"The Ordinary Boys" | |||||||
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Song by Morrissey from the album Viva Hate | |||||||
Released | March 22, 1988 | ||||||
Recorded | Winter 1987 | ||||||
Genre | Rock | ||||||
Length | 3:55 | ||||||
Label | HMV | ||||||
Writer | Morrissey/Street | ||||||
Producer | Stephen Street | ||||||
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"The Ordinary Boys" is a song performed by Morrissey on his album Viva Hate. It was written by Morrissey and his producer Stephen Street.
In this song Morrissey sings of his own inability as a child and teenager to escape what he felt was the stifling ordinariness of Manchester life and looks at those vacuous boys and heartless "supermarket clones/who think it's very clever to be cruel to you" who are able to find happiness despite their "ordinary" lives.
The idea of being isolated and trying not to be dragged down by the mediocrity around you is used along with almost a jealous feeling of the "ordinary" boys and girls, especially in the line "With their lives laid out before them they are lucky".
The title of the song was later adopted by the band The Ordinary Boys, the singer of which also decided to only go by his surname, Preston.