Morrissey

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Jonnie Falafel
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Morrissey

Post by Jonnie Falafel »

I wondered if anyone else else on here rated the very wonderful Morrissey in terms of lyrics/cultural significance etc...
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Sophistikitten
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Post by Sophistikitten »

Ooh, I'm a fan of Morrissey! I think his song lyrics can be rather clever. Do you have a favourite song, Jonnie F?
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Teratogen
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Post by Teratogen »

:D
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Jonnie Falafel
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Post by Jonnie Falafel »

Favourite Morrissey song of the moment is I Have Forgiven Jesus
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Sophistikitten
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Post by Sophistikitten »

Ah nice! Sadly, I left a lot of my music back home when I moved across country...so I have no Morrissey here. However, I keep singing "Hairdresser on Fire"! There is something really natural and lonely when he sings, "Can you squeeze me into an empty page of your diary".
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Teratogen
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Post by Teratogen »

ah, jonnie, so i see you are a fan of the new album? quite different, don't you think? i heard that for every single he has released and will later release he has 3 b-sides on them as well. if that's so, he could easily put out another album of just those b-sides! i own NOTHING of morrissey, but i have a friend who loves him as much as he thinks he's a jerk, so i get to hear a lot of his music. hahaha. :D
smccallon
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Post by smccallon »

morrissey fucking sucks...

(how's that for a response!?)

actually, he is quite good but vastly overrated currently, while his greatest song "roy's keen" is all but forgotten.

(if you take me seriously right now, you rule, and you probably were because text alone proves little... just ask those pesky old deconstructionists... i am joking.)

good day and morrissey humping a rock (november spawned a monster, music video)
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Jonnie Falafel
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Post by Jonnie Falafel »

I also love the the desperation in Ouja Board, Ouja Board:

"Ouja Board, could you work for me,
I have got to get through to an old friend.....
Ouja Board Ouja Board, could you work for me,
'Cause I still do feel so horribly lonely"

And Morrissey despite his fascination with faded sixties female icons is an avid Cohen fan. I know 'cause he told me!
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Teratogen
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Post by Teratogen »

AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! yeah... november spawned a rock-humper. hahahaha. :lol: :lol: :lol:


one of my favorites:

Unhappy Birthday

i've come to wish you an unhappy birthday
i've come to wish you an unhappy birthday
because you're evil
and you lie
and if you should die
i may feel slightly sad
(but i won't cry)

love and lost
and some may say
when usually it's nothing
surely you're happy
it should be this way?
i say, "no, i'm gonna kill my dog"
and: "may the lines sag heavy
and deep tonight XXX"

i've come to wish you an unhappy birthday
i've come to wish you an unhappy birthday
because you're evil
and you lie
and if you should die
i may feel slightly sad
(but i won't cry)

love and lost
some people say
when usually its nothing
surely you're happy
it should be this way?
i said, "no"
and then i shot myself
so, drink, drink, drink
and be ill tonight
from the one you left behind
from the one you left behind
from the one you left behind
from the one you left behind
XXXXXXXXX
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Dylan
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Post by Dylan »

Morrissey is one of those people I wish I could like.

Well actually I do like him a lot. I think he has great personality, stands by his ideas and beliefs has a fantastic stage presence and writes beautiful lyrics. But I can't ever seem to get into his music or singing voice. I have tried and tried.

I love Nancy Sinatra's version of "Let Me Kiss You".
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Teratogen
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Post by Teratogen »

that's because he looks like this :roll: , sounds like this :cry: , but is really just like this :oops: , and on the inside he looks like this :twisted: . HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
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Sophistikitten
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Post by Sophistikitten »

I like the description Teratogen! It's true! Hahaha.
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Teratogen
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Post by Teratogen »

and when i listen to morrissey i do this :lol: and then do this :roll: because that's all anyone can do really. hahaha. thank you, sophistikitten.
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Jim Williams
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The retrograde Mr Morrissey

Post by Jim Williams »

I was (and still am) a huge fan of The Smiths; indeed, I think they're easily one of the finest bands of all time. But I'm no fan of the 'comeback Morrissey'. One of my favourite journalists, Neil Davenport, sums it up for me:

That joke isn't funny anymore: how the eternal misfit Morrissey became a man of our times

by Neil Davenport

Morrissey, in case you hadn't noticed, is back. His first album in seven years, You Are The Quarry, has been accompanied by the kind of publicity that would make David Beckham envious.

He has been fawned over in the broadsheets and music monthlies, interviewed on Jonathan Ross' Friday night chat show on BBC 1, and is curator of this year's Meltdown Festival at London's prestigious South Bank. Five years ago it was a very different story. No record company would touch Morrissey, and accusations of racism still lingered uneasily. Today, public goodwill for Morrissey hasn't been this high since the heyday of The Smiths some 20 years ago. So what's the appeal of Morrissey, and is he still relevant?

The Smiths were undoubtedly one of the best pop bands of the 1980s. Guitarist Johnny Marr's dazzling ability and agile melodies alone would make any band appealing. But it was Morrissey's persona that made the group stand out. Aside from being a masterful lyricist (as much high mirth as low miserablism), Morrissey was a pop stylist of striking originality. Everything from his clothing accessories and interviews to The Smiths' album sleeves seemed like statements of bold artistic intent.

Above all, Morrissey championed the idea of bookish intelligence even when he said dumb things himself. You didn't necessarily agree with his advocacy of celibacy, but you did admire a pop star more fascinated with provocative ideas than just music.

In the 1980s Morrissey certainly was provocative. His lyrics probed such matters as child murderers, hanging Radio One djs and the Queen, and even advocated shoplifting - not normally the stuff of pop music. But for many teenagers, Morrissey's main appeal was that he articulated the melodramatic woes of adolescence. He connected with thousands of young people who fancied themselves as 'misunderstood' and 'outsiders'. During the 1980s this was perhaps understandable. A substantial section of society was indeed looked upon as outsiders, or 'the enemy within', by the powers-that-be. Morrissey's alienated worldview seemed to make sense for those who didn't fit in with Thatcher's Britain.

But where Morrissey's dejected persona once railed against the mainstream, today his adolescent poses are the mainstream - not just with huge selling pop acts like Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morrissette and Radiohead, but in the more serious arena of public life.

After the death of Princess Diana in 1997, UK prime minister Tony Blair seemed to cultivate an air of Morrissey-style vulnerability and emotionalism that now embody New Britain's values. Blair's personal interest in anti-bullying campaigns echoed the concerns of Smiths songs such as 'The Headmaster Ritual' and 'Rusholme Ruffians'. Indeed, the pervasiveness of counselling today treats grown-ups as if they are 16-year-old Smiths fans.

Elsewhere, Morrissey's misanthropic leanings find greater resonance in contemporary society; so too does his fear of intimacy and his childish sentimentality towards animals. Clearly, Morrissey is a man of the times.

But it's precisely because he has become so 'relevant' and so fully connected to the mainstream that he has also become so tame, bland and uninteresting. Morrissey returned as a 45-year-old to say exactly the same things he said in his twenties. Surely the best pop stars acts as agent provocateurs, saying the unsayable and challenging society's deep-seated conventions? That's harder to do so when your once-distinct outlook has become so conventional.

If Morrissey is so deeply boring and predictable, why are so many thirtysomething journalists wetting themselves at his return? It can't be because his new album, with its over-strained anthems and dated wrappings, is any good. Rather, Morrissey represents a time when pop music was seen as merely a gateway to more demanding cultures. In the 1980s, pop musicians' reading preferences and their political views were seen by many as being more important than their music. By proxy pop culture could pass itself off as artful and meaningful, too.

In a culture dominated by Pop Idol, Travis and Keane, it's impossible for music journalists to smear on a veneer of gravitas. Lionising Morrissey is a forlorn bid to remind us that pop culture was once edgy and interesting. Unfortunately this time, they've chosen the wrong saviour.

Neil Davenport is a freelance writer and social science lecturer at Barnet College in Hertfordshire, England
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Dylan
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Post by Dylan »

Since I posted my last response here, I went out and bought a couple of Morrissey's earlier solo albums, and I have to say I like them a lot. Much more than I was expecting to. My favourite song is Every Day Is Like Sunday.
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