“[T.S.] Eliot not only uses voices, but segues from quote to quote … Each theft explodes the mood of the stolen-from piece and enriches the base with all of it. And Shaun photograph-me-with-the-kind-of-topless-glamour-models-who-give-porn-a bad-name Ryder? He could do that. Oh, he could do that. ‘Lazyitis’ begins as a memory of maternal satire. The elegant Mrs Ryder would regularly tell her son he had lazyitis. It’s a northern thing. Adding ‘itis’ to the chosen adjective. Perfect text for a song. But Ryder starts to weave in the attachments, the enrichments.

For starters he puts his mum’s loving put-down into the form of that favourite children’s physical rhyme – you know, the one where your mum and dad tickle each toe in turn until the final little piggy goes whee whee whee all the way home. Well, the first toe has lazyitis, and you can figure out the rest …

Then, since it’s a mother and son reunion … Sly Stone’s great musings on family relationships, the story of the good brother and the ‘bad’ brother, actually opens the song …

Suddenly, you’re into a Beatles tune, and while talking about an ache that makes him ache qualifies for a coupla stars, the fact that this whole section bit is a direct melodic reference to The Beatles’ early pop period is stunning. Combining Beatles purity with some seeming syphilis or cold turkey stuff. Yoking of opposites, weird and extremely successful in literary terms …

David Essex … now the centre and end of the song were wrapped in the trite but immortal ‘We’re Going To Make You A Star’ …

Is this our W.B. Yeats, is this our T.S. Eliot? You bet your fucking life it is.” — Tony Wilson

• Happy Mondays – Lazyitis
• One-armed Boxer Remix (feat. Karl Denver)