Released March 22, 1988 Genre Rock Label HMV | Recorded Winter 1987 Length 7:40 | |
"Late Night, Maudlin Street" is a song performed by Morrissey on his album Viva Hate.
At 7:40, the track is by far the longest on Viva Hate and one of the longest songs in Morrissey's discography. As with many of the other tracks on the album, "Late Night, Maudlin Street" is set in the 1970s (1972 to be precise) and combines some of Morrissey's most self-pitying lyrics with some of his most humorous. The music is based on the work of Joni Mitchell.
The scene is set in 1972, where amid a background of power cuts and house moves the narrator faces a private battle against ugliness, pill-taking, family deaths and fantasy love. Paradoxically, the greatest moments of nostalgia are reserved for a place where the narrator failed to experience a single happy hour.
The title is an amalgamation of a book of short stories by Bill Naughton called Late Night on Watling Street and the name of the school in Carry On Teacher, "Maudlin Street Secondary".
The song was performed live by Morrissey on his 2002 tour.