Morrissey saves the day

Location Literally hopping around office | Mood Major adrenalin rush coursing through veins | Date 22 May 2006
Filed in:
Author (full name): 
Franny Armstrong
Location: 
Literally hopping around office
Mood: 
Major adrenalin rush coursing through veins
Soundtrack: 
The Smiths, "If a double decker bus, crashes into us", over and over again
Ailments: 
Athlete's foot from one too many soakings
Date: 
22 May 2006
Current crisis: 
Admin person leaving
Current silver lining: 
That ole devil called love again

Been spending spare moments in buses and showers trying to think of a song for the opening Big Bang animation sequence. Starting at the beginning of the world, speeding through geological time, the formation then discovery of oil, cut to the artist recording the song, there s/he is in concert, then global satellite link up, then downloaded off internet etc etc. The point being to show all the positive stuff we've done with oil. Of course it's a little tricky to come up with one song to represent all of human achievement - specially cos it also needs to be quirky - and obviously I have to love it (gonna have to watch this film 200 times a year till I die or the grid collapses, taking all projectors with it, whichever comes first).

Then Lizzie was so excited after the Morrissey re-gig last night - I couldn't resist going again as it's so sweet to see someone understand The Smiths for the first time. Like when I was in the band years ago and our producer nearly dropped his guard-with-life spliff when I said I'd never heard The Beatles' White Album. He said he'd do anything to swap places and be just about to hear it for the first time. He put it on. It was alright.

Anyhow, we got out an old DVD of Moz in concert and there it was...

"If a double decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side, what a heavenly way to die. If a ten tonne truck kills the both of us, to die by your side, the pleasure the privilege is mine"

Meaning: all of humanity killed by industrialisation

And then: "There is a light that never goes out"
Meaning: there's some hope left - within ourselves
Or: we really shouldn't leave electrical appliances on standby

And it's my favourite chorus of all time. My brother played it endlessly on a British family seaside holiday in 1985 or so and I epiphanised that pop songs could express what no other art form can ever hope to (as did every other teenager in Britain that summer).

And double decker bus is so wonderfully English.

Now I'm wondering if I can persuade Morrissey to change a couple of words - "if a double decker bus kills ALL of us" - and play it live so we can record it for Crude.

Stop. Focus. Deep breath.
And back to the real world.

Sent a gabbling email to The Boy, who wrote back that we should reprise the song in the end credits so, even after the apocalypse, there's still a light that never goes out. (i.e. the human spirit lives on, la di da). He's so right, he's so perfect. Sigh.

Told JB too. He reckons it'll be no problem for him to get in touch with Morrissey and ask if he'll let us use it. (Sounds farfetched to me, but then JB has persuaded a million pop stars to give music for his other films, so fingers crossed). Hey Morrissey, we're doing a film about the end of the world and we're opening with a sequence representing all of human achievement since the beginning of time, and we want one song to embody that, and we reckon yours is it.

How can he say no?