Morrissey: Still Working in the Quarry of Meaning
Jan 17th, 2008 by Donagh
Unlike WorldbyStorm I used to be a huge embarrassment of a Smiths fan. What’s worse, when I was a fan of the Smiths I was an archetypical bookish teenager without the slightest hope of ever having a girlfriend. But that was okay, because I had Morrissey’s lyrics with which to explain away the misery of my thwarted sexuality. Then there was that NME journalist who suggested in the South Bank Show documentary, which aired just after the Smiths broke up, that Morrissey was directing his lyrics not like typical pop singers, at either a girl or a boy specifically, but at a third sex: not male, not female, but some asexual creature who finds it impossible to mix properly at parties.
Of course, I didn’t realize at the time that Morrissey eschewed gender in his songs because he hankered after fellas, where as I hungered after lasses. But that is why Morrissey was smarter than your average pop star. He knew that the feelings were the same for both genders and that there was no point alienating one in favour of the other. But as the years went by I left the Smiths lyrics, which had meant so much to me, behind, thinking that they were frozen in the amber of my teenage years.
When Morrissey continued to write songs and perform there seemed to be a sense that he hadn’t moved on, that his fan base remained those who were trying to keep alive that sense of what it used to be like to revel in your own identity when everyone around you just thought you were a nerdish fop.
But recently I’ve started listening to his two most recent albums again, and I realized that Morrissey has not really progressed as an artist. Rather he’s simply refined his art and is now writing songs which have a maturity that transcends the age of a listener. I say this because what made Morrissey’s lyrics unique was his ability to bring important subject matter into his pop songs with trivializing it. Now I realize that with the NME attack on Morrissey in the 90s we had a situation where his lyrics seem to approach a subject like national identity by skirting dangerously close to the rhetoric of BNP. The NME attack, however, reflected the times that were in it and the same publication was bending over backwards to embrace the inanity of Cool Britannia several years later.
But Morrissey was being subtler in his lyrics than journalists were willing to accept at the time. The same fine line seems to be skirted in I Will See You In Far Off Places from the 2006 album Ringleader Of The Tormentors. In it he seems to deal with Islamic terrorism (the music is a pastiche of Middle Eastern music) and the military actions of the United States Government.
Nobody knows what human life is.
Why we come, why we go.
So why then do I know
I will see you,
I will see you in far off places?The heart knows why I grieve
And yes one day I will close my eyes forever
But I will see you
I will see you in far off places.It’s so easy for us to sit together
But it’s so hard for our hearts to combine
And why?
And why?
Why? Why? Why? Why?Destiny for some is to save lives
But destiny for some is to end lives
But there is no end
And I will see you in far off places.If your god bestows protection upon you
And if the USA doesn’t bomb you
I believe I will see you somewhere safe
Looking to the camera, messing around
and pulling faces.
The song itself is just too ambiguous to let us know where Morrissey stands on the issues of the day, and this ambiguity is very finely judged. I wouldn’t say this is Morrissey’s best song, but it illustrates how, by avoiding explicitly stating something he’s allowing for the essence of what he would like to say speak to more people.
But what impressed me most were the songs that he chooses to cover and how within the obvious 3-4 minute pop format they deal with significant subjects. Redondo Beach below, for example starts off as a typical love song and through its repeated motif of ‘shock on their faces’ deals impressively with the topic of suicide. And then there’s the medley of one song that blends into another with Subway Train/Munich Air Disaster. Subway Train is a cover of a New York Dolls song, and Munich Air Disaster is fairly self explanatory. Of course, its no surprise that Morrissey is covering the New York Dolls as the young Mancunian was president of their fan club.
Anyway, below are the covers from Morrissey’s Live at the Earl Court album that I liked, as well the original version of Subway Train by the New York Dolls.
Morrissey - Redondo Beach: Play Now | Play in Popup Morrissey - Subway Train Munich Air Disaster: Play Now | Play in Popup New York Dolls Subway_Train: Play Now | Play in Popup Personality Crisis: Play Now | Play in Popup
I didn’t realize at the time that Morrissey eschewed gender in his songs because he hankered after fellas
Really? What did you think “What Difference Does it Make” and “Hand in Glove” were about? I was 14 at the time, and I could work it out….
Well, it was always there, in the back of mind. But what I didn’t realise at the time was that during those years my sister thought I was gay. At my wedding she told me that she was so relieved when I finally got a girlfriend. When I asked her why she said that, you know, I used to like the Smiths and Morrissey so much.
I was a little too old for the Smiths I think - you had to be a teenager when Hand in Glove came out. To those of us with tastes forged in the white heat of ‘76, it all seemed a little hermetic, fey, self- absorbed.
Two things I’d like to throw out: firstly, the Smiths seemed to me to mark a point where British Pop/ Rock retreated from politics; the period immediately before their emergence had been dominated by the Specials, Dexys, the Jam, all bands where explicit political engagement was a big part of the attraction. (you could of course argue that all of that Red Wedge generation indulged in shouty sloganeering, whereas the Smiths politicised the personal. Or something)
Secondly, the Smiths mark the beginning of a process (with ReM as the American arm) whereby white guitar music began moving completely away from black music. There has been a long debate over this article by Sasha Frere Jones in the New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2007/10/22/071022crmu_music_frerejones about this; it is my vieww that the process he is talking about began with the Smiths. Along with the bands mentioned above, even the likes of Orange Juice, in some ways precursors of elements of the Smiths sound, were careful to nod to Chic and the like; that engagement with contemporary black music on the part of indie bands seemed to end until the Mondays/ Roses axis; and the reassertion of traditional values with the Britpop generation seemed to kill off any such engagement forever.
I’m not suggesting that the Smiths weren’t political, BTW - it’s clear from a song like A Rush and A Push… where their hearts were, although the Mozzzer’s subsequent idiocy on the subject of race has been embarrassing; and there certainly was a black element in their sound - Marr’s guitar owed a fair bet to Afropop; it’s just the long and weird engagement of pale British white boys with American and Jamaican seemed to start its endgame here.
In retrospect, I definitely have the same opinion which is why I suggested that The Smith’s music appealed to either fey teenagers or those who wanted to be reminded of their own attitudes to the world when they were teenagers. My post I suppose was to say that I had perhaps been too dismissive of Morrissey’s song writing ability in the intervening years.
Its very interesting what you say about The Smith marking a point where politics seemed to be extracted from pop music and that this coincided with a music that also seemed to distance itself from a definitive black sound. I think though that much of this has to do wit h Britian at the time. Taking the Clash as an example, although Joe Strummer was a Public School kid he attributes the Clashes sound to Reggae and Dub, saying that this was the music that he listened to growing up in London, surrounded as he was by Jamican immigrant communities. The Ska and Dub influence on the Clash and The Jam etc also tied well with the political engagement of the late 70’s , which was something that effectively ended with the Winter of Discontent and the election of Thatcher. That’s not to say the more politically engaged acts weren’t still around.
I remember being disappointed at the time that although Mozzer described hating Thatcher - he could hardly profess to liking her I guess - in the NME that the Smiths weren’t more overtly political considering all that was going on in Britian at the time.
That article from Sasha Frere-Jones is excellent, and reminds me of this one by Justin E. H. Smith, which I mention in this post in which I try to discuss the cross-currents between black and white music (and in which you make a great comment about Jazz music).
I think Frere-Jones’ comment about Arcade Fire, and how their sound seems to be stuck in the top register is spot on by the way. I find their music very anemic these days.
Nice piece, Donagh.
Morrissey went through a sticky patch in the 90s, but his greatness should never have been in doubt. Few in music can match his brilliance with words. Not only do they fit the songs perfectly, but they also convey remarkable insight, and have a beauty that gives them a musical value of their own. I can think of only two others off-hand with a similar ability - John Lennon and the young lad from the Arctic Monkeys.
Just a piece of trivia:
The title, “You Are The Quarry” is lifted from the Graham Greene book, A Burnt-Out Case.