Customer Reviews

Standing Eight

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This is the first Bill Morrisey CD I ever heard and all I had to do was hear it once and I was hooked. In fact, after discovering this artist I quickly ordered several of his other CDs. However, this one is far away my favorite. That's because Standing Eight is Morrisey's most consistent in its quality and diversity of song writing. His others have some highlights but overall can not compare.

Anyone new to Bill Morrisey will first be captivated by his gravel-like voice which after getting used to becomes surprisingly familiar and soothing. Just listen to "Handsome Molly" or " Girls of Sante Fe" to see what I mean. Next you'll be mesmerized by his well-crafted songs which always seem quite personal. Good examples of these are "Last Day of the Last Furlough" and "She's That Kind of Mystery". Finally, you'll get a kick out of his witty sense of humor, which he always seems to feature on at least a couple of songs. On this CD he has written some classics like "Car and Driver" and my personal favorite "She's Your Baby Now", which is a real driving song that exemplifies what people mean when they say, "what goes around comes around".

If you are looking for something special and unusual and appreciate a real master songwriter performer when you find one, you can't go wrong with Standing Eight.

This is a record I've owned since it first came out-- I'm a long-time, big-time Bill Morrissey fan. I just read the other reviews for this disc and was surprised that only one reviewer even mentioned the best song: "Cold Fingers."

Please don't stop reading when I tell you this is a song about a guy shooting his dog. I know that sounds ugly, but in fact this song is just incredibly beautiful. The real theme of "Cold Fingers" is loss. The chorus goes "Everything slips through these cold fingers. Like trying to hold water, trying to hold sand. Close your eyes and make a wish and listen to the singer. One more round, bartender, pour a double if you can."

On those nights when I've had more Jameson's than is good for me, this is almost always the last song I play before I crash. Sometimes I play it two or three times. It's been a habit of mine for about 15 years now.

If you've ever lost anything, anything of real value to you, this song will hit you right between the eyes.

I was stunned how warm and hilarious Bill Morrissey was when I saw him in concert. His songs are so heartwrenching and haunting, I expected a shy, bruised romantic to take the stage. This album is packed with such moving songs. Like the best short stories, he creates three-dimensional characters, marries them to lovely acoustic melodies, and lets you fill in some of the gaps. I find this whole record stunning but I'm particularly blown away by "Last Day of the Last Furlough" and "Handsome Molly". I guess Bill proves--as Richard Thompson, Paul Westerberg, Freedy Johnston and others do--that the funniest guys write the best sad songs.

Definitely of the 10 albums I'd want with me on a desert island. Terrific range of emotions, from funny, silly songs like "Party at the U.N." and "Car and Driver" to gripping, moving portraits such as "These Cold Fingers" and "Last Day of the Last Furlough." Odd, engaging voice -- doesn't match his regular-guy face.

Bill was a friend for a brief time before I moved briefly from Jamaica Plain (Boston) to New Hampshire in 1988 and while I was living there for 10 months or so. It was many years since I had seen him, but I had hoped to see him again this year and then fate snatched him away from us.

Bill is the single best songwriter of my era and this is his best album. Standing Eight was written during the time I knew Bill and I always thought it was such a strange title for an album. Once I heard the songs, though, I understood. This was, as he once joked, the divorce album. He was starting a new relationship, but the loss of this one still stung.

This album is a rollercoaster ride. You are laughing at songs like "Party At The U.N.", "Up on the C.P. Line" and "Car and Driver" one moment and you are crying at "These Cold Fingers", "Last Day of the Last Furlough" and "She's That Kind of Mystery" the next moment. Then there are the songs in the emotional middle like "Summer Night", "Motels and Planes" and the quiet beauty of the opening track, "Handsome Molly" where Suzanne Vega provides perfect accompaniment.Bill's singing voice was something of an affectation-he didn't talk like he sung but on all his songs and these songs in particular, it's very effective in underlining the grit and heartache of life.

Bill had touched on autobiographical material in his first two albums,but on this one, he holds his nose and dives deeply into these waters. The three most personal are spaced out perfectly so you don't get overwhelmed (Furlough, Mystery and She's Your Baby Now). But all the others are personal, too, highlighting life's absudities and tragedies. The other thing about Standing Eight is how it musically skips along so smoothly. My biggest gripe is the live recording of "Car and Driver" at Club Passim.He should have done that in the studio. But he's right back on course with the following song "John Haber" leading into those final two heartbreakers, one angry and the other so sad.

You can find traces of Bill in the work of Lori McKenna and Mary Gauthier in each of their recent masterpieces, Bittertown and The Foundling. As a songwriter,he just gets into your DNA and you don't even realize he is there. For people new to Bill's work, this is the place you should start. Loved your work, Bill and sorry you are gone.

I saw Bill Morrissey at a small club in Austin or Dallas in the mid-to-late 90s, might have been one of the first SXSWs, back when normal humans could still get in. He was funny, and sad, and witty, and very good. I spoke to him after, just a quick "Great set", and a smile and nod from him. I bought this album from the desk at the back after the show (which, since I was a very broke grad student, was as high a compliment as I could pay), and it made it into heavy rotation in the car for a few years. Small jewels of lyrics would facet the light differently on various listenings. I'd wonder why I hadn't heard that perfect turn of phrase before. Or maybe I had changed a bit, was a bit older, and some lyric born of heartache or whiskey or humor would mean something it hadn't before. There always seemed to be something new.

Others have said it before me, but he's right up there with Carver and Harrison in small tales perfectly formed. Only set to song.

I always meant to pick up another of his albums, but back before Amazon and Google, small pressings from relatively unknown New Hampshire folk artists weren't always easy to find in Texas. I looked for a while in every record store I visited, but didn't see another and finally record stores went away, and with it, browsing through record stores, and remembering to look through the M's for that folk singer.

Out of the blue, today, "Up on the C.P. Line" started running through my head. I found it on the iPod, played it a couple of times, then looked him up on Google.

Bill Morrissey died in his sleep in a hotel room in Georgia on July 23, 2011, at age 59. Same day as Amy Winehouse. Both apparently lived hard lives. But you didn't read about Bill Morrissey in the papers.

"And these days my time it seems, is spent in motels and planes."

Wish I had done it when it would have meant something to you, Bill, but I finally ordered some of your other albums.

RIP.

Bill Morrissey manages to create believable characters and put their stories across with effortless artistry. He empathizes with them and never writes them off, however dire their emotional circumstances. On this album, he shows, particularly on songs like "Handsome Molly", his unique and powerful way with a story and a song. He's funny as hell in concert, too.