Morrissey a publié la vidéo de la chanson Once I Saw The River Clean extraite de son nouvel album, I Am Not A Dog On A Chain.

Le magistral “Once I Saw the River Clean” lorgne vers …Depeche Mode.  La chanson s’appuie sur un texte profondément personnel.

Les paroles rappellent les racines de la famille de Morrissey :“J’ai marché avec ma grand-mère / Cornbrook Street…/ Elle ne serait plus jamais / Une danseuse de Dublin, libre et jeune”.

La chanson fait aussi référence à T.Rex.

Fermez les yeux, c’est le début des années 70, juste au sud de Manchester…

Once I saw the river clean
Distant future, wait for me
I grow pleasing to the eye
And the cue will cue for me
Once I saw the river clean
Soon the clock will strike for me
Childish mind anticipates
Grown-up mind consummates

I walked with my grandmother
Down a windblown Chester Road
With her fifty-two new pence
For her twenty number-tens
And my forty-five pence too
Demand metal guru
Once with hearts securely stacked
Then we walked all the way back

I walked with my grandmother
Along the groan of Talbot Road
In the gardens by the graves
I can just about behave
Arrogant and paranoid
All around, see fathead youth
Look into their brutal eyes
But only if you want the truth

Once I saw the river clean
Scratching up the latest scheme
Time will come but it hasn’t yet
Someone’s out to get me
I walked with my grandmother
Cornbrook Street, where incomplete
She would never be again
A Dublin dancer, free and young