'TRASH'
Morrissey's Obscure Cover Of The New York Dolls
Morrissey’s live cover of the New York Dolls’ ‘Trash’ was released October 5, 2010 as the B-side on the reissued ‘Everyday Is Like Sunday’ single (his 40th single). The track was recorded on June 1, 1991 at the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa, California on the first North America leg of the Kill Uncle tour. Morrissey performed the song a total of 38 times in concert, all limited to the 1991 Kill Uncle tour.
Listen to Morrissey’s cover of ‘Trash’ here:
Well prior to the reissued single, another live version of ‘Trash’ - this one recorded at Dallas Starplex Amphitheatre on June 17, 1991 - was released on video (VHS and laserdisc formats) as Live In Dallas in 1992.
Written bv David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain, ‘Trash’ was originally released in July 1973 as a single off of the Dolls’ eponymous debut album.
The song starts off with its chorus, which finds the protagonist imploring the subject to not throw her "life away”:
Trash, won't pick it up, take them lights away
Trash, won't pick it up, don't take your life away
Trash, won't pick it up, don't try to take my knife away
According to music critic Robert Christgau, David Johansen purposefully used ambiguity as a lyrical mode on the song, particularly when the lyric "please don't you ask me if I love you" is followed by "if you don't know what I do", and later by "'Cause I don't know why I do". Indeed, Johansen replaced the phrase "life" in "Don't take my life away" with "knife", "night", and "lights" when singing the lyric at different times throughout the song.1
At its core, ‘Trash’ is a sort of low-rent love story expressed in a proto-punk cum glam musical style. The title itself implies a certain early 1970’s New York City gutter sordidness, leaving the listener to wonder if the singer (and maybe his love interest as well) is a junkie or a prostitute (or perhaps both).
Morrissey’s esteem for the Dolls runs so deep as to border on being visceral, as his cover of ‘Trash’ reveals as he doesn’t attempt to out-do Johansen in his rendition of the song; rather, he sings it in his own style, which in a way is the ultimate tribute he could pay to his beloved Dolls.
Autobiography provides a detailed window into the mind of a 14-year old Morrissey when he first encountered the Dolls. As Morrissey vividly recounts:
“With relief, I catch the Dolls on their now famous Old Grey Whistle Test television appearance2, and whereas both of my parents watch unimpressed, pride and joy electrify my body as the revenge motif dates every other modern pop artist in an instant. Snarl matches visual art and the Dolls are mine. I heard and saw a high-wire act of tough noise and fantastic pop lyrics, and I heard an invitation to anyone man enough to challenge them.”3
Watch the Dolls perform ‘Jet Boy’ on Old Grey Whistle Test here:
“The morning after the Whistle Test, I present 50 pence at Rumblelows in Stretford Precinct and I ask for the New York Dolls single4. ‘See,’ said one fat assistant to another, ‘I told you someone would buy it.’”5
“Trash scorches the skin. Flayed alive, the Dolls may look beautiful, but they are withering fast, and around them we see Johnny Carson, Paul Newman, Cassius Clay, Robert Redford, David Cassidy, as males within the paragraphs of the law. The Dolls endure the consequences of how they look, afflicted by existence yet not responsible.”6
Thus, a teenage lad from the north of England was smitten by this exotic, wild American band whose influence would remain deeply rooted in his psyche. As evidenced by Morrissey’s successful effort to reunite the Dolls in 2004, his love of the band never waned over the years.
Listen to the New York Dolls’ studio recording of ‘Trash’ here:
Christgau, Robert (1998). Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno. Harvard University Press. p. 197.
The show was taped on November 26, 1973, and broadcast the following day on BBC 2 Television. The New York Dolls lip-synched two songs; ‘Jet Boy’ and ‘Looking For A Kiss’.
p. 70
While the double A-side single ‘Jet Boy/Vietnamese Baby’ was released in the UK on November 23, 1973, Discogs indicates that the ‘Personality Crisis/Trash’ double single was not released in the UK (despite it being released in Spain, Scandinavia, and even far-flung New Zealand). Given this, the single Morrissey purchased the day after watching the Dolls on television would appear to have been an imported copy of the ‘Personality Crisis/Trash’ single.
p. 71
p. 72
Damn, the fact that Moz bought an imported copy of the single is pretty cool. I should try writing a song full of ambiguous lyrics. I do sometimes.