A Swallow On My Neck

One of my favourite Morrissey B-Sides, this song is a pop delight that would have made a fine addition to any of his albums and is unfairly exiled as a gem only the diehards will ever really appreciate.

It's certainly ambiguous, expressly omitting details with the line "and more I will not say" lending much to the reading of the song as a homoerotic ode to the mysterious Jake. Ah Jake. He was the PA/bodyguard to Moz during the Vauxhall and I era and much is assumed concerning the relationship there. Now it is nigh on impossible to discuss this work without referring to the ongoing cat and mouse games Morrissey has played regarding his sexuality. Long a question mark, always an invitation for the speculative fan, Morrisseys orientation interests me less than you might think.

I enjoy the uncertain aspect of it. It acts as a key part of the mans appeal. It serves to make his ruminations on love, romance or sex as universal in the truest sense. Not that having it exposed should prohibit someone relating to a song. My belief is that the best love songs, even those that are gender specific should have broad appeal if they express truth about the emotion they are discussing. Put simply I can relate to a PJ Harvey song just as much as Leonard Cohen song as long as the story is conveyed with real insight. I do not wish to scrutinise Morrissey in this way, except in a casual sense to offer my views on a song or lyric. There's enough talk on the Internet about this topic and I don't wish to add to the Moz slash fic genre, thank you very much.

"A Swallow on My Neck" speaks of an attraction,a relationship but we are left to piece out the specifics. There's an intimacy therein that is beguiling even if the object of the singers affection remains ever out of reach. There is ample evidence that the person sought after in the song views the protagonist as "foolish". Hell it's baldly stated but that only muddies the water since there is obviously a closeness in the tale. The decision seems to have been already made, as the singer so desperately informs us "I don't why I held out so long for me and you". Is the battle lost or is this just another chess move in the narrative? Peoples relationships are in a constant state of flux and sometimes love stories, even the unrequited ones never reach such a resolution.

The tattoo imagery is in itself an oblique device. Is it a prison tattoo, a gang sign,a metaphor? Any of these could be accurate and the fact that Jake has a swallow tat, glimpsed on the sleeve to Vauxhall seems to add fuel to that eternal flame but again are we underestimating our host here? This song also features a line which I think can be applied as a mantra for the artist, "Older and wiser never applies to me". This is a man who since his early 20s all the way to his 50th and beyond has largely been singing about the same topics and seems vaguely in the same place he always has been. Oh how far you've come but how little certain things have progressed.

The backing is a lovely slice of pop that has a real surge to it. Soaked in a haunting backing vocal it is also peppered with great detail, worlds are conjured up in the social situations described and there is a sense that there is a group of people the singer may lose should the (potentially) sordid details ever come to light. A thing of beauty buried in the vault of flip-sides this song deserves more appreciation across his body of work.