Morrissey when you least expect it

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alexv
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Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by alexv »

I don't watch football on tv much, so pardon me if this is not news to y'all, but I cannot resist noting that while watching the Jets-New England thursday night football (american football, that is) game, I was stunned to hear the music of that football-loving macho icon Morrissey featured in a commercial touting the upcoming sunday football lineup. It was a snippet of Everyday is Like Sunday sung by some commercial hack. It's yet another example of a hilariously inappropriate link between song and message. The masterminds behind the commercial must have discussed and ignored the fact that whereas they want to link Sundays with fun-filled days watching football on the tv, our man Morrissey thinks so little of your typical Sunday that he likens it to life in a dreary sea-side English town.
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I saw that the other day and had the same thought - how incredibly inappropriate!

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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Come Armageddon!
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by miss buenos aires »

Works for me.
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Will resurrect this thread by a long gone and esteemed poster as yesterday while shopping at the local Stop & Shop[and in the meat section of all things] the strains of "How Soon is Now" came over the store's speakers as they played the day's shopping soundtrack. Struck by several ironies- first that the Smiths have now become shopping muzak-second, that the notorious vegan would have a song playing whilst I was contemplating a meat purchase- thirdly, that the particular song filling the store's air space came from the aptly titled album- "Meat is Murder".

Ah the sweetness of synchronicity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8)
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by sheeptotheslaughter »

He was at the Republic of Ireland v Austria match last week. With his new found 'cousin' Robbie Keane. Drinking champagne.
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Bizarre. Well it's one way t recuperate.
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Caught this piece in Slate today and it gave me a smile and a chuckle or two:


http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/201 ... rings.html

This one also made my day:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/201 ... watch.html
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Enjoyed both. Dickens as Moz is hilarious, and nice, witty pastiche.

Talking of Moz, v tempted to catch this one at my local cinema:

http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/morr ... _in_august

Love that suit! Check out the clip of Everyday Is Like Sunday too. At the end a fan gives him a copy of:

http://www.rufuswainwright.com/Book/

Rufus digs Moz, that's clear, but does Moz dig Rufus?

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFRGfOVjN0g
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Jack of All Parades »

As I will probably never get to see him perform live that concert film is intriguing. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. The suit is beautiful- the man knows how to live the good life now- a long way from those rolled up jeans in Salford to Southern California. Cannot say if he appreciates Rufus[he would be foolish not to like him]- he seems to dislike so much and so many :wink:
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Otis- you should have some fun with this. And it seems he insisted on the book being published as a Penguin Classic- thought you had to be deceased for that honor:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/201 ... watch.html
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Jack of All Parades »

A review of the new Autobiography in today's Slate:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/book ... iewed.html
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Jack of All Parades »

The New York Times review of the new Autobiography:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/books ... y.html?hpw
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

I won't look at that till I've read it. It's amazing so far - I'm in his secondary school years. It all makes sense. It's very well written.

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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Jack of All Parades »

A useful reference tool to the new Autobiography:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/201 ... issey.html
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Brilliant, many thanks, just what I needed. He writes about loads of songs I barely know or not at all, and I was planning to follow some up, so this is perfect.

I seem to have been far too busy/tired to read anything of late, which means I'm crawling through this book, which I would have devoured in different circumstances, but it's a good one to savour slowly. Some of the writing is sublime, some is a bit wonky, but it's generally very Moz, very arch, very witty, and pretty extreme. It's hard at times to not thing of his school years 'was it really as bad as he makes out?', and of course he was a sensitive boy who felt the injustices of the world very keenly, but I do find myself reading it and nodding in agreement with everything. Worried I'll end up a vegetarian. he's often cited as 'the outsider's outsider' and the like, but here he seems entirely justified in his sense of life being sick and cruel given the conditions. Apparently some of the court-case score settling later gets pretty tedious, but that with his teachers is magnificent. For example the art teacher who mocked his blonde died streak, inspired by his love of the NY Dolls. He points out the absurdity of an art teacher taking this attitude. 'What art was she meant to be teaching me about?' Teachers who didn't care about the kids they were teaching in a world that generally made them feel they weren't needed by anyone.

Almost all of it (so far) is present tense, which works very well. No chapters. A seamless flow of one moment writing about a teacher to writing about a song he loved. The flow works very well. Sex and sexuality play a dominant role, and he's very good on the absurdities of it, e.g. things along the lines of 'vaginas were very prevalent in mid-70s Manchester, if not unavoidable, but where were the male genitalia?'

I think despite any criticisms, this book will make me appreciate Moz and the Smiths more than ever, which can only be a good thing.
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Sex and sexuality play a dominant role, and he's very good on the absurdities of it, e.g. things along the lines of 'vaginas were very prevalent in mid-70s Manchester, if not unavoidable, but where were the male genitalia?'
You know, I've been feeling like a lazy sunbather ever since I posted the above. Why live with my feeble paraphrasing when the magnificent original could be copied out after a short trip to fetch the beautiful tome, resplendent with its wonderful and ironic Penguin Classics cover and a photo of Moz I grow to love more by the day (he looks at peace, his eyes are closed, he's almost smiling, he's in reverie):
Image

Over to Steven:

"Female nudity is generally easy to find - if not actually unavoidable - but male nudity is still a glimpse of something that one is not meant to see. In mid-70s Manchester there must be obsessive love of vagina, otherwise your life dooms itself forever."

I think if that sentence doesn't do it for you, the whole book won't, but if it has you drooling in anticipation, go buy. It's all there, the archness, the droll but still maudlin tone. And a very telling example of his precision with language: note the absence of the indefinite article before 'obsessive love' or the avoidance of the more mundane plural of 'vagina', followed by the immediate wit of making 'dooms' a reflexive verb with 'your life' as agent. It's brilliant, original, witty, and he's clearly worked very hard to put it across. There are such splendours on most pages. I couldn't begin to write anything like as well as this. It's as if the genius that was distilled into The Smiths is being explained in a way that is never boringly explanatory, it's more a way of delving further into the experience. Despite 30 years of loving The Smiths, it somehow feels like things are falling into place in way they never quite had before.

One of the most striking elements is how he writes about music and poetry. Jack, old bean, you're going to love the latter. He's still 14 or so, and he moves briefly from one poet to the next, often with minimal observations, but always things that stand out. The role call in the last few pages is Hillaire Belloc, Dorothy Parker, Stevie Smith, Auden ('With a face of distressed concrete, Auden drops into view' - genius), Betjeman, Herrick, Kavanagh, Housman. He loves them all, and after the exaggeratedly horrendous experience of school, they are like an oasis in the rain-drenched deserts of 70s Manchester. All of this recalls the immortal line in Panic 'Because the music they constantly play/Says nothing to me about my life'. I think he even cites this wording himself. What he's after is something that does, and it makes you feel 'why settle for anything less?'

If you have any love for Moz, get this book. I'm increasingly finding in life that people who are Mozhaters have no appreciation for the things I hold dear in life. Unfortunately I find myself in the midst of some of them. It's not quite as appalling as people who are, say, homophobic in that we're dealing with taste and humanity here as opposed to simply having a poisoned mind, but it's only one or two rungs above.
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Thanks, Otis. It is to be published here this December by GP Putnam and I will be getting my hands on it. He and The Smiths have resonated for me from the beginning. I will be eager to soak in the more literary aspects of the book including his ruminations on those poets who impacted him- Auden, Parker and Stevie Smith are no surprises but Herrick. Houseman and Betjeman? Go figure. Poetry has always been a salve for me. Nothing attests more to that power then the story of JS Mill and the aid he found in Wordsworth after his traumatized youth at the hand of his father. Greatly looking forward to this- hope the Putnam edition keeps that Penquin cover.

Also most jealous of your National show coming up this week. Not my favorite, favorite record of the year, that goes to Mr. Isbell and his "Southeastern", but pretty damn close.
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by invisible Pole »

Morrissey announces a new album, World Peace Is None Of Your Business. :D

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2014/0 ... -business/
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by sheeptotheslaughter »

Vauxhall and I is also getting a remaster and release. Out early June. I never bought this first time around. I lost a bit of interest after Your Arsenal, I dont know why because Your Arsenal is one of my favourite Morrissey albums.

I never bought another until You Are The Quarry
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

V&I is magnificent, arguably his best solo work overall. I also loved the immense power of the opener Now My Heart Is Full. Don't miss out this time!
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by sheeptotheslaughter »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:V&I is magnificent, arguably his best solo work overall. I also loved the immense power of the opener Now My Heart Is Full. Don't miss out this time!

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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Boy With A Problem »

I finished the autobiography last week and I really ended up having a fun time with the book. This is not to say that I came away liking Morrissey any more than I did when I started the thing. The opposite in fact........Bigmouth Strikes Again and Heaven Know's He's Miserable Now are the headlines he cleverly preempts at some point - but only because he knows they are so fitting........The audacity and unabated narcissism within are at such a level in this book that one can only be impressed. He cuts almost everyone down......including his idols and sometimes especially his idols (not nice to the NY Dolls) - he's grotesquely obsessed with the chart position of every single and every lp and it is always someone elses fault when they don't place in their rightful spot at the top......and if I was the judge I would have given Mike Joyce 25% for just having to put up with Moz for the six or seven years - (this was the worst part of the book - ten or eleven repetitive pages that could have been cut to two) - still - I couldn't put it down.....there certainly was a brilliance about it - as with the music......but it leaves you feeling sorry for anyone who has ever had to spend any considerable time with the man.....and yet, and yet - what balls!

Not enough about the mid/late 70's music scene in Manchester. Hardly any mention of Joy Division, The Fall, Buzzcocks etc.......Herman's Hermits make an appearance.
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Re: Morrissey when you least expect it

Post by Jack of All Parades »

I enjoyed your balanced and perceptive criticism of the book. It mirrors, for the most part, my feelings about it having read it twice now. Once for the flow of the prose and once to digest. The man can write when he wants to- the opening chapters on growing up in Manchester are evocative and painful to read. His discussions of poetry and influences can be intelligent and perceptive. But ultimately I came away with a bitter taste- his pettiness is numbing and the 'legal' battle pages are interminable. It saddens me when a hero comes down some notches- it is even harder to bear when it is at his own hand.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
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