consequence of the single's failure to reach the top 40, a lip synched performance of the song recorded for Top of the Pops on September 5, 1997 was not broadcast until nearly six years later (in February 2003).

 

The song was recorded in early 1997 at Hook End Manor along with the other material that appeared on Maladjusted.  Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the musicians on the track were Boz Boorer (guitars), Alain Whyte (guitars, backing vocals), Jonny Bridgwood (bass) and Spencer Cobrin (drums).  

The single's cover art features a photograph of two boys taken by Roger Mayne¹ on London's Southam Street in the 1950s.  

A snippet of actor Martin Sheen² saying "Go on!" is heard at the very beginning of the song.  This audio clip is from the pivotal scene in the 1968 film The Subject Was Roses. 

Specifically, the scene where Sheen (portraying Timmy Cleary) confronts his father (John Cleary, portrayed by Jack Albertson). 

Martin Sheen, Patricia Neal, and Jack Albertson in The Subject Was Roses

The title of the song is a pun on former football player Roy Keane’s³ name, which Morrissey acknowledged during live performances of the song when he changed the line "never seen a keener window-cleaner" to "never seen a keener midfielder".  Notwithstanding the title's reference to footballer Keane, the lyrics are decidedly curious (even by Morrissey's standards), apparently devoted to a randy window cleaner ("He's romancing you/And chancing his arm") named Roy.  Indeed, one discerns double entendres throughout the lyrics: 

"Back up the ladder
Into each corner
Dunking the chamois"

"He can hold a smile for as long as you require"

"Foot in a bucket
We trust you to wreck it"

It would be inaccurate to say that 'Roy's Keene’ is the first song in the annals of popular music to be written about a window-cleaner.  In fact, George Formby's⁴ comedy song 'When I'm Cleaning Windows' predates 'Roy's Keene’ by 61 years. Formby's song first appeared in the 1936 British comedy film Keep Your Seats, Please, which starred Formby.

Watch George Formby perform ‘When I’m Cleaning Windows” in Keep Your Seats, Please:

'When I'm Cleaning Windows' was a decidedly risqué song for its time (so much so that it was banned by the BBC from being played on the radio). Formby's lyrics detail the experiences of a lowly window cleaner, who spies honeymooning couples, chambermaids, a man bathing, as well as an allusion to homosexuality ("Pyjamas lyin' side by side") among other things in the course of his job.  When one considers that the song was written for a British film, it is more than likely that Morrissey chanced upon it in his youth on television.  Morrissey’s penchant for cinema, coupled with the song’s particular subject matter, suggests that Morrissey may very have been directly