'Morrissey' is possibly the most boring autobiography I have listened to yet. That doesn't mean it's unlistenable; it's just that all the others were better, even the Keith Richards one, who took some strange turns.
I am not halfway through it, yet we are already in the year 1991, and 'The Smiths' broke up four years before this date. I wanted more 'Smiths' nostalgia, and I can see I will not get much more.
Whole chapters are devoted to Morrissey's love of specific poets such as Oscar Wilde. I ended up skipping parts of the narrative…, such was the tedium of this content.
Source
While his solo work was decent, especially just after the break-up I no longer follow him... and despite him being just a handful of years older than me, I feel his recollections of schooldays and the teachers only being present to torment the pupils are greatly exaggerated.
I had a shit school life at a secondary modern, having failed the 11-plus just like he did. The teachers were more bored and disinterested than beating on the boys every day, and but there was a small percentage of teacher perverts and paedophiles present.
I just was not aware of it then, due to my young nativity.
Years later, I can see it plainly. Morrissey could have gone to the worst school in Manchester, just like I did in Rossendale, minus the canings and personal exploitation.
Morrissey – You’re the One for Me, Fatty (In Arsenal - 1992)
I still laugh at this title even now. How audacious can one get, only Morrissey can make up such a line and manage to get away with it. This was 1992, but in today's world, I could not see that happening.
It makes, ‘Some Girls are Bigger than Others'… look comparatively tame.
I must not have reached the part in his autobiography where Morrissey states that 'Fatty' was supposedly not told what the music or song content was about before agreeing to the part in the video.
She lies on her back accepting more food from some bloke feeding her what looks like cookies.
Morag Siller, the Scottish actress sadly died in 2016 at just 46 years of age, and has her own Wiki page.
The part in Morrissey’s video is mentioned in the reference, but how did she react to the news about her part?
I have yet to find anything on the internet but there is a synopsis detailed here. As far as the song goes, it’s quite shit in my opinion besides the title which is repeated quite often. I am not a fan of Buddy Holly, ‘oh-oh’s’; all a little clichéd for me.
Morrissey – Suedehead (Viva Hate - 1988)
Released just after The Smiths break-up, I find this song very formulaic of Morrissey’s old band, down to the jangly guitar which sounds remarkably like that of Johnny Marr.
The song co-lists Stephen Street, the legendary producer as a co-writer, presumably of the music as Morrissey is a lyricist, and ‘Vini Reily’ as the guitar man, who resembles today’s Johnny Marr depicted in the image on Wikipedia.
Today, he looks like an old man and suffered a stroke a few years ago.
In his autobiography, Morrissey constantly criticizes the Rough Trade label which could not make 'Smiths' singles fast enough to propel them into the Music Top Ten, which resulted in their music going up and down in the charts like a yo-yo every week.
In fact his book is one huge moan at the world and all the wrongs he has been given. What we get out of this is creative negative work with a pile of black humour such as that’s never been heard before.
You can never say this Morrissey is a plagiarist, there’s nobody quite like him and Suedehead stems back to the songs of ‘The Smiths, and gave him that decent chart position he longed for. Rough Trade, of course, was out of the window by then.
The Smiths – How Soon is Now (Hatful of Hollow - 1984)
That repeating guitar riff its haunting mournful sound, is that what makes this slightly overlong song clocking in at almost 6 minutes. This B-Side that became popular as DJs started listening to and playing it on underground stations eventually did become a single reaching a pitiful number 24 in the UK charts.
Yet, it's so iconic, so 1980s, and so bleak with the video showing many glimpses of black factories with black plumes of smoke emanating from their tops.
Still, I listen to this classic that contains Morrissey's ridiculous lyrics such as, 'I am the son an heir, of nothing in particular'. If it’s different, then it generally rocks my boat.
There was not a lot to say about 'How Soon is Now' in Morrissey's book. Maybe that's because it was down to the genius of Johnny and not Stephen.
Guitar Image - Source
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I dont mind The Smiths but man alive I hate Morrissey. Even more now he has turned into a mad rabid far righter!
LOL Boomy, I am not such a great fan either, but am running short of 'free' autobiographies to listen too. Johnny's would have been much more interesting, if I could only get it 😀
I do like the free ones. Thats like me and books for the kindle ;O)
I have a few bio books that I can share.. but they are not audio (epubs). If you'd be intrested I can drop a list.
Tis very kind of you but I have quite the stack of epubs myself!
😂 👍👍👍
You know, I really like the Smiths, but I never really took the time to dig into his solo work. I had a Johnny Marr album with his new band, but it's like after they were done I stopped caring. They weren't quite as big over here I don't think.
Neither did I besides Viva Hate and I mean the singles from it. Suddenly he was in the charts and bigger than ever. I listened to a live rendition of 'The Charming Man' yesterday and it lacked all the Johnny goodness.. very bland.
I still might have to give him a listen just to see.
The Smiths did some great tracks and some crap, If it weren't for Morrisey's vocals they would be pretty ordinary, bit like soft cell, and Marc Almond's vocal expertise
At the time (1984) I would have taken Marc, but things change over the years. You never cease to surprise me, I figured you more for a Dr Hook man 😃
Well if Sylvia ain't available I hear her mum is a bit of MILF, that'll do
I got into The Smiths a while after they broke up, but of course I knew them before. I've got a friend who is a massive fan and he saw Morrissey lots of times. He's given up on him since he became such a grumpy old nasty man. I saw him support Bowie early in his solo career. He didn't last long on that tour as the Bowie fans didn't love him enough.
How Soon Is Now is a great song with a unique sound. I don't think the remaining guys will get back together, but I bet they get offered a lot of money to do so.
I hear he preaches his ideals before singing, not a great idea. People come for the show, not his principles.
How was that, I know he did a duo with Bowie, a T-Rex song, they seem to like each other.
Perhaps with Marr, according to Morrissey there was no great falling out, but there was with Andy Rourke over unpaid royalties. That's going to come up soon, and probably lots of moaning with it (in the book).
When I saw him I only knew one or two songs and he wasn't doing any Smiths stuff. I don't think I was that impressed, but it's a long time ago.
The Smiths are a great band in my opinion, but Morrisey can jog on, he's a bit of a dose these days, but the Smiths get the nod from me, good well crafted music.
They are cult now, and not what I remember at time. 'Weird' would have been my take then, I was Mr Mainstream then!
Ooooh tell me more about this three-tune Tuesday. I'm new to this music community, but I'm a veteran EDM reporter for my Web2 brand. I would happily post more EDM content in the music community!
It was an incentive started by @ablaze some time ago. There's little to it other than using the TTT tag and to (try) and post on Tuesday which often don't. I tend to vote up some of the music article's I find worthy or interesting.
Thanks for the intel. Fun read about The Smiths. I'm so siloed into EDM these days it's refreshing to read about music out of my focused genre.
I never really got The Smiths or Morrissey. I'm told he's great, but it doesn't scratch my musical itch no matter what.
I was not a fan at the time of their peak, but 'got it' later on. It's the humour that gets me as well as Johnny's jangles. Not for everyone.
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